30 Days of Repulsiveness
Today is National Pig Day, which as you might imagine has nothing to do with celebrating pigs for, um, being pigs. Instead, food blog Serious Eats celebrates with features on Chinese Pork Butt, regional barbecued pork, and “pig chefs.”
Perhaps the most repulsive article, though, is 30 Days of Pork, which discusses a vegetarian’s return to meat eating by eating pig every day for a month.
From the article (emphasis mine):
Ms. Kelso (right), a 34-year-old executive producer for an interactive ad agency in San Francisco, became a vegetarian while living with a vegan boyfriend. “He was adamant that his cookware not come in contact with any meat products.” Because she cares about animals, their welfare, and their ethical treatment, she said, she found it relatively easy to give up meat. But, she says, “I love the taste, so I was one of those vegetarians who would always try all the fake meats.”
It was after reading Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, however, that Ms Kelso was prompted to rethink her reasons for becoming a vegetarian—namely her interest in remaining true to personal ethics regarding the impact of food on the environment and society. The book, which came out earlier this year, follows four very different meals from source to table while assessing their ethical, economical, and social impact along the way.
“After reading it, I realized that I was in violation of those ethics even while being a vegetarian,” Ms. Kelso said. “Unless I drop out of society, live in the forest, and become a hunter-gatherer, I have an impact based on what I buy, no matter what it is.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about this whole “conscientious omnivore” thing (and, somewhat related, the welfare v.s. rights v.s. abolition argument — that, I’ll cover separately) and the more I see things like this, the more the idea of being promoting ”conscientious omnivorousness” bothers me.
Yes, it would be nice if people that ate meat started caring about how the animals were treating. Yes, it would be nice if learning about slaughterhouses, dairy farms, and egg farms eventually led these people on a path to veganism. And, yes, eating locally farmed meat may be marginally better than factory farmed meat (in the same way that punching someone in the face with your fist is better than punching them while wearing brass knuckles).
But, no, it’s not nice to keep seeing these articles about so-called ethical vegetarians that decide to go back to eating meat because now they can eat “happy meat” and have their conscience sated. People like Kelso are drawing conclusions from books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Way We Eat that allow them to return to meat consumption with a clear heart, convinced somehow that eating animals is more ethically correct than not eating animals. That’s some seriously shaky ground.
The article ends thusly:
While she says that she may go back to being a vegetarian (or maybe not), Ms. Kelso is looking forward to the holidays at home, where, she says, her father is awaiting her visit. “He’s obsessed with cooking and is very excited about the next time I go out and visit him. He’s already planning all his special meat dishes.”
*sigh* I’m sure the pigs are all just as excited.
I think you are mistaken to make a judgment about a strategy for animal welfare on this kind of anecdotal evidence. My wife gave up eating meat after hearing Peter Singer speak. Why isn’t this anecdote as compelling as yours? We should continue to urge people to reduce and eliminate animal consumption and count every step in that direction as a victory. A movement based on reading out heretics is doomed to irrelevance, and irrelevance will not save any animals.
Hi Jeremy –
To clarify, I’m not completely discounting animal welfare by posting an item like this. As I mentioned, the welfare-rights-abolition thing is something I’m still thinking through and I’m trying to figure out where I’m planting my feet.
Likewise, I don’t want a post like this to seem like I’m on some sort of ex-vegetarian witchhunt. People go from veg back to meat eating (and vice versa) every day. But once they publicize the fact they’re doing so and create a project documenting 30 days of eating pork, they become fair game for commentary.
I also know someone that’s going vegan based on having read Singer’s book and I agree that any step towards veganism is a good thing. But I become deeply concerned when I see articles appearing in newspapers about vegetarians “seeing the light” and thinking they can go back to eating meat and still be on the same ethical ground as they were before. Likewise with projects whose gimmick is the converted vegetarian. I’m just noting here that it’s a bothersome trend I’m seeing here.
ugh, the bolded portions of the quote actually gave me a stomach ache. i just don’t understand how someone goes vegetarian “because they love animals,” but then decides it’s MORE ethical to eat them. how does that happen? i’m really starting to hate that book, and i haven’t even read it yet.
Fair enough. I have been concerned by the tone I have seen on some blogs (e.g. http://garyfrancione.blogspot.com/index.html) that seem more interested in attacking people who voice slightly different points of view than in advancing veganism.
If you just read the book The China Study by Campbell, you can get to the scientific reason for Veganism. I don’t like the mistreating of animals, and I wear leather shoes, so that makes me a hypocrite. Okay. The Author was raised on a dairy farm and for many years ate the typical Western diet. He became a scientist and was funded to research cancer. His findings will blow you away! It is the reason I became Vegan 5 weeks ago and brought my two teens and husband right along with me and they haven’t even read the book yet. We all feel ssssooooo much better. I gave away 3 copies to family and one of them is giving Vegan a try for 4 weeks, the others haven’t read the book yet…
Thanks, Ryan, for posting great stuff ! I havent read the 30 Days of Pork essay yet, ( I will tho ! ) but I have read Omnivore’s Dilemma, and we are featuring it as our first Vegan Book Club selection in our new Blue Ridge Vegan Society. Why ? Because I think it provides great timely information in an entertaining format. Pollan is a wonderful writer and advances the vegan ethic without really even trying. It WAS very frustrating to see perfect opportunites for him to admit that a vegan outlook would be the answer, and I kept waiting, hoping he’d segue into that, but he never did. His own personal pleasures are too important to him. I did not come away from reading his book thinking that I should give up being a slack vegetarian ( occaisionally eating “happy” chickens, some dairy and “free range” eggs )…what I got out of it was, ” I really need to go vegan and be done with the massive industrial complex that is animal agriculture…AND help spread the word on how damaging it is to the animals ( duh, but Pollan pretty much ignores that ), the environment and human health. ” So our little Vegan Society was born just a few months ago…we are still working on the website, still forming ideas on how to run the group. Anyone interested can contact me or check out the website. And we’ll be discussing Pollan’s book ( and related subjects) April 1st.
OK ! Just checked out the whole “30 Days of Pork ” thing. Thanks for providing 30 reasons to stay vegan, Ryan ! Not only is it repulsive, but it is a sad commentary on the greedy, disconnected mindset that drives many people’s food choices. Ms. Kelso goes from a yoga class to a cafe to dine on a slaughtered animal that lead a horrific, confined, abrreviated life…and then gushes about how it’s flesh tasted. Way to live a mindful life, Kelso.
Thanks for this, Ryan. I agree with you that it is a bothersome trend — indeed, this is the kind of thing that is promoted when we have movement leaders like Singer saying that one need not be so strict about one’s veganism. This is a conflicting message if there ever was one.
As for Francione, I’m not convinced that he’s attacking people: he’s stating another side of the argument. What scares me is that people see dissenting with the main mindset of the major orgs as “attack.” It isn’t attack. It is dissent, and it is vital if we’re ever going to invigorate this movement.
Is there a term for people who become vegetarians to match the eating habits of their significant
others and then eat meat again after the break up?