Food
In my personal diet, soy in any format is just not welcome. I just don’t like it. Nor do I digest it well. Yuck.
But for others, soy is a mainstay - people like my mom, who are absolutely allergic to all things dairy, and people who choose a vegetarian/vegan diet for whatever reason.
So how do we all sit at the same table?
(And just for simplification, let’s leave food allergies out for now. . .)
I’ve been to so many potluck events in Unitarian Universalist circles where almost everything on the table has some soy element. That deliciously bubbling pot of mac and “cheese?” Yeah, that isn’t really cheese. Rude surprise.
I’ve also hosted events where the caterer neglected to tell me, even after specific request, that there was bacon in the mashed potatoes or crumbled over the green beans, or cheese in the salad. And those vegetarian and/or vegan attendees were in for their own rude surprises.
Neither situation is ideal, obviously. But what’s interesting is how differently people have reacted to them.
When I go to a vegetarian/vegan-dominated event as a “mainstream” eater and don’t find much I want to eat, I quietly take what does work for me and plan on a snack later. I am hesitant to ever say anything to a host about the food selection, out of a sense of manners, but also because of the way vegetarianism/veganism has been “marketed,” for lack of a better word, as the choice of the “highly enlightened.” I’ve never heard anyone else publicly complain about such an event, either, though I’ve heard fellow grumblings in private conversations from other like-minded individuals.
But events that do not offer vegetarian/vegan options, in my experience, have always been met with vocal hostility from more than one attendee, usually involving some kind of statement on the moral and ethical values of eating vegetarian/vegan. And does that really help anything?
After a number of these diatribes, it becomes a knee-jerk reaction, for me, at least, to think that those who extoll the values of organic-local-vegetarian-vegan-sustainable eating speak from a place of self-defined moral superiority. And it’s unpleasant, to say the least, to feel belittled and judged for what I choose to eat.
The cover article in this quarter’s UUWorld, “Eating Ethically,” evokes that same knee-jerk reaction from me, right from the headline. I don’t consider “mainstream” eating to be unethical, though perhaps needing improvement, and I don’t appreciate that negative connotation. It seems to me that it just plays on our already overdeveloped sense of liberal guilt that we’re not doing enough, the same liberal guilt that kicks in when the mom of four is reluctant to admit to driving an SUV. There’s always more that we could be doing, but none of us can do it all.
Elizabeth asks, “Is there ANY way for a vegetarian/vegan to suggest that vegetarianism/veganism is the best option for eating without it coming across as obnoxious proselytizing?”
Well, frankly, no. Because “the best option for eating” will never be the same for everyone, just like one-true-way religion. Sharing your personal experience and your personal reasoning behind food choices (or religion), when asked, without evoking self-righteousness, is much more likely to make people consider your point of view. Talking to people with the intention or appearance of trying to convert them one way or the other is likely to raise hackles.
To me, as well, it also comes down to the question of privilege. Peacebang channeled my thoughts in that direction, saying “Shouldn’t we be working on justice issues that make basically, minimally healthful food available to more people before scurrying about trying to fill our own larders exclusively with organic and perfectly nutritious foodstuffs?”
Like anything else, though, the issue of food is not black and white. There’s a lot wrong with the American agricultural system that could be alleviated by more people choosing organic-local-vegetarian-vegan-sustainable eating. But there are a lot of people who don’t have that choice, who still deserve to eat. And there are those of us in the middle, just trying to get through every day who choose to expend our limited time and energy in other directions.
And who just don’t eat soy.
It occurs to me that this is more than one post wrapped all together, but this is a blog and I’m not going to take the time to edit them apart.
Comment by Comrade Kevin
March 8, 2007 @ 4:18 pm
A brief anecdote, if I may:
Back in my early twenties, back in my UU con-attending days, I remember one such food controversy breaking out.
The conference in which I am speaking in reference, was held 9200 feet up, in the beautiful mountains of northern New Mexico.
The food served, with the exception of one day, was strictly vegan. I am an an unapologetic meat-eater. Needless to say, a combination of high-altitude and food I could not manage to eat rapidly took twenty pounds off of my frame. I dropped from a 42 inch waist to a 38 inch waist in 10 days.
Due to some tradition, it was implied heavily that turkey must be cooked. I looked forward to this event with no small degree of rapture. I ate and ate and ate. Half of us ate turkey. Some looked at me as though I had killed my mother.
The irony of all is that finding the most organically-pleasing food possible, no matter how eco-friendly one is expensive and, dare I say it, counter-productive. The food budget alone at the con was nearly half the total cost of the conference, per attendee, and that to me is totally ridiculous.