Faux Vegetarianism

There are so many different kinds of vegetarians that sometimes I get confused. We serve a vegetarian breakfast here at the rainforestinn so we are conscious of vegetarianism. And I certainly understand the animal rights argument. Using animals for making your shoes, belts and fancy designer purses is clearly a violation of animal rights.

The animals should be free to play in the jungle. But the argument for "free range" meat confuses me. Let the chickens out of their cages so that they can have a happy free life on the farm running around and eating bugs then kill them? You are just giving them the illusion of a happy life until they are fat and then you take it away. It would be unethical to eat free range meat. It's more humane to eat unhappy chickens that were brought up in cages because those animals weren't fooled and their death for my dinner plate may have been the quick end they were looking forward to.

What about Vegans? Who gets that? The first time I heard it I thought it had something to do with Star Trek because I knew Spock was a Vulcan and maybe the Vegans lived nearby. Some of our breakfasts are Vegan but I'm not sure which. At least the Vegans know what to eat so that is all that counts I guess.

Yet another class of vegetarians will eat fish. That is because fish are the vegetables of the sea. I can see that too. Zooplankton, Phytoplankton, you need a microscope to spy out the little patches of chloroform.

But it's the fourth kind of vegetarian that I really understand. "Faux Vegetarian" that's me. When I sit down at a table and they are serving frog's legs, steak tartar, or any of the various animal guts like gizzards or chicken hearts or even pig's feet then I remark at how delicious it all looks and how sorry I am that I can't enjoy their repast because I'm a vegetarian. But it's a different story when someone serves me some aged angus filet mignon or black forest ham then suddenly I'm an omnivore. So when I'm hungry and the food looks good all my confusion drops away.

Comments

[David Barnas]

Ha ha ha. Hey Bill...
Nice entry. This is a many tentancled subject indeed. You've covered only a small portion of the different types of vegatarians. I'm a vegan and you have it right in your 2nd paragraph regarding free range. But hey, I won't and don't put other peoples eating habits down, unless they ask why I'm vegan. But I'll tell them then they know, then it's up to them think about it and change.
That's too bad you can't refuse something even though your hungry. In my case, I'm not disguisted with some foods I don't eat. For instance, I LOVE (loved) cheese. But now I'm 99% sure knowing what goes into making it and I refuse to partake in it, no matter how good it smells on a pizza right in front of me :) To understand true vegatarianism (veganism) is to know it's a matter of morals over taste buds.
But hey, it's cool Bill, I'm not preaching and don't want to come off as a bozo. I understand your Faux vegatarianism, veganism or complete vegatarianism isn't for everybody, I understand that. I'm just glad you'll admit it and don't say your something your not.

Oh, and enjoying your blog very much. :)