Vegetarians vs The Meat Crew
The feud between vegetarians and meat lovers is not necessary
because we all food. You got that right, we all food. The term
cuisine is not appropriate for this piece though, because it is art food, with carrots
cut in a ballerina way and nectarine slices placed chain-like on the plate.
It’s not a matter of us and them. It is ending the life of a cucumber or rabbit
so that we can eat. People don’t eat
meat for a variety of reasons: religion, how animals are raised and how they
are prepared for slaughter and subsequent marketing. It should also be noted that there are many
people around the world who eat meat for religious reasons and even offer it to
their gods.
Beetroot, broccoli, yams and spinach routinely lose their
life to make a vegetarian meal. They
lived happily in the soil until someone harvested them for the supermarket or farmer’s pot.
Moral superiority.
Vegetarians cannot claim that their choice is morally superior because
they eat dead veggies. Equally, meat
lovers cannot dismiss vegetarian fare as non-food or ‘rabbit food.’
I saw ‘cook books’ about raw food at the book store the other day. Those raw vegetables were also yanked from their
natural habitat and placed on a plate for consumption.
The world is round, so is food. People in Mongolia eat what they have around
them and those who live next to the sea or rivers eat what nature provides. Living things die so that humans can have
food.
The turkey feels the pain when its life ends for
Thanksgiving or Christmas. Equally, the
pumpkin cries when it is removed from its sunny home, covered by broad leaves.
It is plain mathematics: vegetables + meat
+ fish = food.
By: Nonqaba waka
Msimang
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