Letter to Editor on Vegans taking pot shots at Carnivores 12/94

LETTER TO THE EDITOR ON NATIVE INTELLIGENCE 12/27/94

Excuse me, but has someone declared open season on meat eaters? Why is this verdant nuvo veggie arrogance from the “Minus Generation X” sprouting in the letters to the editor column? Since when is eating meat, or hunting—the red herring—classified, as Stan Wadel penned (Dec. 15), as “the arrogant attitude that humans are superior and that somehow justifies exploitation of inferior groups.”?

I refer also to Will Tutle’s blanket statement on hunting ethics (Dec. 22) that “meat eating” causes “poverty, starvation, and ill-health, and the ruining of the very fabric of our planetary interconnected life.” Am I imagining that this tolerant, enlightened individual is making a parsimonious value judgment about the food chain? Should we become breathatarians? What about airborne microbes?

Whether we choose to partake of the flesh or not, we are meat eaters, with the capacity to digest complex meat proteins; some people do well on a vegetarian diet, others don’t; the Inuit, for example. Our cats supplement their corn-based kibble with lizards, spiders, and birds because their bodies need complex protein. (As do mountain lions—we are not necessarily at the top of the food chain.) I do advocate responsible carnivory. Anyone eating meat should know how it’s obtained, whether it’s chicken of the sea, or Bullwinkle.

Need I point out that when the mission fathers came to the New World, they brought with them destructive and wasteful agricultural practices that continue to wreak havoc upon our landscape? Or do vegetarians turn the other cheek when confronting agribusiness? For thousands of years Native Californians maintained a complex lifestyle, including the raising, and harvesting of acorns and ungulates; the padres forced the neophytes to utilize their European farming practices. When starvation was eminent, they turned the Indians out of the missions to forage off the land.

Bless me too for I have been a vegetarian (though not of the vocal, jugular-biting variety practicing penmanship in this column); an allergy to legumes, any member of the nightshade family—potatoes, nuts, and wheat made eating an interesting venture. Should I blame the English for stealing Ireland’s food, making us entirely dependent upon one food source, the potato, for the long-term development of my myriad allergies? The land dictates cuisine, which comes from practical application. When in Rome. . . I have eaten whatever was offered: tepesquintli in Tikal, cuy in Cuzco, or salo in Siberia.

Maybe I’m just an enlightened redneck for I like Bambi on the table as well as in the meadow. I am a capable hunter; I prefer to hunt at the market. Who’s taking potshots at all the newcomers (and housing) responsible for the destruction of the wildlife habitats in the first place? Where do they stand on the guilt chain? I choose to respect the lifestyle choices of both vegetarians and hunters—provided they eat all their “kill,” including those end-of-summer monster zucchini. I refuse to respect those who sanctimoniously, or shall I say, fascistically, take potshots at all meat eaters. I will refrain from asking if they exploit dairy products or leather. Like it or not, it’s an “eat or be eaten” world; no need to explain that concept to the other carnivores. How about a little egalitarian tolerance, save the salt for seasoning your arrogant attitudes.

Maureen Hurley
Forestville