I would like to thank the Mountain Xpress for printing Nina Smith’s letter (“Fries With That?”, Feb. 14). Although I personally don’t really care what another person chooses to eat, I do find the constant correspondence between the meat eaters and the veggies quite entertaining. It seems to follow a very predictable, yet humorous script:
First, someone writes in a letter condemning meat eating and all of those who partake in the activity. This is usually then combined with some kind of plea towards our moral and/or political and/or social ethics as members of a “progressive” community. Then, as the dessert (vegetarians love their dessert), they deliver some tasty bits from a PETA pamphlet or other vegetarian Web site, encouraging others to do as they do.
In response, someone else from the community points out that many people who choose to eat meat are happy, healthy and perhaps slightly less high-strung. They like to point out that the meat-and-dairy industry is nowhere near the only source for meat and dairy products. Local farms are abundant in the area, and many of their products can be purchased in local grocery stores, farmers’ markets and buying clubs.
They also point out that no farm can hope to sustain the fertility of the soil without the use of animal fertilizers (or synthetic ones), which means without cows, chickens, ducks and goats you don’t get any carrots or corn. It’s also observed that very often, in bioregions such as ours, local meat from a farm in Fairview (or from a deer in Hot Springs) can be a much more environmentally sustainable choice than a head of broccoli from California and glass of soymilk from a monoculture “organic” farm in Ohio.
But not to be outdone, the vegetarian faction will blast back. Fear not, they will never be outdone by such trivial sources as local farmers and hunters. They will speak of veal and factory-farm chickens, make more passionate pleas to our humanity and offer us hope that one day we will see that once we all eat like them, then will all truly be saved.
And so it continues.
This, folks, is our own reality television.
