On childhood and carnism
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 3:11 pm
Naturally, I've been thinking a lot about veganism and so forth recently. Last night, a memory from childhood popped into my head. When I was about 4 years old, we spent the weekend at the home of some relatives. It was a family reunion-type thing, but I don't remember the exact reason we were there. It could have been a wedding. Anyway, the day we arrived I was outside exploring around the property. There was a calf in a fenced area. I remember petting the calf and feeding clover flowers to it.
The next morning, the calf was gone. When I asked my grandmother where it was, she explained that the calf was being cooked. I was very upset and started crying. According to what my grandmother told me later, I refused to eat the meat. That was my natural inclination as a child. It's interesting that we are basically trained from childhood to disassociate the thought of a living, breathing animal from what's on our plates. When going vegetarian or vegan, we must retrain our thought processes and regain that same childhood revulsion/horror.
The disassociation can be very deep-rooted. If I see a dead squirrel or raccoon on the road, I practically tear up. I have to look away. So, how could I eat meat for so many years? Disassociation. You know it's an animal on your plate, but carnism causes you to deny the connection on some level. As humans, we are usually very invested in the familiar. It's an evolutionary advantage to seek out that which is familiar (safe) and ensures we don't unknowingly eat something poisonous. As humans, however, we also have the advantage of supreme adaptability. Humans can and do not only survive, but thrive, on all kinds of diets. In general, I'm not interested in the "optimal" diet because of that adaptability. Obviously eating a steady diet of Cheetos and Cokes isn't going to do us any favors, health-wise, but I think there is wide variation in what can constitute a reasonably healthy diet.
So, considerations beyond what is "healthy" take precedence for me. Although I eat a lot of vegetables and legumes, it's mainly because they taste good to me. If sauteing some zucchini in a bit of olive oil gets me to eat more zucchini, that's fine. If someone wants to add a little sugar to oatmeal and doing that helps them not eat eggs, that's great. Some salt on potatoes? Awesome. I don't eat much fruit because I don't really like fruit all that much. So, if someone tells me that in order to be a "good" vegan I need to be eating mostly raw fruit, that's not going to work for me and it's going to turn me off to their message on some level. If nothing else, I'm less likely to watch and, in turn, be inspired by, their content. I'm not saying that every vegan message needs to be generic, but rather that inclusivity works better than exclusivity when considering the movement as a whole. While eating for good health is great, stressing the health aspect and labeling certain (vegan) foods as "bad" probably doesn't help the cause much when trying to attract the greatest number of people. If the food people are eating doesn't taste good to them they're not likely to continue. Transitioning to a vegan diet is as much (maybe more) about building good replacement associations as it is about destroying the harmful ones. Making the diet fit the person rather than the other way around makes more sense to me.
The next morning, the calf was gone. When I asked my grandmother where it was, she explained that the calf was being cooked. I was very upset and started crying. According to what my grandmother told me later, I refused to eat the meat. That was my natural inclination as a child. It's interesting that we are basically trained from childhood to disassociate the thought of a living, breathing animal from what's on our plates. When going vegetarian or vegan, we must retrain our thought processes and regain that same childhood revulsion/horror.
The disassociation can be very deep-rooted. If I see a dead squirrel or raccoon on the road, I practically tear up. I have to look away. So, how could I eat meat for so many years? Disassociation. You know it's an animal on your plate, but carnism causes you to deny the connection on some level. As humans, we are usually very invested in the familiar. It's an evolutionary advantage to seek out that which is familiar (safe) and ensures we don't unknowingly eat something poisonous. As humans, however, we also have the advantage of supreme adaptability. Humans can and do not only survive, but thrive, on all kinds of diets. In general, I'm not interested in the "optimal" diet because of that adaptability. Obviously eating a steady diet of Cheetos and Cokes isn't going to do us any favors, health-wise, but I think there is wide variation in what can constitute a reasonably healthy diet.
So, considerations beyond what is "healthy" take precedence for me. Although I eat a lot of vegetables and legumes, it's mainly because they taste good to me. If sauteing some zucchini in a bit of olive oil gets me to eat more zucchini, that's fine. If someone wants to add a little sugar to oatmeal and doing that helps them not eat eggs, that's great. Some salt on potatoes? Awesome. I don't eat much fruit because I don't really like fruit all that much. So, if someone tells me that in order to be a "good" vegan I need to be eating mostly raw fruit, that's not going to work for me and it's going to turn me off to their message on some level. If nothing else, I'm less likely to watch and, in turn, be inspired by, their content. I'm not saying that every vegan message needs to be generic, but rather that inclusivity works better than exclusivity when considering the movement as a whole. While eating for good health is great, stressing the health aspect and labeling certain (vegan) foods as "bad" probably doesn't help the cause much when trying to attract the greatest number of people. If the food people are eating doesn't taste good to them they're not likely to continue. Transitioning to a vegan diet is as much (maybe more) about building good replacement associations as it is about destroying the harmful ones. Making the diet fit the person rather than the other way around makes more sense to me.