I think what I actually mean is food culture, a thesis supported by Johnathan Safran Foer in his first non-fiction book Eating Animals. I would quote him more effectively if I had actually finished the book, but I have to admit to making a tactical retreat from anthro-culinary theory in the middle of the chapter on egg factories. This choice was made, months before the latest ovo scandal, because I wanted to keep eating eggs. I could tell from page one of the chapter on egg factories that if I, in the name of academia, or masochism or whatever, soldiered through the rest of the chapter I would never eat "conventional" eggs again. So I put the book down and remained un-enlightened until the shitstorm of salmonella tainted eggs hit the major network fan and I was forced to resign myself to $3.99 a dozen guilt free eggs from the farmers market, or a voluntary exile to veganism.
But, anyway, food culture right? Without filling pages with the fine points of the millions of arguments for and against veganism and vegetarianism, and volumes more with the inherent hypocrisy of my own practice thereof, I am willing to admit here on the internet, before you, god, myspace Tom and Al Gore that being vegetarian is getting more complicated.
It is quite clear that the food culture of the typical California veg-head is in no way more sustainable than any carnivorous diet. Factory farming soy for meat substitute and cheese substitute and all other manner of "fake" food is as problematic as grazing in the rain forest, albeit on a smaller scale. Can you be a sustainable vegetarian? Sure. But it is as labor and cost intensive as being a conscientious omnivore. The really responsible thing to do is to eat everything, so long as you can vouch for its origin (with the added asterisk: and can afford it). This was recently modeled by a friend of mine who nose dived off the vegan wagon in pursuit of an humanely raised hog who spent its last days in Oregon on a bender of peaches and beer, or whiskey, I can't remember.
So, if for the moment we pretend that a meager paragraph puts the whole sustainability question to bed, it seems that the politic choice of diet is clear no? And here we run into the more abstract notion of food culture, which is very thoroughly covered in Eating Animals (before the egg factory, of course). Without trying to paraphrase Foer's explanation and without citing his well constructed examples, my word will have to be good enough to convince you that food culture is a more driving force behind almost everyone's dietary choices than politics.
Since this is my blog, and, in this case, my dilemma, we are obviously working up to talking about my food culture. When I gave up meat, it was easy. I didn't really miss anything (except for all beef hot dogs, boiled not grilled, with brown mustard) and there was a whole world of veggie options for me to try. But beyond the simple dietary logistics of my choice, its cultural implications helped ease the process. When I gave up meat, and to some extent still, I was waist, if not chest deep in punk rock. Posi high fives, vegans on bikes and Tragedy backpatches made giving up meat really easy. It was another cultural rallying point beyond tattoos and shitty bar chords. Even the worst domestic beer
is elevated to a higher level of culinary relevance if its paired with the latest recipe from some vegan blog from Portland or Brooklyn or Olympia or wherever the fuck. Am I jaded? Maybe a little. Suffice it to say that the non-dietary trappings of my chosen food culture have started to annoy me. Portland, that idyllic liberal utopia, is still the stuff that punk rock dreams are made of, but is now also maybe so wonderful and idealized that I fear that a final relocation would be inevitably anticlimactic. If I see another fucking fixed gear bike in day-glo-forbidden-zone-misfits-green
I might call off the whole thing and buy a Hummer, with a gun rack and some truck-nuts for good measure. Not really, but you get the point. My cultural vegetarianism is slowly choking itself out, and I need to decide whether I can continue on political grounds, or if the responsible thing to do is to choose peaches and beer. I still stand behind veggie/vegan culture, and most of the other trappings of punk rock, but as I cook more, grow up, read more, and generally let my self doubt second guess everything I have ever done, I cannot help but pose the question: why am I doing this? The answer is far longer and more complicate than ever this verbose rant can address, but this is a start.So, maybe I'll just ride my fixie down to the local vegan restaurant and eat some animal free food, rub elbows with some dude with a Jawbreaker tattoo and ponder my next homebrew. Or maybe I'll let another field of soybeans go fallow and go stuff my face with some local sausage.
Who knows? Eggs for breakfast anyone?
