If you are a person who, for ethical, environmental, or health reasons, chooses not to consume animal products, at some point or other, you will be asked: “How do you know if someone’s a vegan?” A pause. “Don’t worry, they’ll let you know.”
I’ve heard—and even told—that same joke many times in my own life as a non-meat-eater. Alicia Kennedy recounts it early on in her first book, No Meat Required: The Cultural History & Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating. She brings it up to show why many people have moved away, as she does in her book’s subtitle, from the labels “vegan” and “vegetarian.” But she also makes the more trenchant point that, in fact, nothing makes a person talk about their love of beef more quickly than you telling them you don’t eat it.
Read Full Article »