You may remember my post from February 14, 2010. In that post I discussed Cambridge Massachusetts' recommendation for a mandatory meatless day to help the environment. Well, this intrusive proposition appears to have been embraced even across the river in Boston.
Today, my cafeteria within the university's research building, actually had a food station labeled for "flexivores." What's a flexivore, other than a made-up word? According to the creators of this word, a flexivore is a person that eats meat, but chooses to incorporate less or no meat meals into his diet.
You know why this made me so angry? What was so infuriating is the fact that, rather than just presenting this food station as a vegetarian option, the cafeteria publicized this station with some imaginary flexivore label. This label, provided with the definition outlined above, was in plain view in what was essentially a brain-washing propaganda effort to plant the seed in our minds that we should become more conscious of cutting out meat from our diet.
I'm sorry, but this manipulation is deeply disturbing and alarming. In addition, it's insulting that the catering group or even the university would condone displaying this message. As if this silly flexivore label would make it easier to swallow the fact that we were being subjected to a forced dietary restriction.
Later, when I went online to find contact information to send a letter to the catering company hired by my university, I discovered that this organization has implemented a "Meatless Monday" at one of our university's Cambridge based dining facilities under a new "sustainability" initiative. Let me just say that I told the catering organization that they would lose my business if its policy was to infringe on our rights.
If you enjoy being in charge of what you do or do not eat on a daily basis, then join me in saying flexivores are NOT welcome! More importantly, don't let government or organizations start to chip away at your rights and personal freedom. If you do, you'll wake up one day and realize you have none left.
Friday, March 12, 2010
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I'm a vegetarian... but I my will power is not the best so I do have a little bit of meat some times. So, instead of saying I'm a vegetarian, I prefer the term Flexivore. It certainly sounds better than vegetarian and is more accurate for me and a lot of people who claim to be vegetarians, but they still eat fish or chicken or something (I have found not labelling your self anything in life makes things a lot easier... this goes for relationships as well). I encourage everyone to eat less meat for various reasons, or at least find out where your meat is coming from and if you agree with the ethics. If you do... fine. That is your choice. But I do stand by you and everyone's right to decide for themselves and government should not be telling or forcing anyone what to eat. That is up to the individual.
ReplyDeleteHello! I'm confused at what you say about planting seeds of consciousness and that being brainwashing. I would understand brainwashing as lack of consciousness and awareness. It seems more like you're considering brainwashing as a value being supported that goes against the dominant culture (and probably the value you hold). Just because something is dominant doesn't mean it is also not supporting a value system and a certain way of thinking. That being said, the carnist culture that dominates (even in the cafeteria) could also be said to be perpetuating a value system while attempting to remain unquestioned. This seems a little brainwash-y to me, you know?
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