Are You a Positive or a Negative
Vegetarian?
This
opinion piece by John Davis, Manager of the International
Vegetarian Union, of which VSS is a member, discusses how
vegetarians define themselves. John argues that instead of defining
ourselves by what we don’t – we don’t eat meat – we should define
ourselves by what we do – we eat plant based
foods.
http://www.vegsourc
e.com/john- davis/are-
you-a-positive- or-a-negative-
vegn.html
An interesting
comment on John’s piece came from Steve Billig, Director of the
Vegetarian Nutrition Center of Colorado, USA. Here it is in
slightly edited form (You can read Steve’s entire comment by
scrolling below what John wrote.).
Some people believe that
vegetarians are defined by what they shun - meat”? It seems pretty
obvious that vegetarians are defined by what they do eat - a
plant-centered diet. It is true that many people do not adopt a
vegetarian or vegan diet because both are perceived as diets of
rejection and denial. Who wants to live a life of denial,
especially regarding something as rewarding as eating delicious
food? Not many people, including vegetarians. The reason so many
people, about 6 percent of people in the U.S., can sustain as
longtime vegetarians is not because they are disciplined and
willing to suffer for the animals, for the environment or for good
health. They endure as vegetarians because, in addition to
benefitting the animals, the environment and their own health, they
understand that a plant-centered diet is a diet of abundance, of
variety and of deliciousness.
If we ask meat-eaters what they think 'vegetarian' means, most
would probably say 'someone who does not eat meat' - but that is
not at all how I see it.
I'm a positive veg*n, I eat plant foods. I define myself by what I
do, not by the negative of what I do not do. If we define ourselves
as a negative of others, then we are saying that they are 'normal',
and we are abnormal for abstaining.
When I was in Indonesia last year I went on a great day-trip with a
bus full of veg*ns from all over Asia. The driver didn't know my
name and at one point referred to me as 'the European guy', which
was fine - he could have called me the 'non-Asian guy' as I was the
only one, but that would have been odd, maybe even slightly
offensive. So why do veg*ns collaborate with the flesh-eaters in
defining ourselves as 'non-meat-eaters'.
I do not 'abstain'. I do not 'avoid'. I am not 'meatless' or
'meat-free'. I simply make a positive choice to eat, and to wear,
the things I prefer, and my health, the animals, and the planet,
all benefit from that choice.
[the photo
right is George Jacobs, chair of the IVU Council, with a friend in
Dresden, Germany, 2008]
By way of comparison, when I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s
most people smoked tobacco. They branded me as a 'non-smoker' but I
didn't see it way, I just thought it was disgusting and unhealthy ,
and I certainly did not consider my preference for clean air to be
some sort of self-denial.
So when I was offered a cigarette I asked them why they did it -
but they couldn't defend it of course, as the real reason
they smoked was just because everyone else did, and they thought it
looked 'cool' - encouraged by film star images and mass
advertising.
I like the graphic below as a representation of the image and
the reflected reality as I always saw it (courtesy
of www.smokingadverts.com )
Even in the 1980s I had to fight to get a ban on smoking in the
office where I was based. One otherwise intelligent colleague
couldn't believe that we did not allow anyone to smoke in our
house, and tried to brand meas anti-social for
that!
In July 2007 the British government finally caught up with some
other parts of the world and banned smoking in all public
places. So now I'm finally vindicated as the normal one, and the
smokers have to stand outside in the rain to indulge their
perversion.
I can also remember Frank Sinatra singing about 'one for the road'
- but now drinking and driving is universally considered a social
evil. So things can change. Maybe one day we'll get to the point
where flesh-eating is seen as the abnormality that it is -
meanwhile we can at least set a better example of how we define
ourselves.
Ultimately we should be aiming to abolish words like 'vegetarian'
and 'vegan' completely - normality does not need a label, it's the
flesh-eaters who should be branded as abnormal. And in the long
term we do not want green labels on supermarket products saying
'suitable for vegetarians' - we want blood-red
labels 
on anything
which is non-veg. The Indian government tried to do exactly that,
but they kept the green, and against predictable
opposition the red one got diluted to brown, but at least they
do have both (see right). That will take time for the rest us
of course, so for now we have to live with the reality of being a
minority, but the way we use language can help towards those long
term aims.
So I am not 'non-Asian', I am European.
I am not a 'non-smoker', I am someone who demands the right to
breathe clean air.
- and I am not a 'non-meat-eater', I am someone who chooses plant
foods, which is what 'vegetarian' originally meant.
The International Vegetarian Union obviously does not have the
power to define words, that's just down to common usage, and
dictionaries trying to keep up as they change. But we can decide
how we define our own membership (groups only, IVU does not have
individual members), and we can set a better example. There is now
a proposal to make our definition positive and to return it to the
original. The proposal is:
"For the purpose of membership of IVU, vegetarianism is
defined as living wholly on plant foods, whilst acknowledging that
some member organisations may also accept the use of some eggs,
honey and/or dairy products."
Instead of the current negative definition:
"For the purpose of membership of IVU, vegetarianism includes
veganism and is defined as the practice of not eating meat, poultry
or fish or their by-products, with or without the use of dairy
products or eggs."
To make the change will require a ballot of all 120 IVU member
organizations around the world, and as many of those have thousands
of individual members they might want to consult them too.
Hopefully the ballot will be later this year, but meanwhile any
feedback would always be welcome.
International Vegetarian Union - www.ivu.org