You know what bugs me...

[Guest guest]

My neuroscience professor was just discussing how in many " third

world " countries the people have absolutely no qualms about eating

insects and in fact many sauteed insects are delicacies. Of course

most of my (meat-eating) classmates groaned. He went on to argue

that in the future people will probably have to get their protein by

eating bugs because livestock can't continue to support us and there

are so many insects out there... My first thought was, " Have you

never even HEARD of Vegetarianism? " Besides, I just can't imagine

most westerners consuming insects... They have been socialized to see

that as gross, the same way they have come to believe eating dogs and

cats is gross / wrong. Obviously, starvation would make them less

picky, but it seems to me that the natural progression would be to

eat foods they are already familiar with (i.e. pasta, veggies, etc.)

 

But, what does the group think? Would meatheads rather resort to

larvae lasanga, roach-burgers, and spaghetti with beatle balls, than

the dreaded soy, legumes, and other " rabbit food " ?

[Guest guest]

Hmm, umm,

 

NO!

 

 

Paula J., former " meathead "

Tulsa, OK

-

 

But, what does the group think? Would meatheads rather resort to

larvae lasanga, roach-burgers, and spaghetti with beatle balls, than

the dreaded soy, legumes, and other " rabbit food " ?

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

> But, what does the group think? Would meatheads rather resort to

> larvae lasanga, roach-burgers, and spaghetti with beatle balls,

than

> the dreaded soy, legumes, and other " rabbit food " ?

 

 

In our (excuse my sexism here) male-dominated society men are

socialized to think that eating meat makes them more manly. It's

even more manly to eat your steak rare because it " puts hair on your

chest " which, of course, is another way of reinforcing that eating

meat makes a man more manly. There's also the notion that we " need

our protein " , which we do, but we are socialized to think that we

must get it from animal sources and that we must obsess about it. I

think it's just another way to justify eating meat. So, I really

think that if push came to shove that the people in power would

rather encourage us to eat insects than to eat " rabbit food " . Of

course, they will do everything in their power to see to it that the

masses continue to eat the flesh of cows and pigs and whatever long

before we get to having to eat insects. Some part of me also still

thinks that society would still consider eating insects to be

inferior and somehow less manly. Who knows???

[Guest guest]

man, even if i still did eat meat, which i'm glad i don't, NOTHING could

convince me to ever eat insects. it's just too oogie a concept to me. yuck.

but i do think it would have promise marketed as a weight-loss/appetite

suppresant. :-D it's enough to make me lose my appetite, & I have a very

strong stomach. *hehehe*

 

give me my beans, whole grains, & tofu for my protein thank you. :-) :-)

 

Megan

 

 

[Guest guest]

That doesn't sound like sexism, Sheryl, it sounds more like feminism

and I completely agree. Have you ever read " The sexual politics of

meat " ? I found it to be a bit repetitive and too much of it focused

on the inherent prejudice of the english language rather than actual

(mis)treatment of women / animals, but the author did make some very

interresting comparisons between the oppression of women and animals.

for example, in times of war / basically anytime when times are hard,

men were supposed to given most of the meat because they " need it to

be strong " . the author's goal is to make more feminists vegetarians

and vice versa.

 

unfortunately I've seen that some " feminists " think that the best way

to beat men is to join them and so they encourage women doing macho

things- even the stupid ones. In Spain it was a considered a great

accomplishment among these psuedo-feminists when a woman was allowed

to be a bullfighter. On the other hand, many male vegetarians,

wanting to distance themselves from the stigma of the effeminate,

bleeding heart vegetarian probably maintain their macho / sexist

attitudes to still be " one of the guys " .

 

I agree that this will be an issue only ns the very distant future,

because our govt would rather watch people in third world countries

starve than discourage meat eating here.

>

> In our (excuse my sexism here) male-dominated society men are

> socialized to think that eating meat makes them more manly. It's

> even more manly to eat your steak rare because it " puts hair on

your chest " which, of course, is another way of reinforcing that

eating meat makes a man more manly. There's also the notion that

we " need our protein " , which we do, but we are socialized to think

that we must get it from animal sources and that we must obsess

about it. I think it's just another way to justify eating meat.

So, I really think that if push came to shove that the people in

power would rather encourage us to eat insects than to eat " rabbit

food " . Of course, they will do everything in their power to see to

it that the masses continue to eat the flesh of cows and pigs and

whatever long before we get to having to eat insects. Some part of

me also still thinks that society would still consider eating

insects to be inferior and somehow less manly. Who knows???

[Guest guest]

yeah, I figured that most westerners would have an reaction similar

to yours.. even though, when you think about it, eating insects is

more sanitary than a farm animal.

 

, " Megan Milligan "

<yasminduran@c...> wrote:

> man, even if i still did eat meat, which i'm glad i don't, NOTHING

could convince me to ever eat insects. it's just too oogie a concept

to me. yuck. but i do think it would have promise marketed as a

weight-loss/appetite suppresant. :-D it's enough to make me lose my

appetite, & I have a very strong stomach. *hehehe*

>

> give me my beans, whole grains, & tofu for my protein thank you. :-

) :-)

>

[Guest guest]

> I agree that this will be an issue only ns the very distant

future,

> because our govt would rather watch people in third world

countries

> starve than discourage meat eating here.

 

 

Thanks for your support! You know, it's also funny how the

government would rather support genetically modified food production

as a cure to third world hunger. If people in first world (or

whatever they are called)countries would stop eating so much meat,

we could take the excess grain and export it. Hunger has nothing to

do with creating MORE food in the form of GMOs or whatever, but

everything to do with access and excess consumption of wasteful food

products in the form of meat. Funny how our " masculine " system

doesn't see the logic behind this.

Vegetarianism to the rescue!!

[Guest guest]

People don't generally thinl of this, but crustaceans such as shrimp, lobster

ctab and crayfish are basically big bugs. Mmmm.

 

Donni

 

-

dave

Wednesday, November 05, 2003 1:27 PM

Re: You know what bugs me...

 

 

yeah, I figured that most westerners would have an reaction similar

to yours.. even though, when you think about it, eating insects is

more sanitary than a farm animal.

 

, " Megan Milligan "

<yasminduran@c...> wrote:

> man, even if i still did eat meat, which i'm glad i don't, NOTHING

could convince me to ever eat insects. it's just too oogie a concept

to me. yuck. but i do think it would have promise marketed as a

weight-loss/appetite suppresant. :-D it's enough to make me lose my

appetite, & I have a very strong stomach. *hehehe*

>

> give me my beans, whole grains, & tofu for my protein thank you. :-

) :-)

>

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

These are all such valid points. I would like to find out how we can

inject this kind of thinking into the political forum, esp now that

the presidential campaigns have begun their spinning ... People talk

about our role and involvment w/ the UN and NATO and all that, but

it's always focused on war and occupation. What about being global

citizens with our FARMING and food production? And the PR machine

keeps churning...

 

Makes me very glad I'm moving to Vermont.

 

BTW - guess I can't call myself a vegetarian anymore. When cycling I

almost always (unintentionally) swallow some flying buggers. I

always think of the characters in the Lion King saying " Protein! "

 

, " Sheryl " <ssarndt>

wrote:

> > I agree that this will be an issue only ns the very distant

> future,

> > because our govt would rather watch people in third world

> countries

> > starve than discourage meat eating here.

>

>

> Thanks for your support! You know, it's also funny how the

> government would rather support genetically modified food

production

> as a cure to third world hunger. If people in first world (or

> whatever they are called)countries would stop eating so much meat,

> we could take the excess grain and export it. Hunger has nothing

to

> do with creating MORE food in the form of GMOs or whatever, but

> everything to do with access and excess consumption of wasteful

food

> products in the form of meat. Funny how our " masculine " system

> doesn't see the logic behind this.

> Vegetarianism to the rescue!!

[Guest guest]

Yeah. When I learned that it was very easy for me to stop having

any cravings for lobster and shrimp. *lol* Sealife was one of the

hardest

things for me to give up, in truth.

 

~ PT ~

 

Forget your mistakes, but remember what they taught you.

~ Dorothy Galyean

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~~~~~>

, Donni Irschick

<dragonflywings@s...>

wrote:

> People don't generally thinl of this, but crustaceans such as

shrimp, lobster ctab

and crayfish are basically big bugs. Mmmm.

>

> Donni