It’s pretty much a given that even if you’re not a vegetarian or a vegan, you know at least one. Gone are the days that the average family meal of meat and three veg will cut it for the average family without someone else having voicing an opinion that potatoes are a carb and therefore bad for you; meat and three veg doesn’t offer enough variety; the Australian diet is bad for you and a Mediterranean, carb-free, paleo or modified Asian diet is the way to go; the vegetables aren’t locally sourced; eating meat isn’t ethical.
Restaurants and café’s need to provide vegetarian, gluten-free, and nut-free options, and more and more vegetarian restaurantsare popping up to cater to the growing population of meat-free, ethical, sustainable eaters (whether full or part time). Which can’t really be argued to be a bad thing, but there are also many people (and small farmers) dedicated to providing ethical and sustainable meat, that co-farming meat and crops on the same land is better for the environment – it simply costs a little more than industrial and factory scale farming, but arguably yields a better and more flavourful localised product.
So is the vegetarian trend just about ethics? And is it really just a trend, or a sign of long-lasting change? What are some of the underlying cultural factors affecting the rise in vegetarian and veganism?
In medieval Europe, food – particularly for the wealthy – focused on a wide range of meat, from beef, mutton, pork and poultry, to venison, pheasant, rabbit, goat and exotic birds like swan and peacock. In England, some meats such as deer, boar and hares, were restricted foods and only allowed to be hunted by the nobles. Noble families had private hunting estates and poaching was a crime punishable by amputation or even death.
Food choices were driven by class and wealth and meant that the richer you were, the more exotic and wild the meat you served could be, and the more varieties you could offer at a meal. Poor people subsisted off vegetables, grains, and farm animals. Nobles and royals put on elaborate feasts featuring dressed and stuffed game (the likes of which have been inspiration to modern celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, due to its extravagance and ostentatiousness). Exotic and rare meats were not just a privileged food but an item to be paraded and showed off, because in addition to wealth, meat was also extremely hard to come by in our pre-industrial past, and during our evolution as hunter gatherers. As man became civilised, meat was attainable through farming, and for the privileged, by hunting game on their private estates and for leisure. The eating of meat highlighted man’s dominance and power over his environment and showcased his wealth (for having the leisure time to hunt) and masculinity (particularly dangerous meats like boar, prior to the advent of firearms).
In many cultures, including pre-industrial and hunter gatherer communities, this hunting and bringing-home of meat also showcased a man’s worthiness, and is included in many coming-of-age manhood rituals. Red meat in particular, until as late as the 1950’s, was known as ‘man’s meat’ whilst women were thought to prefer the less flavourful white meats and non-game poultry.
These factors have all gone on to influence our cultural subconscious attitude towards meat, built into our culture over many generations. The modern question of the ethics regarding eating meat is not just about humane treatment of animals, but in a time when climate change is a major issue on many people’s minds, raises the underlying question of how much impact we have on our environment. Dominion over the earth is no longer viewed as a positive personal quality, but as a behaviour to be shunned. Additionally, feminism has made a lot of progress but still has a strongly vocal advocacy, and in many parts of the world is still sorely needed, – there is an argument that anyone who identifies as a feminist should also be a vegetarian because dominion over, and abuse of, animals for meat is akin to the treatment of women by men throughout the centuries, and that anyone who regards any other species as inferior is also capable of regarding other humans (women, or persons of colour) as inferior. Whilst this is arguably not a conscious thought process of the majority of people, and we should never aim for extremism in either thought or analysis, it makes sense that the broad scale movement of our social consciousness towards equality and away from ‘dominion over earth’ would support the same vein of morals and ethics driving the increase in vegetarianism and veganism.
It’s safe to say this is no fad, but reflects widespread cultural evolutionary changes in our society, and is here to stay. Our advice – boost the vegetarian offerings on your menu, be welcoming to vegetarians, continue to increase your sustainable produce offerings, and who knows – maybe even open a vegan restaurant.