Vegetarian Culture

“Vegetarian Culture” -- a phrase heard in regarding restaurants and people understanding and embracing the ‘vegetarian culture.’ How does the concept of a “vegetarian culture” change in regards to geography, environment, family situation, upbringing, etc? Vegetarian culture in regards to internet, community, religion? Groups? “…Because they understand the vegetarian culture…” is a phrase I recently heard in regards to a restaurant and the offerings in their menu. I, like I am sure many others living a meat-free life, live in an area that does not offer a lot of like-minded individuals in this area. How does the vegetarian culture as whole affect the lives we lead with little personal interaction from other vegetarians?

This is sonething I have been thinking about a lot lately, along with the feelings isolation that is connected to loving in my house and in this part of the country. I've only a few friends who don't eat and most of them have gone back to those meat eating ways or it is a Lent thing. Once in a local grocery store I had someone ask me about my preferred type of veggie burger while I was shopping in that area. My brother, who was with me at the time, was floored. There are others!!! For a moment my lifestyle suddenly seemed almost normal to him as he met a rather normal woman who shared in this journey, but overall this has been the exception. On the whole I feel rather detached from the whole of "vegetarian culture." It's something I am a part of, but also something that seems so far away.

I meet people occassionaly who claim to be vegetarian... but they eat chicken, seafood, and attack others for choosing not to. I occasionally meet people who at least try to respect it, but I also meet a lot of people who just end up attacking me for it or puzzled over the "sacrafise." Sometimes, it feels like a rather isolated journey in a world that thinks I am nuts. Sometimes it would be nice to not feel way.
I did a net search... in hope of finding some other thoughts on it.

* "The Importance of Vegetarian Culture" http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj97sep/979cult.htm
* "Good for the Gods: India" http://www.veggieheadonline.com/india.html
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Building-Vegetarian-Culture/
* "Vegetarian & Vegan Diets" @ 'Home Chef' http://www.chefhome.com/Cookbook/Vegetarian.shtml
* "The Vegetarian Channel" http://www.thevegetarianchannel.com/directory/News/Publications/213.html
* "Becoming a Vegetarian" http://becoming-a-vegetarian.blogspot.com/

"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals." ~George Orwell, Animal Farm

An introduction of sorts

Welcome to my vegetarian world. Think of this almost as a mission statement of types. There are a lot of blogs and bloggers on the web. It’s a huge world out there with all sorts of different interests, purposes, and ideals. Vegetarianism is growing, but sometimes it still feels like a rather lonely world. I believe that living a life without meat should be a celebration and not some thinking of restrictions and explainations. This is my life… and one of the best ways I can think of celebrating it is to share.
Five years ago I found myself at the threshold of vegetarianism. At first the idea seemed a bit scary; I am after all from a long line of Ohio hunters and farmers. Life here often seems centered around football games, deer season, and shared meals for holidays, picnics, or just because. Thanksgiving is a marked a huge turkey and sighting guns in and the prep for deer season. Christmas Day is marked with steak and shrimp. Burgers, hotdogs, and chicken BBQ seem the obvious choice in summer-fare. Then at nineteen, I got sick. What I ate often caused pain, but the pain came from not eating as well. I tried the route the doctors laid before me, but was unsettled with the idea of spending a life on medication. I tried herbs and initial diet changes, but I often felt as though I had hit the glass ceiling. I could see where I wanted to go, I could almost touch, but somehow it stayed out of reach. I wanted to be better and I wanted my life back. I had researched from the beginning, constantly reading and talking to others. It kept coming up… vegetarian. At first it seemed extreme and far-fetched. While, I myself had never hunted, I had to taught to handle one at a young age and it was somewhat expected that one day I would join my cousins, uncles, brothers, Grandpa, and Father in the woods one day. Hunting and farming was a tradition after all. We had been brought up with a respect for the animals whose lives were taken whether from a farm, water, or woods. Nothing was taken that was not going to be used. Game was often shared with family or friends who either did not hunt or did not get anything. It was all I had ever known. But I wasn’t getting any better. And I had to try something. So I made the original goal of one month. Thirty days to let my body adjust (think detox almost) and see if it made any real difference. I woke up one morning and knew that was the day. Without looking back I armed myself with determination and willpower that would get me through the first days. I had figured after the thirty days I would then decide if it would make any different and if it was something I would stick to. By the end of two weeks I knew there was no going back. Five years later, here I am. I got my health back without drugs and potentially dangerous side-effects and I have lasted far longer than most predictions.
For me, I don’t think much about the things I gave up. I may have gave up the sense of my family’s normalcy, but I also gave up the pain. I also gained a sense of awareness about what I put into my body and about the world as a whole. Slowly my family as adapted to the reality that vegetarianism for me is not merely a phase that I will “grow out of.” They accept the veg-friendly food at picnics, cook outs, and even Holiday dinner tables. Most of them have stopped picking about when I will just “go back to normal” and eat meat. The adjustment from omnivore to vegetarian has not be nearly as difficult for me as it has been on various members of my family. Sometimes, I still feel as though it would have been a easier if it had been a road I had not taken alone, but I am almost everyday glad that it is a road I have taken.