Editorial

Being a whatever-a-tarian

Kara Chow - News Editor

Vegan, vegetarian, meatarian. No meat, some “meat”, lots of meat. It seems like no matter what your diet consists of, you’ll be criticized one way or another.

On Friday, a group of students who are fundraising for a trip to China hosted an “I’m a meatatarian” event at Heroes Pub. From what I understand, invitations were sent out to everyone who is a member of the Thompson Rivers University Facebook group. I don’t know if the group admin who invited everyone to the event thought about the fact that there are vegetarians in the TRU group, but I couldn’t believe the controversy this caused.

Yes, it was rather ignorant for the creators of the event to not think about the feelings of TRU’s vegetarian population, but at the same time, I think there was a slight overreaction. How could the administrators possibly know who was a vegetarian and who wasn’t? I think they did the right thing by inviting everyone. It’s better to invite everyone and give them the option to decline than to have people complain that they weren’t invited. It’s like inviting someone to a circus when you’re unaware that they are afraid of clowns.

While most of the vegetarians who were invited to the event politely declined, some were downright insulted and cranky about being invited, calling people who eat meat “disgusting.” And then of course, to retaliate, people who enjoy the odd burger or steak called the vegetarians “sensitive” and “emotional.”

It’s silly, really, for a person to get so worked up over someone else’s dietary habits.

I believe that people should be allowed to live by whichever diet they decide. Heck, if they want to try and live off gummy bears and Mountain Dew, why not? What I don’t agree with is people being ridiculed for the diets they live by.

Out of all the vegetarians I know, they chose to cut meat out of their diets because they don’t agree with the way the animals are treated before they’re sent to the slaughterhouse. I can respect that choice and I wonder sometimes if people who eat meat realize the suffering many of the animals they consume experience.

I eat meat and I do sometimes feel bad because I know that animals are treated poorly. I’ve tried to cut back in the past but missed the taste of barbeque sauce too much.

Simply put, I have poor will power and I could never give up meat, but at the same time, I couldn’t become a “meatarian” and eat only meat, like the made-up marketing term suggests. Instead I’ll keep eating a balance of both meat and veggies, like the whatever-a-tarian I am.