We had dinner last night with some friends, one of whom has been a vegetarian for about 25 years. Actually, Monica described herself as a recovering vegetarian, which sounded really strange to me. She said “Vegetarianism is a hard habit to break.”
I’ve been a veg for about 20 years myself, so I was quite curious to understand her statement better. Monica said that she had become a vegetarian at the age of 14; she knew about the famine in Africa and had learned how much grain it takes to produce one pound of beef (something like 4 pounds, if I remember correctly). She realized that millions of people could be fed if that grain was not used to raise beef cattle, and decided then and there to not contribute to the wastefulness. About 15 years later, while living and working in Eastern Africa, some villagers slaughtered a cow in her honor and prepared an amazing feast. What can ya do? Ya gotta eat it.
I once had a similar experience. I was studying in Russia in 1992, and called the relatives of a Georgian guy I knew in Columbus to see if we could meet up, and they invited me to their apartment. I knew this would involve a meal, but they didn’t say anything at all about food and I didn’t know how to work into a conversation with complete strangers that, oh, by the way, I’m a vegetarian. So I steeled myself and went to their apartment that evening. They had prepared a very nice meal, with a lot of meat. I knew this had been an extravagant expense for them – in early 1992, hyperinflation was beginning to take off, salaries were worthless, and your average Russian was having a very tough time. There was no way I could refuse this extremely generous meal, but getting that chicken in my mouth was damn hard. I did it though. Then, much to my horror, they explained that they had saved the best part for their honored guest – the chicken heart. I didn’t know whether to cry or throw up. Somehow I begged my way out of it, which probably wasn’t the most culturally-sensitive thing to do, but there was just no way I could eat that heart.
Anyway, since the cow-incident Monica’s toyed with the idea of being a carnivore again, but as she said, it’s a hard habit to break.
I started to understand. The main reason I became a vegetarian at 15 was that I really liked animals and I just didn’t want to eat them. As the years went by, and scary things like mad cow disease appeared, and all the hormones and pesticides and herbicides that concentrate in meat, and the just horrific conditions in those massive industrial farms, I knew that if I wasn’t already a veg, I would have become one then.
Living with subsistence farmers in Moldova, I knew proper nutrition on a vegetarian diet, especially in the dead of winter when the closest thing you can get to a fresh vegetable is a heap of potatoes, was going to be an issue. I did OK, though, and I was lucky that I lived with a family who were accepting and accommodating of my diet.
This past winter, though, I started to crave fish. It was strange, as I haven’t had any interest or desire to eat meat (and yes, fish are made of meat) for years. I decided I must be missing something in my diet if my body is craving it, so I took the plunge and ate some fish. Like most other foods here, fish is usually fried, which doesn’t appeal to me at all. But Igor made some baked fish for me, and I had to admit it was tasty. His mom started making the baked fish whenever I visited them. I know it makes it easier for her as she really had a hard time comprehending what to feed a veg, despite my constant attempts to assure here that I really am perfectly happy with her lovely salads, and eggplant and bean dishes. So, I’ve been eating fish when I go to Korosten, and sometimes when I’ve been traveling outside of Kyiv and it’s just too damn hard to get a decent all-veg meal.
Then I started to reflect on some of my reasons for not eating meat. As I said, I had a lot of concerns about the meat industry in the U.S. But here, in the villages, it’s pretty much about as organic and free-range as you can get! They don’t use hormones, I see the chickens and ducks roaming the yards and even streets, and I know those pigs truly live in hog-heaven. So are my reasons for being vegetarian nullified here? Monica expressed similar thoughts.
I’ve experimented with meat a few times in the last couple of months. I tried Igor’s baked chicken once, and a little bit of the rabbit he so loves. But the texture was weird for me; it didn’t feel like food to my mouth. Monica said she had had the same experience. And she said she just doesn’t even think about meat as a food option, it isn’t a part of her mentality about food. By the time both she and I started doing our own grocery shopping and cooking, we had both been vegetarians for several years. As Monica said “It doesn’t occur to me to go down the meat aisle in the grocery store.”
It’s no longer a conscious choice to not eat meat, it’s a habit. I would probably eat it if I found something that appealed to me, but so far, other than the occasional fish, I haven’t seen any meat here that seems appetizing. I guess vegetarianism really is a hard habit to break!
Anka in Kyiv 