Vegan Practically

Getting back to the blog after an hiatus, you’d think I’d have no end of topics lined up. Instead, I just have a swirl of thoughts that I need to wrestle into some sort of order before I can give them their due. So today let me get started on taming the swirl by identifying three discussions I want to take up in near-future posts. They arise from recent experiences that I’ve had, and the common thread concerns obligations among vegans and non-vegans to one another.

As I said the other day, I’m fortunate to live in a city where there are lots of restaurants that are plant-based. I much prefer fully plant-based restaurants to restaurants with a more diverse menu that includes lots of vegan options. Why? Because I have a strong ethical objection to the use of animals for food. So I would rather support establishments that don’t serve those products.

But I sometimes go to those places and I appreciate that they at least make a decent effort. Still and all, they could often do better. For example, on the weekend I attended a dinner at such a place and though they didn’t have a vegan menu as such, they promised a decent selection of vegan options to the person who reserved the table.

They reviewed the list of options (aloud, no prices). There were only two vegans among the ten of us, and the waiter literally expressed relief at that fact. And then went on to recommend the chicken over a comparable vegan option “because it has protein.”

So my first question is, if you’re a restaurant offering vegan options, is it right to frame them as burdensome favours for difficult guests? The answer to this question seems to be an obvious “no,” but you’d be surprised. I want to consider the reasons why we encounter this approach so frequently.

The second thing I want to think through again concerns vegan diners. If someone is not a vegan but is eating with vegan friends whose choice is ethically based, is it rude to eat animal products? I realize that this way of putting it makes it seem more like an issue of etiquette than of ethics, but I think the lines blur here in a way that is worth exploring.

Third, and closely related to the second question, how tolerant should vegan diners be when they are eating with friends or relatives who are not vegan? The general expectation is that we should be endlessly tolerant. Is that right?

Stay tuned.