03 April 2006

But is that unicorn nugget genetically modified?

Cheryl Morgan's posting, Mythical Pets, reminds me of a dinner I was lassoed into a while back, at a vegetarian restaurant, a place with sin sitting in every bain marie. Every vegetable looked like it was shot for a 1950 cookbook. The same grey-green death hue (even if the vegetable should be orange), the same frozen look of expectation to be mistreated (fully realised). The restaurant's specialties (and my dinner-fellows' delights) were all imitation meat: imitation-meat looking and imitation-meat smelling. While my companions bogged into the fried gluten with brown sauce, they wasted no time merely eating. All pure of heart and action, down to the plastic shoes, they talked about the horrors of food today. Talk was serious, as these people are committed. The "KFC genetically modified organisms", bred, as they said, "without feet and head, to save processing costs" incensed them the most.

They have an active mailing list that generously disseminates information and petitions, usually about three times a week, subject headings being prefixed by URGENT, or URGENT URGENT if they're not URGENT URGENT URGENT.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of an interview with the director of a large zoo who is credited with humane, advanced care of the animals. When asked if he was a vegetarian (given his obvious love of the animals he cares for) he explained: "I have canine teeth, and I know what they are used for."

It kind of summed it up for me.

Best,
Alice