Transcribed Audio Source
Interview with a Former Vegetarian
Greg: We watched “Food Inc”… and what we are focusing on is the differences between omnivores and vegetarians. I think you have an interesting viewpoint because you spent a significant amount of time as a vegetarian, correct?
Kat: Yes I did.
Greg: and before you became a vegetarian, you were a meat eater?
Kat: Yes. Nothing weird about it. We ate meat.
Greg: And at what age did you decide to become a vegetarian?
Kat: I was 17. I decided I want to look into vegetarianism. I was a junior in high school.
Greg: and what made you decide to stop eating meat?
Kat: I thought it would be healthier. I had read a lot of books on diet and fitness and things like that, where they outlined the killing process of animals… I was horrified. A lot of animals are tortured, technically, before they are eaten.
Greg: So was it the articles, the videos…
Kat: it was both. I subscribed to PETA, which I would not recommend doing…
Greg: PETA! Okay, let’s talk about that. You don’t seem very enthusiastic about that. Do you just not like seeing animals slaughtered which is understandable, or is it something more philosophical?
Kat: part of it is that I don’t like checking my email and seeing dead animals. The other part is that PETA is very, very fundamentalist in their views. PETA, the same people who decided that it is acceptable to throw red paint at people for wearing a fur coat and destroying their property… I don’t think that people should be taking their advice from people… that are so fundamentally horrific that they will not accept any faults.
Greg: did your disagreement with PETA have anything to do with your going back to eating meat?
Kat: No, it was completely separate.
Greg: By the way, I have been hearing a lot lately about PETA2. Are they different?
Kat: They’re little PETA! Little people PETA. It’s for younger people. They are less fundamentalist. They’re a lot more gentle in the way they push things. I mean, they talk about how you shouldn’t be dissecting frogs in high school, but they’re also not FREEING the frogs. They just are not dissecting them. They are a lot more normal. They give out stickers sometimes that say “I’m a chicky, not a nugget. They’re adorable. They’re a little less horrifying in the way they push things.
Greg: were you familiar with PETA2 when you first became a vegetarian?
Kat: I was familiar with them. I also got emails from them. I was one of the people who refused to dissect a frog for moral standards. I didn’t see the point in knowing how to dissect a frog. I can read about it without cutting the frog open. I’m pretty okay with not cutting frogs. I don’t like the idea of breeding animals to kill them and cut them to pieces unless you are going into the medical field and need to know how to cut things.
Greg: How did your teacher take it?
Kat: My teacher was fine with it, as long as I brought in a parental consent form that said I was actually doing it for moral reasons and not because I was lazy. I ended up having to do a project where we had to color in pictures of the different parts of the frog so we can learn the different parts of the frog without cutting it. It’s not that different, except I didn’t have to touch them. Or look at them. Or be in the same room.
Greg: That sounds much more pleasant.
Kat: Oh yeah.
Greg: speaking of the parental consent forms, how did they take it?
Kat: My dad didn’t really care. He’s very supportive of my decisions/ he, like everyone else, looked at it as more of a phase, which I guess it was! (Laughs). So he was always encouraging, and his girlfriend was very helpful… helping me find iron and protein.
Greg: Is his girlfriend a vegetarian?
Kat: No. She’s a nurse.
Greg: Okay, so I guess she knows a lot about the human body. Outside of your family, though, did you run into any problems?
Kat: A few of my friends that had been vegetarians their entire lives made fun of me, thinking I was just doing it to be cool. To be a hipster. (Laughs). Other than that, there was no social stigma.
Greg: Were your friends legitimately upset?
Kat: (Laughs) I don’t think so. They just liked to make fun of me.
Greg: How exactly did you make the transition from meat eater to vegetarian?
Kat: I cut out red meat. And then I cut out poultry. For about a year I was a pescatarian. I eventually cut out fish, but I would still occasionally have it because it’s really good and I love sushi. Eventually I was able to live without it for a longer period of time.
Greg: I actually know a few pescatarians, who do so for philosophical and scientific reasons. I think fish have fewer nerve endings or something? Anyway, was that it, or do you just really like fish?
Kat: I really like fish, and also… I don’t look at them as emotional creatures. You can look at a cow, and it looks sad. A chicken can look sad. But I have never seen a fish looking sad. I’ve seen angry fish, but no sad fish.
Greg: I’ve never seen an angry fish…
Kat: Barracudas, man. And sharks- they’re angry fish.
Greg: I’ve never eaten a shark…
Kat: It’s one of my goals in life.
Greg: Aren’t they endangered? Never mind, I don’t want to bring my own politics into this!
Kat: Not all sharks are endangered. Some sharks.
Greg: ANYWAY… when did you decide to go back to eating meat?
Kat: This year, actually. I had a cheeseburger, and I was pleased. Then my boyfriend made bacon, and I was very pleased.
Greg: Did you just decide that you really liked cheeseburgers…
Kat: The cheeseburger was because I was at a pool party, and they had no vegetarian options, and I was very, very hungry. I had done something similar when I was at bamboozle, and they only had cheeseburgers and hot dogs, and I hadn’t eaten in like seven hours.
Greg: But what made you decide to permanently go back to eating meat?
Kat: It was delicious. It was very tasty. I had forgotten how good it tastes.
Greg: So your philosophical and political beliefs have nothing to do with it?
Kat: Not really. I still try to reconcile with myself by buying from better companies that are less inclined to mass produce meat. I try to avoid those…
Greg: So your beliefs haven’t changed much?
Kat: I still think the way the food industry treats animals is very poor. I understand that it’s cost effective to cram chickens in giant spaces, but I don’t think that not eating meat is going to affect that. They’re not going to stop just because people are not eating meat. There are many many people who still demand there meat. It’s more important to ask that animals are treated fairly. It’s a lot better to buy local, where cows and chickens are happy cows and chickens, other than, “I’m going to cramp a ton of animals into a tiny space…”
Greg: Do you feel like the food industry makes it difficult to make these kinds of choices?
Kat: It’s very difficult to be healthy. Most of the larger corporations that are providing food are not well done in terms of nutrition and keeping animals in mind. They’re thinking about their wallets. It’s very difficult, especially when I’m at school, and I don’t drive at the moment. So it’s very hard to go out and find a car, so shopping at Shop Rite and Save-a-Lot, you can’t really buy local.
Greg: How do you feel about the options on campus?
Kat: Myyyeh! I feel meh. The options are terrible, they’re almost entirely unhealthy, they’re overpriced… you can have wings, which are greasy and bad for you. You can have salad, yay salad! You can have comfort food, which is in mass portions but overpriced and unhealthy. You can have a rice bowl at the burrito place, which are six or seven hundred calories! Or you can have a sandwich, which has so much on it that it shouldn’t even be called a sandwich! And they’re overcharging for all of it, even though the food is really poor, and no one really enjoys it.
Greg: Do you have any ideas about what can be done to make things better?
Kat: I don’t think anything WILL be done, but improving options would be really cool. For example, at Profs Place, they got rid of veggie burgers and grilled chicken… so all you can really get at the grill place is grilled cheese, breakfast sandwiches, or cheese steaks. And then they overprice everything anyway… oh, Sodexho. I love your employees, but I don’t love you.
Greg: We’re trying to take a look at the lifestyle differences between omnivores and vegetarians. What else do you think sets vegetarians apart?
Kat: I think, especially in a school setting, it’s a lot harder if you don’t eat meat. For example, at Rowan, you can have a salad, or a salad, or a salad, or on CERTAIN DAYS if you happen to eat upstairs you can have something. There are about 2 or 3 sandwiches at Profs Place. But there is almost nothing else readily available or accessible to people unless they want salad…
Greg: So you feel a little left out I guess…
Kat: It’s very aggravating! You can’t get a veggie burger, but you should be able to access that. And no, congress, pizza is not a vegetable… I’m sorry, if you’re trying to make schools a healthier place to stop the mass amounts of obesity and overweight people, which causes so many health problems and increases diabetes and increases the amount of money that they government has to spend… I’m not saying that you can’t have pizza as an option, but I’m not saying you can offer it as a vegetable. A vegetable is a vegetable, not a grilled or baked piece of pizza. That is not a vegetable, that will not make you healthy; it will probably make you fatter…
Greg: Do you think the problem is more the government or the corporations?
Kat: I think it’s both. I think they play off of each other a lot. Not to attack someone, but when the government says “we need to increase healthy options in schools,” and the schools say “yay pizza,” that’s not making high schoolers more healthy. Getting rid of soda, that’s okay, because soda has no nutritional benefits… honestly, it’s almost insulting to the American public to say “you should eat a balanced plate,” and they have all these nutritional guidelines, and then when you come to school, it’s almost impossible to follow…
Greg: changing gears a bit, do you think that having been a vegetarian previously significantly changed the way you look at food?
Kat: I wouldn’t say that it’s a conscious thing about being a vegetarian or not a vegetarian. I’m very health conscious; I worry a lot about what goes in my body.
Greg: Do you think at any point in your life you may go back to being a vegetarian?
Kat: Probably not. I mean, I love healthy options, but at looking at this point in my life, I don’t think I’m going back. I just don’t want to.
Kat: Yes I did.
Greg: and before you became a vegetarian, you were a meat eater?
Kat: Yes. Nothing weird about it. We ate meat.
Greg: And at what age did you decide to become a vegetarian?
Kat: I was 17. I decided I want to look into vegetarianism. I was a junior in high school.
Greg: and what made you decide to stop eating meat?
Kat: I thought it would be healthier. I had read a lot of books on diet and fitness and things like that, where they outlined the killing process of animals… I was horrified. A lot of animals are tortured, technically, before they are eaten.
Greg: So was it the articles, the videos…
Kat: it was both. I subscribed to PETA, which I would not recommend doing…
Greg: PETA! Okay, let’s talk about that. You don’t seem very enthusiastic about that. Do you just not like seeing animals slaughtered which is understandable, or is it something more philosophical?
Kat: part of it is that I don’t like checking my email and seeing dead animals. The other part is that PETA is very, very fundamentalist in their views. PETA, the same people who decided that it is acceptable to throw red paint at people for wearing a fur coat and destroying their property… I don’t think that people should be taking their advice from people… that are so fundamentally horrific that they will not accept any faults.
Greg: did your disagreement with PETA have anything to do with your going back to eating meat?
Kat: No, it was completely separate.
Greg: By the way, I have been hearing a lot lately about PETA2. Are they different?
Kat: They’re little PETA! Little people PETA. It’s for younger people. They are less fundamentalist. They’re a lot more gentle in the way they push things. I mean, they talk about how you shouldn’t be dissecting frogs in high school, but they’re also not FREEING the frogs. They just are not dissecting them. They are a lot more normal. They give out stickers sometimes that say “I’m a chicky, not a nugget. They’re adorable. They’re a little less horrifying in the way they push things.
Greg: were you familiar with PETA2 when you first became a vegetarian?
Kat: I was familiar with them. I also got emails from them. I was one of the people who refused to dissect a frog for moral standards. I didn’t see the point in knowing how to dissect a frog. I can read about it without cutting the frog open. I’m pretty okay with not cutting frogs. I don’t like the idea of breeding animals to kill them and cut them to pieces unless you are going into the medical field and need to know how to cut things.
Greg: How did your teacher take it?
Kat: My teacher was fine with it, as long as I brought in a parental consent form that said I was actually doing it for moral reasons and not because I was lazy. I ended up having to do a project where we had to color in pictures of the different parts of the frog so we can learn the different parts of the frog without cutting it. It’s not that different, except I didn’t have to touch them. Or look at them. Or be in the same room.
Greg: That sounds much more pleasant.
Kat: Oh yeah.
Greg: speaking of the parental consent forms, how did they take it?
Kat: My dad didn’t really care. He’s very supportive of my decisions/ he, like everyone else, looked at it as more of a phase, which I guess it was! (Laughs). So he was always encouraging, and his girlfriend was very helpful… helping me find iron and protein.
Greg: Is his girlfriend a vegetarian?
Kat: No. She’s a nurse.
Greg: Okay, so I guess she knows a lot about the human body. Outside of your family, though, did you run into any problems?
Kat: A few of my friends that had been vegetarians their entire lives made fun of me, thinking I was just doing it to be cool. To be a hipster. (Laughs). Other than that, there was no social stigma.
Greg: Were your friends legitimately upset?
Kat: (Laughs) I don’t think so. They just liked to make fun of me.
Greg: How exactly did you make the transition from meat eater to vegetarian?
Kat: I cut out red meat. And then I cut out poultry. For about a year I was a pescatarian. I eventually cut out fish, but I would still occasionally have it because it’s really good and I love sushi. Eventually I was able to live without it for a longer period of time.
Greg: I actually know a few pescatarians, who do so for philosophical and scientific reasons. I think fish have fewer nerve endings or something? Anyway, was that it, or do you just really like fish?
Kat: I really like fish, and also… I don’t look at them as emotional creatures. You can look at a cow, and it looks sad. A chicken can look sad. But I have never seen a fish looking sad. I’ve seen angry fish, but no sad fish.
Greg: I’ve never seen an angry fish…
Kat: Barracudas, man. And sharks- they’re angry fish.
Greg: I’ve never eaten a shark…
Kat: It’s one of my goals in life.
Greg: Aren’t they endangered? Never mind, I don’t want to bring my own politics into this!
Kat: Not all sharks are endangered. Some sharks.
Greg: ANYWAY… when did you decide to go back to eating meat?
Kat: This year, actually. I had a cheeseburger, and I was pleased. Then my boyfriend made bacon, and I was very pleased.
Greg: Did you just decide that you really liked cheeseburgers…
Kat: The cheeseburger was because I was at a pool party, and they had no vegetarian options, and I was very, very hungry. I had done something similar when I was at bamboozle, and they only had cheeseburgers and hot dogs, and I hadn’t eaten in like seven hours.
Greg: But what made you decide to permanently go back to eating meat?
Kat: It was delicious. It was very tasty. I had forgotten how good it tastes.
Greg: So your philosophical and political beliefs have nothing to do with it?
Kat: Not really. I still try to reconcile with myself by buying from better companies that are less inclined to mass produce meat. I try to avoid those…
Greg: So your beliefs haven’t changed much?
Kat: I still think the way the food industry treats animals is very poor. I understand that it’s cost effective to cram chickens in giant spaces, but I don’t think that not eating meat is going to affect that. They’re not going to stop just because people are not eating meat. There are many many people who still demand there meat. It’s more important to ask that animals are treated fairly. It’s a lot better to buy local, where cows and chickens are happy cows and chickens, other than, “I’m going to cramp a ton of animals into a tiny space…”
Greg: Do you feel like the food industry makes it difficult to make these kinds of choices?
Kat: It’s very difficult to be healthy. Most of the larger corporations that are providing food are not well done in terms of nutrition and keeping animals in mind. They’re thinking about their wallets. It’s very difficult, especially when I’m at school, and I don’t drive at the moment. So it’s very hard to go out and find a car, so shopping at Shop Rite and Save-a-Lot, you can’t really buy local.
Greg: How do you feel about the options on campus?
Kat: Myyyeh! I feel meh. The options are terrible, they’re almost entirely unhealthy, they’re overpriced… you can have wings, which are greasy and bad for you. You can have salad, yay salad! You can have comfort food, which is in mass portions but overpriced and unhealthy. You can have a rice bowl at the burrito place, which are six or seven hundred calories! Or you can have a sandwich, which has so much on it that it shouldn’t even be called a sandwich! And they’re overcharging for all of it, even though the food is really poor, and no one really enjoys it.
Greg: Do you have any ideas about what can be done to make things better?
Kat: I don’t think anything WILL be done, but improving options would be really cool. For example, at Profs Place, they got rid of veggie burgers and grilled chicken… so all you can really get at the grill place is grilled cheese, breakfast sandwiches, or cheese steaks. And then they overprice everything anyway… oh, Sodexho. I love your employees, but I don’t love you.
Greg: We’re trying to take a look at the lifestyle differences between omnivores and vegetarians. What else do you think sets vegetarians apart?
Kat: I think, especially in a school setting, it’s a lot harder if you don’t eat meat. For example, at Rowan, you can have a salad, or a salad, or a salad, or on CERTAIN DAYS if you happen to eat upstairs you can have something. There are about 2 or 3 sandwiches at Profs Place. But there is almost nothing else readily available or accessible to people unless they want salad…
Greg: So you feel a little left out I guess…
Kat: It’s very aggravating! You can’t get a veggie burger, but you should be able to access that. And no, congress, pizza is not a vegetable… I’m sorry, if you’re trying to make schools a healthier place to stop the mass amounts of obesity and overweight people, which causes so many health problems and increases diabetes and increases the amount of money that they government has to spend… I’m not saying that you can’t have pizza as an option, but I’m not saying you can offer it as a vegetable. A vegetable is a vegetable, not a grilled or baked piece of pizza. That is not a vegetable, that will not make you healthy; it will probably make you fatter…
Greg: Do you think the problem is more the government or the corporations?
Kat: I think it’s both. I think they play off of each other a lot. Not to attack someone, but when the government says “we need to increase healthy options in schools,” and the schools say “yay pizza,” that’s not making high schoolers more healthy. Getting rid of soda, that’s okay, because soda has no nutritional benefits… honestly, it’s almost insulting to the American public to say “you should eat a balanced plate,” and they have all these nutritional guidelines, and then when you come to school, it’s almost impossible to follow…
Greg: changing gears a bit, do you think that having been a vegetarian previously significantly changed the way you look at food?
Kat: I wouldn’t say that it’s a conscious thing about being a vegetarian or not a vegetarian. I’m very health conscious; I worry a lot about what goes in my body.
Greg: Do you think at any point in your life you may go back to being a vegetarian?
Kat: Probably not. I mean, I love healthy options, but at looking at this point in my life, I don’t think I’m going back. I just don’t want to.