Oracle Online

There are a lot of vegetarians on campus, and I’m pretty sure I was not the only one to attend this event. It doesn’t seem like strategic planning to hold an event in a way that excludes a lot of people. Granted, once I spoke up, someone brought a vegetarian sandwich for me, which I do appreciate. But what about people who didn’t speak up?

The president even told me that although she’s sorry I felt slighted, she’s just the president and couldn’t do anything about it. The message I gotčand usually getčfor speaking up is “poor troublesome vegetarian, why can’t you just shut up and be happy eating just vegetables? Why do you always cause such trouble?”

Apparently, anticipating that there are people who might not care to eat meat is too much to ask. Every week I find myself in a situation where it’s viewed as a terrible inconvenience to accomodate a vegetarian like myself. Well, what’s so hard about it? In order to accomodate my apparently bizarre eating habits, whoever’s making the food needs to just stop before they add the meat. It’s really that easy. Vegetarians, by definition, can eat fewer types of food and require fewer steps to prepare equivalent food.

Providing vegetarian options is not an exclusive thing. People who eat meat can still eat vegetarian food. Does offering cheese pizzas (or vegan-friendly pizza) or vegetable sandwiches prevent meat-eaters from eating?

At the transfer student orientation I attended, the organizers offered both hamburgers and veggie burgers. I asked how many of each were being handed out; the answer was about 50 percent each. It doesn’t really matter if that means that 50 percent of transfer students were vegetarian, or if 50 percent simply preferred veggie burgers to hamburgers. The point is, if you offer decent vegetarian options people will eat them; if you don’t, some people will go hungry or will be forced to eat elsewhere.

I have a suggestion for anyone providing, say, sandwiches for large groups of people. Make the sandwiches all vegetarian, then have a platter of meat nearby. Vegetarians can eat then, and if anyone wants meat on their sandwich, they easily can add it. Preparing food in this way would be less work, would probably be cheaper, and would be inclusive instead of exclusive. Stop assuming that everyone eats meat. Stereotypes are never helpful.