On 8/9/2013 3:33 PM, George Plimpton wrote:
> Why Do So Many "Vegetarians" Umm...Lie About Their Diets?
>
> If there are so few true vegetarians, what about all those books that
> claim we are in the midst of a dietary revolution? Don't believe them.
> The reason for the widespread but mistaken belief that America is
> rapidly going veg is the mismatch between what people say they eat and
> what they actually eat. Take a 2002 Times/CNN poll on the eating habits
> of 10,000 Americans. Six percent of the individuals surveyed said they
> considered themselves vegetarian. But when asked by the pollsters what
> they had eaten in the last 24 hours, 60% of the self-described
> "vegetarians" admitted that that had consumed red meat, poultry or fish
> the previous day. In another survey, the United States Department of
> Agriculture randomly telephoned 13,313 Americans. Three percent of the
> respondents answered yes to the question, "Do you consider yourself to
> be a vegetarian?" A week later the researchers called the participants
> again and this time asked what they had eaten the day before. The
> results were even more dramatic than the Times/CNN survey: this time 66%
> of the "vegetarians" had eaten animal flesh in the last 24 hours.
>
> http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...ew-vegetarians
>

Mo


The Campaign to Moralize Meat-Eating Has Failed

In 1975, the philosopher Peter Singer published his ground-breaking book
Animal Liberation which jump-started the contemporary animal rights
movement. Since then, animal protectionists have achieved some
impressive successes. The number of dogs and cats killed in animal
shelters each year has plummeted by 90%, and states like Florida,
Arizona, Oregon, Colorado, and California have enacted legislation to
improve the conditions of animals on factory farms. In contrast, the
30-year campaign by animal activists to equate meat with murder has
hardly made a dent in our collective desire for flesh.

The great paradox of our culture's schizoid attitudes about animals is
that as our concern for their welfare has increased, so has our desire
to eat them. In 1975, the average American ate 178 pounds of red meat
and poultry; by 2007, the number had jumped to 222 pounds. And while the
number of cattle killed for our dining pleasure has decreased by nearly
20% since the publication of Animal Liberation, the number of chickens
killed in American slaughter houses has jumped 200%. According to a
recent report by the highly credible Humane Research Council, if you
include dairy and eggs, an astounding 920 pounds of animal products
slides down the average American's throat each year.

"Moralization" is the cultural transformation of a preference into a
value. Attitudes toward cigarette smoking is an example. About the same
time the animal rights movement was gearing up in the 1970s, the
anti-tobacco forces were also getting their act together. Since then,
the rate of smoking among American adults has dropped from nearly 50% to
less than 25%. In contrast, the number of meat eaters has remained
stable, hovering around 98%.