Vegetarian Footnote

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

To be clear, "I'm going vegetarian" or "I can't see the justice in eating meat," does not translate into "You should go vegetarian" or "You are injust for eating meat." Perhaps "justice" is too strong of a word. But the point I'm driving at--and increasingly in all things--is not a big broad solution for society, but an investigation of the self. Myself.

There's a broad critique to be made of current system of food consumption--one that I've been informed by reading, but am less interested in making. With that in mind, it's not clear to me that the entire country going vegetarian is a good idea. It is clear to me that I should be vegetarian. Or maybe it isn't. I reserve the right to change.

To put this in perspective, the rest of my family will almost certainly continue to eat meat. I might continue to eat fish. Who knows? This may not sound right, but I'm not very interested in a Healthy Societal Theory Of Everything Consumed. I'm not interested in dispensing wisdom to the crowd. I'm not looking for a solution. I'm looking to walk a path. Does that make sense?

For my part, I probably obscured the meaning of things by invoking "justice." To get some lengthy sense of my thoughts on this, and any slavery comparison, see here.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/08/vegetarian-footnote/62308/