Alan Richmands Fork It Over: My Beef With Vegans

Growing up with a pescetarian mother (eating no meat other than fish) and omnivore father has not been the easiest of tasks. My mother likes to think she is holier-than-thou because of her diet, while my father just sits and laughs in the corner while eating a stack of ribs. When I read Alan Richmands excerpt “Fork It Over: My Beef with Vegans” I identified with his experiences with vegans because they were what I had experienced with my pescetarian mother over the years. Despite non meat eaters trying to convert meat eaters through persistent ranting, describing in great detail how the animals are raised and slaughtered (guilt tripping), and by trying to demonstrate that food made without animal products can taste just as good as those made with animal products a person can still make the decision to eat meat and enjoy it.

Richman reveals, “What appalls me about them is that they are not content to exorcise pleasure from their own dining tables. They insist that everyone who enjoys eating joins them in their odd brand of masochism” (386). This means that they (non-meat eaters) do not get enough from eating what they want, they believe that you must be eating what they are for them to be content with their life decisions and with what is on their plate. They are never satisfied with just themselves being the vegan, vegetarian, or whatever they have chosen to be. They have to try and get other people on their side for them to be appeased, there for they rant to others in hopes that they may follow in their