Leah O'Donovan

I have known several vegetarians in my life. I’m related to one and have another as a good friend here in London. My cousin is veggie simply because she just never really liked the taste of meat whereas my friend is veggie for the whole animal cruelty/moral reasons. My friend has more reason to say something about my carniverous ways than does my cousin; but she doesn’t, and never has. Never has she looked down her nose at me because I’m diving into a big fat, juicy steak. She’s not that type of person with anything; but more importantly she’s not one of those veggie-fascists you hear about.

Like this lady for instance. Gordon Ramsey is a rather popular TV chef/personality. My husband really enjoys watching him and his cooking. Mr Ramsey has guts and gusto; he says what he likes, when he likes with plenty of expletives thrown around for good measure. He is fairly entertaining to watch and, yes, a damn good chef.

This Michele Hanson does make one good point when she says

“In the new series of his TV show The F-Word, Gordon Ramsay plans to plug horsemeat. He’ll be having a horsemeat barbecue at Cheltenham races. Rub peoples’ noses in it, why don’t you?”

I have to admit, barbecuing a horse at a horse race is in somewhat bad taste; but that’s just Gordon Ramsey really. The other more infuriating paragraph, however, states

“The French eat it, so why not us? But who cares what the French do? They vote Tory and they give their kiddies wine for dinner. If we give our children alcohol we may soon be thrown into the slammer. Horse is no worse than cow or pig, you may say. Quite right. But why bother to eat any of them? Be a vegetarian instead, like me. Feel good about yourself, give your bowels a break, cut down on methane gas and deforestation, reduce global warming, end cruelty to animals and save the world.“

I HATE VEGGIE FASCISTS!!!! Now, perhaps she was trying to be ironic or sarcastic with this remark. Certainly Britons are known for their dry wit. I just saw it as veggie posturing and it really annoyed the crap out of me. So much so that I felt I needed to share it with you as well as my Ramsey-loving husband.

I highly doubt that my turning to vegetables over meat is going to save the planet. As for the gas bit, I have to admit I experience a hell of a lot MORE gas once I’ve had a big ol’ plate of vegetables rather than when I’ve had a nice burger. So meh Ms Hanson. Take your veggie fascism elsewhere. I’m having none of it. I’ll take a half-pound burger with extra blood to go please…