Reply #135: On travel boards, you get self-righteous vegans going to China,

[Lydia Leftcoast]

Vietnam, or India and having hissy fits because although a street vendor honored their request for no meat in their soup or stir fry, he made it with chicken broth or just gave them some of whatever dish it was with the meat picked out instead of cooking up a separate batch for them. Or the waiter in the hotel brought a pitcher of milk for their morning rice porridge. Or some well-meaning Indians recommended a vegetarian restaurant, but horror of horrors, there was cheese in some of the dishes.

And I'm thinking, "People in China and India literally starved to death in the 1960s, and Vietnam is still terribly poor, and this pampered Westerner, who has the money to spend a year traveling the world has the NERVE to criticize them for not being pure vegans."

But criticize such people for their rudeness and inflexibility, and you get sermons about the poor little animals or how Third World people would be healthier if they gave up meat and dairy products.

Of course, people in many parts of China and India have had the experience of giving up animal protein foods--during their famines.