Using The Edge To Move The Middle?
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Erik Marcus thinks we need to help spread this Mark Bittman talk.
Mark Bittman’s not a vegan, he’s a “lessmeatarian.”
Marcus claims “It’s probably the perfect talk for somebody who is following a standard American diet, and who considers total veganism is too extreme to contemplate.”
And Marcus transcribed a few bits:
- “As there is maybe some kind of food movement in this country there has to be an individual movement in food. We need to be moving in the same direction and the direction is more plants and less of everything else.”
- “You have to embrace your inner vegan.”
- “Fifty or at most one hundred years from now, we’re all going to be eating a plant-based diet.”
But like I asked before, why should vegans be promoting Bittman? As I said before, Mark Bittman doesn’t need our help promoting his articles, cookbooks, or theories. He is doing fine on his own. And perhaps if we promote him, we hurt him. A year and a half ago I wrote, Bittman’s reputation as a nonvegan probably suffers each time vegans hail him or his food. Thus vegans impede his efficacy at “moving the middle” (getting more meat-eaters to eat less meat).
But since his reputation doesn’t seem to have been too harmed by us vegans in the last year and a half, maybe I’m wrong. I don’t honestly know if we should promote Bittman or not. But I do know that it doesn’t feel right. It feels a little like selling out or giving up.
For someone who calls himself a “lessmeatarian,” he sure seems awfully meatcentric in his choice of recipes–at least those that stumble across in his blogs. I wish he’d back up his “inner vegan” message with more vegan recipes!