Western culture is notorious for it’s love of fast food. In 2013 alone, it was estimated the average person in Britain spends £1,320 on fast food– roughly 12 meals per month.
The statistics are just as grim on the other side of the Atlantic. American children consume an estimated 12% of their calories through fast food. Shockingly, Americans spend more money on fast food than they do on magazines, books, newspapers, videos and recorded music – COMBINED.
One doesn’t need a science degree to see the toll this over-eating has taken on our countries. It’s caused an epidemic of liver disease in the UK, making it to one of the top five killers in the country.
The overabundance of food in the west has made us spoilt for choice.
With all this in mind, I find it interesting that we are quick to lecture other nations on their eating habits. We find it all too easy to lift up our noses at dietary practices that we find bizarre or unusual.
Horse meat, though it sounds off-putting to some, is a common dinner item in many countries. Among them are Mexico, Belgium, Canada, Chili, Spain, Iceland, France, Russia, Kazakhstan and many Eastern European, South American, South East Asian, and Eastern countries such as China and Japan.
When raised in a certain environment, the horse is an animal you couldn’t fathom eating. And generally, you may not be able to help yourself if you feel repulsed by the thought.
Society conditioned you to find it unusual.
The practice of eating dog is also controversial in Western society. It’s often associated with east Asian cultures, and frequently appears as the punchline to an ‘Asian joke’.
China, Vietnam and Korea are all known for their consumption of dog meat. It’s generally considered a taboo in the west, though it was eaten in difficult times, such as World War One. In China, it’s estimated that 10 million dogs are killed every year for consumption.
Particular outrage has been dealt towards the Yulin dog meat festival. Last year, a petition circulated online, garnering 11 million signatures, that demanded the practice be stopped.
How many of these people would have shown outrage over our consumption of chicken, beef and pork?
Hardly as many, I can guarantee you.
Our western hypocrisy shows in cases like these. We slam the slaughter of dog for consumption as inhumane, whilst devouring the meats of various other animals, without a second thought.
Has it not occurred to us that our meat eating practices are unorthodox to many?
How would a Hindu from India look upon our enjoyment of beef with Sunday dinner?
What would a Muslim from Iran think of us guzzling down on bacon as part of a cooked breakfast?
For us to deem other’s eating habits as ‘weird’, shows a remarkable lack of perception and self awareness.
Recently, Angelina Jolie was filmed discussing the consumption of insects, a Cambodian delicacy. Many of the comments I saw were dismissive, degrading and rude. A lot seemed to brand her as crazy, essentially slamming a entire country’s dietary habits in the process. The whole story was blown up by media outlets, who joked ‘I guess Angelina’s taking the divorce badly!’ (Referencing her recent divorce from actor, Brad Pitt). The notion of cultural snobbery, from an eating standpoint, was being encouraged.
We can’t expect people to eat like us, to have the same cultural expectations as us. That’s cultural imperialism at it’s finest, the notion that western culture reigns superior in every single way.
