Saturday, May 01, 2010

Be Veg! Go Green! Save the Earth!


This imperative-filled, English-seeming slogan has been popping up a lot in Taiwan, especially outside vegetarian restaurants. The idea is that being a vegetarian a couple of days a week will lower the CO2 it takes to feed you, vegetarian dishes generally requiring much less CO2 on the back end. (Though it depends where your tofu comes from, according to what I read.) I think this part-time vegetarian thing is a thing in western countries, too, or it may just be a thing on the hippy websites I frequent. :)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm moving to Taiwan soon and I'm a vegetarian too- do you find it's pretty easy to maintain a vegetarian diet in Taiwan? I've heard conflicting stories.

Anonymous said...

These posters bear a striking similarity to pro-vegetarian posters put out by Falun Gong in Australia

Christina said...

For all I know, they could be Falun Gong posters! Also, I'm not a vegetarian- sorry- just thought it was a funny sign. I think it is pretty easy to have a vegetarian diet in Taiwan, esp. if you don't mind meat-based broth or stuff being fried in animal fat. Being a strict vegan would be tougher I'd think. There are lots of vegetarian restaurants. But you're probably better off asking a real vegetarian!

Allison said...

I'm a vegan living in taichung and find it easy. There are lots of tofu options and not a lot of dairy used. However, I find it's best to be very flexible. With communication issues, you are bound to end up with meat sometimes, and I don't worry too much about broth and whatnot.

-Allison
osullivansabroad.blogspot.com

Christina said...

Well said! Actually I eat a lot less meat here than I did back home- mainly because the tofu is so good! As she said, between not being able to fluently communicate and not being able to read the labels on stuff, it would be tought to avoid everything that's ever been on an animal. But to avoid eating meat- and you're right, even dairy- is quite easy.