Do you count as a ‘vegetarian’ if you don’t announce it?

[AnAwesomePossum]

I have realised as I’ve typed that it sounds like I’m being incredibly goady, but honestly I’m not! It was a philosophical thought.

My son (3) doesn’t eat meat. There is no real reason for this. He had a sausage a few months ago, some chicken a bit afterwards, but nothing in the past few months. I put meat on his plate, we cook it on BBQs, he even tells me he likes certain things (in a 3 year old way - “I don’t like chicken today but I do like it other days”) but he still won’t eat it. He may eat some of the meat at nursery but not sure if he doesn’t just pick around it.

This is fine. He eats eggs, cheese and peanut butter like it’s going out of fashion so I’m not worried.

So, in practice he is a vegetarian. In language he’s never described himself (or had an active thought) as one and wouldn’t know what they means. So is he a vegetarian (probably temporarily but who knows) or do you have to make a conscious thought to be one?

So if I put it in AIBU terms: AIBU to think he is NOT vegetarian until he has declared (or made a conscious thought) that he is one?

You can describe animals as vegetarian, or even dinosaurs commonly. They definitely didn’t abstain from meat for ethical reasons.
I think as far as the literal meaning of the word, you are vegetarian if you don’t eat meat.
(Pepperoni is meat though!)

@AnAwesomePossum

I do think there needs to be a conscious decision to be a vegetarian, but I am also curious about whether someone who has lived their lives only ever eating vegetables because they don’t know any better is a vegetarian.

I think the same applies to most belief based ideologies - is a Christian a Christian if they were raised for however many years like that but wasn’t given another option, for example?

Interesting question; I do think after a certain age there is an element of conscious choice. Especially these days with easier access to information etc. In the times when the Church ruled supreme, maybe not so much!

“I take it you don't know about omnivores”

Humans as a species are omnivores. A vegetarian doesn’t stop being an omnivore. Herbivore is what you call a species that cannot eat meat, vegetarians are omnivores who choose not to eat meat.

I guess I confused you by using the term carnivore, when I should have said meat-eater. Apologies for that!!

You’re taking a very realist view of what vegetarianism is / is not, OP! If your degree is philosophy I imagine you realise that it is a very loose social construct and while it is meaningful up to a point, when you try to pin it down you will fail because everyone has their own sociocultural and individual idea of what it means.

YANBU.
Unless he refuses meat when given it because he only want vegetables (for whatever reason) he's not a vegetarian.
Also don't know about the word but in my culture (where people have been vegetarian for centuries and many still are ) we describe ourselves as 'vegetarian' for the day if there was a religious function (as we don't eat meat on these days).
Lots of people are vegetarian not for ethical reasons but because a) they're poor and meat is expensive and b) that's how they were raised, so they just continue to be.

Unless he refuses meat when given it because he only want vegetables (for whatever reason) he's not a vegetarian

I think this is it. It's not just not eating meat for a week or two 'accidentally' but stating a requirement when asked, requesting a vegetarian option if it's not available from a selection put in front of you and having nothing, or just the salad, chips, bread etc if it's not available.

Because otherwise, it's likely that you're just choosing the food that you want that happens to be vegetarian. It's not making a concious choice to be vegetarian, it's seeing something you like and thinking 'I'll have that'. That's what I'm like. I'm not vegetarian and would never describe myself as such because I do eat meat occasionally (maybe once or twice a month) and I eat fish regularly - a couple of times a week at least.

I'd also never use any of the wanky modern terms like part time vegetarian or flexitarian because I happened to go a few days not eating meat. That's being an omnivore, it's how people are supposed to eat.

But I think this stems from meat eating being seen as the default for a lot of people. In a restaurant, they automatically choose the meat option and don't even look at the vegetarian meals as they seem to put them in a special weirdy category for the vegetarians only that you'd only eat if you didn't eat meat. Not true.

But some of my favourite foods are in that category. In my city there's a few Indian Street food places that I could happily eat at daily because I love just about everything on their menus. Of course, most of what they sell is vegan and it's all vegetarian. But that's secondary.

If I have pizza, I always have mediterranean veg, because that's what I like and don't like meat on pizza, to me it just doesn't go. What gives me the rage is the type of pizza place that will sell 20 different pizzas and half of them will have some sort of processed meat on, 6 will be chicken and then about 4 that have none of these on and at least two of these will be margarheta or 4 cheese, leaving one or two with any kind of topping other than cheese that's not meat. Ridiculous.

Falafels, hummus, pittas, salads is another of my go tos that I have at least twice a week.

And then there's all the normal food that even non vegetarians will regulary eat without thinking much about it - cheese sandwiches, most soups, cereal, cake, crisps etc. If you have these for breakfast and lunch, you're not 'being vegetarian' you're just eating food.

But I also eat fish and chips and that's almost always cooked in beef dripping here, so even the chips aren't vegetarian. Also roasts or BBQ meat occasionally.

It's just a label.

Someone who never eats meat is a vegetarian by definition, whether they actively describe themselves as such as not.

@AnAwesomePossum

I do think there needs to be a conscious decision to be a vegetarian, but I am also curious about whether someone who has lived their lives only ever eating vegetables because they don’t know any better is a vegetarian.

I think the same applies to most belief based ideologies - is a Christian a Christian if they were raised for however many years like that but wasn’t given another option, for example?

You are in practice a vegetarian if you don't eat meat or fish. You can call it what you want.

The point about religion is nonsense, you are a Christian if you are a Christian, irrespective of what other knowledge you have.

He chooses to not eat meat. If he also chooses to not eat fish then he is a practising vegetarian. What you DO is more significant than what you declare, at any age.

I think to count as a vegetarian you must not eat meat and have no intention of doing so again. The reason isn’t relevant.
If you are a vegetarian by accident (no access to meat) but would eat meat if offered I don’t think it counts.

I would argue that very very few Christians practice Christianity as Jesus did- anarchic, over throwing the money lenders' tables in the temple and mixing with all types of people everywhere, and basically being homeless in order to wander and preach and heal. Most 'christians' would be terrified of living as Jesus did.

Vegetarianism is the practice of not consuming flesh. It has nothing to do with intention.