[Blog Post #4] Interview Synopses

Interview Synopses _ Vegetarian 004

Our team aimed to get wider aspects of vegetarians comparing their life style in Korea with other countries. There were some similarities and differences that we found out through this interview.

1) Daniela – Living as a vegetarian in Germany– Minseon Kim

Our first interviewee was Daniela who has been living as a vegetarian for 5 years in Germany. She watched a documentary about treating animals violently and made up her mind to become a vegetarian. She is a lacto-ovo-vegetarian who does eat dairy products. It seems to be very hard to live in Germany without having those products, because there serves cheese and yogurt everywhere.

NUTRITION and HEALTH

In order to take enough protein, she tries to get enough beans, not taking any supplement for vitamins or protein, instead thinking of a variety of food intake. She didn’t experience any health problem after being vegetarian. She told that she became skinnier, saying that naturally it is difficult to get a lot of weights, eating only vegetables and some products that contain less oil.

SOCIALIZATION

In Germany, people can find any dish that they want almost every time. There is at least one vegetarian dish in each category of the menu. Recently many traditional restaurants opened near the central city, so there came more choices. Unfortunately, however, they could seldom find vegetarian dish in the country side. About 10% of the people are vegetarian. So it seems very easy to find friends who are vegetarian. Germans often do a barbeque and they put meats a lot on the grill. So she needs to bring substitutes for that like meat made out of tofu, grilled cheese, and some corns. Korean restaurant also serves vegetarian dishes. However, when she travels, she happened to have some difficulties not knowing about the ingredients.

BELIEF and CREED

People generally accept her decision of being a vegetarian and Daniela also respect the non-vegetarians life style. In order to keep living as a vegetarian, she said awareness is the most important factor. She said if someone ignored the pledge at least one time whether unintentionally or on purpose, it would be really tough to change the diet. She hopes that everyone consume less meat in order to keep our planet and our environment more sustainable. She thinks this kind of awareness can reduce unnecessary energy to get meat, leaving our food resources more usable.

2) “J”- A Professor of Environmental Studies-Sooyung Jeon

 J is a professor of Environmental Studies and has lived as a lacto-vegetarian with is wife for more than 20 years.

NUTRITION and HEALTH

At first, J and his wife did not realize significant changes in to their bodies. However, whenever they eat processed food, they tend to develop indigestion. He believes they have become sensitive to artificially processed food because vegetarian life “detoxed” their bodies.

SOCIALIZATION

J says “I have an ability to automatically sort vegetarian dish owing to long years of vegetarian life”. So at normal restaurants, he gets to have what he needs. His vegetarian traits does not interfere with is daily socialization.

According to J, it is true that he sometimes gets overly sensitive and picky about things. But everybody has a nervous breakdown once a while and it is quite unfair to blame temporary mood fluctuation over one’s lifestyle.

BELIEF and CREED (Direct quotation seemed more effective)

 I majored in geography and proceeded to environmental studies. I learned about how much mankind have been damaging our mother planet. At first, I thought those things happened mainly because of our greed. But actually, the more I studied, the more I was convinced that these catastrophes owed more to ignorance than greed. Greedy industrialists are just a small fraction of humankind. It’s the ignorance that propels the whole phenomena. If I were to teach “Environmental Studies”, I myself had to be a role model to my students and drive people out of ignorance. I became a vegetarian because I felt a sense of responsibility as a environmental educator to send a little message to my colleagues and students.

Actually, I neither want to convert people into vegetarian nor hate them. A lot of people think that vegetarians despise humankind and exists only to advocate animals. In my case, that is quite not true. I am a vegetarian because I care for the whole planet/ecosystem, not just for “rabbits and sea lions”. Since humankind is definitely a member of this world, I do care a lot about our species. I think there is nothing wrong about the ultimate predator(human) to consume low-ranked creatures. The problem does not lie in consuming animal products but in consuming those products without knowing the cruel and violent process involved. I do not want to covert people into vegetarian, but I try to convey the facts in order to divest ignorance.

3) “A”-The owner of a vegan restaurant PLANT-Soomin Kim

Our last interviewee was A, the owner of a vegan restaurant PLANT in Itaewon. She has lived 2 years as a vegetarian, and 7 years as a vegan. She has lived in California and moved to Korea a few years ago. At first, she has started a bakery online. As the size grew, she decided to open up an offline vegan restaurant. At first, she cooked all the menus from what she had usually made herself, but now there are chefs and popular menus created. We had a nice meal at the restaurant before the interview.

NUTRITION and HEALTH

“A” disagrees with the opinion that vegan diet is unhealthier than normal diet. She believes that it is even much healthier because vegan diet usually contains low fat or cholesterol, and more iron or Calcium per calories. She says that enough protein or nutrients can be consumed not only by eating meat but also beans or other vegetables.

 She gets recipes online or by creating her own. She gets some of the unusual ingredients such as ‘vegan butter’ or certain kinds of beans from a foreign market.

SOCIALIZATION

 A says that it is more difficult to live as a vegan in Korea than in USA, California. While there are a lot of vegan options or people who understand vegans, many people in Korea, especially elder ones, are not used to vegan diets or their ideas. Even though they are slowly catching on the idea, it is still difficult to keep the vegan options.

Many of the customers to her restaurant had a research online. She does not join a certain vegan meet-up, but she has made a lot of friends among the vegetarian customers who come to the restaurant often. She also interacts with other vegan restaurant owners.

BELIEF and CREED

 A believes that her life would have been much easier if she was not a vegan. However, as she learned about the cruelty of animal factory farms, she has decided to stay as a vegan. Learning more about the process of manufacturing meat product, her decision as a vegan has become clearer. It is not that she hates the taste of meat. Even though she agrees that meat tastes good, still she thinks it is not worth contributing to the harm of animals. She states that firm belief is the most important quality of a vegetarian.

 According to her, there are some people influenced by her diet, becoming a vegetarian. However, she never tries to force meat eaters to start as a vegetarians. She believes that everyone has their own rights to choose what to eat.

[Blogpost #3] Additional research: multiple stories about vegetarians

Multiple stories about vegetarians

[Research #1] Vegetarians don't eat animal flesh?

     1. (From various resources) Types of vegetarian

1) Flexitarian (Semi-vegetarian)

You don’t have to be vegetarian to love vegetarian food! “Flexitarian” is a term recently coined to describe those who eat a mostly vegetarian diet, but occasionally eat meat. A pollo vegetarian avoids red meat and fish but eats chicken.  

2) Pescatarian

Pescatarians are those who abstain from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish. Although the word is not commonly used, more and more people are adopting this kind of diet, usually for health reasons or as a stepping stone to a fully vegetarian diet.

3) Lacto-ovo vegetarian

When most people think of vegetarians, they think of lacto-ovo-vegetarians. People who do not eat beef, pork, poultry, fish, shellfish or animal flesh of any kind, but do eat eggs and dairy products are lacto-ovo vegetarians (“lacto” comes from the Latin for milk, and “ovo” for egg). 

4) Vegan

Vegans do not eat meat of any kind and also do not eat eggs, dairy products, or processed foods containing these or other animal-derived ingredients such as gelatin, sugar and some wines. There is some debate as to whether certain foods, such as honey, fit into a vegan diet.

5) Raw vegan

A raw vegan diet consists of unprocessed vegan foods that have not been heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius). Raw foodists believe that foods cooked above this temperature lost a significant amount of their nutritional value and are harmful to the body. 

[Research #2] Vegetarian diet is unhealthy?

 

     1. (Community page) Vegetarian diet is key to long life

 

• Vegetarians are at a lower risk for many of the common illnesses associated with a reduced life span in the developed world (e.g. Obesity, Hypertention, Cancer, and so on)
• Reducing the intake of an essential amino acid, methionine, can produce similar results to reducing calories on longevity of life span
• Low-fat vegan diet effectively reduces IGF-1, potentially slowing the aging process in humans
• A plant-based diet is a strategy to treat and prevent childhood obesity

(http://vegetarian.lovetoknow.com/Vegetarian_Diet_Is_Key_to_Long_Life)

 

 

     2. (Community page) Cons : There are potential dangers of vegetarianism

 

• Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, calcium, iodine and omega-3 fatty acids can be lacking 
• Pregnant vegan woman may also be advised to take certain supplements during their pregnancy and while breast feeding
• If vegan diets are so restrictive, it could be hard for children to get an adequate amount of protein

 

(http://vegetarian.lovetoknow.com/Dangers_of_Veganism)

 

 

[Research #3] Vegetarians are hypocrites-hypocrisy

 

     1. (Personal Blog post) A look at the hypocrisy of vegetarians and their misguided beliefs 

 

Some people just don’t like the idea of animals getting killed. So they take the so-called moral high ground and make bold statements like “meat is murder” and the such. It does not make sense that the dignities of life between animal and plant are different. Moreover, humans are not vegetarian by nature, nor are we carnivores.

 

(http://planethysteria.com/blog/2009/10/19/a-look-at-the-hypocrisy-of-vegetarians-and-their-misguided-beliefs/)

 

     2. (Article) Eating less meat isn’t just better for you, it’s better for the planet, panel says

 

A lot of vegetarians are just the ones who are trying to reduce the amount of the consumption of meat. They know that meat-eating is natural essential in some sense. But, because the problem of eating too much meat is being issued, they are just trying to help the ecosystem keep the balance. They usually do not force meat-eaters to stop eating meat, because it is their personal choice.

 

(http://bangordailynews.com/2015/04/08/the-point/eating-less-meat-isnt-just-better-for-you-its-better-for-the-earth-panel-says/)

 

[Blog Post #2.5] Interview

INTERVIEW GOALS

• How interviewee feels about the stereotypes
• Clarify misunderstanding-might have different views of themselves
• How stereotypes affect daily life for interviewee
• Personal efforts to break the stereotypes
• If interview experiences differ in different places/countries
• What you want the general public to know about your subculture
• Don’t have to stick to the questions strictly

Our vegetarian research team interviewed a vegetarian friend who is a German. The interview was held through Skype in April 3rd and it took about 30 min. We really appreciate for her participation !

[INTRODUCTION]

What type of vegetarian are you?

I don’t eat fish and meat. Occasionally I just eat eggs and dairy products. It’s really hard to live in Germany without having those products. There serve cheese and yogurt everywhere.

What kind of questions have you heard when you said people that you are a vegetarian?

Almost every time, it’s same. People ask me, ‘Don’t you have any deficiency in your health? Do you have enough protein?’ like that. I am kind of sick of the routine answering the same questions.

[NUTRITION / HEALTH]

Do you eat something as a substitute for meat?

I do try to have more beans and tofu that contain more protein apparently. However, I don’t’ have any supplement for vitamins or protein. I just try to ingest a broad range of food.

Have you experienced any health problem after being a vegetarian?

I usually have no problem. Just a year ago, I felt so much tired that went to see a doctor. After saying that I am a vegetarian, he assume that my personal health could be resulted from my dietary habit. However, it turned out to be untrue, because my blood diagnosis result was perfectly fine.

Do you agree with the opinion that vegetarians are slimmer?

In case of myself, it was somewhat true. I become skinnier, though I am in normal weight in my height now. Naturally it is difficult to get a lot of weights when you eat only vegetables and some products that contain less oil.

[SOCIALIZATION]

Which one do you prefer more, cooking in your own house or eating out?

I like both.

When you cook by yourself, how do you get the recipes?

There are lots of recipes in the Internet. So there’s no worry about that.

Is it easy to find vegetarian restaurants in your country?

Yes, it is. You can find any dish that you want almost every time. There is at least one vegetarian dish in each category of the menu. It gets better and better to find a place to eat in the city. Recently many traditional restaurants opened near the central city, so we have more choices.

Unfortunately, however, we could seldom find vegetarian dish in the country side. Then, I try to eat potatoes, vegetables, beans, and etc, personally asking for a waiter/waitress.

Have you ever joined a vegetarian community?

Not really. In Germany, about 10% of the people are vegetarian. It’s very easy to find friends who are vegetarian. So I don’t try intentionally to join some clubs.

Did you have any difficulty when you got along with non-vegetarians?

Not so much, but sometimes. If you don’t know how to deal with the situation, then it might be difficult. For example, we often do a barbeque in Germany. German people put meats a lot on the grill, so I usually bring substitutes for that like meat made out of tofu, grilled cheese, and some corns. Usually, it works very well for me, but people become very surprised when they see me at first.

How do you feel about being a vegetarian in Asian culture?

There is a Korean restaurant in our city. I went there yesterday and they served vegetarian dishes, too. When I travel, however, sometimes it seems difficult to choose what to eat. If you think of a soup, it could contain animal bone product. So I try to be more sensible, when I go outside of the country.

[BELIEF or CREED]

How did you become a vegetarian?

I watched a documentary about treating animals violently in a factory, beating and hurting them in order to get a meat. I couldn’t erase the image since then and made up my mind to become a vegetarian. It has been 5 years.

Have you ever heard that you are stubborn and picky because you are a vegetarian?

Yes, sometimes but it’s not really in negative tone. When they have really good foods or when they prepared foods, people try to ask me for a bite, saying ‘It’s really a good food. You don’t have to care.’ But I have to say ‘no, no, no, I don’t want to’ and it’s quite tough, although I am a vegetarian, I know that some non-vegetarian dishes are really delicious!!

What do you think of non-vegetarians?

I just do respect everyone’s decision.

What kind of personality might be needed in order to being a vegetarian?

It’s hard to say, but the only thing that turned up to my mind is that you have be aware of what you eat, thinking from where they are coming. If you keep in mind that every time it would not be too hard. However, if you ignore it at least one time whether unintentionally or on purpose, then probably can’t be a vegetarian.

** What do you want to say to the general public about vegetarians?

At first, vegetarians are not unhealthy.

For second, I hope that everyone consume less meat in order to keep our planet and our environment more sustainable. It requires additional energy to raise animals, leaving our food resources unusable. The way that we keep livestock is also very cruel. 

[Blog Post #2] Interview Questionnaire

Interview Questionnaire

Interview Goals

 

•  How interviewee feels about the stereotypes
• Clarify misunderstanding-might have different views of themselves
• How stereotypes affect daily life for interviewee
• Personal efforts to break the stereotypes
• If interview experiences differ in different places/countries
• What you want the general public to know about your subculture
• Don’t have to stick to the questions strictly

 

[Introductory Questions]

 

 

 ① How long have you lived as a vegetarian?

② We discovered that vegetarians can be classified into numerous types according to how they substitute meat-protein. To what type do you fall into?

(Remember to present example categories; lacto, vegan, pesco etc.)

③ As you mentioned earlier, you have lived as a vegetarian for N years. Are you comfortable with being an openly vegetarian? If you are/aren’t, Why is that so?

④ Depends on the interviewee’s reply to question③

 

∙Yes, I openly say~ → So you mean you’ve never felt any uncomfortable labels attached to vegetarians? Or do you just don’t care? If you think there are any negative labels, please tell us about it.

∙No, I don’t openly say~ → So you mean you have felt uncomfortable labels attached to vegetarians? What were they?

 

 

[Category 1 Nutrition and Health]

 

 

① Did your body go through some physical changes after going on a vegetarian diet?

(Stereotype; vegetarians are skinny)

② You previously told us that you are XX(type) vegetarian! So how do you replace meat-protein with?

(Stereotype; vegetarians consume less or no protein)

③ Where do you get vegetarian recipes?(Stereotype; vegetarians eat raw-food)

④ What is your favorite recipe and what do your friends think about it?

(Stereotype; vegetarian foods are not delicious)

 

 

[Category 2 Socialization]

 

 

 ① So do you eat out a lot with others or DIY your meal alone?

*Bridge Q: Category 1→2

 

Former/Latter→ So you do/don’t socialize with other non-vegetarian people often. Do you find it easy to share mealtimes with them?

② Is there any difficulties socializing with non-vegetarians? If so, what are they?

(stereotype; vegetarians find it hard to enjoy daily social life)

③ Do you participate in vegetarian meetings?

(stereotype; vegetarians only mingle within their boundaries)

 

④ Depends on the interviewee’s reply to question③

∙Yes, I do → What are the merits of participating in those meetings?

∙No, I don’t → Why are you not part of it? Tell us the reason.

 

 

[Category 3] Creed

 

 

① Some people think vegetarians are overly sensitive. Do you agree/disagree?

Did you personally went through psychological changes after going on a vegetarian diet?(Stereotype; vegetarians are picky/choosey/nervous/sensitive)

② Why did you decide to become a vegetarian?

③ Did you ever wanted to give up? If so, was it because of external issues or internal issues?

*internal issues; personal matter

*external issues; social labels stereotypes etc.

④ What do you think about meat-eaters(general public)? (stereotype; vegetarians hate human while they love animals/ vegetarians prioritize animals to humankind)