An important restaurant in New York is becoming vegan. It could be shady

The news came as a big surprise to the culinary community, but Eleven Madison Park is not the first high-end restaurant to stop serving animal products; it is the latest trend in food organizations to draw tough lines around meat consumption. Just last month, Michelin-starred French chef Alexis Gauthier turned London’s Gauthier restaurant into Soho. completely vegan. “I’m vegan; it would be ethical for me to make a profit by selling dead animals, ”Gauthier said Great hospitality. Daniel Humm, owner and chef at Eleven Madison Park, mentioned environmental concerns: “[T]we get food, the way we eat, the way we eat meat, it’s not sustainable, ”he said. NPRGuy Raz – en the last section of How I built this podcast. “And that’s not an opinion. It’s just an event. So we decided that our restaurant would be 100 percent plant-based. ”

Chefs like Gauthier and Humm are on the right side of history. The global meat industry is accelerating climate change, condemning billions of animals to horrific treatment on farm holdings, and leaving meat processing plant workers in unusually harsh working conditions. However, there is a variant of these plans that I would like to consider: just cutting the meat, rather than leaving it completely. It may seem like a contradiction, but the gradual introduction of their omnivorous customers into plant dining halls, with an 80-90% plant menu, would have a similar effect on the planet — and without becoming a binary option for consumers. This change in perception may reduce the polarization around veganism, eventually leading to more people eating less meat.

Since I am a flexor myself, I eat mostly based on plants, but I occasionally eat some animal products. Because of the dire state of our industrialized farming system, I think the vegan world — or the one where we eat the most animal products — would be the most suitable. But I am also realistic about how difficult it is for every person, even less for the whole culture, to achieve the reduction of animal products. Environmentalists and animal advocates have been trying for decades, and still are just a small percentage it is vegetarian or vegan in the industrialized world. Right now, the average American is eating 225 pounds meat every year. That number is slowly increasing, as well the popularity of plant-based meat is growing. And no wonder; meat is associated with moments that are cheap, delicious, comfortable, and culturally significant like Thanksgiving and Christmas. For some people a completely vegan meal is not appealing.

To be clear, I think it’s great that Eleven Madison Park and other organizations like this have the opportunity to make bold moves that warn of the need to move the ball in plant-based eating and reduce meat consumption. It will also show how delicious vegetarian food can be. And since Eleven is a culinary icon in Madison Park, other restaurants and organizations can follow in its footsteps.

However, it seems that other restaurants would follow the line of Eleven Madison Park if the turn was likely to be so tough. Industry professionals will surely know that many diners still think that vegetarian food and vegetarian restaurants are only for the vegetarian, as well as Humm himself. he said, “Sometimes I get up in the middle of the night, thinking about the danger we’re taking …” This horror is unfounded. It’s there not missing people who think vegan food is boring and poppy research has shown that veganism is highly stigmatized. Many seasonings will not go to a vegetarian restaurant unless dragged by a friend or relative. But the vegan label and stigma they are removed, and the diners know that they can eat what they want, they have a greater tendency to go on their own. Once hooked as a customer, they’ll be back again — and maybe try something new (and meatless). Humm will certainly attract a lot of non-vegan people because of his popularity and status, he will probably lose some customers, and with that, he will also have the opportunity to influence other restaurants.

There’s a lot at stake: If Eleven Madison Park, one of the world’s best-selling restaurants, fails and returns to a menu full of meat, it will tell other chefs that this can’t be. done well and profitably. This will help you overcome the movement again in ways that will be difficult to overcome.

In addition to these practical reflections on the bold movement of the eleven Madison Parks, the decision is also a reflection of a broader and more systemic problem with our food culture. Too often in our meat-obsessed society, eating plant-based is considered an option that is all or nothing. Binary thinking about meat, which has been inadvertently sparked by organizations like eleven Madison Park, can exacerbate the harmful bifurcation in the fight against excessive meat consumption.

Movements require a variety of tactics, with some advocates making radical reforms and others taking a more moderate approach. Most restaurants have meat menus and a few are vegetarian or vegan. But there is a serious need for more restaurant owners, policy makers, activists and other actors to present more nuanced messaging and policies. Giving more flexible options can make it easier for people to get into plants, and eventually more people can get into it.

At some point, we will be ready to permanently eliminate animal products from major restaurants. But right now, rather than promoting food policy that is nothing or nothing, we need a middle ground that is almost viable for most people. He is simply taking that path most meat, but not everything, outside of our menus and dishes. The challenge is to strike the optimal balance between what is morally ideal and what is currently practical, but given that our planet and all its inhabitants are at stake, we cannot try.

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