26m consume flesh abundantly
10m sparingly
15m occasionally
9m seldom
70m live entirely on a farinaceous diet & fish
“ These circumstances may, to the general or superficial reader, appear of trifling importance, but the philosopher & statesman know full well that causes apparently minute produce very great effects, & that the capabilities, habitudes & temper of men are influenced by every day occurrences which are therefore each & all deserving of relative consideration. Moreover, there is, in the present instance, an essential object in contemplation in making such calculations; it is to demonstrate that the British is not an homogeneous empire, to prove that peculiar care is requisite in its government, that ordinary rules & abstract principles, though of unquestionable justice, cannot be applied without great caution to vast & varied masses of men, under different degrees of civilisation, & it is hoped that by such a contemplation the ruling authorities may be induced to examine, whether the present system of home government is the best that can be devised for administering the distant affairs of so many & such varied millions of the human race.”
Baroness Scotland, speaking on Desert Island Discs, mentioned that one of the taunts that used to be flung at her in the street by children who took exception to a black family living in their midst was “What do you eat?”
Apart from dogs in South Korea, & (possibly) celebrity rats in Australia, it seems like a very long time since anybody in this country, whatever their colour, cast aspersions upon another group, or inhabitants of any other country, because of what they eat (allegedly), except, possibly, as part of a comment on their religious beliefs.
We may still (rarely) wish to call the French frogs, but we do not feign disgust at the very idea of eating snails.
I suppose this is because we have all now, through real life, travel, or just the medium of tv & film, acquired a less timid attitude, at least in respect of the cultural meaning of diet – we have instead acquired a whole other list of terrors about the symbolic risks of animal fat, salt, cholesterol, ‘bad foods’ generally, health pollution rather than spiritual or racial contamination.
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