Masterfoods: Not evil, merely stupid

[matgb]

Hmm, good news for a change, Masterfoods no longer evil:

Mars said it became "very clear, very quickly" that it had made a mistake.

Merely very very stupid. Was going to post about the sheer idiocy when mooism first posted on the 8th (note, that was 6 days before the BBC caught up), but things got lost in the shuffle. They were using the excuse that "only strict vegetarians" would be affected, and in a way, they'd be right. When I eat out, I don't tend to worry whether the cheese is made using rennet, I'm not that strict. But if a company does something blitheringly stupid, and says that it shouldn't bother me at all?

Worse, for them, it would've meant that many of my non-vegetarian friends and family would have stopped buying their products; why buy Masterfoods when Cadbury do something just as good? Stupid stupid company decision. Still, while I'll try to stick to Green and Blacks when I can afford it, and Cadbury when I can't, I can still buy Masterfoods now, they're idiots, but they're not
evil like Nestlé. Ah, informed consumers making choices within an active market, and forcing companies to change. You can see why so many capitalists are anti-market at heart, right?

The only problem of course is that some of the statistics used to claim how many vegetarians there are in the country are likely very very wrong. Why? Because even smart people are stupid:

Twenty years after the IQ tests were carried out in 1970, 366 of the participants said they were vegetarian - although more than 100 reported eating either fish or chicken.

Guys? Vegetarians don't eat fish, let alone chicken. So as virtually every survey of the nature relies on self reporting, and approx 1/3rd of self-described vegetarians are pescetarians at best, the market impact might be smaller than it should be. People assuming I can eat fish despite being vegetarian is probably one of my biggest pet-hates, and it isn't helped by the ignorance of some who self-describe wrongly. It's a bit like self-described Christians who don't go to church; they may quack like a duck, but they sure as hell don't walk like a duck.

Oh, it's National Vegetarian Week as of tomorrow, so expect dodgy media coverage, false assumptions and some of my more idiotic ethical eaters to be a bit too assertive in various places, sorry about that.

Comments

[caseytalk.livejournal.com]

I'm not a vegetarian as I do eat fish, but no other meats. However, I have a tendency to say I'm vegetarian when some one asks me to dinner or whatever as I end up having to spend less time explaining my dietary restrictions than if I say I'm kosher.

It turns out that the easiest way to keep kosher is to be a vegetarian. Fish with fins and scales are considered neither meat nor dairy, which is why I eat it.

Did you know that the Book of Mormon says that Mormons should not eat meat or, if they do, to limit it as much as possible? Most Mormons don't follow that one, but it's in there. Muslims have dietary restrictions, too, of course. Interesting that most religions with dietary restrictions could meet their requirements most easily by becoming vegetarians.

[matgb]

I have a couple religious friends who find it easier to declare themselves vege, and visiting two_brains for a meal was cool, not sure they're strictly kosher but they had a huge variety of non-meat options I'd nver even heard of before.

I don't know much about the religious strictures of many faiths; background, history and core belief, yes, I'm normally fairly strong, but what the faith requires I'm vague about; doesn't affect me, so it matters not.