I just returned home from the wonderful Rogue Food Conference in Cincinnati on Friday.  We had 300 folks from around the country focusing on circumvention rather than compliance, celebrating food choice and learning about strategies to get the government out of our micro-biome.

             I'll share a couple more highlights tomorrow when I have more time to look over my notes, but one of my favorites came from Niti Bali, who has started the Farm to Fork Meat Riot Food Church, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.  Membership entitles you to receive authentic food that may or may not be approved by government regulators.

             An avid proponent of the nutritional importance of pasture-based meat and poultry, she made a hilarious observation about Impossible Burger and Beyond Beef.  "I don't get it.  If you want to eat plants, just eat plants.  Why disguise them as meat?"

             I've never heard that point, but it's so obvious it left us all stunned and laughing.  Of course it's the truth.  If you don't want to eat meat and just want to eat plants, why go through all the rigmarole of making it look and taste like meat?  Why do you want your plants to bleed?

             I think she's onto something.  I'm not sure what yet, but I'd say it appears that the human subconscious is far more aware of what it needs than the human conscious.  So while people go gaga over fake meat on the conscious level, way down in the micro-biome another conversation is happening, fighting for a place at the table in people's minds. 

             Of course, the micro-biome will not be fooled, but it's doing all it can to stir some semblance of awareness, of reason, of truth within the human mind.  "You idiot!  You're starving me!  You're brain damaging your children!  You're destroying your immune system!"   Every time a person eats fake meat, this is what the body's insides are screaming to the outsides.

             Most won't listen, of course, but the body tries to save itself nonetheless.  Yes, I think Niti is onto something.  Why go through the economic, energy, and emotional gymnastics of making your plants, or veganism, look like a cow?  Just enjoy the plants; enough with the drama already.  For the record, I'm actually quite offended that all these vegans expect me to pick up their medical bills in 20 years when their brains shut down and their cartilage wears out.

             I think someone needs to start a medical insurance pool to separate omnivores from herbivores.  That the herbivore humans expect the omnivores to pick up their medical tab is the height of unfairness and social injustice.  I'm all for social justice, and it starts by segregating risk pools in the health care community to recognize the different vulnerabilities in diet.

             While we're at it, how about separating folks who eat authentic meat from those who eat factory meat?  It's time to segregate our choices so the proof can be in the pudding.  Over time, we'll find out pretty what the vulnerable diets are.  I'm betting that veganism will be proven inadequate.  But if omnivorism is inadequate, I'll pay my fair share.  That's true social justice.

             Can anyone tell me why two people who each think the other is choosing harmful food should be expected to pick up the medical bills of the other?