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Suppose you went into a supermarket-like, say, an average A&P of the
60s and early 70s in a small to medium hamlet, when the meat was cut
by union meat cutters and the produce was gamy looking by modern
standards, like at organic markets today, because the preservatives
weren't as good as those now in use and the veggies were self-
reproducing traditional varieties instead of the modern hybrids. Now,
you go to the meat counter and look at the meat. It's all shriveled up
and green in patches. You push the red button on the chrome stalk
(remember those?) and the meatcutter comes over. You ask why the meat
looks like this. How old is this meat?

"Two or three weeks on average, some of it's been out here a month,
I'd say", is the reply. Taken aback, you tell him it looks terrible
and you want fresh meat. He looks at you at first in surprise, then a
scowl comes over his face.

"What are you, a freshist? "

"A freshist?" you ask. Yes, he explains, you are a freshist, and
that's shameful. It isn't the meat's fault it's been on the display
case for that long, and it's just as nutritious as it ever was, and
will be perfectly safe to eat so long as it's properly cooked. The
price is adjusted for the mold so when you cut that off and throw it
out, you don't lose anything. But, you are assured, "freshism is
really quite offensive."

You reflect on that. Then you also notice that the meat is in some
small and oddly shaped cuts. You ask if you can have some custom
cutting, as all the stores did back then. Yes, sure, of course, the
meatcutter replies. "Of course, it depends on the size of the animals
we get in. "

Animals? Well, how small does a cow come, you think...and you realize
that these cuts aren't beef at all. Some are lamb, and some are pork,
but some you don't quite at all recognize.

"What is this?", you ask , pointing to package of medallions of some
oddly dark meat, marked only by price. The meatcutter looks at it,
and says, "Oh, that's polecat."

POLECAT??? "Polecat? You want me to eat polecat???" you blurt out.
Suddenly you notice the store manager, a fat mustacioed man with
underarm odor and a supermarket tie and white shirt under his
gabardine apron, behind you. He asks you to follow him, and you find
yourself being escorted to the door. "Sir, we can't have any anti-
verminists in this establishment. We're going to have to ask you to
leave the premises".

"B...b-bbut what's a anti-verminist?", you manage to ask. He looks at
you like you're the schoolyard smartass, and says, "You know very well
that an anti-verminist is someone who refuses to buy the meat of an
animal because someone thinks that animal has no rightful place in the
ecosystem. Just because your ignorant grandpa called some creatures a
varmint does not mean anyone is going to denigrate any creature with
that kind of backward thinking in my store. Get out of here and do not
come back".


Now of course, there are no such words as freshist and anti-
verminist. I just made them up. But a hundred years ago there was no
such word as "racist" either. And there was no such concept as "anti-
Semitism" either, because the idea of hating all of the Middle Eastern
peoples called Semites hadn't occurred to anyone either. Now of
course, there were people who didn't particularly like Jews, but most
Semites weren't (and aren't) Jews and most Jews weren't (and aren't)
Semites.

But is freshism and anti-verminism really so different from racism
and anti-Semitism?