Boston’s 13th Annual Vegetarian Food Festival

I visited the 13th Annual Boston Vegetarian Food Festival on Saturday. As I had expected, vegetarian was code word for vegan. Whereas vegetarians have become more public and accepted, vegans are still deemed to be outliers and plain weird. While I cannot say for certain what percentage of the visitors were vegan versus vegetarian, I can say that of the over hundred and fifty or so sponsors and tablers all were vegan or heavily swung that way. Regardless, there was tasty food at every turn-from vegan Chinese meat-analogs to Wheeler’s incredibly haute, “black label” ice cream. Mercifully, no one was handing out those gruesome, guilt-invoking PETA pamphlets. Though I don’t advocate making stomachs queasy in order to change minds, I do like filling people’s stomach with tasty goodies. I think non-vegans were given prime evidence of just how far beyond salads veganism goes.

Advertised as “Understanding the Evidence for a Plant-Based Diet”, Dr. Campbell’s discussion of his book The China Study was disappointing.  He seemed to have his heart in the right place, at least.  Maybe it was a ploy to get you to buy the book, but Dr. Campbell was rather light on evidence. Perhaps his book actually has his number of subjects or discusses confounding factors like how long life-expectancies may be one reason why Americans end up with more cancer and heart disease. Hopefully all of his axis are labeled-they weren’t always in the PowerPoint presentation.  I may be harping on him too much, but I would expect more evidence when trying to explain, oh I don’t know…evidence. Still, listening to him was like having a class with a very admirable, old professor–you can learn a lot when he sticks to the course of his lecture and are bemusedly entertained by his tangential wanderings.

I do hope that the Boston Vegetarian Society secures a larger venue next year. The crowded hall and standing-room only lectures were a major part of my decision to leave earlier than I had planned. It was especially depressing to feel like cattle at a Vegetarian Food Festival. With all the people jostling for a view of the tables and vying for free samples, it was very difficult for me to take my time and peaceably absorb the materials. Stopping in front a table for a few seconds, I either felt guilty for ruining the view of another person or felt like I was going to be pushed along against my will by the throng of people. I would have loved to seen Hannah Kaminsky decorate her cake or heard from another nutritional expert about Carbophobia.  From a purely economic standpoint, I might have even purchased more than just a sampling of Teese if I had the time to digest (pun intended?) materials from other sponsors’ tables. Overall, I’d say the Festival was a good experience that filled me with deliciousness, but if the atmosphere is not better spaced/controlled I might skip it next year.

P.S. Vote!

November 4, 2008  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Uncategorized

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  1. Carbophobia: a fulfilling romp into the science of Atkins and other fad diets « Food Bubbles - November 21, 2008

    [...] sticking around to see Dr. Michael Greger (nutritionist, author, vegan) at this year’s Boston Vegetarian Food Festival, the talk re-piqued my interest in his book Carbophobia: The Scary Truth About America’s [...]

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