Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Diversity and food values

[ian_hig (ian_hig]

>
> To use cohousing as just another way for people to isolate themselves 
> from one another based on class, politics, religion, or even more 
> ludicrously, the food they eat, is a perversion of the spirit of cohousing 
> and completely self-defeating. That's why I "go ballistic" when I hear all 
> the exclusionary rhetoric that seems to get bandied about by cohousers 
> and intentional communitarians. I absolutely can't stand it.
> 
> Give me a community with all kinds of people. Don't even tell me what 
> they think, believe, do in their bedrooms, pray to, or eat, 'cause I don't 
> give a damn. The point is that we can all work together to build 
> community, and that we can all learn to live together peacefully, 
> pleasantly, and supportively regardless of our differences.
> 




Cascade Cohousing has no overt mechanisms for excluding people and we 
are not very diverse when it comes to race, but we are diverse when 
it comes to values and beliefs.

Food is a very important issue in the group.  We love to eat together 
and really enjoy our common meals.  About 50% of the group eat meat 
and 50% eat no meat or eat fish-meat only.  Some of those who do not 
eat meat do not want to eat from utensils meat is cooked in or be in 
rooms that are full of the smell of cooking meat.  Some of our 
members had never eaten a dinner that did not include some sort of 
meat before joining, even the idea of a "vegetarian" meal was completely 
foreign to 
them. Others, who are generally happy with vegetarian food, see meat 
eating at ritual meals (christmas, May day, and the like) as being
important in a cultural heritage sort of way. 

Peoples choices about food seem to be important to their 
identity and there are many would argue that food, as part of the "personal", 
is 
very  "political".

I do not advocate excluding people from a group on the basis of 
the food that they eat. I do ask that the importance of food choices 
for people not be underestimated.    Issues of how to deal with a 
diversity of food values and tastes must be dealt with in the context 
of common kitchens and common meals. 

Seek to use food to unite rather than to divide.

Ian 
Ian Higginbottom
Fisheries Hydroacoustics
Australian Antarctic Division
Channel Highway
Kingston, Tasmania 7004
Tel:  (002) 323 360  Intl: 61 02 323 360
Fax:  (002) 323 351  Intl: 61 02 323 351