Food fight: Sarah Palin ticks off vegetarians and vegans in her new book, 'Going Rogue'

Sarah Palin's highly anticipated book, "Going Rogue," is not likely to win any literary awards, but it's very likely to sell a gazillion copies.  (It's currently Amazon's No. 1 bestselling book, besting even the likes of Stephen King and Dan Brown.)  

But very few of those copies, we suspect, will be purchased by vegetarians or vegans.  In his review, our colleague Tim Rutten explains that a large portion of "Going Rogue" covers Palin's life before she emerged as a well-known public figure, "so there's a lot of winter, guns, fish guts, long hours at the nets under the midnight sun and a great deal about Palin's fondness for meat.... There's even a photo of her father teaching her to skin a harbor seal, an activity the caption informs is now forbidden for all but native peoples under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Ah, for the good old days."

That part about Palin's love of meat products, perhaps unsurprisingly, is raising the hackles of some animal-loving vegetarians and vegans, according to our colleague Johanna Neuman of The Times' politics blog, Top of the Ticket.  Especially offensive to the animal-byproduct-free set?  Palin's comment that "If any vegans came over for dinner, I could whip them up a salad, then explain my philosophy on being a carnivore: If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat?"  (Humorous news-aggregation site Fark.com's snarky rejoinder: "In other news, Sarah Palin endorses cannibalism.")

In "Going Rogue," Palin goes on to describe her favorite types of meat -- bacon burgers, pork chops, "the seared fatty edges of a medium-well-done steak" -- before concluding that "I especially love moose and caribou. I always remind people from outside our state that there's plenty of room for all Alaska's animals -- right next to the mashed potatoes."  (Interestingly, former George W. Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully, who opposes hunting so ardently that he titled his 2003 book "Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy," penned Palin's stump speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention. In "Dominion," Scully wrote of hunting that "the worst of it is not the cruelty but the arrogance, the sheer hubris of those who bring only violence and fear into the animal world, as if it needed any more of either."  The strange-bedfellows aspect of his relationship with Palin was not lost on the Austin American Statesman.)

According to Top of the Ticket, Cleveland-based writer Daelyn Fourtney, who wrote on Examiner.com that it's "a sad statement on our society when we applaud those who refer to animals as the centerpiece of their dinner plate," has already felt the backlash from conservatives who assume she's a "militant" liberal.  ("God loves meat and I love Palin," one commenter wrote. "I'm waiting for her run for the presidency. A true American patriot defending the COnstitution. Stop vitimizing [sic] her.")  In reality, Fourtney told the Ticket, she's a vegetarian who keeps her politics separate from her food choices.  "Assuming that one is left or right based on what they choose to eat is a dangerous road to travel," she said.  

Of course, no public discourse about veganism is complete without a comment from PETA co-founder and President Ingrid Newkirk.  In an open letter to Palin, Newkirk was quick to discount the former governor's comments about meat as both glib and outdated.  "Ms. Palin reportedly finds evolution a bit hard to swallow," Newkirk concluded. "Judging from her book, that applies to the evolution of ideas and attitudes as well."  Snap!

RELATED:
PETA strikes out (virtually) against Sarah Palin
Ashley Judd howls at Sarah Palin for aerial wolf hunting

-- Lindsay Barnett

Top photo: Palin is interviewed in her Anchorage office in 2007.  Credit: Stephen Nowers / McClatchy Tribune News Service

Bottom photo: Copies of "Going Rogue" on display at a Borders bookstore.  Credit: Matthew Cavanaugh / European Pressphoto Agency

Comments

[marianne]

she's a twit!thank god she's not in power anymore

[Dave Freeman]

Yawn.

OK. Sarah Palin likes to eat meat. So do 98% of the rest of us.

It's obvious you don't like her Lindsey, but still...Is this the best you could do?

[philipjames]

any complaints about the socks she wears when she fishes? don't like her glasses? got any more mickey mouse liberal dolt complaints when your god Obama is screwing up the country? spend hours finding miniscule baloney to bitch about while people lose their houses, are out of work, us dollar crapping out, president making a fool of himself on world stage and these are the petty complaints you have about a woman who is actually smarter than you or Baracky... sick, you are really sick

[cigarro]

there is nothing more scary than a ticked off vegetarian!

[Curtis]

What a shame. I was going to purchase this book for a friend of mine (he's a fan) butnot after reading this. Sarah sounds like she's never met an animal she didn't like -- to eat or shoot.

[L.A. Voter]

People who have given enough thought to life and ethics to become vegetarians and vegans, despite the mindless abuse they take for simply making a decision not to hurt animals, have way more important things to think about than Sarah Palin.

Don't make this out to be a fight just because she takes a typically unprovoked and moronic shot at people who have never done anything to her. From what I hear, this whole book is her taking shots at people who have achieved much more than she has.

[Carol]

I'm looking for a list of politicians who are vegetarians, going green, believes in preventive medicine (eating right from the start). Sarah plainly does not meet my criteria. I don't dislike her. I just don't believe this world needs the same ole type of people in politics.

You 98% people who still eat meat, need to be educated in what it does to your health.

Thanks,

[Dwight Williams]

Americans just don’t know what to do with Sarah Palin but the media is doing its best to arouse a public mania around this woman. Hunt wild game, eat meat, who cares? People hunt game in almost every state of the nation! If the topic of her diet and her apparent preoccupation with killing things is the only way to force her name into the public arena and with so many buying into this debate, we are all in for some very rough years ahead! Her popularity appears to be based solely on the public’s identification of themselves with her—simple, uneducated, poorly-spoken, tom-boy ultra-conservative religious-zealot. She has exhibited nothing but poor judgment in every public decision she has made from quitting the Governorship of Alaska, to getting pregnant as a 40+ woman knowing the risks. If the public really knew this woman, they would be scared to death she is making such waves on the American scene. Signed: 43-year Alaskan white male.

[Mark Hankerson]

Um, she also didn't know that Africa was a continent.

[LysergicAsset]

Someone needs to point out to Palin that HUMANS are also "made of meat."

[Bea]

Palin being Palin! That is why we love to hate her so much. I am sure, she is a bit limited in the upper department, hahaha

[Luke Thomas]

Multitudes of cannibals have testified that human beings taste no different than pork. In Papau, New Guinea, where cannibalism is still practiced, human meat is called "long pork." Serial cannibal Albert Fish ate dozens if not hundreds of children during the 1920's-he said, "I love children. They are so tasty," and wrote in detail how he cooked them. Sweeney Todd was no fairy tale-he was for real, and his neighbor was a butcher who routinely made pork pies and sausages from his murdered victims. Nobody knew. I can go on and on-obviously Ms. Palin needs to be schooled in sociology that human beings, too, are meat. I find the consumption of muscle tissue, blood, and guts quite disgusting, which is why I've been vegan for many years and I'm in perfect health with perfect labs. In fact nothing that comes from an animal goes in my body.

[Kin]

"any complaints about the socks she wears when she fishes? don't like her glasses? got any more mickey mouse liberal dolt complaints when your god Obama is screwing up the country? spend hours finding miniscule baloney to bitch about while people lose their houses, are out of work, us dollar crapping out, president making a fool of himself on world stage and these are the petty complaints you have about a woman who is actually smarter than you or Baracky... sick, you are really sick"

Okay this is a pointless piece of journalism, but why bring up Obama? By the way, the housing crisis was put in motion during the Bush years, the economic downturn was put in motion during the Bush years, the dollar went to crap during the Bush years, and the Obama is trying to fix international relations that were trashed during the Bush years.

As for smart, isn't this the same woman who said she could see russia from her front door and didn't know that Africa was a continent? Yeah, real smart.

[drbenk]

Sarah Palin appeals to the less educated portion of the US. She's a lightweight contender in a heavyweight world. In her speech when she quit as Governor of Alaska she kept saying she wasn't a quitter. Huh?? She quit as Councilman, too. Maybe she doesn't know what "quit" means? I wonder if she ever learned what the Bush Doctrine was? My kids are brighter than she is.

[idiotsarahpalin]

When they were passing out "stupid", "idiot", and "dumb-as-crap" sarah palin got back into the line for ALL of them several dozen HUNDRED times....."

[kristin]

Who really cares? She can eat whatever she wants to.

[Ryan D]

The picture of her is sickening.
It's one thing to hunt to because it is your life source.
It is truly another to do it out of ignorance and arrogance.
@ Dave Freeman:
actually about 7% of the world are total vegetarians. See link below. Roughly 15% of the US now considers themselves flexitarians.
I still enjoy meat, but I also recognize the horrible toll it's taking on our environment. We need to cut back and be more responsible. And it's prove that eating plants is more healthy than eating most meats.

[Karen]

What offends me more, is the comment " the seared fatty edges of a medium-well done steak". Medium well-done?? Yuck.

[virg]

Well all I can say is that if you love meat so much, watch a animal being slaughtered in a slaughter house, and not feel ill next time you bite into that juicy burger. Dumb cow. Proof that stupid people shouldn't be given the right to vote.

[Jen]

"Well all I can say is that if you love meat so much, watch a animal being slaughtered in a slaughter house, and not feel ill next time you bite into that juicy burger. Dumb cow. Proof that stupid people shouldn't be given the right to vote."

Posted by: virg | November 19, 2009 at 03:46 PM

Dear Virg - I concur. If people truly saw, heard, and smelled an animal being slaughtered...the SCREAMING from TERROR and ABSOLUTE PAIN, the writhing in excruciating pain, the sickeningly sweet, salty smell of fresh blood, the feces and urine that comes from the animal's body due to extreme fear...I wonder if people would still eat meat. I will never, ever understand how anyone can call themselves Christians and stand by and follow like puppets as animals are tortured by the billions. I will never consider anyone a Christian if they think this is "God's will". More like a poor human excuse to allow greed to trump basic respect for one of God's creatures and a poor hhuman excuse to satisfy our taste buds. One does not eat bacon, steak, veal, and foie gras for health reasons!! The only people who will refute this argument are a.) those who own a business that profits from animal abuse and b.) those who want to continue using "the word of God" to back up their insatiable lust for the flesh of one of God's creatures, knowing FULL WELL the torture the animal goes through. Same mentality that argued that was popular centuries ago in regard to enslaving other humans. I guess since it's not YOUR body in the veal crate, you can rightfully excuse animal torture.

[Jon]

I'm so glad that moron-palin did not manage to grasp her blood stained hands anywhere near presidency. How could we expect someone who can't even answer interviews properly to be capable of accepting respect and compassion to all species, nor stand for president.

Human flesh is classed as a meat source to alligators, so I guess according to Palin's statement she would thus have no problem being fed to them, because after all, god made her out of meat too then!

No one is "made out of meat", we are made out of flesh. Meat is simply the humanised product after which flesh from a tortured dead individual who wanted to live has been murdered and had their rotting flesh fancifilly sliced up, messed with and put into a neat little packaging. All so heartless monsters like palin can sink their putrid mouths into their corpses, and for the 5 minutes she enjoys that, those animals would've enjoyed living out their whole lives much more.

I hope she chokes on her next piece of meat, she has no respect for defenseless and innocent beings so why should anyone have respect for her.

Palin's amount of compassion matches that of her intelligence. 0.

[Mark]

Food, Inc. People. If you want to eat meat that's find but don't be a mindless dolt about it.

[Indrani gillette]

meat eaters are nothing but sub-human in my eyes . I feel sorry for them , who I see buying a big bulk of meat in the super markets , instead of feeling sad for the innocent animals . Because I read the result of killing animals in the scripture ('Srimad Bhagvatam' canto 5) . The KARMA ! You have freedom to choose your food , can eat any thing you like But ,BUT You are not free from the law of nature ! Mother nature is very strict . You have to face , no way to get out from Her law !

[ScoJo77]

You can dislike Sarah Palin and not think Obama is "God", "PhillipJames". Some folks think for themselves and don't just cheerlead for whatever political team they bought the t-shirt for. But hey, enjoy going down one side of the ideals buffet.

[Jennifer Weber]

Thank you, David Freeman. Good grief. So it's a sin now to like a hamburger? Why not pick on all the rabid LIBERALS who love meat. What hypocrisy. This SO bores me.

I'd consider it an honor to tear a pheasant with a woman, a mother, an American as great as Sarah Palin.

[Larry Linn]

Her autobiography was well written. Who wrote it? Will People Magazine publish a condensed version? Will she read it?

[Wumpusbeast]

Sarah Palin appeared to not be cultured and thoughtful enough to consider that the animals she kills, seals, moose, caribou, in the most fundamental ways of feeling and an experiential consciousness have the same responses to the world that humans have, physical pain, and emotional care for its young and loved ones--I'm sure many of you have owned a dog excited that its owner comes home.

One might wonder, why I am even addressing absurd and outmoded comments like, "I always remind people from outside our state that there's plenty of room for all Alaska's animals -- right next to the mashed potatoes." The reason I feel it necessary to knock over such a stupid statement is that so many American politicians like Palin, and pundits like Glenn Beck seemed to have sucked the life from intelligent debate in this country, by making statements (slogans) that those who do not choose to think critically, take up as truth; so as an American citizen I feel it necessary to fight back against stupidity.

Sarah Palin it seems, wants to label those who disagree with her in the lower 48, "elitist...not like us, we who live the woods and hunt for our food." I never wanted to accept such a divisive dichotomy in the first place, that one group of Americans is un-American and the other is not.

Meanwhile, as a liberal, I hope Palin DOES run the GOP ticket in 2012; that way Obama will have an easy opponent.

[Jess]

If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat?" ===>>

shocked beyond belief. Stood by Sarah in "can see Russia from my house"-- that's actually cool.

but she failed to realize that meat is the END-PRODUCT of a carbon-life form (animals including humans) being cooked-- not a building-life form. MEAT!! are you kidding!!

this is just very plain scary, people.

[jesus]

If god didn't want us to eat humans, why did he make them out of meat?? :\

[B Snyder]

OMG...Sarah Palin is quoting Homer Simpson !! LOL...so funny.