Elle n’est pas une végétarienne, elle est une Pesco-végétarienne

Elle n’est pas une végétarienne, elle est une Pesco-végétarienne. La végétarienne ne mange pas la viande, ni le poisson !

This is getting a bit tiresome (see my previous posts Vegetarians still eat fish… according to French Television and Do vegetarians eat fish?) but Un dîner presque parfait are still describing people who don’t eat meat as vegetarian, even if they eat fish.

This week features someone who describes themselves as vegetarian and they not only eat fish, but cook fish and organise a fishing competition!

As the Vegetarian society state:

Vegetarians don’t eat fish and they never have. Many things have changed since The Vegetarian Society was founded in 1847 but two important definitions haven’t:

“ VEGETARIAN” – someone who doesn’t eat animals
“ FISH” – cold-blooded, water-dwelling animal

The same definitions exist in French too! See the French Wikipedia entry for Pesco-végétarien

The problem is that when a vegetarian goes to a French restaurant they are offered FISH because people are perpetuating the myth that vegetarians eat fish.