Douchi – fermented black soybeans (© Flickr/Ogiyoshisan)
The Sound Fountain series on Food Philosophies examines our attitudes to our food and our bodies. With the occasional exception of chimpanzees, man’s closest relatives among the primates— notably gorillas and orangutans — do not eat meat. Man eventually became a carnivore, enabling mankind to inhabit parts of the world where meat was the main source of food, but increasingly people are choosing to live a meatless life. Some do so for health reasons, others out of a deep conviction that eating meat simply isn’t humane.
In this programme, we hear from garden variety vegetarians as well as from more radical food revolutionaries, such as those who eat only raw foods or just fruit. Throughout the programme, we follow the travels of a piece of meat as it is consumed and digested by the human body. “Fruit or Flesh”, a veritable smorgasbord of ideas.
Producers: Dheera Sujan and Michele Ernsting
Broadcast: September 8, 2000