On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 1:37 PM, Adrian Farrel
<adrian(_at_)olddog(_dot_)co(_dot_)uk> wrote:
Personally, I will strongly try to be vegetarian, but eat meat
rather than starve (a situation that arises when travelling).
if a venue is chosen that forces you (or me or others) into
a "meat or starve" or, much worse, "eat something severely
damaging to health or beliefs or starve" situation, is that
really an acceptable venue?
Yes, it is.
If a venue is inconvenient or uncomfortable for a small percentage of
"regular"
IETF participants, that does not make it a poor choice of venue.
[MB] This is the exact reason I had some stats in the doc previously as
it's not as small a percentage as you think. Also, as the document
highlights, in cases of medical conditions, one might consider this to
violate the American Disability Act in the US. Celiac disease, for
example, is considered an "invisible" disability in the US. One can debate
whether or not IETF/ISOC must comply with the American Disability Act, but
as I have posited IETF claims to be an open organization so I would think
they would want the meetings to be accessible to all, which means ensuring
there is food readily available to accommodate those with dietary
restrictions.
The example of your situation is a matter of personal choice. For some of
us it can be a matter of life or death (e.g., peanut allergies). [/MB]
We might as well go back to the debate about location: only a venue that
is a
convenient 10 minutes from my home is really a suitable venue.
I venture that "starve" is never a real outcome, but "go to a supermarket"
or
"bring food in your luggage" are alternatives that need some planning and
are a
small inconvenience.
[MB] I already responded to this one, but I'll go ahead again, because this
attitude is the reason why I wrote this document after Dublin. There was
no supermarket near the venue at all, thus that wasn't possible. I did the
right thing and checked out the hotel restaurants on the Sunday before the
meeting started and found they could easily accommodate my GF diet.
However, at Monday lunchtime we could not order off the menu and were given
something like 3 choices of entrees. The staff serving the food had no
idea about preparation. Folks that are vegan/vegetarian/kosher couldn't
even eat the french fries because they couldn't be certain whether they
were cooked in a meat based oil or vegetable oil. I have celiac and thus
I cannot eat anything unless I have a very high level of confidence that it
is gluten free - my reaction can be extremely severe and at it's mildest,
it's like having a miserable 24 hour flu. [/MB]
Adrian