On Saturday, Lierre Keith, author of the polarizing book, The Vegetarian Myth was struck with a cayenne pepper-laced pie while speaking at the Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair. It would be easy to dismiss the physical attack as little more than a publicity stunt (I mean, it’s only a coincidence that her Amazon sales rank shot from #4500 on Saturday to #644, where it is now). It would also be easy to criticize her attackers for their lack of judgment; after all, it is assault and such an act does little to quell the message – instead, it helps to publicize it.

Such narratives would be easy to convey; y’know what would be hard? (It being St. Patrick’s Day and all) To write a limerick about the whole ordeal, that would be hard. So, here it goes:

There once was a vegan who changed her case
And wrote a book that put her ideas in place
To her the cause was all a myth
Something vegans couldn’t get with
So, some decided to pie her in the face

Good thing SuperVegan tackles all the hard issues.

7 Comments

1. 
   Comment by

   vegansustainability

   on March 17, 2010 at 6:37 pm #

   On that same day, a group of vegans attempted to question Lierre about the book at a later appearance and peacefully pass out fliers detailing some of the many inaccuracies the book contains. We’re now looking for writers to crowdsource a vegan rebuttal to the book.

   We bought vegetarianmyth.com, and will have a wiki up soon for anyone who feels like contributing. Email vegansustainability@gmail.com if you’re interested in contributing and feel free to pass around the pdf of our flier below.

   http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/03/15/18641159.php

2. 
   Comment by

   annabelle

   on March 17, 2010 at 8:45 pm #

   I think your poem has too many syllables to be a true limerick. Here’s my contribution:

   There once was a vegan who caved;
   She then deemed the movement depraved.
   She hemmed and she hawed,
   But her logic was flawed.
   Thus from pie the dame couldn’t be saved.

3. 
   Comment by

   lol

   on March 17, 2010 at 9:44 pm #

   I think I love you.

4. 
   Comment by

   heavymetta

   on March 17, 2010 at 11:40 pm #

   I don’t think it was cool at all that they put chili peppers in the pie so it would burn her face. Throwing a pie is one thing. Trying to burn a person’s face is another.

5. 
   Comment by

   doly

   on March 19, 2010 at 12:29 am #

   LOL

6. 
   Comment by

   lazyvegan

   on March 19, 2010 at 4:48 am #

   yeah, not cool. while i think this book is total rubbish, and that this lady is a dietary nincompoop, i don’t think it’s cool to resort to crap like throwing pies at strangers. hate crimes aren’t funny. way to go, assface.

7. 
   Comment by

   Macossay

   on February 6, 2013 at 12:55 pm #

   I just finished the book and thought it was pretty good. Sure, you can quibble with some of her statements, and her attitude is certainly irritating to a vegan. But her underlying thesis is correct: corporate agriculture as practiced today is not sustainable. The rivers really are drying up, the topsoil really is eroding — these are not merely her opinion.