Eddie Huang, foodie, restauranteur, TV show host, and author of Fresh Off the Boat, his memoir which led to the hit sitcom of the same name, has announced on social media that he is going vegan. After watching videos of the fires decimating the Amazon rainforest, Huang posted on Instagram stating, “I’m going vegan because it takes 20 times less land to feed a vegan than a meat eater and over 90% of the land cleared in the Amazon rainforest since 1970 is used for grazing livestock, but if all of us just stopped eating BEEF it would solve huge problems”. In his post, Huang mentioned that some might think that veganism is “some uppity white girl thing to do[,] but it[‘]s not.” He continued by pointing out that “There have been Asian Buddhist Vegetarians for thousands of years, Ital Rasta, Hindu as well, this is not some new age thing to laugh at. We are getting back to roots, healing the Earth, and ourselves.” Huang, the son of Chinese immigrants, grew up the only Taiwanese-American in his gated Florida community. His memoir, Fresh Off the Boat, described his experiences growing up the child of Chinese parents and the racism he faced as one of only a few other children in his community who weren’t white. Huang opened his successful restaurant, BaoHaus, in response to bao, a savory Chinese dish, being referred to as “New American” cuisine. Huang stated, “I’ve made a lot of food videos because I love food but more than anything[,] because food was fertile ground for exploring difference, but I don’t love what food tv and more importantly what food has become in our culture: a drug.” He ended his post by saying, “Take a moment, think about it, and reexamine your relationship with food because it’ll make the Earth and ourselves very[,] very sick if we keep abusing it.”
