Thanks for the reply, my friend! It's good to hear from you again! Are you ok?

I lived in Jamaica for a while. I fled there during the height of the Cold War, when it looked like Russia and the USA were about to bomb each other to smithereens any minute. I got married, assimilated into the local culture, and learned the local food. Caribbean food is awesome—every meal is a work of love and art. The only unfamiliar meat I encountered was goat, which is fantastic! Raising goats is a lot more sustainable than raising cattle; I wish we ate more goat and less beef here in the USA

The community that adopted me was immaculate regarding food and everything else. They observed Abrahamic dietary laws and wouldn't dream of eating forbidden meat. Even shellfish were off the table; the people I was with said that shellfish were nasty because they live on the bottom and eat dirt. (People in other communities eat shellfish but not the people I was with.) To this day, I avoid pork and shellfish out of respect for my dear friend Jah Rastafari.

What people do during famines is another thing altogether; we all have ancestors who resorted to that. But as a matter of course—absolutely not.

I've made it my business to correct harmful misinformation that can dehumanize people and inspire hate crimes. My brother lives with me out of necessity, giving me many opportunities to practice getting this message across. I think of him as a sparring partner. Family is family.