Lorie Shaull, Flickr
A second Twin Cities media outlet has announced that it will not be attending the 2021 Minnesota State Fair.
The Foodie Heavy Table culinary news and review website, which has been covering the fair’s food offering since 2010, says they have decided to withdraw from the event amid concerns about the Delta variant.
In an editorial explaining the decision, Heavy Table cites the recent controversial passage of the fair for not requiring masks, vaccines or negative COVID tests for entry.
They called him a “disappointing pivot” far removed from the fair’s “fundamental roots”, who encouraged “public health through example, encouragement and education”.
“This year we wouldn’t be reviewing food at the Fair if we wrote a post titled The 10 Most Important Things to Eat in a Geologically Unstable Cave System sprinkled with life-threatening methane pockets.”
– Heavy table
The publisher also criticizes the fair for relying on “the general public to” do the right thing, “saying that a” significant portion of the American population “considers doing the right thing as” refusing to mask, denying -to vaccinate and refuse to isolate himself even when he is ill. “
“Personal initiative does not replace institutional mandates,” Heavy Tables writes. “The fact that the effort to try to enforce safety rules would be ‘extremely difficult’ does not relieve the Fair of its duty.”
“We would love to go to the Minnesota State Fair and our decision not to cover their new foods this year breaks our hearts collectively. But until the Fair is safe and committed to public health, no we can be good conscience approves or promotes it “.
– Heavy table
This follows a similar decision by WCCO Radio, which this week announced it would not broadcast from the 2021 fair.
“The Fair chose the‘ honor system ’and, for our decision-makers, it is not enough to feel comfortable,” the station said in a statement.
Other pillars of the fair will not be attending this year either, and more than 100 suppliers will decide to withdraw from the event not only due to the due COVID, but also the lack of staff.