There certainly is a moral case for being vegetarian Yorkie, but I confess that I have never been so. Unfortunately, like many other themes, it can become a fundamentalist thing, with a feeling of belonging to an elite. Doubtless it would be better for the environment if we changed our eating habits, but dislike it when it becomes moralistic - when people point the finger at others saying 'you should do this or that'. It would probably be better for the environment if the price of food rose to the levels of 50 years ago - then it came to about 30-40% of income, but our 'consumer madness' requires that food costs are kept artificially low - otherwise we would not have the spending power for all the other junk they want us to buy.
I go vegan a couple of days per week, as others have mentioned: hunter-gatherer. Helps control my BGL.
Mme is a pescatarian, as well as being quite pesky at times, so I basically eat what she eats about 80% the time, much easier. I probably have meat once a week and usually when we go out. As long as we have a good varied diet with lots of fruit and veg I am happy. Point I was trying to make was the moralistic bullying minority groups these people set themselves up against the "norm", encouraged by the media. Perhaps we need to add a V to the LBGT..... alphabet now? I think I will set up Megan minority group, only eat meat in support of plants, which are after all living things as well.
My brother became a pain in the arse veggie (almost vegan) about 25 years ago. Nothing thrills him more than trying to insult meat eaters. I simply point out that if he really cared about animals in that way, it would greatly help the cause if he promoted a reduction of meat intake per person by 20%. That might reduce the number of animals killed. On the other hand his approach just makes me want to eat a big piece of meat just to show him. Yeah sad I know. It is a tricky one though. The problems are very real. I'd just prefer to address the issues of the planet by reducing the human population by 80% rather than changing eating habits. (And I think various world leaders are working on that )
Who says that the UK is not breaking up when you read the following headline? Yorkshire to appear in footballing world cup for minority nations.
Dave you must respect them. They are a massive club --- as they have been telling us for the last 14 years from the second and third flight
Morning all. Cloudy again but no frost. The service engineer was at my neighbours before 8.00 am to check over the boiler for the heating system. It is huge, but has a large house to heat. They really have the thermostat set at a very high temperature, so when you go in it is like a walking into an oven. No wonder the oil tanker is at the house several times a year.
We should avoid fundamentalism KC. For the environment it is better for me to eat a locally caught rabbit, than to buy a Mexican organic bio honey which has been flown in for the purpose (also made by a beehive which was flown to Mexico for that purpose). I have nothing against cooking for 3 hours for a group, or a family, whether with, or without, meat - but this is a different thing from people believing that chicken wings fall from trees. So, maybe we need a 'slow food' party in the UK. Whatever we do we should do in moderation. The danger of pointing fingers is that others can do the same with us - as the Vegan said when jumping into his SUV or jetting off to Bali for an environmentalist conference.
Cologne, interesting that your examples do not relate to keeping animals in cruel environments. Great examples if CO2 is the only issue. But ignoring animal cruelty it might be argued that the best solution is if you have a local duck breeding factory (ducks life cycles being less than that of chickens). But many veggies/vegans would still have a big issue with that. When I raised the population issue, I was looking for a solution to both issues, if not many more. In truth I have to agree with the explorer Ridgeway who said that throughout all his travels he had seen no world issue that wouldn’t be greatly remedied by a reduction in world population. To be fair I have no great hope, despite the Chinese effort and the growth of secular atheism, that any solution will be found before the planet is in pretty dire straights. As my business partner offered many years ago, many think we are living at the end of the golden age. And from what I observe I think that is true. Sorry getting all depressed. I’m going to force feed my Spanish family Christmas puds with custard and cream in a couple of hours. They keep putting it off but the time has come. C’mon u’orns
Point taken KC. You can be vegetarian for either environmental reasons, or for moral ones, or indeed for reasons of health - or possibly for all three. If I chose to concentrate on the environmental aspect, it does not mean that I am not also appalled by the living conditions of factory farmed animals. But it is important to see the broader picture on this - capitalism wants to keep the price of food low in order to protect spending power in other areas. So if you take it for granted that you can afford your car, petrol, computer, mobile phone, foreign holidays etc. then you also depend on factory farming for that - because if the cost of food rose again to the same levels (per cent of income) as in the 1950s then our gadget consumerism would disappear very quickly. I agree that one of the best things you can do for the environment is to refrain from having children - but how can you encourage people to do that in a democracy ?
Almost forgot we have the FA Cup draw coming up (About 9:45 I assume). I guess anything at home would do. How about Barnet at the Vic. Then we could put the same 11 out and see if anything has changed
Yes I agree, the best way to save the planet is to reduce the population. In this country a very unpopular way would be to tax people for having say more than 2 children (1 would be better) and to stop child allowances, which encourages people to have more children as they are cushioned from the real cost of bringing up offspring. I cannot see any government biting the bullet and stopping child allowances but it would release a lot of cash which could reduce taxes and the savings could be redirected to other public needs.
