Mrs Fez found out about the Quorn when taken ill whilst driving back from visiting friends who cooked a spag bol made of the stuff. Went to bed for the rest of the day, bless.
Unfortunately the supermarket chains will prosper from this covid 19 crisis Frenchie, whereas many smaller businesses, corner shops etc. will disappear - the revitalization of our town centres after this is going to be a major project. Maybe we need to consider additional 'local' currencies which can only be used within a certain area (such as the Totnes Pound) - because every Euro which I give to a supermarket chain disappears whereas if I give it to a small local shop then it circulates locally.
It's a matter of individual choice Toby - i do not have to eat meat to stay alive (I have to admit that), but could a whole nation of 60 million go vegetarian (in Germany's case 80 million) ? In Germany we have a relatively short growing season (because of the late frosts in May) and most parts of the country have relatively poor soil. The area where I live is 60% forested and the historic industries here were forestry, mining and textiles. If you want a British comparison then think of a wooded pennines 20 miles from Manchester. All in all not prime agricultural land - and so all of the farmers we have here in Engelskirchen are dairy ones through necessity. If the entire population of Germany turned vegetarian overnight then it would lead to an increase in the percentage of foodstuffs which need to be imported - and it cannot be our aim to increase 'food miles' in this way. The same applies to many other countries - Britain already imports more of its food than most other European countries. I would rather eat a rabbit who had a good life, and was killed locally, than a soya bean product which has been flown half way around the globe to arrive on my table.
The Totnes Pound died off last year, with the blame for that going to the increasingly cashless society - if anything, the pandemic has reduced the reliance on hard cash even further. Would such a move even get off the ground? Having said that, I know that this one, started in 2002 not too far from me, is still operating. https://www.ekopia.org.uk/investments/eko-community-currency/
At least she made a complete recovery It is amazing how many different things people are allergic to, most of them appear to be things that would make up a vegan or Veggie diet, nuts pulses, mushrooms etc Its almost as if evolution is making a point
Looks as though Britain is being cut off because of the out of control virus. France, Germany, Holland and Belgium have or will announce shortly that flights and train travel will be suspended, starting today. Not sure if this will close the Channel Tunnel to all traffic, or just passenger travel will be banned.
Moderna vaccine: UK bought 40m @ £28 = £1.12bn EU paid $18 = £13.31 x 40m That's £532,400,000 Government decision not to join the EU scheme based entirely on their arrogance and stupidity cost the tax payer £587,600,000 and that's only the smallest vaccine purchase.
She had a far more serious turn with cardamom: we were at a Lebanese restaurant in Ruislip one night and had some that she knew she ought not by accident, no thanks to the chef and maitre-d as they were told. She was okay until the morning when her tongue swelled up in the middle of the checkout at Watford Tesco. I had to drive her to the surgery and then home, I'd only had two driving lessons at that stage though riding bikes for years. An oft told tale at dinnertime! She spent £200 on dinner for the ladies at the golf club (I'm going back twenty years) and in between me keeping an eye on her I was phoning the cancellations... Two days in bed and a fine impersonation of Donald Duck!
She's miles better off than most, less fortunate than others. Odd thing, being allergic to many spices she actually went to Sri Lanka and did some charity work for a couple of months (life saving, teaching swimming, first aid) the mad old thing she is!
She sounds like a good person I guess we have to be grateful for the good things in life and overcome the bad things
Hi, cologne. Just a quick one, got to go out in the rain and change the rear brake pads on my wife’s car - I know how to live. This argument doesn’t make a lot of sense. If the agricultural land and conditions are poor, why introduce hugely inefficient ‘middle men’ into the equation?
Hi Andy. I have to be carefull here because there are quite a few vegetarians on this board and I feely admit that you hold the moral high ground here. In fact Britain holds the moral high ground in as much as that the percentage of the population which is vegetarian is higher than any other European country but......and it is a very big but. Britain also imports more of its foodstuffs than any other European country. I am not necessarily saying that there is a correlation between the two statistics, but one is only possible because of the other. The largest part of Germany is made up of the central German uplands (Deutsche Mittelgebirge) hilly and forested with poor nutrient soil - basically unfavourable farming conditions for anything other than grazing. In terms of crops for humans the most fertile lands are in the north (around Hamburg and in Lower Saxony) - the only soil of comparable quality is in the Eifel (Volcanic), and along the Rhine - which is steep and consequently used only for wine growing. In all 30% of Germany's land area is forested - and that is mostly coniferous woods - not the same as you have in England which is mixed and only 5% of the land area. Also the climate is different - winter is colder and the summer is generally warmer than in England in most parts of Germany. But the transition from winter to spring to summer is not the same because late frosts are possible up until June in most of central Europe. So, despite the warmer summer the actually growing season is about the same as in Sweden. Whilst Greta Thunberg may well be vegan, I very much doubt if the rest of the Swedes could be so without a dramatic increase in imported foodstuffs - and the same applies to central European countries such as Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Switzerland must be absolutely the worst country of all to have a vegan diet. It cannot be in the interests of the environment to increase the volume of foodstuffs which are being transported around the World which would be the case if people like the Swiss or Austrians decided to collectively become vegetarian - because they, quite simply, cannot produce a big enough pallet of vegetarian products. But I do not believe that the Swiss are at the bottom of the moral pecking order as a result. Some countries and some regions are simply not suited to collective vegetarianism, and never will be unless they import most of their foodstuffs like the UK does. Just a reminder that even the most radically vegetarian Indian Yogis are forced to change their diet upon visiting Tibet.
Hello. Got caught in long Facetime with my sister, so still haven’t done brakepads and shopping for my Mum and Dad is looming... Germany has substantially more vegetarians than UK. You’re second to Switzerland in Europe and one of the highest by population in the world. The number of young vegetarians is particularly high in Germany. There are more vegetarian restaurants in Germany than Spain, Italy or France (three times as many than the latter). Soy beans have grown in Germany for over 220 years, in fact the Germans lead the way on this and are largely self-producing rather than importing. But we don’t just eat soy! There are many alternatives, which would be available to Germans, and it’s good to see they are increasingly embracing this. I don’t think the environmental argument for meat-eating is strong at all. Tibet does have its vegetarians, the few Nepalese (not far away) I used to know, were all veggies. I accept totally people’s choices on this, but I think the world is changing. It’s just a question of the rate of change. Thankfully younger people (definitely not me ) are leading the way on this, so perhaps men of my age will turn to vegetarianism instead of sports cars in future mid-life crises when they try to cling onto their youth!
Sorry to appear contradictory Andy but.....to start with Tibet. Nearly all of the country is over 4,000 metres above sea level - it is impossible to exist there from a purely vegetarian diet. I spent 3 years taking the certificate as a Yoge Teacher of the Himalayan institute and even the spiritual founder of this, Swami Rama, had to change his diet upon visiting Tibet. The Indian style of vegetarianism is not possible at such high altitudes. And where composting is also not possible animal dung is the only fertilizer they use there. As for Germany the only statistic I have seen on this suggests that 10% of people living in Germany are vegetarian, and 1.1% vegan - the comparable figures for the UK. are 14% and 7% respectively. There are a large number of vegetarian restaurants in Germany serving the esoteric scene but I think you will find they are not using 'local' ingredients. The largest exporter of Soya beans Worldwide is Brazil at 47.6% and the largest producers in Europe are the Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Serbia and Rumania, in that order - I cannot find much evidence of substantial soya bean production in Germany. I still maintain that geography and climate play a very large role in the prevalence of vegetarianism - also the access to ingredients (substantially easier in Berlin than in a small village or town). I would be quite happy to see us going back to conditions as in the 50s or 60s - meat once per week as a special treat, and where the practice of cooking for 3 days in advance was the norm. But the consequences of going back to healthy, organic, consumption would also be a return to the days when food costs amounted to 30-40% of the average wage - for the poorest 30% of our society this is not possible. By the way - I hate factory farming as much as you do - but would you turn down a Covid 19 vaccine because it had been tested on animals ?
The cynic in me suggests that this story is simply the government trying to divert attention away from their Brexit disaster that is about to hit the UK. Port of Dover closed for 48 hours by snap border restrictions in France - and DfT has advised hauliers to avoid Kent ports "until further notice". Given that they know, or should know, that around10,000 lorries use Dover every day, you have to wonder where they expect them all to go. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/port-dover-closed-fears-food-23198804
We've just spent 5 years at war with each other, devalued the £ by 20%, savaged our economy, quit the world's largest free trade zone, created a mountain of red tape & flushed £200bn down the drain to 'control our borders'. 6 EU states just did it in 24 hours with a press release. Strange that they have control of our borders when we didn't have.
An aside ...... (Tibet.... one of my favourite places.... I lived just next door and was lucky enough to visit. Yes impossible to live on a vegetarian diet there as it will be amongst the Inuit etc.... I lived at a an altitutude of 2,334 m in Bhutan around 7,500 feet with high peaks all around....... In th winter country people lived off beet and spinach and of course meat..... all changing now with new roads and food being transportable around countries. I remember that Mao tried to change the crops in Tibet average height14,370 feet and it led to starvation. Tibetans as Buddhists do not choose to kill if they can... in Lhasa , the capital, there was a Muslim quarter where animals were slaughtered for Buddhists to eat. If you farmed on the plateau you lived off your animals for most of your supplies.) Incidentally forest is being devastated in Brazil for Soya production.....
