Vegetarianism: A matter very close to my heart which I generally shut up about as it is one of those inflammatory subjects that get my goat.
I have not eaten meat or poultry since 1985. OK, I realise that technically this makes me a Pescetarian but people tend to look at you like a pedantic fool if you clarify this. My reasons for not eating meat were multiple. Initially, as a child, I had health problems that made it difficult for my body to process protein rich red meat. So I began by eating only chicken and fish, substituted with pulses, grains and vegetables. As time went on I realised that actually, the texture of any meat is, to me, a little disconcerting - to put it bluntly I could equate it to gnawing a lump off my own arm (not that I have ever tried). So from that day on I never ate meat, other than fish, again. In all honesty, I barely missed it. OK, so for a while I hankered for McChicken Nuggets and I'll always have a tiny weakness in the presence of really good Italian salami but steak, roast dinners, burgers, even bacon I never looked back at.
Now, I have never been a sanctimonious vegetarian - I always claimed that my reasons were choice as opposed to morals but as time went on, as I got older and spent more time researching vegetarian foods and meat substitutes I realised that actually, ethically, I wholehearted supported myself (self congratulatory silent smug pats on the back - that kind of thing) but still I kept quiet about it in public. At school I tolerated all the "ahhhh but you wear leather" comments, and the "Why eat a meat substitute if you don't agree with eating meat" (I mean seriously, that statement is self explanatory surely? Asking "why eat a meat substitute if you don't like meat" makes more sense doesn't it?) not to mention "humans are meant to be carnivorous" (actually, No, man was meant to be omnivorous and predominantly ate fruit, veg and pulses in a far greater proportion than he ate meat on account of the fact that berries tended to run slower than sabre toothed tigers but anyway) I am drifting away from my point.
I still have no issue with people eating meat. I have no issue with using the bi-products of meat production in clothing and goods - if it is done with morals and ethics and respect. What I do have an issue with is the complete lack of thought for the animals that produce our food, and the complete unwillingness from a vast majority to find out. It is a head in the sand attitude that has grown from our cheap supermarket culture - you kind of know that somewhere in the chain someone, or something is suffering for those cheap prices but that bargain is just too tempting to stop and find out more. When I see someone in a nameless frozen food store buying a BBQ pack of burgers, chicken legs and sausages containing "over 50 items for £3.99" I want to go and shake them and yell. A lot. I want them to try to understand how it is even possible to produce that amount of meat, package it, transport it, store it for that kind of money. When I see someone choosing the 2 chickens for £5 in Tesco, despite having knowledge of the appalling conditions in which they were produced, yes I want to get on the biggest highest soapbox about it. But until now, I haven't.
Eat meat, by all means but show it some respect. Buy well. Buy British, locally produced meat and cook it well then enjoy it. Enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that that animal had a good, happy life. That it wasn't kept in a filthy pen, isolated, unable to fulfil even the smallest natural instinct before it was shipped off, terrified, to be slaughtered. Oh, and to wind up on a plate, tasteless, bland, bulked up with water and displayed under a blue light to attempt to make it look, well, like proper meat.
Oh, I know the argument "I'd buy local organic meat if i could afford it". You CAN afford it. Buy it less often, eat vegetarian four days of the week then enjoy - no - cherish that delicious, juicy, succulent, well produced piece of chicken.
So if you want to find out more, here are some links.
http://www.chickenout.tv/
.http://www.ciwf.org.uk/
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