Stuff that pops into my head. Innit.

Sunday 18 July 2010

Mental Vegetarians

On my usual trawl around the sunday newspaper websites I hit the Observer Food Monthly section to be greeted with the following headline.

Paul McCartney: ''One of the most effective things any individual can do to help the environment is to eat less meat''

What? Weren't you the ugly one in the world's most overrated band? Having realised that it was indeed the same bloke, I read on.

"When Linda and I brought our family up not eating meat, the original reason was our deep love of animals. Once we got the idea that many cultures' cuisines contained meat-free dishes, we began to explore various options and soon found ourselves with a huge repertoire of healthy, and most importantly, great tasting food."

Hmm. Very good, giving up meat for your love of animals is a noble idea........or is it?
Well, actually, no, it isn't. Let me explain. On the surface of the matter it seems like that if you gave up meat, then the creatures that were going to end up as your sunday roast would live out their lives happily gambolling around the green fields of whatever country it is you live in.
Sounds nice, doesn't it? The harsh reality of the situation however is this. All the beef cattle, pigs, chickens and most of the sheep and goats would be killed if everyone gave up eating them. Modern mass meat production is almost solely in huge factories with running costs in the millions, there's no way that the big supermarkets would let the profits drop catastrophically by looking after redundant food animals.


Sorry, but if you really care for animals don't turn vegetarian.

Paul McCartney yesterday, on his way to a Foie Gras festival

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ya know, this is weird because just last night I was cooking two of the BIGGEST ribeyes you have ever seen and I turned to my Sweet Joshua and said "How the fuck do vegetarians do it? I mean, I couldn't live in a world where I couldn't eat meat".

He of course ruined my statement by saying something to the effect of "eating HIS meat", but I digress....

fizzee rascal said...

The funny part about this is that about a third of the time I eat meatless main meals. I just hate aggressive vegetarians.

24 Paws of Love said...

I don't eat a lot of meat either, but I was just thinking along these same lines...what would we do with all of the animals were not eating?? Send them free out into the woods?? I mean really how many people are really going to stop eating that much meat that it is going to make a difference? I agree the animals are going to be slaughtered one way or another.
To each their own.

Mrs Midnite said...

Stop eating meat and the farmers can just release all the animals. They can live quite happily eating grass until they wander onto the motoway by mistake and cause a major accident.

Veggies who make their pets eat veggie diets do my head in. Cats and dogs eat meat deal with it :0)

Unknown said...

Hello friend,
Nice post.
I don't think that people would totally stop eating meat, only a few.

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Laura H said...

I love meat so much, that I'm remembered in my school yearbook as 'The chick who loves meat'
I really wish people who have strong beliefs would quit ragging on everyone else. Cant we all just live our lives as we see fit and let other people do the same. Is this so hard?
rrrrawwwhh!

fizzee rascal said...

"The chick who loves meat"

There's no answer to that.

:)

Laura H said...

Get your mind out of the gutter Fizz! lol!