Ethical Food
So here's the thing.
I bang on and on about how I wont eat this and that, only want ethically sourced foods. Free range eggs is one and when it comes to meat I am generally insanely fascist about it. It was recently pointed out to me by a vet student that no matter how you cut it as some point there is cruelty in the lives of the animals that end up on your plate. Some more than others but at the end of the day they are herded into a barn and executed for to be eaten.
I appreciate that we as a species are omnivores and that meat is naturally part of our diet but we also need to take stock of our effect on the planet. Livestock farming is responsible for almost 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions from human-related activities. Nitrous oxide is almost 300 times as damaging to the climate as carbon dioxide and 65% of the total quantity produced by human activity comes from livestock, mostly their manure.
Methane has 25 times the global warming impact of carbon dioxide and a single cow can produce 500 litres of methane a day. Cows and sheep are responsible for 37% of the total methane generated by human activity.
Carbon dioxide is emitted when forests are cleared for grazing or for growing grain to feed animals. Fossil fuels are used to transport animals and to power the production of their feed.
70% of pigs reared in the UK are farmed intensively.
Birds factory farmed today grow three times as fast as they did 50 years ago.
Diseases such as lameness, Sheep Scab, pneumonia and hypothermia are common.
Increasing numbers of beef cattle are housed in pens on concrete or slats without bedding.
Fish do feel pain, they have a nervous system and pain receptors like all other animals.
An estimated 3,500 seals are killed in Scotland alone each year as they are considered a threat to farmed salmon.
A vegetarian diet is low in fat, high in complex carbohydrates and packed with a variety of fruits and vegetables, the clue being in the term vegetarian I suppose.
So here's the problem.
1) I like meat, certain things in particular, though I am told that veggie options of most things are available.
2) Despite all evidence to the contrary, I don't want to cause others inconvenience by dietary awkwardness.
3) I don't want the hassle of having to argue with people to justify the choice.
4) The extra cost involved in cooking 2 meals
All in all I am pretty conflicted about the whole thing.
I bang on and on about how I wont eat this and that, only want ethically sourced foods. Free range eggs is one and when it comes to meat I am generally insanely fascist about it. It was recently pointed out to me by a vet student that no matter how you cut it as some point there is cruelty in the lives of the animals that end up on your plate. Some more than others but at the end of the day they are herded into a barn and executed for to be eaten.
I appreciate that we as a species are omnivores and that meat is naturally part of our diet but we also need to take stock of our effect on the planet. Livestock farming is responsible for almost 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions from human-related activities. Nitrous oxide is almost 300 times as damaging to the climate as carbon dioxide and 65% of the total quantity produced by human activity comes from livestock, mostly their manure.
Methane has 25 times the global warming impact of carbon dioxide and a single cow can produce 500 litres of methane a day. Cows and sheep are responsible for 37% of the total methane generated by human activity.
Carbon dioxide is emitted when forests are cleared for grazing or for growing grain to feed animals. Fossil fuels are used to transport animals and to power the production of their feed.
70% of pigs reared in the UK are farmed intensively.
Birds factory farmed today grow three times as fast as they did 50 years ago.
Diseases such as lameness, Sheep Scab, pneumonia and hypothermia are common.
Increasing numbers of beef cattle are housed in pens on concrete or slats without bedding.
Fish do feel pain, they have a nervous system and pain receptors like all other animals.
An estimated 3,500 seals are killed in Scotland alone each year as they are considered a threat to farmed salmon.
A vegetarian diet is low in fat, high in complex carbohydrates and packed with a variety of fruits and vegetables, the clue being in the term vegetarian I suppose.
So here's the problem.
1) I like meat, certain things in particular, though I am told that veggie options of most things are available.
2) Despite all evidence to the contrary, I don't want to cause others inconvenience by dietary awkwardness.
3) I don't want the hassle of having to argue with people to justify the choice.
4) The extra cost involved in cooking 2 meals
All in all I am pretty conflicted about the whole thing.