A Bud Light in the Attic

[footnotefetish]

I normally enjoy and concur with George Monbiot, which is why I've read all but a couple of his books. But a column he published earlier this month, "Strong Meat," seemed below his usual standards to me. The column is a response to some criticism Monbiot received from author and environmental advocate Simon Fairlie, in Fairlie's book Meat: A

Comments

[alsoname]

The salmon example is interesting. It sort of freaks me out that there are people in Omaha eating seafood. Is it not obvious that this will put undue stress on marine life?

No matter how idyllic a farm is, and how humane the killing is, at the end of the day it still involves killing, suffering, and raising animals in captivity. And since I can easily survive without meat, I don't see any compelling reason to eat it, even in those circumstances. But eating meat was never a pleasurable experience for me, and even though giving up eggs/dairy was not without its difficulties, it's not something I miss anymore. Like literally, the only thing I miss is the croissant and its cousin pain au chocolat. And even those I don't miss enough to do all kinds of ethical maneuvering in order to eat them.

[footnotefetish]

Yeah, it's interesting that while a lot of vegetarians I know talk about (and often practice) the virtues of eating locally grown foods--and, within that, foods that are native to your region--there's hardly any corresponding movement among omnivores. Just as it might take more inputs to grow a plant outside its native environment, it could also take more inputs to raise an animal outside its native environment.

But while vegetarians might enjoy the fun of discovering a new plant food (I remember how fun it was for me to try loroco for the first time), omnivores often find it gross to stray beyond the animal foods they've decided are palatable. And many animal foods (cats and dogs, for example) are just unthinkable to them. So as long as we have omnivory, we're probably going to have people in Omaha who want salmon and people in Honolulu who want turkey--and so on and so forth.

[alsoname]

I dunno, the "locavore" movement seems pretty dominated by omnivores to me, not that I have any real evidence for this. But there is definitely a lot of overlap with people who are veg*n at least in part for environmental reasons. But as a vegan, I wonder if eating locally would be harder for me in particular (soy would be right out!), or if it's actually just hard for anyone since our system is not built around making those kinds of choices convenient for anyone