The majority of people wander into their local generic supermarket and peruse the aisles before choosing salami, a joint of pork or their piece of steak. It gets taken home and eaten by the family with little though about where it has come from. But perhaps if we thought about the fact that our glorious veal casserole was once a sentient being, we might opt for the veggies more often?
I suspect that for most people, if they had to tell Mr. Pig that he was about to become bacon or slaughter a cow, they would rather quickly become more reluctant to eat meat. This is obviously not practical for many in Western society but we need to be more conscious about where our food really comes from which is likely to see an increase in quality and welfare standards.
I personally don’t advocate vegetarianism (being deeply anaemic and all) but I do think that in the western diet, we focus far too much on the protein aspect of a meal. Most ‘real’ men seen to consider a meal without meat as some sort of con-job. From history, I can only assume that this was because meat was a treat and the fact that we can eat it is a sign of good fortune.
But in a nation which significantly obesity and a world with huge green-house gas liabilities, would it not pay to eat more vegetables? A great meal could be baked-potato gratin with green veg or bean stew with loads of fresh crunchy bread. What about vegetarian fajitas? To me, all of those are main meals and pretty good too.
Perhaps ‘conscious’ consumption is where it is at. Eat meat but know what that means? L x
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