I was a vegetarian for maybe 15 years (still am for short spells), and then, as now, one question annoyed and baffled me in almost equal measure. Why are veggies – not all, admittedly, but way too many – such tedious, proselytising buggers? Especially in the Observer Food Monthly this weekend.
And, while they resent being tagged as “herbivores”, and quite rightly, why is it they have no hesitation, when it comes to branding meat-eaters as “carnivores” as happened in the OFM? Let’s get one thing straight before going any further – humans are designed by evolution to eat pretty much anything (obviously, there are exceptions). Our natural diet is an omnivorous one. Not carnivorous. Not vegetarian.
However, it’s fair to say that vegetarianism is a healthy lifestyle, on the whole. I have, though, known some archetypal “pale and wan” veggies but, on the other side of the coin, I knew a vegan family who were all staggeringly fit and healthy, and the claim, by trolls like Jeremy Clarkson, and Giles Coren, that veggies are scrawny and weak, is nothing but uninformed bigotry. People will be scrawny and weak if it’s in their nature to be so (or because of illness), not because they’re veggies. That’s nonsense.
The same article, in the OFM, that makes the carnivore accusation, also claims that the average “carnivore” consumes 11,000 animals in their lifetime – a figure that is just so childishly dumb – break it down to see how absurd it is.
It equates, over a 70-year life span, to just over three animals a week. What we eat most are cows, sheep and pigs (or, in some countries, goats), followed by poultry, with game bringing up the rear. I don’t know about you, but I’d be hard pressed, indeed, to get through even 3 chickens or rabbits a week, never mind a single cow, sheep or pig. Even meat-obsessed Americans wouldn’t get through so much, not if they ate nothing but meat at every meal. Given how many people on this planet are always on the brink of starvation, and thus out of the equation, as are all veggies and vegans; it’s a lunatic claim.
It is though, like much else in vegetarian propaganda, just thrown out there with no consideration for the truth or even common sense, but for it’s shock value, in the hope that no-one can be bothered to look too closely at it, and that some numb-nuts hack will grab it and run with it. And hey, one did.
Look, guys, there are just so many benefits to vegetarianism that you don’t have to make up figures, like that, to make your case. So why do you? It’s just counter-productive.
I once read a book, by Colin Tudge. I believe it was called Future Food (though it seems to have gone through so many changes, tracking it down has proven difficult). Anyway, among much else, Tudge put forward the idea that meat, rather then being the focus of the meal, as it is in developed countries, should be just another component. I mean, nobody – ever – needs a vast steak; or even a small one for that matter. People, on average, need only about 50g of protein a day, so a couple of ounces of meat a day is ample, because other foods also supply proteins.
And that, having abandoned vegetarianism, is how I tend to eat these days, though I seriously doubt that I get through 500g of meat a week, never mind three bloody animals, no matter what their size. And I eat a fair proportion of veggie meals. Not planned – it just happens that way. Tonight, for example, I’ve got a couple of Little Gems that needs eating, so I’ll shred them and stew them gently in butter, with peas, and a touch of vegetable stock.
No matter what you eat, your digestive system will break it down into its component parts, and assemble proteins from the amino acids. My view, given that I’ve been so ill for so long, is that eating meat, or fish, reduces the burden on my body by presenting a very easily processed source of amino acids.
Whether this view is medically sound, I neither know nor care, but I can see no reason why it wouldn’t be. It’s also a view that I’ve recently seen expressed elsewhere, so clearly I’m not the only one thinking along these lines.
So, if you want to be a vegetarian, fine, be one. I don’t care. Just keep your badly-thought-out propaganda to yourselves, and accept that for humans, meat is a natural part of their diet. That the meat production system is deeply, probably irredeemably, defective changes that not one iota.
Here’s a quote from Mary McCartney, also from OFM, about how Paul and Linda announced their conversion to vegetarianism when she was very young “One day Mum and Dad said, “Look, we’ve decided to be vegetarian. We’re not going to have meat at home, but it’s your decision (whether you want to be vegetarian, too).” ”
That leaves me with a question. The kids can be veggies or not, it’s their choice but, there will be no meat at home? So where’s the element of choice for little kids? They can’t say “Bugger this,” and flounce off to the horrors of McD’s, can they? Seems to me the only choice was whether to eat veggie food or go hungry. That’s not choice at all.
It’s perfectly true that people can live quite well without meat, and most people eat far too much of the stuff anyway. I don’t, and I’m happy with my choice (however – a small digression – I’ve just made a pan of Scotch broth with meat from Sainsbury’s that was of such abysmal quality about a third of it went in the bin – I didn’t choose it, it was delivered, and it was incredibly short-dated, too, just 1 day; do they offload the short-dated and crap produce onto online shoppers?).
Personally, I think the focus should be on reducing overall meat consumption, especially in the USA, where it’s reached obscene proportions. Badgering people to become veggies, though, is pointless – just look at some of the tripe PETA puts out. How the hell does that encourage meat-eaters to become veggies? It’ll just alienate them.
An all-time classic is PETA’s comic book cover which pictures a 40s-style housewife (why?), hacking at a live rabbit (looks more like a hare), on the kitchen table (yep, that’s where everyone kills rabbits, of course), with a Bowie knife, with the caption “Your mommy kills animals!”. Which is a total crock in almost every respect – how many “mommies” do you know who kill their own food, especially in the kitchen!)? Or use a Bowie knife in the kitchen? And by the way, PETA, you don’t kill a rabbit by stabbing it in the guts – do try to get something right.
And let’s not forget their ludicrous, hilarious, and almost universally derided, campaign, aimed at kids, to think of fish as sea-kittens! You can just see the scene in the take-away, after closing time, a few years down the line – “Sea-kitten and chips, please – hold the vinegar.” Yep, that’d go down really well…
Extremism, in the pursuance of pretty much any cause, is counter-productive, and makes as many enemies as converts. Possibly more. Certainly, if there was one organisation that would cause me to eat more meat, it’s PETA, just because they are so bloody obnoxious and self-righteous, and I’m pretty sure that feeling is widespread.
Personally, I became a veggie because I wanted to. Nobody hounded me into it, nor did I read any veggie propaganda (though, to be fair, it was thin on the ground in those days – mid 80s – and there was no Internet).
If you’re considering vegetarianism, then for honest information check out the Vegetarian Society, and stay away from the “paramilitary” wing of vegetarianism, PETA.
By the way, I’ve used Marigold Vegetable Bouillon powder for decades, and it’s excellent. Lately I’ve been using Knorr Touch of Taste. The chicken flavour is great, the beef OK, but the vegetable version is, as I’ve mentioned before, absolutely disgusting – it tastes like cough mixture and the mint in it totally dominates (who the hell, in their right mind, would put mint in stock?). I’ve just poured mine down the sink. Avoid it like the plague.
Marigold comes in a low salt and a vegan version, too, so there’s something for everyone. And no mint!
