Topic: Eating Less Meat?

[Melbourne12]

.....
The advice (on diet) is put out there for you to take or leave, but at least give it consideration before closing your mind, putting your fingers in your ears and going "la, la, la I'm not listening"

A serious question, if I may.

Anyone who thinks about such things at all will already have considered your arguments.  They are well-publicised enough for most of us to be heartily sick of the repetition.

So having given them due consideration, and come to a conclusion, why should we consider them yet again?  It does rather look as if the true agenda is to keep evangelising until we all lose the will to live.

[Froglegs]

I would suggest that no more one portion of meat and one of fish per week is what is required to keep us, animals, agriculture and the planet in general all much happier

So me eating less meat will save the planet  :o......explain how that works then ???.

Still none the wiser ???.

[isbister]

Froglegs - please google "meat eating + environment" for many answers to your question. Also do the same on youtube. Please tell us what you find out.

[OllieC]

I don't understand... if froglegs gives up meat, global warming will stop? It's all froggie's fault  ???

[manicscousers]

due to health concerns and cholesterol probs, my meat portion is now the size of a cassette case, trouble is, when we go out, even children's portions are larger than that and I have to leave some...I've started to have fish and chicken more often  :)

[grawrc]

i hardly ever eat red meat but when I do... boy do I love it! A leg of lamb is to die for (specially for the lamb :o :o) and steak is seldom eaten but much enjoyed when I do! but on the rare occasions I do eat red meat I buy it from the local farm where I can see the sheep grazing and stroke the cows' ears and I know they have a good life while they are alive because they're friendly responsive beasts. They cost the earth so we eat them maybe once every 2 or 3 months? I'll buy half a lamb and it will last the family a year or even more. Organic pork grown locally I can't afford, I don't know of a local producer of organic chickens or organic eggs, so i get them at the supermarket. Fish I buy from a number of excellent fishmongers in Edinburgh: I choose wild rather than farmed so I don't buy it that often. The cost is astronomical.
So what I'm saying really is that I take on board the needs of the planet but also think meat is great but we need to limit the production.

Let's get rid of the factory farming and eat much less of the organic free range and wild products and more grains and veg. At the moment the whole thing is profit driven. That's what needs to change.

In fact we should probably eat less of everything!!

[jjt]

Spot on grawrc about what needs to change. Fat chance though.

[manicscousers]

I've been thinking about this  :o
I think we, personally, are spoiled now,when I was younger  ::) ::)
we had chicken on special occasions, my mum made stews and soups with loads of veg and very little meat, we had no central heating and had to walk everywhere,
I'm thankful it's not the same now but wonder if kids are getting a better or worse upbringing by having too much of everything, what do you think or am I turning into an old woman ?

[Borlotti]

I agree, my favourite was coming home from school for dinner on a Monday and having bone stew.  My mother never had a car so we walked or cycled everywhere.  Dad loved gardening, so I suppose I take after them both as I walk or cycle to my allotment.  Off to the Italian lakes with the Ramblers for a walking holiday on Saturday so expect will have loads of lovely pasta.  I think most people eat too much, growing children can eat and eat but when you get older don't need so much food.  I can never eat a starter, main course and pudding.  My OH says 'whats for sweet sweetie', every day, which is really annoying and it is always yoghurt or fruit, and help yourself time.  I know I am getting old as keep writing letters of complaint to building societies when the computer says 'no' it is your money but you have to wait to get it.

[shirlton]

I have only read this page of the thread but it has left me thinking how on earth can I fit any meat on my plate with all of this bloody veg we have grown.

[asbean]

Christmas dinner lastyear we had seven different veg on the table - all home grown. Don't think we'll manage that this year, though.  :( :(

[Froglegs]

Froglegs - please go ogle "meat eating + environment" for many answers to your question. Also do the same on youtube. Please tell us what you find out.

OK had a look and this is what i found.
It would not make a jot,  if i stopped eating meat,as animals are not just farmed for meat but for dairy products,(dairy cows a major source of methane)Eggs,Wool and Leather,ask the world to go Vegan....i don't think so.
If the governments were serious about saving the planet they would wipe out third world debt, so they no longer have to export cheap meat but feed themselves.Make all the  fastfood chains more responsible for where and how the meat is produced.Ban floodlit buildings,Xmas lights and have less street lighting etc etc,have more wind and solar power made more affordable to be installed in the home.But as we all know Governments only support green issues when there is good money to be made.
So as I've said before who am i to argue with evolution.

[theothermarg]

As I said to my DD who is veggie cuz she loves animals too much to eat them-
if we all went veggie we would have to kill  all the animals roaming around wild cuz they would be eating all our food! it would be there lives or ours
marg

[Froglegs]

Was having this discussion at work last night and one of the chaps had read somewere that the only way to truly save the planet is to reduce the population to pre Victorian level, and for people world wide to return to a pre industrial age.

[jjt]

You don't work with Robert Mugabe do you? He apparently said Zimbabwe will be alright when we've halved the population. Had a good go at it as well.

[Froglegs]

You don't work with Robert Mugabe do you? He apparently said Zimbabwe will be alright when we've halved the population. Had a good go at it as well.

Er... no

[Froglegs]

Was having this discussion at work last night and one of the chaps had read somewere that the only way to truly save the planet is to reduce the population to pre Victorian level, and for people world wide to return to a pre industrial age.

Make a good TV program.......or as it been done already ;D

[GrannieAnnie]

last night we ate at a vegetarian friend's house and the joke of the evening paper was:

"I'm a pescatarian. That's a person who only eats fish."
"But, I'm NOT an orthodox pescatiarian because I also eat beef and pork and chicken."

We're eating half the amount of meat we used to and aren't suffering.
A taste is good enough.

[ThomsonAS]

Apologies if this has been covered and I missed it, but isn't the issue less about individual behaviour than social behaviour? And it's not about 'nanny state' but about sustainable planetary development?

If several hundred million Chinese people think that getting richer means adopting a diet with a higher meat content,

a. meat prices (globally) will rise
b. virgin forest will be cleared to increase the stock of grazing land (bye-bye rain Amazonia)
c. thousands more cows ( for those millions of extra beef chow meins) will fart thousands more gallons of methane.

This is not about Nu Labour (or New Tories either) stopping us scoffing mechanically recovered meat slurry for the good of our personal health. try scaling it up to planetary level!