About the horse thing. I’ve resisted commenting cos I run the risk
of sounding like a smug vegetarian (and, let's be honest, there is little more irritating than a smug vegetarian) but, the more it goes on, the more I
puzzle.
First up. People are upset because
they’ve been eating horse. Well, honestly,
meat is meat, isn’t it? I’ve said it before but really, I don’t get why one
kind of flesh is acceptable while another isn’t. When I ate meat, I ate anything – pretty much.
I ate bambi and badger and zebra and snake and eel and whatever. I kinda don’t get why – if we’re really
logical, rather than sentimental – there is any difference. What am I missing? Okay, some animals wouldn’t
be so good to eat – because of their own dining habits – but generally speaking
flesh is flesh. And yet some is taboo. Interesting, huh?
Second up. I do get the drug thing. I get that people don’t want to
eat horse because horsemeat could have drugs in it. But – and here’s my
puzzlement – pretty much all meat has drugs in it. Animals bred to be eaten tend to have antibiotics and
hormones and so on. Some of them have a heck of a lot of it. Organic meat not
so much… But really, if you’re eating non-organic
meat, you’re eating drugs. End of.
Third up. I get the whole ‘But we should know what’s in
our food’ thing. I really do. But, riddle me this, how come we’re suddenly
all ‘OMG!’ about what goes in our food?
There has been all kind of crap in processed food for decades. I first went vegetarian after doing a story
for iD magazine looking at the food industry. I haven’t touched processed food
since.
See that pic? Ice cream? Marshmallow? Nope. That's MSM - mechanically separated meat. MEAT! It's what they use to make things like chicken nuggets, hot dogs, salami, pepperoni and other processed
meats. Basically they take
everything, and I mean everything (bones and eyeballs and all) and mince it
up. Then, because it’s crawling with
bacteria, they wash it with ammonia. And then, because it tastes disgusting,
they stuff it with artificial flavouring. And then, because it’s alarmingly
pink (let’s not think about why) they dye it with artificial colour. And then they cook it and people eat it. Children
eat it. Nice huh?
I could go on and on but I don't want to put you off your tea.
And now there’s a flap about a bit of
horse in beef burgers. Honestly, it’s
the tip of the iceberg. Let's not even start on GMO.
But if it makes
you think about what you’re eating, about what you’re giving your children to
eat, then I reckon it’s a good thing. We
should care about what we eat. For our
own health and for the wellbeing of the animals we eat we should ensure they’ve had a decent life and a humane death. So, yeah, like the news reports are saying –
use your local butcher; support local accountable farmers with good wellbeing
records.
But then people say they can’t afford good quality
meat. Well, eat less of it. It's not essential to a healthy diet. Go partly or fully vegetarian. I can't and won't tell you what to do but, truly, I spend a pittance on food for myself. Nuts are pricey and I do have a tofu
addiction – but those are my luxury items. Vegetables, pulses, seeds, fruit…cheap
as chips really. Ah, but you don’t have
time, I hear you say? Do I spend hours
cooking? You gotta be kidding. I either eat it raw (ie no preparation at
all) or I stir-fry (minutes) or I bung everything in a slow cooker and let it
cook itself.
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| http://weeklyveganmenu.blogspot.co.uk |
Right.
I’ll shut up now.
Except that - I made damn sure there were no horse puns in this post – but I bet you won't spare me ‘em in the comments. *smile*
