There will be more blogging. I just need time to think of something...
Think, brain, think, damn you!!
(Brain has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down!)
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Saturday, 31 January 2009
Why Veggie?
I work with animals, I adore them. However, I do not understand vegetarianism. I am a scientist, believe in survival of the fittest, and to me it does not seem natural.
Even if you forget the science e.g. our omnivorous dentition and digestive system which evolved for our needs; where would we be without meat? Back to Homo erectus? Without the additional and easily utilised protein our mental capacity would not have evolved to the state where we were capable of making an ethical descision not to eat meat. We would still be grunting a form of "Ooh, fire, pretty" and clubbing are neighbours to satisfy some unknown primal urge.
The ethical argument is that killing an animal just for food is cruel, painful, maybe even barbaric, but is this not anthropormorphic? I work in a the veterinary world and even we are not sure if animals perseve and interpret pain in the same manner we do. Of course an animal with a fractured leg will bite you if you touch that leg, but it is also entirely possible that it would do that anyway simply because that animal hates its leg being touched regardless of any injury. Of course we give animals pain relief but this is subjective. We give it because if we were in the same position we would want pain relief, and dare I say it, it makes us feel better about the care we give.
And surely the way we kill livestock now is much more humane than 40 years ago, when no child would have dared turn round to their parents and refuse to eat what was put in front of them. But back then we used more of the animal- leather, offal, bones, trotters etc. If we went back to using these in everyday cooking, would that make eating meat more acceptable.
Maybe it's me. I was brought up in the suburbs but a)my parents are old generation and b) my mum grew up in the West Wales countryside, only leaving when she married, so I spent alot time on farms as a child. I knew from an early age where beef, chicken, eggs, lamb, milk came from and never questioned it. I admit I was confused by eggs (unfertilised is a difficult concept for a 4 year old) but this still didn't stop me eating them, even when I thought there was a very young baby chick inside. I doubt my parents would have minded if I had decided to go veggie, but it never crossed my mind.
There are some things in meat/food production that I don't agree with- veal, foie gras, overfeeding turkeys, sharkfin soup-I don't eat these but if there was nothing else except veg, I wouldn't hesitate.
Perhaps I wouldn't get so riled up if veggie's weren't so holier-than-thou. Not all of them, you understand, not even the majority, but enough to cause you annoyance and "bubbling-under-the-surface" anger every now and again. And they cause enough annoyance for you to paint all veggies with the same brush. I have several vegetarian friends, whom I value very much and wouldn't change for all the coffee in Columbia, but I never wnat to bring up the subject because nothing is accomplished by agreeing to disagree except a bad 'vibe'.
I could never be veggie anyway- I wouldn't have enough energy so it would be like having PMT all the time (no thank you!!), and all veggie meals seem to have cheese (bleurgh!), especially goat cheese (bleurgh bleurgh!!) or, worse still- parmesan (would rather sit in a coffin of spiders while being buried alive). Cheese is something I could live without- but that is a rant/deliberation for another time.
I do have one good thing to say about vegetarians though- at least they're not vegans.
Even if you forget the science e.g. our omnivorous dentition and digestive system which evolved for our needs; where would we be without meat? Back to Homo erectus? Without the additional and easily utilised protein our mental capacity would not have evolved to the state where we were capable of making an ethical descision not to eat meat. We would still be grunting a form of "Ooh, fire, pretty" and clubbing are neighbours to satisfy some unknown primal urge.
The ethical argument is that killing an animal just for food is cruel, painful, maybe even barbaric, but is this not anthropormorphic? I work in a the veterinary world and even we are not sure if animals perseve and interpret pain in the same manner we do. Of course an animal with a fractured leg will bite you if you touch that leg, but it is also entirely possible that it would do that anyway simply because that animal hates its leg being touched regardless of any injury. Of course we give animals pain relief but this is subjective. We give it because if we were in the same position we would want pain relief, and dare I say it, it makes us feel better about the care we give.
And surely the way we kill livestock now is much more humane than 40 years ago, when no child would have dared turn round to their parents and refuse to eat what was put in front of them. But back then we used more of the animal- leather, offal, bones, trotters etc. If we went back to using these in everyday cooking, would that make eating meat more acceptable.
Maybe it's me. I was brought up in the suburbs but a)my parents are old generation and b) my mum grew up in the West Wales countryside, only leaving when she married, so I spent alot time on farms as a child. I knew from an early age where beef, chicken, eggs, lamb, milk came from and never questioned it. I admit I was confused by eggs (unfertilised is a difficult concept for a 4 year old) but this still didn't stop me eating them, even when I thought there was a very young baby chick inside. I doubt my parents would have minded if I had decided to go veggie, but it never crossed my mind.
There are some things in meat/food production that I don't agree with- veal, foie gras, overfeeding turkeys, sharkfin soup-I don't eat these but if there was nothing else except veg, I wouldn't hesitate.
Perhaps I wouldn't get so riled up if veggie's weren't so holier-than-thou. Not all of them, you understand, not even the majority, but enough to cause you annoyance and "bubbling-under-the-surface" anger every now and again. And they cause enough annoyance for you to paint all veggies with the same brush. I have several vegetarian friends, whom I value very much and wouldn't change for all the coffee in Columbia, but I never wnat to bring up the subject because nothing is accomplished by agreeing to disagree except a bad 'vibe'.
I could never be veggie anyway- I wouldn't have enough energy so it would be like having PMT all the time (no thank you!!), and all veggie meals seem to have cheese (bleurgh!), especially goat cheese (bleurgh bleurgh!!) or, worse still- parmesan (would rather sit in a coffin of spiders while being buried alive). Cheese is something I could live without- but that is a rant/deliberation for another time.
I do have one good thing to say about vegetarians though- at least they're not vegans.
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