Vegetarians suck. But Eat less meat anyway.

Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.  ~Albert Einstein

Cards on the table. I'm a vegetarian, and have been since 2003. And yes, my vegetarian wife Alison had a role to play in my conversion. Fact. But I had to believe in it myself and always had. You see I love animals, and found that eating them was the biggest single contradiction in my life. It was a pleasure laying it to rest and I haven't missed meat one single day of my life.

Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends.  ~George Bernard Shaw

Meat eaters never believe me when I say that, and although I am frequently asked why I chose not to eat meat, this is mostly borne from curiosity or politeness, and they have long since checked out of the conversation before I really get a chance to answer it. It’s usually because it involves the highly emotive topic of animal welfare, a topic that meat eaters like to avoid.

I sort of understand that. Believe me I have sat on that side of the table, and as a meat eater you would rather tune out and tuck into a nice juicy steak, rather than listen to a veggie indulge themselves whilst firmly perched on the moral high ground. So I want to reassure you that this is not a sermon, that I too find those that ‘preach’ animal welfare rather dull, albeit with the best of intentions. I also understand eating habits won't change completely for most people, so I am not pushing you down that route. I just want to take the opportunity to raise awareness of some of the horrendous practices going on around the world that will make you shudder. This is not whether animals are killed for consumption, let’s assume that it’s going to happen anyway, it's about the way it is done, how often we do it, and trying to treat them as sympathetically as possible in the short life that they have. If it makes it easier, feel free to kill as many plants as possible with a clear conscience if you do manage to change a few habits.

I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.  ~A. Whitney Brown

My position on this is one built on three simple, yet common sense principles.

1)  EAT LESS MEAT. There are some surprisingly tasty options that don't involve meat, and most are pretty good for the waistline and your health too. Meat Free Mondays is a campaign that seems to be happening around the UK, and easy to adopt. There are economic reasons as beef prices soar, and environmental too, with cattle farming one of the biggest contributors to global warming. Heart attacks... God's revenge for eating his little animal friends.  ~Author Unknown

2)  DON’T BUY FACTORY FARMED PRODUCTS. If you must eat it, then buy from the dairy industries that are committed to fair treatment of their livestock and poultry and buy naturally reared products. There are some entrenched, truly awful practices going on that we can help slowly kick into touch by supporting them each day. Most of these are still ripe in Australia, and here's a quick guide of the key ones to avoid: 

CAGED HEN PRODUCTS

Caged Battery hens who lay ‘cage eggs’ are given a living space smaller than one A4 sheet of paper, and the consequences of this are truly horrendous, with hens living with broken bones, never being able to stand up, and never being given their natural craving for privacy.  The EU is committed to ending caged hen practices by 2012, Australia has no such commitment. Thankfully, supermarkets in Australia have moved to make Free Range eggs the same price as caged hen eggs, so consumer choice is simple to make. Same goes for the meat itself. Buy Free Range.

SOW STALL BRED PORK

Similar to caged hens, sow stalls are extremely small enclosures where pigs are raised. Pregnant pigs can be kept for their entire 4 month pregnancy in a tiny metal stall not much bigger than the size of their bodies. Nursing mothers are similarly confined, unable to interact with their babies. If you care about animals, refuse to purchase factory-farmed products. Look for Sow Stall Free producers. Easy.

ADDED HGP (HORMONES)

Cows are injected with hormone growth promotants (HGPs) to boost weight gain in cattle. They help farmers grow bigger cattle with less feed, which reduces the cost of production. In a nutshell, HGPs boost profits. For humans, there are links from HGPs to everything from increased levels of obesity, to the lower age of puberty in girls, and so-called ‘man boobs.’ For the cows, aactivists argue that these hormones force production of milk and muscle at levels that damage the cow’s health and reproductive abilities, which is irresponsible and potentially dangerous. Europe has banned them, 95% of US farmers refuse to use them, which leaves Australia out on its own without any legislation. I know what I would buy… and it wouldn’t have added hormones.

3)  SUPPORT THE FOLLOWING CAMPAIGNS:

If you’re Australian, you need to understand that all these horrific practices happen in your beloved Dairy industry every single day. If you are in the UK, feel relieved that this happens much less, but it’s still worth being on the look out, and be especially careful purchasing Australian wool. If you live in the Middle East, take a stand against Live Exports.

BAN LIVE EXPORTS

Australia exports millions of live animals to Muslim countries each year. If the journey by ship wasn’t horrendous enough with up to 10,000 not even surviving that far, there are documented evidence of terrible abuses of animals in the Middle East and Indonesia once they get there. Sheep are regularly bought for home slaughter, trussed with rope, shoved into car boots in 40 degrees plus heat, and then face a terrifying slaughter, as their throats will be cut whilst fully conscious.

BAN MULESING

In an attempt to reduce the incidence of flystrike in Australia, the ‘Mules’ operation was introduced in the 1930s.   Skin is sliced from the buttocks of lambs without anaesthetic to produce a scar free of wool, faecal/urine stains, and skin wrinkles.  Over 20 million merino breed lambs are currently mulesed each year.  Most will have their tail cut off and the males will be castrated (‘marked’) at the same time. This surgical procedure is usually done without any anaesthetic. There is no doubt that mulesing is extremely painful. This isn’t about eating meat, this is about wearing wool products. Boycott Australian wool that is produced in this way.

SAVE BOBBY CALVES

'Bobby' is one of over 700,000 week-old calves discarded yearly as 'waste products' of the dairy industry. Most people aren't aware that in order to produce milk, dairy cows are kept almost continually pregnant. Unwanted calves (known as 'bobby calves') are sent to slaughter in their first week of life so that milk can be harvested for human consumption. Unknown to most consumers, the dairy industry continues to cut costs at the expense of animals. Right now they want to make it legal to deny calves food for the last 30 hours of their lives. Take action, join the campaign.

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.  ~Paul McCartney

*I used the Animals Australia site liberally in pulling this together, its an excellent organisation, so check it out www.animalsaustralia.org/ they have their work cut out.