http://whoar.co.nz/2008/going-veggie-can-slash-your-carbon-footprint/

phil(whoar.co.nz)

..so those of us without crohns’ disease..and whose skin synthesises vitamin d should be ok..?

..(with the exception of anaemic-katie of course..!..)..

..and of course..i must be ‘allergic’ to flesh/fat/n’ sinew..

..cos’ eating it would cause instant recycling..

..phil(whoar.co.nz)

My skin doesn’t synthesise vitamin D, so I have the choice of eating meat (or better, fish), or taking nasty chemicals or dietary supplements like cod liver oil that are extracted from dead animals anyway.

I had about two years of attempting to be vegetarian (not vegan - I still ate cheese and free-range eggs) back in the 1990s, but I got very sick from it.

So I choose to eat meat. Chicken is an occasional luxury for me though, because I will only eat organic, and they cost about $16 for one chicken.

I understand that a diet including meat is also very important for people who suffer from bowel problems such as Crohn’s Disease.

It was interesting to compare the supermarketers’ attitudes to Jamie’s questions, with the experience of shopping with Sue K out at Pak’n'Save last week.

Much bigger consumer variable in the UK, obviously!
Some of the looks on the nice plump ladies’ faces were a wonder to behold …

We got away with discussing the conditions under which chicken carcasses are mechanically rendered, in the shop, standing by the fresh chicken packages on the chiller shelves.
Not a single staff member was obliged by management to stop us from scaring the punters!

Organic chicken is beyond my budget, so I guess I’m just an economic vegetarian. Yes, I do buy free range eggs!

And for fun, I’ll respond to Phil’s:
why aren’t you vegan yet..?

Because I get terrifically anaemic, on top of the other food allergies that limit my diet, so I still eat some cheese and eggs.
(cheese only as an extravagance, lately!)

To start with it actually costs a lot less to eat vegan food than it does to eat any eggs or meat. Nuts, beans pulses and lentils are a cheaper source of protein.

Using those on low income as a means of promoting inhumane treatment of animals is a particularly low trick. The current ideology of global capitalism is that absolutely everything, humans, animals and the environment, shoudl be sacrified in the interest of achieving higher production and profits. With this in mind, we do free trade deals with countries with minimal worker and environmental protection, ensuring New Zealand workers lose their jobs; companies simultaneously rack up enormous profits and shed staff; keeping unamployment high is deliberate government policy in order to keep inflation down, which is good for business; the WTO actively discourage any tarriffs based on environmental responsbility.

So having made sure we create a large underclass in a land of plenty like New Zealand, we then use them as an excuse to make even more obscene profits by exploiting animals as much as we can, and think that one type of oppression justifies another.

This also BTW exposes the fallacy of thinking that environmental problems can be solved in a vacuum, that the Greens can somehow be a single issue party focussing solely on the environment without taking into account the social and economic structures that lead to environmental degradation in the first place.

I thought he was a bit hard on the consumer. His logic suggested that the chicken & egg producers are beaten down by the superdupermarkets, and the supermarkets are beaten down by ignorant or mean customers.

One of the supermarket ladies said they were “planning” to remove battery eggs from their shelves by 2010. Oliver asked “why not sooner?” she said “it’s hard” and he said “right.” Seemed to miss the point a bit.

He also only very lightly skirted around the topic of industry rules and regs, which of course is at the heart of the matter. There was an implication that the European regulations are too light, but this seemed one side of his discussion which was firmly lodged at the bottom of the too-hard basket.

I thought michelle hewetson’s review in the herald a bit mean too. Maybe she’s a battery hen lover.

Oh yeah, and tastying up his chicken breasts in bacon rashers seemed to be inviting criticism … I believe the pork market is as bad, or worse?

Therein lies the crux of the problem.

Jamie is preaching to the converted, people that have enough $ to buy free range/organic produce and want their superiority confirmed and lauded.

Those on low incomes are equally aware of the horrors of battery farming (perhaps more aware as they are much more likely to have direct contact with factory farms and slaughterhouses) but don’t have the financial means to purchase the more expensive produce. They don’t have a choice.

Hopefully this will change as organic/compassionate farming becomes more mainstream and expected by consumers, but at the moment producers and retailers know that such produce fetches a premium, which those that can afford it are willing to pay (not only for reasons of environmental concern, but often as a status symbol too).

As great as it would be expecting everyone to raise their own chooks isn’t really feasible!

For the rest of us, imagine how this might have looked with a pig…
Or a cow.

That’s what’s caused by eating meat.