offensive meat

[Richard Tarleton]

orange vegetables

They'd go well with OR's sausages

[french frank]

The problem I find with vegetarian diet is that it tends to depend heavily on imported food (where do all those beans and rice come from*?)

But that poses different problems, doesn't it? Food exports from poor countries help their economies; so do we all just eat what is home/European grown, and let everyone else eat what they produce locally?

or highly processed and packaged products.

I'm trying to think of what I eat that's 'highly processed' - tinned tomatoes???

As E-A says, I don’t think there is anything fundamentally wrong in eating meat

The argument - or an argument - is that if there are humans anywhere in the world who need to eat meat/fish to survive, it can't be said that there is anything 'fundamentally' wrong. And Esquimaux and Lapps wouldn't do very well on the vegetables in their allotments.

and dry quite a lot of runner beans but I eat them as a vegetable rather than making into a main dish.

I'm drying mine this year too. Eating too much meat - as a society - is unnecessary, and I feel people should be encouraged to eat less. That's no more than would be asked of alcohol consumption.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As E-A says, I don’t think there is anything fundamentally wrong in eating meat...

Did I really say that? I have been coming round to the conclusion that there might well be.

Re the imported food problem, I don't think it's that simple. Much of the huge amounts of animal feed (apart from grass) comes from South American plantations, including cleared rainforest.
Yesterday, by contrast, we had a meal of Filey Bay trout, with new potatoes and French beans grown in our own garden.

[doversoul1]

E-A

Did I really say that?

It was my interpretation of:
#57

Meat is similar to beans and nuts - i.e. a little lower, but still good

.
My apologies if I misunderstood it.

ff

I'm trying to think of what I eat that's 'highly processed'

I didn’t imagine your cupboard being stuffed with vegetarian sausages and vege-burgers.

Food exports from poor countries help their economies

Growing cash crop isn’t always a good thing for the local community, both environmentally (agriculturally) and socially.

I suppose the ethical or biological question of eating meat par se is a different issue from that of meat industry. I don’t know enough about it to argue either for or against. Maybe I should go and buy a couple of piglets and keep them in my back garden. But then I could never have them killed….

E-A
I thought trout was freshwater fish.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I thought trout was freshwater fish.

There are sea trout too.

[french frank]

ff

I didn’t imagine your cupboard being stuffed with vegetarian sausages and vege-burgers.

Too right. I don't think Grade I veggies would eat them either (you can get veggie bacon rashers too). I make my own nut roast when I fancy it. I don't bother with tofu or tempeh either.

[doversoul1]

Real tofu is a very good thing. A tofu-er (?) would start cooking the soy beans at three every morning and people would go to the shop with their own dish or a saucepan to buy it. Like freshly baked bread, the day’s tofu would be sold out before lunch. Then somebody invented packed tofu just as somebody did sliced bread here. You know the rest.

[Richard Tarleton]

Too right. I don't think Grade I veggies would eat them either (you can get veggie bacon rashers too). I make my own nut roast when I fancy it. I don't bother with tofu or tempeh either.

Exactly. There are two basic types of veggie food: real veggie food (a whole world of it), and meat substitute/meat lookalike veggie food, including ready meals - tasteless soya or mushroom protein with added flavouring.....