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[rosiedoes]

Vegetarianism, then: something I never really thought I'd gravitate to. To any extent.

However, I've lately made the choice first to restrict the meat I eat to ethically farmed sources, and more recently, I've stopped buying meat products from the supermarket altogether. Don't get me wrong, I love meat and seafood, I really do (especially the seafood) - there is absolutely no squick behind this decision. I'm doing this because of the way the animals are farmed and the greed of the meat industry itself; there is an on-going pressure to force down meat prices so they are virtually unsustainable for the farmers and inhumane for the animals. I've chosen not to personally buy into that and help promote farming on such an enormous scale, which is ultimately detrimental to the farmers producing the end product anyway. (A recent programme here in the UK revealed that the average chicken farmer selling mass-farmed roasting chickens which would be sold for around £2.50 in the supermarkets would only receive 3p per chicken.)

So, I've started trying out the vegetarian substitutes (Quorn escalopes are not my favourite :|) and figuring out for myself what exactly I'm going to exclude from my diet, devising my own set of rules for acceptability.

I have no problem with eating meat from small farms, where the animals are at least treated with a certain respect and the sale of the produce is generally fairer on the farmer (on-site farm shops=major bonus), but living in London, as I do, finding and affording such products seems to be relatively impossible. The fact that I'll be moving to Hove in East Sussex, with Julie, will probably aid this to some extent as the south coast is lined by countryside and not surrounded by mile after mile of concrete.

I would love to have the same self-sufficiency and respect for food sources promoted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (one of our country's main proponents of eating with conscience), but my chances of ever owning a small holding are slim, and frankly, I'm too lazy - so I'm going to have to do this as a lowly city dweller.

So my main rules will have to be:

- if it had a face, I'm not buying it from a supermarket (unless it's a jammy biscuit);
- if it had a face, but I can be sure of the source and know that it was generally ethically farmed, I will consider buying from respectable local suppliers;
- if it contains egg (such as mayonnaise) it must be from free range (thank you Hellmanns)
- where dairy is concerned, soya products are always preferrable, however, vegetarian-approved cheese is also acceptable if necessary (I haven't explored the cheese issue, as yet, but I already use soya milk rather than dairy and have done for some time).

As I already mentioned, shellfish - especially oysters and prawns - are my favourite foods. They're a peculiarly ambiguous category, because they don't have a face but they do seem to have greater cognitive activity than say, a potato. For this reason, I'm going to categorise them under meat; which means no 'fresh' packs from the supermarket. I generally only eat oysters at restaurants anyway (which creates my next issue) but prawns I will usually eat at least once a week; it'll be a strange change to my diet to rule them out.

On the matter of restaurants, is it okay to eat meat or fish at restaurants, as I haven't purchased the original product myself? I suppose it's similar to the argument presented by edgiko on the matter of vegans purchasing second-hand leather: it's acceptable because the individual has not directly contributed to the original demand for the product.

I think this is one to test when I next eat out at a restaurant and see what I can find out from the staff and weigh it up in my conscience then...

The thing is, I am not calling myself a vegetarian - I want to make that clear, because I don't want to steal the thunder of the people who do dedicate their lives to the lifestyle, as I have a lot of respect for them (unless they call themselves 'pescatarians' or 'vegetarians who eat fish' in which case they can fuck off and die) and I don't want to be a hypocrite.

The ultimate concern here, is to not actively contribute to the meat industry - human beings are designed to consume meat, that's how we've evolved, but we did not evolve because of factory farming.

So, this is kind of a big thing for me, so I've actually decided to blog the process and record my experiences of exploring vegetarian products, recipes and finding respectable sources.

If anyone is interested, it's over at wordpress, under Not If It Had A Face... (and lordgroovius made it a feed! notifithadaface)

Comments

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

You're all-round fucked, basically, aren't you?