During January 2008 I went no-meat. Very easy to do at home as we've never been great meat eaters, not so easy to do out and about. A few raised eyebrows and some genuine interest.
Eating out was easier than I expected, but still not that great. A day in Brighton was a real pleasure, with plenty of scope for non-meat eaters but locally, as I fully expected, not so easy. I look back over the past thirty years and still wonder quite how much progress we've made to make vegetarianism easier.
As a result of my no-meat month, I have committed to continuing to be no-meat by preference.
My goal - minimise animal-based consumption - ideally to eliminate animal-based consumption but doubtless I'll consume products that include animal-based contents without being aware of it.
My reasons - improve animal welfare by not consuming and reduce my environmental impact - meat-based diets are estimated to require three times the resource that non-meat diets required - check this out.
My existing leather-based goods - a possible contradiction here. I will continue to use these as they are of good quality and sustainable, and there's nothing I can do now about the animals involved. In addition, if I replace them, some of the alternatives will be produced using less sustainable and/ or environmentally-damaging materials. A question I will need to resolve for the future is what alternatives there are if I need to replace any of these goods if they prove unrepairable.
My unresolved issues - for example, the ethics of cows' milk production; the use of gelatine in my daily medicines; I continue to eat fish but not meat; the use of meats in our cats' food; what other animal-derived products are hidden in other foods?
My critics - without passing comment or judgement on other peoples' choices, people seem on occasions to become very defensive by starting arguments or telling me I'm wrong. Interesting.
I'll let you know how the year goes! Check out my blog site.
