I've been an active environmentalist for over 35 years, vegetarian for the last 26 and vegan for the last three. Four years ago my wife and I decided to make a huge lifestyle change and leave our 'proper' jobs to set up The Barn Vegetarian Guest House in the New Forest. In my blog, I aim to combine my two passions - the environment and vegetarianism. Today Veggie Places tomorrow the World!!"
My last two posts have focused on some major issues namely declining oil production, rising energy prices and the soaring cost of food staples like wheat and soya. All pretty heavy stuff but, it has to be said, they are things that have been predicted for a long time. Generally speaking, very little has been done in response to these predictions and the really big question is what are we going to do about it all now that there is a reality to the warnings of troubled times ahead?
An article I received a couple of days ago covered the interesting topic of how people react to threats and perceived risks. The key, it seems, is that we need to feel we have some sense of control over the perceived threat. Without being given this we exhibit symptoms of what psychologists call ‘learned helplessness’ - convincing ourselves that we have no control over a situation even when we do.
An interesting learned helplessness experiment is this one: People were asked to perform a task in the presence of a loud radio. For some, the radio included a volume knob, while for others no volume knob was available. Researchers discovered that the group that could control the volume performed the task measurably better, even if they didn’t turn the volume down. That is, just the idea that they controlled the volume made them less distracted, less helpless and, in turn, more productive.
I was musing on all this when I read a piece in today’s Guardian (22 March 2008) about the big rise in vegetable growing in the UK and it really made me feel good. Apparently seed suppliers have seen a big shift in the ratio of sales of seeds for flowers as opposed to vegetables. Five years ago the split was 60:40 in favour of flowers but this year it’s likely to be 70:30 in favour of veggies. And the key reasons are concerns about food miles, rising costs and people wanting to take control back over what they eat.
This is great news. All over the country UK gardeners are reacting to big environmental issues. We are now growing as much veg at home as we did during the second world war and the National Lottery has been overwhelmed by applications for grants to develop local food groups wanting to grow their own produce (the Lottery has now earmarked £50m over the next five years to promote gardening in communities and schools).
It would appear we are overcoming our feeling of learned helplessness and beginning to assert some control here. When I heard Rob Hopkins talking a week or so back about the ideas behind Transition Towns he encouraged the development of the ‘food inch’ concept. Locally grown fruit and vegetables transported only a short distance from the back garden or allotment and eaten in season.
Sounds to me like this may be the start of a really positive gentle revolution. So when the Easter snow has melted why not dust off your spade and start digging!
I don’t know how many readers heard Professor Tim Laing on the Today programme this morning. He was talking about the growing world food crisis and it made sobering listening.
The item followed on from a piece about the protests by Pig Farmers about the rise in feed costs and the drop in the price they could get for pork. There’s a perfect storm brewing. With worries about oil running out coupled with concerns about carbon emissions there is a rush to produce large quantities of bio-fuel. Such is the scale of this that over 30% of the US corn crop is now grown just for ethanol (bio-fuel). This is replicated in many other countries and, as a result, staples such as wheat and soya have massively increased in price.
So the age of cheap food is coming to an end and it is the poorest who will be hit hardest – as ever! Meanwhile the developed world is getting richer per capita is demanding more and more meat and dairy products to eat because they can afford it and large quantities of meat and dairy consumption continues to be a symbol of wealth.
Meat and dairy, as we now know, is a very bad thing for the planet. Globally its production creates more emissions than transport. It’s also very inefficient in terms of land use requiring huge acreage and massive amounts of water in comparison to growing arable crops.
Tim Laing was quite candid in saying that we all need to eat less meat and dairy products – preferably none at all. And the UK needs to use its agricultural land more effectively. We only produce 60% of the food we consume at the moment. If now is not a good time to persuade people to go veggie and preferably vegan I don’t know when would be!
This piece for my blog is a shameless book plug. But it’s not mine and I’m not on commission! I just want to bring it to the attention of as many people as I can….
The newly published ‘Transition Handbook’ is so important that I am tempted just to confine this review to five simple words ‘You must read this book!’ But to do so would, of course, completely fail to communicate its message which is, I believe, so profound and inspiring that I want to do my very best to encourage its spread far and wide.
Rob Hopkins is described on the book cover as ‘The Founder of the Transition Movement’. I would add to that that he is a superb communicator, visionary and one of the most important thinkers in our chaotic 21st century world.
Like many people I have been hearing snippets about Transition Towns for quite a while now. It seemed an interesting, if faintly ‘New Agey’, thing adopted by the usual suspects and really rather marginal at best. But now I know what it’s all about and for the first time in years I can feel genuine hope for the future.
The subtitle for the book is ‘From oil dependency to local resilience’ and that’s exactly the journey you are taken on when you read it. It’s divided into three sections – The Head, The Heart and The Hands - in other words get your mind round the need, become impassioned and then get working. It will engender very different reactions in readers depending on their current point of view and understanding. But I guarantee that everyone will feel a sense of change once they have read it.
The first section, The Head, starts with some familiar territory – climate change. Hopkins succinctly presents the key facts and issues that have gained so much attention in the last few years. He then moves on to what might be regarded as more esoteric ground – Peak Oil. Reactions to reading that term will have already occurred when you read it. For some it will be a reasonably well understood concept, for others something that has vaguely entered their consciousness, still others may not have come across it.
Wherever you stand at the moment I guarantee that you will learn more by reading this book. For the uninitiated, Peak Oil describes the point at which production of the world’s finite store of ‘liquid gold’ starts to decline in real terms. There is much debate about when this will happen, or indeed whether it has already happened. But one thing is certain – it will occur, and it will require fundamental shifts in the way we live. The price alone, of what will be increasingly scarce commodity, will dictate a radical new approach to energy and global economics
Hopkins’ feels that oil has brought with it so many wonderful things that we have become addicted to it. And he invokes the language of addiction to consider how we wean ourselves of it. The ‘cost’ of our addiction in one sense is that the nature of communities and local networks that existed pre ‘The Age of Cheap Oil’ has vanished and our current world is shakily reliant on global infrastructures powered by cheap energy.
The twin threats of climate change and peak oil, which have to be viewed together, require drastic action to prepare for a way of life that can be sustainable. This is a scary prospect but Hopkins presents a positive framework within which to undertake the changes. The Transition Town model begins with the notion of building ‘resilience’ back into our villages, towns and cities so that they can continue to function without the underpinning cheap energy we currently take for granted.
Resilience is a truly positive and dynamic concept. It urges us to rediscover the potential for local production of food, services and goods that was commonplace only a few decades ago. To rebuild the kind of networks and close links that enabled people to actually know who lives next door and talk face to face with craftsmen and food producers. To rediscover how best to make use of local resources for building.
This is no rose tinted pipe dream. There are Transition Town initiatives in place across the UK. It is a fast growing movement that makes so much sense. Importantly it is about change coming from the community upwards rather than being imposed from above. And the book is packed with ideas, examples and suggestions that will help us all to move in this direction.
I could write pages about what I have just read but the best way I can conclude is to return to my original idea and say ‘You must read this book!’
To Order your copy of ‘The Transition Handbook' ring 0845 4589910. All major credit cards accepted.
A few years ago Sandra, my partner, and I stayed at a great vegan guest house near Limerick in Eire. It was there that I was introduced to the gentle art of making soya milk. At the time, and in that part of the world, it was practically impossible to buy commercial soya milk so home production was the only option.
There are many positive reasons for doing this. For example, you know exactly what goes into the milk. Whilst commercial products are pretty good if you make it yourself you can dispense with preservatives, additives etc but you can also sweeten it or fortify it in a way that suits your taste. You also do away with the need for cartons. And you get bonuses like the Okara that’s left over from the process.
Okara is the Japanese term for the soya pulp remaining after the liquid is strained off the milk. It’s a nutritional powerhouse and there are many things that you can do with it.
For a while I made my own soya milk by hand. Soaking, then boiling the beans. But after a while I discovered soya milk makers. It’s great to get stuck in with the raw ingredients but it’s also a fairly labour intensive process (and messy too!). You can buy quite sophisticated soya milk makers now that allow you to make milk from all sorts of other foods like rice, almonds and coconut. And if you need soya milk in a hurry they can make it without having to soak the beans. See the Ethical Juicers site for products and info.
If you want to go for the traditional method I’ve included details below.
But back to the Okara. As I say it is rich in protein and such a waste if it is just put into the bin. Composting it is better but using it in a variety of dishes is best. The problem with Okara is that it is completely tasteless – rather like Tofu. So you need to flavour it to make the most of it. Now that I run The Barn Vegetarian Guest House I’ve been experimenting with ways to use the Okara to good effect for our guests. Added to many recipes it can lighten the texture (soups, gratins etc). And it can be preserved by keeping it in the fridge in an airtight container (up to a week) or freezing (three months or so).
I’ve included three recipes below but there’s a big range of options so after you have tried these let me know what you come up with…..
Oh – and if you just want to use Okara you can buy it from Oriental grocery stores in dried form. You have to reconstitute it by simmering in water.
Soya Milk
200g soya beans – fresh as possible, preferably organic and gm free
Method:
Soak the beans overnight in a bowl of water.
Drain and rinse then liquidize to a creamy consistency (1 cup beans to 1 cup water).
Bring 6 cups water to the boil in a large saucepan and then add the liquidized beans.
Bring to the boil 3 times.
Line a colander with muslin, place over a clean bowl and strain mixture through it.
Okara Croquettes
Ingredients:
60g Okara (left over from making one batch of soya milk above)
60g self raising flour
Half a small red onion peeled and finely chopped
1tsp vegan bouillon powder
1tsp mustard powder
1tbsp tamari sauce
Wholemeal breadcrumbs
Method:
Mix all ingredients except the breadcrumbs together then divide into walnut sized portions.
Coat in breadcrumbs and fry gently in groundnut oil until golden brown.
Serve with sprouted seeds and a sweet relish.
Okara Patties (Gluten Free)
Ingredients:
60g Okara (as above)
60g gram flour
3 spring onions peeled and chopped
1 chilli pepper deseeded and chopped
1tsp vegan bouillon powder
Method:
Mix all ingredients together
Divide into walnut sized pieces and fry gently in groundnut oil until golden yellow.
Serve with sweet chilli dipping sauce
Okara Crackers
Ingredients:
180g Okara
140g wholemeal flour
70g wheat germ
1tsp salt
8tbsp vegetable oil
3tbsp mashed tofu
Method:
Mix and knead all ingredients for 5 minutes
Roll out between two sheets of wax paper until 3mm thick
Place on a baking sheet and cook at 160deg C for 10 mins
Serve in place of any savoury crackers
In my last post I said I felt like 2008 was going to be a pivotal year and it certainly seems to be going that way. So far we’ve had a major announcement about increased European activity for renewable energy and China banning plastic bags. Nearer to home I was successful in getting a £3000 grant from the New Forest National Park Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund. This will allow me and other residents of the village where I live (Ashurst, New Forest) to really make inroads into plastic bag use. More about that as the Bags for the Future project progresses but if anyone wants to have some details of what we’re doing now just email me at bagsforthefuture@veggiebarn.net
This is only a short post but I wanted to end by pointing you in the direction of a couple of really interesting things from the Web. First is a great little review of vegan activity throughout 2007. Second is a site that an American visitor to The Barn told me about. The Vegan Culinary Experience is a terrific resource for those who want to extend their range of dishes and techniques. Enjoy!
Hope you all had a great Christmas and that you saw the new year in in style! Here at The Barn we had family and friends over for a New Year party with veggie (mostly vegan) food. Although most guests were omnivores there was very little food left by the end of the night and we got loads of comments about how tasty everything was despite the lack of meat. I took the opportunity to gently educate them as to the horrors of intensive livestock farming and, on the spot, at least one person decided to make a new year’s resolution to eat less meat….
Why am I telling you this? Well, I’ve had the feeling for some time now that 2008 is going to be a pivotal year. The awareness about environmental issues that has been building seems set to continue and increasingly when I talk to people they express the view that we really have got to start doing something positive.
I must admit that the news this morning (3rd Jan) was not a good start. Medway Council have voted to build a new coal fired power station and the NFU say the government is rumoured to be considering abandoning British agriculture in favour of imported food. However, despite this my personal resolution is to make change happen wherever I can.
A little while ago I wrote a piece about doing away with plastic bags. Well, locally the idea has really caught on and the New Forest National Park Authority and the Parish Council are very excited. Looks like we could be mounting a big campaign together and lots of people in the village have already said they have begun to change their habits because of what I have told them. I’ll keep you posted…..
We’ve also decided to make The Barn fully vegan to reflect the environmental benefits (amongst other things) of a plant based diet.
So that’s it – let’s make this year the year we all actually spread change by setting the example. And let’s tell people clearly about things they’d rather not hear; about meat production and the impact on the environment, about the rapidly diminishing time we’ve got to change things around etc etc
Do let me know your thoughts and what your revolutionary resolutions are. 2008 is going to be great!
Last week I went to hear David Bellamy speak at the Beaulieu Estate’s Countryside Education Trust. The title of his talk was ‘Stitching the World Back Together’ and it was a whistle stop tour of various of his activities over the years where he has used botany to repair environmental problems across the globe. There was some interesting stuff such as how to bring land back into use that had been made barren through the felling of trees which had allowed the salt in the ground to rise to the surface (this was on a low lying Atoll in the Indian Ocean).
But after his talk Prof Bellamy provided a question and answer session. This was where things got very ‘interesting’. I had known that he was somewhat outspoken on the subject of climate change but I was amazed at what he came up with. He started by asserting that there was not really a problem at all. The world has actually been cooling down since 1998 according to ‘The Jolly Green Giant’ (the title of his autobiography). In addition, he said, CO2 was not to blame for climate change. CO2 was actually a really good thing. If anything it was water vapour that caused high temperatures. On top of that Polar Bears were not having a hard time – their numbers were increasing rapidly.
Prof Bellamy laid much of the blame for misinformation at the foot of the BBC and while acknowledging that oil would eventually ran out he said that we really shouldn’t take much notice of the merchants of doom who talk of an impending man-made catastrophe.
Although there were some in the audience who were concerned by his approach (one person, a science teacher, asked what message he had for young people as the current curriculum differed somewhat from the world according to Bellamy) most seemed amused and even heartened by what he said. He got quite a laugh when saying that it was cold outside and so whatever happened to the idea of global warming! (Bear in mind this was November in the middle of the New Forest and the air temperature was hovering around zero degrees C).
Now, I’ve always been a supporter of free speech and believe that we should look into all sides of a problem before coming to a conclusion. But the fact is that 99% of the world’s scientific community is agreed on what’s happening and why. There has not been one peer reviewed serious paper that disputes the majority conclusion. The real problem continues to be that we don’t want to believe it and we’ll cling on to any shred of ‘evidence’ that we can use to justify carrying on as before. There’s little enough being done already without the likes of Prof Bellamy bolstering inaction. It’s really not what the planet needs right now is it?
If you take a walk around any road where you live I’d be amazed if you didn’t pass several plastic bags lying in the ditch, on the pavement or stuck in the hedge. Not surprising really. In the UK, between us all, we use around 17 billion plastic bags each year. Just counting those freely handed out by the supermarkets we each get through around 290.
When I say ‘get through’ what I really mean is mostly we take them home then throw them away. The average use time of a supermarket plastic bag is about 12 minutes. And then what? UK citizens recycle approximately 1 in 200 of the bags they use. And the rest? Well, scientists estimate that it will take over 400 years for a plastic bag to degrade. It’s a sobering thought that since the dawning of the age of plastic in the 1950’s almost everything that’s been produced is still here on the planet (we recycle only around 3.5% of plastic packaging).
Disposed of plastic bags and other plastic packaging is everywhere. It chokes landfill sites and litters the environment affecting and killing around 100,000 land and marine animals each year. It is estimated that almost every seabird now has some plastic in its stomach. One Fulmar found in Belgium recently had 1603 pieces inside it.
The resources used making plastic are enormous. 8% of the world’s oil production goes into plastic manufacturing. Plastic production is increasing by 3.5% a year. So it will have doubled by 2027 unless something is done.
And many things can be done. Paying careful attention to our individual plastic habits is one – always using re-usable bags for shopping etc. But I’ve also been struck by the action taken by Modbury in Devon. Modbury became the first town in Europe to become a plastic bag free community. Now 50 other UK towns, villages and cities (Bristol included) are taking steps to follow suit. You can get lots more information by going to www.plasticbagfree.com
If there was enough community based interest it would be relatively easy for many others to join this process. Maybe together we can make a small but significant difference to our communities and their environment.
According to a report in yesterday’s Guardian (29 Oct 2007) 500,000 lambs are about to be slaughtered. Most of them will simply be incinerated but some will be ‘rendered’ (lovely term) into biodiesel. The reason? Well apparently due to movement restrictions imposed as a result of the Foot and Mouth outbreak (whatever happened to that by the way?) the lambs cannot be moved off the hillsides in Wales and Scotland. The grass there is getting thin and the adult sheep need what’s left to build up their strength to have more offspring.
There is a market for ‘light lamb’ as they call it – this is whole roast young lamb in less euphemistic terminology. People in many European countries like it but there’s not a market in the UK. Because of the movement restrictions the animals cannot be taken to the places where they could be eaten.
The result is mass culling with some being used to provide bio-diesel. It’s an appalling prospect and yet another example of the consequences of industrial farming. It also raises some interesting issues over the future market for biodiesel. How many meat eaters, never mind vegetarians and vegans would be happy knowing that innocent creatures such as these are powering their vehicles?
Bet you didn’t know that did you? Well this is just one of the ‘fascinating’ items to be found on a site that was brought to my attention last week. If you want to find out what some people think about vegetarians then look no further than www.vegetariansareevil.com
For me the site shows just how misunderstood the concept of not eating meat is by many. I’m not saying for a minute that what’s there is representative of the majority view but it’s easy to forget that a lot of people find it hard to get their head round what it’s all about. And as for veganism, well I daren’t think what goes on in the minds of those who find the Vegetarians are Evil site of interest! The other day I was asked by a friend, in all sincerity, what we, at The Barn feed vegans for breakfast. He’s an intelligent guy who has worked in higher education for many years but the principles behind vegansim were so far off his mental map that he really couldn’t think what ‘ordinary’ food there could be. Have you had any recent examples of this? I’d love to hear about them……
I know there’s a regular award for the most imperfect product – so here’s my nomination for the 2007 competition.
A while ago saw an ad on the TV for a soya milk tropical fruit drink (‘Adez’ is its name). Looked very appealing so when I saw it in the supermarket I checked it out. ‘Dairy free fruit drink’ it said…..
I was on the point of dropping a carton of it into the trolley when I spotted in the small print ‘not suitable for vegetarians’. What? Yes really!
The carton revealed that some additive or whatever was derived from animal bi-products. But there was also a jolly bit of text urging me to contact their Customer Careline if I had any queries because they wanted to respond to any questions I may have about the product.
So I found the website – a sub-division of Unilever http://www.unilever.co.uk/ourbrands/foods/adez.asp. It even goes on about soya being a great alternative to animal protein. I completed an email form to ask why they didn’t make the product vegetarian and was told by the automated response that they ‘were glad I’d got my complaint off my chest and now I could relax and wait for their reply’.
I’m glad I didn’t hold my breath. That was three months ago and not a peep out of them. Honestly – how daft can you get!
Do you have any similar examples of the totally unnecessary inclusion of animal products in foods and/or poor explanations of why?
Time was when you knew where you stood in about what the major political parties stood for. Generally speaking they were on different sides of the fence and you could more or less predict what they would say about the big issues.
Not now.
Last week saw Gordon Brown entertaining Baroness Thatcher at number 10 and highlighting the similarities between them both. And the Tories published their ‘blueprint for a green world’ which calls, amongst other things, for higher taxes on polluters, changes to electrical goods to remove the standby option.
So what’s happening, is it a good thing and who are we to support? I found myself, somewhat incredulously, nodding in agreement as I read a piece by John Gummer (yes - he of the force-feeding beef burgers to his children in public to ‘prove’ they were safe!). He wrote in The Observer last Sunday “If we are to create a way of living that one planet can sustain then water, waste, transport and energy, as well as farming, food, fishing and the built environment – have to be thought of as a whole”. He’s right of course. We can’t go on treating things as if they are in separate silos if we are to really reduce the damage we are doing to the environment.
It’s what I was trying to say in my last piece about the way some campaign groups are mounting blinkered campaigns. Constitutionally the Vegetarian Society can’t really campaign on environmental issues and Friends of the Earth can’t endorse vegetarianism (with its attendant benefits for the planet) because that’s not what they are there for.
It seems to me that there’s got to be a greater convergence of thought about climate change and the environment. It’s time to dismantle the barriers between different groups and promote a single message. Precious time is being wasted on political point scoring and inter-organisational battles. Let’s act holistically.
I sense a groundswell of opinion that wants action but it’s being squashed by political and organisational inertia.
What do you think? Is this pie in the sky stuff?
I’ll finish with another quote from an unlikely source - “We do not have this world freehold, but on a full repairing lease” (M Thatcher).
I’ve come across several examples recently of large campaigning groups who seem to me to be tailoring their messages to suit their membership and ignoring what they consider to be inconvenient truths.
It is becoming apparent to anyone who is interested that there is a deep link between what we eat (particularly in the west) and the rapid degradation of the planet we all live on. The UN report ‘Livestock’s Long Shadow’ tells us that the worldwide meat and dairy industry is responsible for a lot more carbon emissions than global transport (18% as opposed to 13%). The press picked up on this and there have been various informative items across the media. Coupled with CO2 emissions is the gross inefficiency of meat and dairy production. For example it takes roughly 100 times as much water to produce a kg of beef compared to a kilo of grain and the space required to raise cattle etc is hugely out of proportion to what is needed for food crops. In short meat and dairy farming in its present form is simply unsustainable. Even the government, in the form of DEFRA is saying that the biggest single action an individual can take to help combat climate change is change to a plant based (vegan) diet.
Various groups have launched campaigns to raise awareness of the issue. Naturally The Vegan Society and Viva! are fully endorsing the message. But not all ‘the usual suspects’ are really pushing the message home. The Vegetarian Society, whilst encouraging more people to go veggie, don’t even suggest a re-think about how much dairy they eat. And Friends of the Earth, despite its membership voting at its AGM to ‘promote a plant based diet’ say nothing at all about this in their latest magazine ‘Earthmatters’.
Why is this? Are those in charge for some reason frightened that such ‘radical’ ideas might upset their membership? Or are they just not prepared to campaign outside of their ‘comfort zones’? Maybe someone could explain……
A small item appeared in the press a week or so ago about some curious research carried out by a New Zealand university. The research looked at attitudes on relationships amongst the vegan community. It found that many vegans were so turned off by the thought of consuming animals and animal products that they wouldn’t dream of having a physical or intimate relationship with an omnivore of the opposite sex. They coined the term vegansexual to describe such people.
Having been happily married for many years to someone who shares my own views on eating meat it hasn’t been an issue that’s cropped up with me. But I did start to think how, if I was single, I’d feel.
At The Barn we often have guests to stay where one partner in a couple is vegan/veggie and the other is not. Booking in with us is often described as ‘a treat’ for the veggie because most of the time they stay in non-exclusively veggie places where the catering for them is usually indifferent. So ‘mixed’ relationships clearly work and often there’s give and take – but it must be a strain if for no other reason than having to cook separate meals all the time.
I wondered whether the NZ research findings extended to vegetarians and I’d be interested in your thoughts and experiences……are you a vegan or veggiesexual
Environmental campaigners such as the great George Monbiot regularly tell us there are three things we should do to save the planet – “Don’t’ shop in supermarkets, don’t shop in supermarkets and don’t shop in supermarkets.” They’re right, of course. But in today’s western countries it’s a pretty tall order. Why? Because they are so convenient, have loads of choice and above all they are cheap (and getting cheaper).
We all love a bargain and so seeing attractive products in such abundance is hard to resist. But behind the cheery (now eco-friendly) façade supermarket companies are savagely capitalist and they are damaging predators. They exterminate competition and they squeeze their suppliers so hard that they can easily put small businesses out of action. I was talking to the wonderful people who run Beanies Health Foods the other day. They supply us at The Barn with Frys vegetarian products and B’Nice Ice Cream. They told me that the conditions they would have to meet to get their products into any major supermarket would simply bankrupt them. To get stocked in a national Health Food Shop chain (no names to protect the guilty) they had to send out £44,000 worth of goods to them for every one of their store managers to try. And even then it was a case of only ordering at the individual manager’s discretion.
Elsewhere to satisfy our desire for perfect vegetables the supermarkets pay the growers next to nothing then spend a lot of money making them look good. There was the case recently of Prince Charles’ organic carrots being rejected because they were too irregularly shaped. He blew the whistle on what they were doing. Before they stopped buying from him the supermarket in question would buy the carrots in Gloucester, then ship them to Peterborough for ‘polishing’(!!) then truck them back to a distribution centre in Bristol where they would be sent to shops in the area labelled ‘local produce’.
This entry could turn into a major thesis/rant so I must stop now. Maybe I’ll writer another piece about the environmental cost of supermarkets another time. But I’ll finish with a plea. I wouldn’t expect anyone to boycott supermarkets completely (I don’t) but do please try to reduce your reliance on them. If there’s a local greengrocer or independent health food shop then support them all you can otherwise they might not be there long. Do let me know your thoughts on this issue please…..thanks.
"I'm so glad we can start taking the animals straight to the slaughterhouse again."
So said a beef farmer on the news this evening as the government announced a relaxation on the movement of livestock in the wake of the latest Foot and Mouth outbreak.
I can’t sort out what I think about all this. On the one hand there are people whose livelihoods are threatened. People who stand to see businesses that they’ve spent years building up destroyed in an instant. On the other we have a situation where innocent animals are being slaughtered as a precaution against the spread of Foot and Mouth. A disease which, as far as I can understand, is no worse for them than a case of mild flu and which seemingly causes no threat to humans if they eat the meat afterwards.
Journalists seem to get even more melodramatic than usual at times like this and the hypocrisy of the general populous gets even stronger than usual. “Their fate was sealed as soon as the test results came back” said one. As if their fates hadn’t been sealed the day they were born to be bred for human consumption!
Apparently TV viewers were so shocked at seeing pictures of pyres of burning bodies in 2001 that the rules on disposing of dead animals had to be changed. If they could only see what goes on in the abattoirs up and down the UK then maybe the rules on eating dead animals might be changed too. Foot and Mouth brings the whole meat industry closer to people and they don’t like what they see. Maybe some good might come of the latest outbreak – or have the carnivores got short memories and once out of sight it’s out of mind again………..
A question that crops up quite often at The Barn is “why don’t vegans eat eggs?”. At first sight it does seem a little difficult. After all chickens lay eggs naturally don’t they and if they’re well looked after, given plenty of space, maybe organic feed, then surely there’s no problem…..it’s humane isn’t it?
Well actually the reality of the egg production business is quite different.
To put this in context, egg laying hens are having their female reproductive systems exploited for our selfish culinary enjoyment. All male chicks born for egg-laying facilities are useless to the industry and they are typically killed, legally, by suffocation or being thrown alive into rendering machines for feed. As a hen’s fertility wanes, industry replaces her years before her natural lifespan would end. We had a couple of Black Rock hens in our garden a few years ago and they lived happily for several years after they had stopped laying. In fact when we asked people how long a chicken would naturally live for no one actually knew because they are always killed when they have served their purpose.
Commercially, “spent hens” are frequently transported many miles away, in all kinds of extreme weather, and suffer a horrific death – destined for meat-eaters.
If the tables were turned and we were the subjugated species we would never label any part of this kind of life “humane.” To live a truly compassionate life (not to mention far more sustainable), then learn to cook delicious vegan cuisine. It’s easy and very rewarding in many ways
Like many people I have been concerned with the damage the human race is inflicting on our planet for a long time now. Now, the daily bombardment in the media is such that no one can really say they don’t know about the issue. But there are several things that bother me about the impact of the current message being pumped out.
First, although the case for the climate change deniers seems increasingly flimsy there is still a significant number of people who think that the prognosis for disaster has been exaggerated. A recent poll saw that some 60%+ felt this way. So these people are presumably less likely to take any personal action to limit their environmental impact.
Second, there seems to be a view that even if one is responsible for churning out huge amounts of carbon emissions you can make it all better by just paying into a carbon offset scheme – the environmental equivalent of a confessional with a priest! Such schemes have been recently under scrutiny and most of them are seriously flawed – even to the extent that they seem fraudulent to me.
What none of this appears to address is the undeniable fact that we’re living on a planet with finite resources. Unless we slow down our consumption the oil will run out pretty soon and other precious resources will become exhausted. We need to move from a message that simply bangs on about how we can limit the worst effects of climate change to one that talks about sustainability. The two are inextricably linked but no one’s really talking about the second issue. We have to buy less crap and wean ourselves off this stupid notion of retail therapy. One of the reasons that China is opening so many new power stations is because we, in the west, are hooked on all the electronic gizmos and gadgets that the Chinese produce.
So next time you’re browsing around the shops or surfing the Net for more things to buy just ask yourself ‘Do I really need this?’ and ‘Will I really feel better if I have it?’
I think we have to scale down our obsession with material goods or we’ll be facing up to living in a pre-industrial society sooner than any of us want.
Am I going over the top on this?
Modern industrial scale farming has produced some incredibly inhumane methods to satisfy the public's demand for cheaper and cheaper meat/animal products. Some of the worst are, thankfully, on the way out. Examples of this include the veal crate and the exceptionally cruel methods of pig production involving farrowing crates.
Battery hens tend to get the sympathy of most people. Even ardent carnivores prefer the idea of eggs from free range birds and indeed the Vegetarian Society insists on their use in any products they endorse. But very little is heard about one of the most chilling 'farming' methods for extracting maximum yields from dairy cows. 'Zero Grazing' refers to the way in which these unfortunate beasts are reared and worked. They live in vast concrete sheds without access to the open air and natural grass. As if living in an artificial environment under cover all the time isn’t bad enough constantly walking on concrete leads to widespread hoof problems including frequent abscesses. I read that at least one in three animals treated this way is lame at any one time. I also read that around two thirds of milk produced in the UK comes from zero grazed cows. It's just one of the reasons for my adoption of a vegan diet.
If you don't want to take that step, one way of being sure that you don't support this unpleasant system is to buy organic milk, cheese, butter etc. This guarantees that at least the animals have lived outdoors in something approaching humane conditions and you might have thought this would become a standard that the Vegetarian Society would have endorsed. But when we applied to add The Barn Vegetarian Guest House to the Vegetarian Society's Food and Drink Guild I was surprised to see nothing about it in the list of approved ingredients.
I asked why there were such strict rules over even which brand of free range eggs we could use but nothing (even by way of gentle encouragement) about organic milk products. I realise that there has to be a limit to the specification but the effective support of zero grazing seemed to be out of line with what the Society stands for.
The answer I got was that it would simply be too difficult for the Society and too costly for producers to require a switch to organic dairy goods. So much for principles!
Where do you stand on all this? I'd love to hear from you.......
For many years now we’ve used a variety of environmentally friendly products. We now take the opportunity of running The Barn Vegetarian Guest House as a way of testing out new ones and passing on information about them to our guests.
It’s a sad fact that so often many of the products just don’t live up to their toxic counterparts. Planet friendly Bleach, for example, is a poor relation to the traditional heavy duty stuff we all generally use. And distilled white vinegar really doesn’t shift limescale in the same way that the chemical version does.
So it’s wonderful when you find new eco products that are not only as good but sometimes better than their damaging cousins. Let me share with you a couple of examples. We’ve recently converted to the Enjo cleaning range. Enjo use sophisticated fibre technology to make a wide range of cloths and cleaners that work brilliantly. To be honest I don’t know how they work so well – it’s a bit of eco magik like the lump of stainless steel we have in our dishwasher that stops it smelling. But Enjo saves huge amounts of chemicals, water and packaging and the results are really impressive. True, the initial outlay is a lot but the cloths (a very superior version of the e-cloth) last for years and can be washed over and over. So overall Enjo probably saves money in the long run.
Another great little gadget we’ve found is Interflush. This was invented by a wonderful man from Yorkshire as a way of dramatically cutting down on water usage. It allows you to control pretty precisely the amount of water you use each time you flush the loo. It only works with siphon cisterns (those with a front handle rather than a push button). We’re on a water meter and our bill has reduced by around 20% since installing these devices. So hundreds of litres of water have been saved and the Interflushes have more than paid for themselves.
Do you have any gadgets, products or ideas to share?
A couple of weeks ago my partner and I attended an awards event for the Hampshire and IOW Sustainable Business Partnership. The Barn Vegetarian Guest House had been shortlisted as a finalist in the Small Business Category. As is customary we were asked if we had any dietary requirements and I told them that we were both vegan. A week or so before the event I double checked that we were going to be catered for and was assured that the hotel (a four star 'posh' country hotel) said they were fine about doing a vegan dinner.
The event was disappointing. It seemed to revolve around the sponsors who were largely big businesses trying to clothe themselves in a green mantle by supporting the awards. The programme for the evening had acres of print about the sponsors (12 pages in all) while the shortlisted businesses (around 15 or so) got two pages. We were also given the most astonishingly poor meal. We had a starter of melon with some very sweet berries followed by a small white wrap with some red peppers inside and a dry 'salad' of lettuce and tomatoes. Dessert was fruit salad in sugar water. No protein to speak of and no real thought or imagination. And hardly sustaining!
I suppose it's what we might have expected but it's just typical of the mainstream catering industry. Vegetarians are often tolerated but usually fobbed off with a vegetable lasagne or mushroom stroganoff. Vegans are generally a step too far and, if they're lucky, get offered the kind of meal your average rabbit would enjoy. You then get charged a similar amount to people who have tucked into several ounces of steak!
I'd love to hear about the worst meal you've been subjected to in a restaurant or hotel.....
Oh - and no, we didn't win. But just as well really the sponsors of the Small Business Award were the international space and civil defence firm that own the company making the European Airbus - how appropriate......
I never cease to be amazed by how easily people can ignore facts that stare them in the face. You know, like cooing over the baby lambs and calves then tucking into a plateful of one or the other without a qualm. I don't know what it is, selfishness, lack of thought or just lack of any real principles. But I hear it all the time and when you point out the inconsistencies in what they are saying and try to educate them about the real story behind what they are eating they tend to get angry and say 'I don't want to know'. And I think that's probably it - as Al Gore has it it's an inconvenient truth.
Another big example of an inconvenient truth is the link between our environment and how we feed oursleves. In all the information (and let's face it there's been a lot lately) being pumped out on climate change I've seen loads of concern about flying and driving but precious little about the contribution of the meat industry to the sorry mess we're in. According to the UN the meat and dairy industry contributes a whopping 18% of the world's carbon emissions compared to transport's 13%). But are we advised to cut down or cut out our meat intake to save the planet like we're advised to change our lightlbulbs and dig out our bicycles? Well - we might be soon. Go to http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=42256 to see a heartening story indicating that that advice may well be on its way.
Is this the start of a breakthrough? Will people take notice? What do you think?
Previously
Turning food miles into inches!
Plant based diets increasingly important as World Food Crisis grows
“Transition Towns, Resilience and Weaning the world off oil dependency”
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