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| So you are going to eat me because I taste good?... or not because I have gas? |
I am struggling with a decision. That is quite an admission from me the
most decisive person in the world… most of the time. I am wondering about becoming a vegetarian?
There are many reasons that go back a long
way, but I’ll start with my trip to Bath over the bank holiday. I had a crazy few days teaching a
course, getting my three young children ready to go to their grandmothers for
the weekend and then getting the house ready to leave. You know leaving for a long weekend is
as much work as leaving for a month, but my husband and I haven’t had a weekend
away or even a day away together for over two years .. so a romantic break was
so very welcome.
I initially thought my backache was just an
over doing it thing and tried to ignore it. We were heading along south on the motorway making good time
to Somerset when suddenly the pain ramped up. I made my husband to stop and the service station and with
in minutes I was lying on the service station floor quite literally out of my
mind in terror and the most murderous pain imaginable.
I’m not sure how long the ambulance took to
come, but I was beside myself. I
spent the next 6 or so hours in Swindon A & E. There is some black humour
in pain and terror. I can laugh about it now, but I was literally screaming in
agony, and my language was blue … although
I did manage to tell the paramedic that he was the best looking ambulance
driver I’d ever seen. Gas and air
and co-codamol were my only pain relief.
I passed out with the sheer pain several times. I wanted to die.
Then in
the early hours almost as suddenly as it started, it stopped. It turns out that I had a kidney
stone. I might add here that
firstly it would have been nice to know that I wasn’t going to die a few hours
earlier and I am certain that the staff had a good idea what was wrong because
they were pretty laid back and relaxed about my utter and absolute agony. I also feel very angry that as junior
doctor discharged me he shrugged his shoulders and wondered out loud why I
hadn’t been given anything more for the pain. Now I want to know why for hours
I was not alleviated. It seems unbelievable that people could listen to my
pleas and despair and ignore me. Is there any point is even asking when most hospitals are
don’t seem to be held accountable for
wicked neglect and outright cruelty of the elderly and weak in recent
news?
I digress.
We left the hospital about 4am went
straight to the nearest a travel lodge. We decided the next morning to go on with our romantic
weekend away. We were both
physically and emotionally shattered, but we had reservations at the Ethicurean. I looked up kidney stones along the way
and one of the main recommendations was to drink lots more water and to reduce
meat, fish and salt. Oh and
chocolate.
We had a delicious and relaxed lunch at The
Ethicurean, which I am going to save to write another post about because it was
lovely, but I chatted with my meat-loving husband during lunch about the
possibly becoming vegetarian. The
pain still fresh in my mind the idea of having more kidney stones was (and
still is) terrifying, but my husband was not keen on the idea of
vegetarianism … at all. In fact he was really very plain speaking
and it was not a romantic answer!
Despite my carnivorous husbands point of
view, it is not just about health. It is also that as a Buddhist I have been
struggling with the morality of eating meat. Yet
this is not straightforward either as there are opposing views within Buddhism
as to whether vegetarianism is actually a requirement. Some schools of Buddhism
reject such a requirement outright. The first precept in Buddhism is usually
translated as "I undertake the precept to refrain from taking life".
Some Buddhists see this as implying that Buddhists should not eat meat, whereas
others argue that this is not the case. Some Buddhists strongly oppose meat
eating on the basis of scriptural injunctions against flesh-eating in Mahayana sutras.
However it seems from what I have read that Buddha accepted
any food offered with respect as alms, including meat yet there is no reference
of him eating meat during his seven years as an ascetic. Nowadays various
writings have been interpreted as allowing the consumption of meat as long as it is not
specifically slaughtered for the recipient. It is the one area I struggle with,
and although I have pretty
much given up alcohol, a burger or a bacon sandwich is a real temptation for
me.
My ten-year-old daughter was vegetarian for
six months and gave up at my insistence when she became listless and grey,
despite my being very careful to make sure she was getting enough nutrients and
protein. She hates the idea of
eating animals and gets really upset at eating creatures that have feelings and
personalities and I can’t say I feel much differently …. until right at that
moment when I am presented with a delicious meal. The carnivore in me argues that the animal is already dead,
and it would be disrespectful to the animal that has been sacrificed to waste
the food.
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| I believe really strongly in supporting our British farmers |
One of my strongest principles, especially being brought up on a farm, is believing with all my heart in supporting
our British farmers and ensuring the welfare of animals.
On the other hand I am an environmentalist and lover of Fairtrade food so it doesn’t take much research to find out that livestock farming is responsible
for almost 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions, and that nitrous oxide is
almost 300 times as damaging to the climate as carbon dioxide and 65% of the
total quantity produced by human activity comes from livestock, mostly their
manure, and thats before we look at methane which has 25 times the global
warming impact of carbon dioxide and a single cow can produce 500 litres of
methane a day. Globally cows and sheep are responsible for 37% of the
total methane generated by human activity. Oh and carbon dioxide is emitted when forests are
cleared for grazing or for growing grain to feed animals. Fossil fuels
are then used to transport animals and to power the production of their feed further
polluting our air.
I did consider becoming a pescatairian but that doesn’t seem
to be the answer either with 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises killed
every year as ‘by-catch’ of the fishing industries and 19% of major commercial
marine fish stocks monitored by the FAO overexploited, 8% are depleted and
1% ranked as recovering from depletion it is not an environmentally safe option either.
The over-fishing, by-catch, climate
change, invasive species and coastal development have resulted in a decline in
the number of marine species, such as sharks, seabirds and turtles too. So back as square one as an environmentalist I came to the conclusion that becoming vegetarian is the answer until I read another report in The Telegraph that
suggests that here is strong evidence that a major increase in vegetarianism
could threaten British farming causing meat production to move overseas where
there may be less legal protection of forests and uncultivated land. According
to a study by Cranfield University, commissioned by WWF, the environmental
group. They found that a
substantial number of meat substitutes – such as chickpeas, soy, and lentils
are actually more harmful to the environment overall because they were imported
into Britain from overseas. The study says "A switch from beef and milk to
highly refined livestock product analogues such as tofu could actually increase
the quantity of arable land needed to supply the UK." I’ve been reading in another article
that this showed that the amount of foreign land required producing the
substitute products – and the potential destruction of forests to make way for
farmland – outweighed the negatives of rearing beef and lamb in the UK.
I have come to the conclusion that the solution must lie somewhere in between
the two. Flexitarianism is a semi
vegetarian diet. Perhaps just eating the occasional local well cared for meat
from my local butcher and seasonal sustainable fish is the answer?
But I am wondering is flexitarianism really the
answer or a just cop out?
