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Meat or Veg?
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Meat or Veg?
People on a meat-free or meat-reduced diet, who were once a very small minority of consumers, are ever more commonplace
In a recent survey, The Beginner found that the restriction of meat partially or altogether is a growing trend. Although many readers said they were eating meat frequently (31%), the proportion of vegetarians (23%) and vegans (15%) is significant. The number of voters opting for the ‘Eat meat sometimes’ is equally high (23%) and only 8% said that they ‘Hardly eat a meal without meat’.
The debate on whether it is better to be a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian continues and people in both camps have, for the most part, dug their heels into the dirt and swearing by the benefits of being a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian respectively. Yet when an exception does occur, it is more often a meat eater becoming g a vegetarian than the other way around.
In many societies, controversy has arisen over the ethics of eating animals. A major part of this argument is that consuming meat is no longer a necessity for most people living in the developed world, making the slaughter of animals just to please human taste buds morally unjustifiable. Additionally, with a global population surge that is predicted to hit nine billion people by 2050, western tastes for diets rich in meat and dairy products are thought to be unsustainable.
Medical professionals have demonstrated the legitimacy of a plant-based diet, while undercover investigations have exposed the horrors of factory farming and pandemic flus and mass recalls of contaminated animal products have shaken public confidence in animal agribusiness. Vegetarian restaurants, food products, and cookbooks are proliferating as more and more celebrity vegetarians are speaking out for the cause. All of these factors have certainly helped to place the issue of eating meat in the public spotlight.
In May 2009, the Ghent City Council in Belgium attracted worldwide media and public attention when it announced that it would promote one meat-free day a week to encourage the city’s inhabitants to reduce their contribution to climate change and, simultaneously, boost their health. Since then several cities around the world have followed this initiative. Perhaps it is time for households around the world to introduce the same initiative?