We can’t afford not to take this step.

A few years ago George Monbiot advocated veganism, then backtracked, but has over the last year or two consistently declared that if we want to save the planet, its other beings and ourselves, the ONLY way to do it is via a plant-based diet.

As someone who hasn’t eaten meat or fish since I was a teenager, and has been predominantly vegan for 5 or 6 years now, of course I’m in favour.

There are paths we can afford to take. There are paths we can’t afford to take. There are paths we can afford not to take, and there are paths we can’t afford not to take. This falls into that latter category.

Leaving on one side how we might feel about creating such enormous suffering for animals (my own initial reason for stopping eating them), we know that environmentally there is no choice now. Monbiot backs up his words with informed references.

I’d just raise two provisos in relation to his article below: yes, eating soya directly is a much more efficient way of using land, and of feeding ourselves protein. However, it’s worth sourcing soya that is a) not genetically modified, and b) relatively local (we can grow it here in Europe. AND if you are a post-menopausal woman, it might be worth limiting your intake as it can deactivate the thyroid if eaten in quantity. There are many beans that contain plenty of essential nutrients that we can grow in Britain, and freeze for winter. We grow pea beans, cobra, borlotti and broad beans (cobra can be frozen green; the others we shell and freeze).

The other thing I’d raise is that we need to be really certain that we don’t, collectively, use Monbiot’s words on the rearing of free range animals (more inefficient in terms of land use etc) to justify a further move to factory farming.

Now read on…

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Defending the living world and its people requires a shift from meat to a plant-based diet By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 8th June 2018 Whether human beings survive …

Source: Butchery of the Planet