Could you go fully plant based? U

[JC2021]

Any vegans/ strict vegetarians on here? Your views on climate change?

Any meat eaters ready to go green and move to a plant based diet for a better environmentally friendly planet?

The best option is plant based with as much locally sourced as possible. We need to protect animals and the environment.

Red tractor stickers don't mean shit.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-53888057.amp

theecologist.org/2018/may/30/farmings-shame-unbelievable-cruelty-red-tractor-assured-pig-farming

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/chicken-farms-ocado-tesco-thirst-moy-park-red-tractor-animal-cruelty-a9661216.html

www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/pig-farm-featured-in-undercover-investigation-served-notice-9199823/

Yep ^^

MSC fish is not great either. Not enough inspectors.

I've said many times here before, but I have worked in a slaughter house and the I've seen so many horrific injuries and needle thin animals come from Red Tractor/RSPCA approved/humane/Grass Fed farms that it just simply isn't true. The odd farmer like Derxa might manage it but she is a dying breed unfortunately.

We would kill 10.000 chickens every hour and 9.000 pigs a day, the production line ran night and day. Do you really think anyone gives a shit working with those numbers? They don't,trust me. The livestock are not fed or watered for 24/48 hours before they are transported to us. It's a horrible horrible death.

@GetInThereLewis

I've said many times here before, but I have worked in a slaughter house and the I've seen so many horrific injuries and needle thin animals come from Red Tractor/RSPCA approved/humane/Grass Fed farms that it just simply isn't true. The odd farmer like Derxa might manage it but she is a dying breed unfortunately.

We would kill 10.000 chickens every hour and 9.000 pigs a day, the production line ran night and day. Do you really think anyone gives a shit working with those numbers? They don't,trust me. The livestock are not fed or watered for 24/48 hours before they are transported to us. It's a horrible horrible death.

Not you again

GetInThereLewis

I’ve seen footage of this from abattoirs. I have friends who have seen it themselves. It’s just awful. And many of the red tractor type of assurances don’t mean anything. So many don’t actually comply all the time.

The UK asp has a shortage of workers for abbatoirs at the moment (yep Brexit). People aren’t rushing to do those jobs. So we are sending carcasses to Europe at the moment for proceasing which isn’t great for carbon emissions.

I'm plant-based but I've had my parents and various friends tell me plant protein is inferior. I was thinking that most of the animals that people in the West eat are vegan - so, cows, sheep, deer, (pigs and chickens are omni). So they are mammals, like us, and they take boring old grass and build their healthy bodies with it. So yes, we can do that and cut out the middle animal!

Nope. Couldn't live with the guilt of consigning several species to the history books. Better welfare standards is what is needed.

People disgust me - selfish ones who say 'no' they would never go plant based. Do your research! It's the only way forward to save our planet and ourselves. Education reform around food needs to happen be it in schools/media..

@Hathertonhariden

Nope. Couldn't live with the guilt of consigning several species to the history books. Better welfare standards is what is needed.

Deforestation to feed animals is leading to loss of species!

Thousands of chickens are killed and eaten each day. Those were not quality lives.

I think the same of you Derxa. This industry is running if of excuses.

@Thepennysjustdropped

I'm plant-based but I've had my parents and various friends tell me plant protein is inferior. I was thinking that most of the animals that people in the West eat are vegan - so, cows, sheep, deer, (pigs and chickens are omni). So they are mammals, like us, and they take boring old grass and build their healthy bodies with it. So yes, we can do that and cut out the middle animal!

Those animals are ruminants, as are many wild animals including giraffes and deer. They all have specialized digestive systems designed to digest grasses and high cellulose foods. They also have specialized microbiota that help in the process.

They all produce methane, not just famed animals. There are vast herds of ruminants in Africa and there are many in other places too.

Humans are not ruminants and cannot digest grasses the same way. To us it is fibre that passes through us. We cannot live on grass.

I am not saying this to be critical about vegan diets. I just think we have to be realistic about the impact overall. Even if we kill all the cows, goats, sheep etc., the Earth still supports a vast number of herding ruminants around the world.

And I have asked this before. If we all become vegan, what will happen to all the animals vegans seek to protect. I don't think too many people will keep cows and chickens as pets without using their milk and eggs.

Just a thought.

@Newgirls

It's not to me! It's my nation's food. It's clearly labelled in every supermarket with a Scottish flag.

The biggest risk to the chickens on the farm next door to us is being run down on the road when they escape the field!

What do you think of the 100 mile diet I linked earlier?

No not completely. I don't have huge amounts of dairy in my diet and am trying to limit meat which I'm not finding hard. Being vegan needs more effort and organisation than I have time for! It's much harder to get all the vitamins and mineral you need. Eating more veg and less meat/dairy is definitely good for everyone though.

@JC2021

People disgust me - selfish ones who say 'no' they would never go plant based. Do your research! It's the only way forward to save our planet and ourselves. Education reform around food needs to happen be it in schools/media..

It isn't that simple at all. If everyone went vegan there would be many other issues. Extremes in any direction tend to be bad.

@JC2021

People disgust me - selfish ones who say 'no' they would never go plant based. Do your research! It's the only way forward to save our planet and ourselves. Education reform around food needs to happen be it in schools/media..

Not true

terrywahls.com/The-Wahls-Protocol/

No. Life without cheese for me is not worth it. I do eat red meat once a month around my period as I suffer from low iron levels and my doctor is near impossible to get an appointment with so it's just easier to sort it out that way.

No. We are not meant to be plant based.We are omnivores. by trying to insist everyone be plant based you are trying to fuck with nature.

[quote stargirl1701]@Newgirls

It's not to me! It's my nation's food. It's clearly labelled in every supermarket with a Scottish flag.

The biggest risk to the chickens on the farm next door to us is being run down on the road when they escape the field!

What do you think of the 100 mile diet I linked earlier? [/quote]
The 100 mile diet would be an improvement on where we are. But isn’t workable in the Uk where we import 50% of our food.

With 60 million people in the Uk the rosy view of rural farming is smoke and mirrors. It is a fraction of the food we eat. Industrial scale farming is the MAJORITY of farming in the Uk.

@Newgirls how exactly is going plant based going to solve the problem of the UK not being self sufficient re food? The rhetoric is all “go plant based to save the planet”. Utter nonsense. Importing much less food would be a much better step. You’ve clearly got an issue with intensively raised pork and poultry. Fine, go and lobby for more extensive systems. For the vast majority of beef, lamb and dairy produced in the UK it’s family businesses using pastureland that isn’t capable of growing pulses or veg. What would happen to the Welsh hills, Cumbria or Argyll if there was no animal farming? What you and others on here are proposing is that much of our beautiful countryside is left fallow because it’s not fit to grow crops. What an environmental disaster. How about instead of telling everyone to go vegan we eat local. There is no reason we couldn’t go back to the UK being 80% self sufficient in food like we were in the 1980s. The problem is people who are happy to mostly buy imported food, and that includes a lot of those on vegan diets.

Agh! Your argument doesn’t work! I suggest you read the National Food Strategy published earlier this year. They advise more UK people to eat less meat and more plants.

I don’t think people do need to go vegan - if you read my earlier posts I said if we’d stick to eating meat once a week we wouldn’t be in this mess.

The meat industry has pushed eating more meat ‘slam in the lamb’. Consumers have chased low prices which has led to low welfare.

The farming you cite is a very small % of meat production in the UK. Yet that image of Scottish hillsides etc is used to flog low standards meat.

Pls do read the strategy. It was compiled by amazing people from unis, farming, hospitality etc

@newgirls Is that the strategy that advocates intensive farming methods as being better for the environment than extensive systems?

I really have no issue with people eating less cheap (usually imported) meat. To say the meat industry is to blame for promoting meat is very unfair. If more of us ate the terrific high welfare lamb produced on our British hills instead of it being exported to Spain where there seems to be more demand for it, that would be an amazing outcome, both for the sheep sector (hence the campaign to promote it to UK consumers) and for the environment (reduced emissions from exporting less).

Where are your stats for "the farming you cite is a very small % of meat production in the UK"? You seem to be confusing intensive pork and poultry production with that of beef, lamb and dairy that is the mainstay of UK agriculture.

Also, "Consumers have chased low prices which has led to low welfare". No, consumers have chased low prices which has led to higher imports, contributing to climate change. There isn't a country worldwide that has higher welfare standards than the UK. The problem is that the UK allows imports that haven't been produced to the same high standards that UK farmers need to comply with.

This thread was asking for views about going vegan to save the planet. It sounds like we both agree that isn't the answer.

Have you read it?