To ask you to think twice about eating chicken regularly

[Tigofigo]

...it's just not sustainable for us to consume as much as we do.

Intensive chicken farming is polluting and destroying our rivers and also potentially causing breathing difficulties and lung issues in those who live near farms spraying chicken / other animal manure as fertilizer.

Really worrying too, at a time when govt are ripping up EU regs on environmental laws that will further destroy our rivers and the animals, plants and people that rely on them (along with the shit already pumped into them...).

www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/25/chicken-farm-giant-linked-to-river-wye-decline-was-sued-over-water-blight-in-us

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/14/muck-spreading-could-be-banned-to-reduce-air-pollution

inews.co.uk/news/brexit-bonfire-environment-regulations-otters-dolphins-birds-conservationists-1875799

I agree with your opening post. Red meat is better, and tastier.

I agree the oily ones are much more delicious. Just eat the oil!

This in buckets.

You're being ripped off if you're spending £18 on a chicken OP. I grew in a farming community and still live in a rural village with a local butchers so well aware of the cost of fresh local produce. £18 for a chicken is hillarious! They see you coming a mile away.

Murdering a human is illegal so the answer to that is no.

Obviously there is a moral issue there too because executions used to happen and so the state sanctioned the taking of a human's life

Equally some people see it as not morally ok to kill animals for humans' benefit.

There are brilliant vegan/vegetarian chefs/recipes that don’t fall back on lentils tho. Surely that perception is gone? The punishing lentil for every meal vegan option!
There is a path between meat and fake meat AND one that doesn’t have lentils and pulses for every boring meal.

I cook for 6-8 people daily, I know what they like and will eat, I am not making my life more difficult by trying to change their diets to vegan/veggie crap that I know they will not eat.

I went to the butchers yesterday and spent £200 on meat this will last me now till after christmas, I have no regrets for feeding my family!

This an extremly shitty attitude to have, I dont intend to give up meat, but also I dont drive, dont fly, have one child, recycle and you think I would then give zero fucks about the environment.

I also think, we need to get over what meat we can eat, insects might be a viable way of being enviornmentally friendly but people wont do it.

Along with other meat, such as horse, rabbit, deer. guniea pig. cant eat any of those. It annoys me that some meat is better than others, and its really fucks me off that chidren dont seem to know where they meat comes from.

In all seriousness (not being sarcastic I promise) how do I navigate that with someone in the house who has a restricted diet for medical reasons?

I like lentils though. I was simply talking about my own cooking.

What other meals would you suggest which have high proteins. Im not satiated unless the majority of what I eat is protein based

Who gets to starve then, so you can eat your organic chicken etc...?

There are too many people on the planet for everyone to eat that way & without intensive farming methods not enough food to around because you don't get the same yields.

Or do we rip out all the rain forests etc... for land, because most of the land used for animal farming is not suitable for crop growing, so you can't just pull out those cows & plant a field of crops instead.

So, who gets to starve & who gets to live on a subsistence diet so you can feel better about what you eat?

It's a great theory, but in practice a lot of people will need to die for a vegan or all organic diet for the privileged few.

Nobody chooses to eat poor welfare meat, but if that is all they can afford, then they will choose to eat it rather than nothing.

How about you pay double for everything you buy, for your hairdresser, cleaner, match the cost to the NHS of every treatment you have so everyone else can live the organic lifestyle you prefer.

Or do you want everything else to stay the same but the rest of the world to struggle for something only the wealthy get to have a choice about?

Totally off topic but I've just cottoned on that Shepherd's Pie should be made with lamb rather than steak mince! Cows don't have shepherds - doh!

I agree we have to eat less meat and processed food. I also agree we have to encourage better farming. We need more education so that people genuinely value food with good provenance and don't baulk at paying for that. But no, I won't give up eating chicken.

Shepherds pie = Lamb mince
Cottage pie = Beef mince

I don't like veggie crap, its even worse than chicken and pork, I only really eat lamb and we generally have that a couple of times a week.

Intensive farming can lead to a reduction in risk of future pandemics: www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/intensive-farming-may-actually-reduce-risk-of-pandemics-experts-argue

The taste of meat doesnt disgust me in the slightest. Giving up meat is hard. Im always to-ing and fro-ing with vegetarianism and veganism because it tastes good but yet im aware of not only the environmental impact and the cruelty involved in the industry. How on earth is it cringe?
So many easy swaps that people can make now without feeling like youre missing out on anything.
I dont know why people need to be rude about it or pretend that theyre somehow worried that a veggie burger is 'processed' but a cheesy hamburger isnt?

Yes we do have to eat less processed food which is why vegan / vegetarian subs aren't a good idea for daily cooking.

I'm a vegetarian and the amount of chemicals in Quorn etc is craziness.

You do you.

Lol no.

I love chicken, it’s pretty much the only meat I eat so I’m not giving it up especially when I have it 4/5 times a week.

Those chickens are being killed whether you buy them or not.

I've got steak in the fridge for tea and will probably buy supermarket chicken in the near future - unfortunately £18 is almost two hours' wage for me and I just can't afford it.

Listen peasants, it’s diabolical that in the last 40 years or so you have been allowed to enjoy things that only the well off could once have and more frequently than just once a year.

You need to be reminded of your place and told that you have it too good. That you can eat plentiful poultry and meat or that you can enjoy travelling the world or that you can own a car. You must be put in your place. But since you won’t give it up easily, you must be shamed for not caring about the environment and told that you don’t NEED to eat chicken. You can only have what you need, only the well off should be able to have what they want.

Well said!!! 👏🙌👏

No it was the lamb / meat substitution that I was talking about.

That's a non ultra processed food item being swapped for something that mimicks meat and is ultra processed and full of chemicals.

The vomit emoji implied that the poster found meat taste and texture disgusting. 😉

A burger is generally just meat, perhaps a bit of salt,, pepper, onion, herbs if necessary

A 'veggie' burger is much more processed.

Nothing wrong with that specifically, I was vegetarian for about 15 years some decades ago but its not right to try to make out that processed vegetarian food is not highly processed, often full of palm oil etc.

Well I’m actually a completely shite cook so I love the green roasting tin cookbook, lots of throw it in the oven stuff. To add protein I put lots of nuts/seeds and dressings on my food. Not gonna lie tho @scrufffy your circumstances sound v hard and if chicken is needed it’s needed! I agree with a pp that lamb is a great option now to reduce the carbon footprint but it doesn’t take much research to see that on a comparison table vegetarian diets have a lower carbon footprint and environmental impact even if stuffed full of air freighted goods and fake meat.

Isn't there topic where vegetarians can post and leave us in peace to eat meat if we want.