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

Anyway, this thread has made me fancy a chicken burger. 🤣

It's difficult being Veggie when you actually like meat!

@Tigofigo is the peanut butter you have palm oil free as if not you are just moving the problem from our country to another.
I don’t eat much meat, try to avoid palm oil as far as possible, recycle, use environmentally friendly cleaning products etc. but I also would never tell people how to spend their money generally let alone when there’s a cost of living crisis going on.

I personally don't eat meat but if people choose to that's up to them, but there are always so many misconceptions about nutrition etc that always rear their heads on threads like this. There are plenty of ways to get enough protein without relying on processed vegan products, just for one. Chicken has historically been a lot cheaper than red meat, but the way male chicks are killed in their millions and the cruel conditions are kept in is all for profit. Most people don't care though as long as they can buy some rotting animal flesh for a few quick packaged nicely in the supermarket. The ones that make me laugh are those that say they're animal lovers...Well clearly apart from the ones I like to live in cruel conditions and be slaughtered just for me to eat.

I agree that quorn is more about taste than health, but its still a low fat decent protein. There are much tastier and better veggie options than quorn thankfully. Its improved so much even in the last couple of years.
I love doing veganuary and discovering all the new offerings, and plenty I do stick with.
I dont know if id ever be fully vegan while i have fussy family to cook for, but I dont see why so many adults are so closed minded about it. Its hardly niche.

Few quid*

I like chicken so will continue to eat it however much I see fit

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?

A hamburger is literally minced beef, salt, pepper and some herbs and spices.

How is that processed?

Cool. Who's asked you to give it up?

I eat chicken most days. I appreciate I'm lucky as I can afford to buy it from a free range butcher but I'd still eat it if I couldn't. I can't eat the vegan substitutes or too many vegetables as I get an upset stomach so chicken, potatoes and a few veg it is. I'm not being permanently ill to stop eating meat.

To be honest, I haven't found not eating animal products difficult in comparison to knowing the suffering that animals are made to endure for me to have those things.

Hope you don't live in the Wye valley or anywhere else near any intensive chicken farming and your kids don't have breathing problems 👍

It seems to be getting harder to find high-welfare, free range chicken in the supermarkets. Some (our local Co op) don't sell it at all.

The cheap stuff is tasteless, watery crap anyway, hardly fit for eating.

Loads of pork and chicken is factory farmed. Its horrid. Cows and sheep less likely to be, but cows are really intelligent playful inquisitive social creatures and I think they are absolutely aware of whats happening to them. They are devastated to have their babies removed.

On the other hand, i watched a video of a halal sheep slaughter and the poor thing seemed oblivious. I wondered if its to do with the fact they are more often prey animals naturally?

Although i dont think any kind of commercial animal farming can be ethical.
I wouldnt have any issue with someone rearing their own food, or eating game thats been shot but lived a fairly normal life till the end.

Vegan substitute food is trash. All additives and E numbers to make things taste like real food. You are better off with those toenails.

1. Eat chicken less often
2. When you do have it, only eat organic
3. Eat the whole chicken so there's no waste

Here’s a thought - you do you and stop telling people how they should eat…

YABU. I’m not going to start stressing about how much chicken I consume when there are already a million other things to worry about. And it is unreasonable to try to change other people’s eating habits.

FWIW, I don’t eat meat every day - because I can’t afford it. I also never fly anywhere (can’t afford it), only drive when necessary (can’t afford to waste petrol), only buy clothes when old ones wear out (can’t afford frivolous spending). I could go on and on about how environmentally friendly I am (right down to using bars of soap rather than bottles of shower gel). But it’s not because I’m overly concerned about the planet, it’s because (like millions of others) my life is ALREADY low consumption because I’m skint!

I honestly think that the only people who should be allowed to try to guilt others are those who are already in the bottom 25% of the country for environmental impact. Everyone else can keep their moralising to themselves.

Marks and Spencers do a higher welfare chicken, it was the only option in there yesterday!

No
No
We do

We don't eat chicken, but I don't think it is possible for the greater public to give it up without a complete cultural change, which no one has time or energy for right now. Money wise, it's cheaper.

However there are plenty of protein substitutes which are not processed.

A lot of that vegan meat is made from wheat protein (gluten) so I don’t think it’s a healthy alternative at all.

There’s very little nutrition in a vegan diet unfortunately and however much I care about animals, I won’t destroy my health because of the society that I find myself in.

Well not you, but calls for people to try giving up meat are aplenty. Threads do tend to start discussing topics in more depth than just the OP

There are no good vegan subs, at all. They all have their own environmental issues, and they are not as good nutritionally as meat.

Yep, I’m mostly vegan for the animals and for the environment.

A book I read years ago about what really is in our food, mentioned the low-cost chicken breasts you buy in supermarkets or eat in some restaurants and how they are actually formed meat with pork protein in them.