How much meat do you eat?

[lanya]

Recently I've noticed in my circles that pretty much everyone is cutting back on meat due to environmental/ climate reasons.

Most people I know aren't vegetarian, but are more aware/ more careful about the amount they eat, e.g. only once or twice per week.

I am wondering whether this is the case generally across the UK, or if most people are carrying on as normal?

YABU: We are eating the same amount of meat as we always have.
YANBU: We have reduced our meat intake over the last few years for climate reasons.

Disclaimer: This isn't any kind of brag or meant to be condescending - I'm just curious.

@BiologicsBeforeIdeology But for those of us who live rurally, it is easy to source meat that is not factory farmed. Each year I buy half a lamb that has grown up in the fields beside my house. The smallholder is my neighbour. I buy venison, duck & pigeon breast from the town butcher, which comes from the local estate.

Veganism is not the only answer. I simply choose a known and trusted source.

None. Haven't eaten meat for 30 years. I do occasionally have fish though.

None. Haven't eaten meat for 30 years. I do occasionally have fish though.

Rarely eat meat for breakfast, but I have it every lunch and then again in the evening, if fish counts as meat. I don't have any intention of stopping or cutting back.

You can't compare with the past as now any chicken I'd want to eat costs more than the cheaper cuts of local beef or wild venison. Red meat is the more affordable option for me. We don't do a Sunday roast, we go for less meat over more days, one pot style. Number of days is meaningless.

Nobody needs meat. I've been veggie for 33 years and perfectly healthy. People like to eat it.

I eat meat often it's delicious. I try and buy good quality high welfare meat.

Absolutely your choice and I would never comment on anybody's diet.
It was purely misinformation presented as fact which I took objected too.
A well balanced vegetarian diet can meet all dietary needs just as much as a meat eating diet can. That's all.

Well the world wouldn’t go vegan overnight. As the demand dropped, less animals would be bred to be killed.

None except occasional fish. The overuse of antibiotics in the farming industry really worries me for increased antibiotic resistance.

Also my mum has terminal bowel cancer and the link to red meat consumption is enough to put me off ever starting to eat meat again.

In environmental terms imported plants are better than local animal products as most emissions are generated at the production, not transfer stage.

The carbon footprint of a plant based diet is lower. All peer reviewed research shows this. Most emissions are generated at the production, not transport stage. An area the size of Yorkshire is used to grow food for pigs in the UK and much of what is fed to farmed animals here has been grown in deforested areas.

The videos aren’t trying to make people feel guilty though, this is literally what you pay for when you buy animal products? It’s not like it’s a lie that pigs scream in gas chambers, or that male chicks are gassed or ground up at a day old in the egg industry, or that lambs painfully have their tails removed and the 100s of other horrors we perpetuate on these beings. If it was happening to dogs nobody would argue against our right to stand up for them.

It's never going to happen either way 🤷‍♀️

Actually some do

Is there anything you haven’t found a good switch for yet? Might have a suggestion.

It is for some people. I started to feel like shit having to stop dairy and soya (for now) as my daughter has allergies. I've upped my meat intake and starting to feel so much better. Feel more human. Plus I wouldn't feel very full on a vegan diet. So it's not for me

Most weeks we only eat meat for dinner for one meal (batch cooking means we might eat this meal for a few days though). I usually only buy one pack of meat per big shop and often buy none at all. Almost always chicken or fish, rarely red or processed meat. We eat a lot of Tofu, lentils, Chickpeas etc.

This is equally down to environmental, cost and personal preference reasons. I'm a good cook and really like a lot of veggie and vegan recipes.

none
Been a veggie for the last 37 years.
Easy

I eat meat pretty much every day.

I’m Autistic so I only eat what I consider to be “safe foods” and I tend to eat a lot of chicken. I do eat other meats, but chicken is the one I eat most, as it’s quite tasty and is a good source of nutrients, e.g. protein etc. especially for someone with a restricted diet. I do like red meat on occasion, but not regularly. I also am partial to a bit of fish, or prawns.

Well if that’s the case then there’s no need for the question “what happens to all the cows”. But people always seem so concerned that the broken bodied animals we exploit and slaughter might go “extinct”. They are not natural species anyway, for example chickens bred and killed for meat have been selectively bred to gain weight at an exponential rate so they can be gassed at weeks old and generate maximum profit. Of course it’s not actually healthy to gain weight like that and some of them cannot even stand by the end.

Every day. Usual day would involve eggs for breakfast, chicken breast in some form for lunch and maybe beef / lamb or salmon for tea.

Indeed. If we can't stand to see the reality of how the meat ends up on our plates we shouldn't eat it. I think we do need to face facts about what we eat.

And the conditions the people who manufacture our goods live in for that matter.

I don't want to see it, I just want to benefit from it is cowardly.

If we (myself included here) are going to have these things we should at least have the balls to see exactly what we paid for.

What about people with allergies or stomach conditions that mean they can only eat a very limited number of foods?

And again, your diet your choice.
Individual anecdotal experiences don’t change the numerous respected clinical studies widely accepted throughout the world that a vegetarian diet is able to meet all dietary requirements for humans.
I am not here to convert anybody. I just don’t like opinions represented as fact which was the cause for my original comment.