Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Prominent Guardian Environment Reporter George Monbiot, who sometimes shows up at prominent climate events, no doubt after a long journey by sail, has decided to eat Vegan supplemented with Roadkill to “reduce his impact” on the global climate.
I’ve converted to veganism to reduce my impact on the living world
The world can cope with 7 or even 10 billion people. But only if we stop eating meat. Livestock farming is the most potent means by which we amplify our presence on the planet. It is the amount of land an animal-based diet needs that makes it so destructive.
An analysis by the farmer and scholar Simon Fairlie suggests that Britain could easily feed itself within its own borders. But while a diet containing a moderate amount of meat, dairy and eggs would require the use of 11m hectares of land (4m of which would be arable), a vegan diet would demand a total of just 3m. Not only do humans need no pasture, but we use grains and pulses more efficiently when we eat them ourselves, rather than feed them to cows and chickens.
This would enable 15m hectares of the land now used for farming in Britain to be set aside for nature. Alternatively, on a vegan planet, Britain could feed 200 million people. Extending this thought experiment to the rest of the world, it’s not hard to see how gently we could tread if we stopped keeping animals. Rainforests, savannahs, wetlands, magnificent wildlife can live alongside us, but not alongside our current diet.
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Then something happened that broke down the wall of denial. Last September I arranged to spend a day beside the River Culm in Devon, renowned for its wildlife and beauty. However, the stretch I intended to explore had been reduced to a stinking ditch, almost lifeless except for some sewage fungus. I traced the pollution back to a dairy farm. A local man told me the disaster had been developing for months. But his efforts to persuade the Environment Agency (the government regulator) to take action had been fruitless.
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I still eat roadkill when I can find it, and animals killed as agricultural pests whose bodies might otherwise be dumped. At the moment, while pigeons, deer, rabbits and squirrels are so abundant in this country and are being killed for purposes other than meat production, eating the carcasses seems to be without ecological consequence. Perhaps you could call me a pestitarian.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/09/vegan-corrupt-food-system-meat-dairy
I quite like Monbiot, or at least I find him more entertaining than most greens.
Sometimes he shows a flash of common sense, such as when he defended nuclear power in the wake of Fukushima. Then he goes and blows it by saying something wild, such as telling everyone the corrupt media are keeping the end of the world a secret.
At least Monbiot is going to get enough protein, unlike some Vegans I know. The number of wild deer currently running around the British countryside, and all those impatient drivers trying to beat the rush, Monbiot is not going to starve – unless increasingly punitive British attempts to price driving out of reach of ordinary people finally succeed in clearing the roads of traffic.
Buzzards, maggots, Monbiots, the carrion-eaters, the lowest of life forms.
[Please. Do not gratuitously and arbitrarily continue to insult perfectly functional buzzards and maggots on this site. .mod]
If ever an example of how failing to eat sensibly were needed in order to highlight mental insufficiency, Monbiot is that example. Animal fat & protein provide all the materials we need. About half our brains and nervous systems are composed of complicated long-chain fatty acid molecules, which are also used by the walls of our blood vessels. Without them, we cannot develop normally. These complicated fatty acids do not occur in plants, but simpler forms do exist. (Crawford M. Crawford S. “The food we eat today” Spearman, London 1972).
Herbivores eat grasses & seeds & they convert these simpler fatty acids into the complicated molecules we need. Thus it makes sense for us & other meat eaters to eat herbivores. Monbiot struggles to make sense of the world because of his diet. Perhaps Monbiot’s new penchant for depriving other meat eaters of road kill, will demonstrate to Guardianistas, the ruinous cognitive dissonance of one of their favourite scribblers?
“ruinous cognitive dissonance” Wa-a-ay too many syllables for their favourite scribblers…
So, shall I sum this up by saying that there is an awful lot of very strange feeling of antipathy and rather bizarre repugnance of vegans? Some of the comments border on salivating hatred and loathing. It’s been a great lesson in psychology, though.
And no, I’m not a vegan. And by the way, neither is Monbiot, obviously. Odd how many commenters never picked that up, but were too focused on beating vegans up.
You don’t get it. Commenters aren’t freaked out by a non-meat diet. That’s a personal choice any here might make for good and sufficient personal reasons. What gets under the skin of most people is the sanctimony that professed vegans (and most other zealots as well) dish out, frequently hypocritically. The obvious and ludicrous disconnect Monbiot expresses in his article about what he is talking about and the link he draws is what commenters are sneering at. His article is so two-dimensional you could slip it under any closed door anywhere.
No, Paul, I do get it, you don’t. Sanctimony I fully understand. Abhorrance and dislike for someone’s choice of diet is just plain weird…and very common. I’m a vegetarian, you see, have been for 32 years…and I’ve heard it for 32 years. And no, I don’t preach because I don’t care if people eat animals. The principle form of abuse I’ve received is that I may be gay…even though I’ve been happily married for 29 years. Seriously, Paul, you don’t know. Even my wife has heard it. People are just soooo odd.
Jeez, bazz, that’s some real tough talkin’ yuv got there: “very strange feeling of antipathy”…”bizarre repugnance”…”salivating [nice touch, bazz!] hatred and loathing”…”great lesson in psychology” [the ultimate, good-comrade gut-punch!]
I can merely speak for myself, bazz, ol’ sport, but, for moi, my normally torpid salivary glands only get fired-up into a vegan-genic, froth-friendly drool when they are confronted with the importunate pesterings of some fuss-pot, phytophagous hive-bozo of the self-righteous, lecturing, authoritarian busy-body and foodie-chekist-wannabe persuasion, and/or when they are confronted, in an enclosed space, with the serial-offender, stink-bomb flatulence of some lefty-herbivore–such provocation invariably eliciting from them a free-flowing slobber in survival-instinct fraternal-solidarity with my stricken olfactory organs. Just Pavlovian-reflex, bazz–that’s all. And, in that regard, bazz, if you want to find in my “strange antipathy” and “bizarre repugnance”, towards a certain type of vegan, a good lesson in psychology–then have at it, guy.
Well actually, Mike, it’s right there. I mean, really, the fact that you HAD to comment on my lexicon says a lot! Don’t ever play poker with a pro – you’re going to lose a lot of money. You may need to think about that (you may not).
We all get annoyed at sanctimony, but it’s good for the blood pressure to just roll one’s eyes. What I saw above (and have heard in restaurants) is a peculiar hostility toward vegans and vegetarians when they HAVEN’T even said anything sanctimonious!
If Monbiot eats roadkill, Obama eats bear leftover with Bear Grylls. Bear should have given him the bugs. The high protein bugs might cure Obama’s delusions
Is that pronounced “Moonbat?”
English pronunciation of a French name. Sort of. Or not. Take your pick.
He could help all concerned if he would simply stop eating altogether. After thirty days or less he could be someone’s meal – a little boney maybe, but hey!…
How about voluntarily putting a stop to that nasty oxygen habit you have georgy?
Grandstanding again…..from the sub-basement or sewers.
Given that it is Monbiot eating roadkill, I would have to say that comes VERY close to cannibalism.
A EricHa
August 13, 2016 at 12:10 pm
“…Large animals like deer should be hung for up to five days in a cool area, such as a garage. The butchering process is also messy, though Krestovnikoff says people can take their roadkill along to a butcher to do this part.”
I find deer taste best after hanging for at least a week, and up to four, for larger bucks.
Having been “burned” by butchers a couple of times, I prefer to cut my own meat. But hanging it at home is difficult to time without a cold room. I’ve missed out a few deer seasons waiting for the cold weather to hunt. Better harvest early and hang it in a butcher’s cold locker.
But make sure it’s whole and easily identifiable, or you may end up getting someone else’s deer and paying for hanging time you didn’t get.
And in the rest of the nation – Where it doesn’t get cold enough long enough to even think of a “cold room” without energy and freezers?
Monbiot is a fool, but will hopefully, not transmit disease or parasites or organisms/food poisoning to others by “sharing” roadkill.
Moonbat is a communist who wants to destroy western civilisation. That is all you have to know about him and his ilk. Every single word that comes from his mouth is designed to destroy us as is every policy that he supports.