Interview - Mr Meat

Jarrod Clyne is a friend of mine who I once watched eat his way through a kilo of fillet steak, all in one sitting.  So you can imagine my surprise when Phil told me that Jarrod was, at one stage, a vegetarian.  Jarrod has an excellent sense of humour and he reminds me of all of the good things about people from the country, only he is really smart and has good taste.  Basically he is a stand up bloke.  He kindly agreed to share his story which, to me, just gets more and more interesting.

 

I was vegetarian for a year when I was at university, in 2004. I had thought about being a vegetarian for quite a while, and had long since decided that it was immoral to eat meat. I was practicing Zen Buddhism, and this was a major factor in my decision. Zen Buddhism doesn't focus very much on the moral precepts of Buddhism, and apparently the Buddha did occasionally eat meat, and he did not categorically forbid his disciples to eat meat. As a monastic religion relying on donations the monks were to gratefully receive and consume all food they were given, including meat. Consequently I was able to rationalise being Buddhist and eating meat for a long time, but eventually I felt that since I was not relying on alms (does living with your parents at the age of 23 count?) I should faithfully follow the first precept of Buddhism - 'Do not kill'. The Buddha told his followers not to kill, participate in killing or cause to have any living thing killed. A demand for meat obviously causes animals to be killed. I stopped eating all meat, including fish.

 

I had been on one week Zen Buddhist retreats with only vegetarian meals and hadn't found it particularly difficult. I was also already eating vegetarian meals for lunch, due to the University Hare Krisna Society serving delicious meals for $2 (all you can eat for $3!). Dinner was therefore the main challenge. I would describe myself as a very lazy vegetarian - I would just exclude the meat from a meal and subsitute a handful of peanuts, some eggs, or occasionally some chickpeas. I also ate an absurdly high amount of vegetarian pies. I ate hot chips pretty regularly too. Unsurprisingly I was fatter and less healthy as a consequence.

 

About one year and a quarter after my original decision I was travelling in Europe and Japan. My desire to eat meat returned quite strongly. I kept thinking of my old rationalisations as to why it was acceptable to eat meat. Vanity was also a factor, I felt that I would rather look good (eat protein, go to gym = more attractive) than be moral. The fork in the road came at a dinner at a bohemian buffet restaurant. The restaurant prided itself on a very extensive selection of vegetarian food, but also had a decent selection of meat dishes. I chose the meat and it was amazing.

 

I haven't ever seriously considered returning to being vegetarian. During a gym 'bulking' regime perhaps 90% of my food intake was red meat and I felt awesome. Eating meat is is very enjoyable, and and I find that if I don't eat any meat for dinner then I don't feel satiated at all. I still believe that it is morally wrong to eat meat - to cause suffering to living beings - but I'm relatively comfortable with that immorality, and the cost of being moral is just too high.

 

I like this part of The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran. I think he's talking to a sheep he has just killed and will eat:

 

"By the same power that slays you, I
too am slain; and I too shall be consumed.
For the law that delivered you into my
hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand."

 

I believe that the most important goal in life is simply to enjoy your life. That may sound trite, selfish, or even unacceptably nihilisitc. I don't think that it is, and while I am mindful of the immorality of consuming meat, I do so because it helps me enjoy my life, and after all, eventually we too will all be consumed.

What I Ate - 24 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of toast, one with Marmite and one with peanut butter.
2 nectarines.
3 pieces of sour cream and chives rice cakes with cottage cheese.
Leftover leek, mushroom and barley stew.
More toast but this time with honey.
Scrambled eggs with toast and tomato.
Half a black bean burrito with roasted potato and kumara.

Bit of a dinner planning fail on my behalf tonight.  I couldn't make up my mind as to whether I was going out or not tonight, hence two dinners.  Both were pretty good though.  Kumara goes so well in burritos.  They were sort of a copy of the breakfast burritos that they make at Sweet Mother's Kitchen that come with delicious potato hash.

I just realised that I haven't had any chocolate today. 

What I Ate - 23 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of toast with peanut butter.
2 nectarines.
More toast with Marmite, avocado and tomato.
1 apricot and pear yoghurt.
1 strawberry chocolate marshmallow Easter bunny.
Leek, mushroom and barley stew with more Mexican street salad.

The Mexican street salad is really, really good.  I got Jamie's America for Christmas and this recipe is one of the first things I have made from it.  It was a lovely fresh coleslaw with lots of chilli and lime.

What I Ate - 22 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of peanut butter toast.
3 nectarines.
Toast with Marmite, avocado and tomato.
1 apricot yoghurt.
Handful of chilli and lime cashew nuts.
Black bean enchiladas with Mexican street salad.
Whittaker's Dark Ghana chocolate.

What I Ate - 21 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of Vogel's toast with peanut butter.
1 trim latte.
Barbeque Bean Supreme roast red onion and parmesan sausages, agria potatoes, red onion, courgette and sweet corn.
2 beers.
1 shot of Jagermeister.
Courgette, cheese and egg tart, green beans with garlic, chickpea and capsicum salad, roasted potatoes, puree garlic broccoli mash.
Homemade banana and nectarine ice-cream.

It's barbeque weather at the moment, which I think poses a bit of a practical challenge to a vegetarian, as barbeques are very much about meat.  Hence the vege sausages.  We hadn't tried any soy 'meat' replacements before Sunday, and weren't sure what to expect.  They were quite tasty, but very different to real sausages.  I can't put my finger on what it was that didn't quite work for me - the texture perhaps?  They were pleasant enough but just not as tasty as meat.  Then again, perhaps I am romanticizing about sausages, because they can be truly awful.  In fact, given the choice between Sizzler's and bean sausages I would pick bean sausages any day.

Towards the end of lunch the host suddenly announced that he had poured out a shot of Jager for all of us.  I'm not really a fan of shots but peer pressure prevailed and that's why it ended up on the list.  Between the liquor and the drum and bass music, it was as if I was 19 again. 

After the Phoenix game (they won by the way, bring on the next semi final) we went to Phil's parent's house for dinner.  They are both excellent cooks and Sunday night dinner at their house is a regular appointment.  They pick us up, feed us lovely food and wine, and then drive us home.  We are so spoilt.  I felt a bit strange imposing our eating restrictions upon them but they were very understanding and made an incredible vegetarian feast. 

What I Ate - 20 February 2010

Today I ate:

Porridge with grated apple and blueberries, served with plain yoghurt.
1 trim latte.
1 apricot.
Baguette with feta cheese.
Rice crackers with rocket and parmesan dip.
Grapes.
Lemon, lime and bitters drink.
Tomato and olive pasta sauce with whole wheat pasta and parmesan.

Saturday was lovely and sunny, perfect weather for a picnic lunch that I had with my friend Jen.  She kindly offered to be vegetarian for the meal which I thought was quite nice.  I don't mind other people eating meat in front of me at all but it was nce to know that all of the yum food we had was ok for me to eat.

Saturday was lovely and sunny and perfect picnic weather.

Interview - In the Beginning

Today's interview is with my friend Hannah Lloyd.  Hannah and I have been friends since we were in high school and she was the first vegetarian I ever met.  In fact, looking back, her decision to become a vegetarian was probably slightly scandalous in small town rural New Zealand.  I doubt that she really cared what anyone thought though.  She currently lives and works in Scotland.

What are your dietary restrictions? What animal products will you not eat?

 

I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian meaning that I eat dairy products and eggs but I exclude meat, poultry, and seafood from my diet. There are also other things I need to restrict from my diet too; for example, I need to avoid rennet and gelatine as these are derived from animal products.

Rennet is found in cheese and and is generally derived from calves; however, vegetarian cheeses contain rennet from bacterial or fungal sources.  Gelatine is a gelling agent and can be found in foods such as jelly, various sweets (including marshmallows!) and sometimes yoghurts and sour cream. 

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How long have these restrictions been in place?

I have been vegetarian for approximately 10 years - it’s very difficult to pinpoint an exact date though but it has been for at least 10 years.

What are the reasons for your diet?

I became a vegetarian for ethical reasons predominantly. I am very much an ‘animal lover’ and have always found it difficult to eat animals even as a child. I have difficulty disassociating the meat product from the animal itself.

What are people's reactions like when you tell them about your dietary restrictions?

People are very much interested in this and tend to be quite inquisitive and will ask me questions mostly about my reasons for being a vegetarian. It’s much more common that it used to be and is no real shock to people. When I first became a vegetarian in my teens it was much more unusual but I know plenty of vegetarians now.

How easy or difficult is it for you when you eat out?

 

I don’t really have any issues eating out at restaurants and cafes as a vegetarian. I live in Edinburgh and I did notice when I moved here almost 5 years ago that the availability of vegetarian foods is much better than in New Zealand. I’m actually quite spoilt for choice here in Edinburgh as there are 3 vegetarian restaurants. It’s always a real treat to go to a vegetarian restaurant but I must admit it’s very difficult to choose what to have when I can eat anything on the menu!

Otherwise restaurants generally have at least one vegetarian option available. I’m not a particularly fussy vegetarian and like a range of food so one option is sufficient for me. I do check ahead with restaurants before I go there, either by viewing the menu on-line or telephoning in advance, just to be certain that they do have a suitable vegetarian option.

With cafes it can be different as I have on occasion been into cafes for lunch and they’ve run out of vegetarian panino and sandwiches. This doesn’t happen too frequently and it’s easy enough to find another cafe so it’s never been an issue.

I would boycott any restaurant that did not offer a vegetarian option on the menu and I did need to do this recently. A restaurant recommended to me by a friend did not have any vegetarian mains on the menu despite having a huge selection of main meals.  When I enquired with the restaurant I was advised that they’d make a stir fry vegetarian for me. However, I avoided the restaurant as I certainly do not like to think that the restaurant felt they’d ‘whip up’ something. My view is that even non-vegetarians eat vegetarian food so having at least one available option is important.

When travelling abroad other considerations are required and it pays to be prepared. A vegetarian must be prepared by learning how to explain their dietary requirements in the language. Also note that the definition of a vegetarian can vary from country to country and this should always be researched before travel. For example; in France a vegetarian will generally eat fish so in France restaurants will refer to a dish as being vegetarian that actually contains seafood.

Do you miss the foods that you have cut out?

Not at all. Initially I did miss marshmallows initially but that was really about it. I certainly don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.

Would you or have you ever actively encouraged others to adopt your dietary restrictions? Why or why not?

 

I believe that everyone has a right to choose what’s best for them. To be a vegetarian is my decision and I do not expect others to feel the same way I do. I have no issues dining with non-vegetarians and handling meat products either (I am happy to cook meat too!). However, if someone did express an interest to me about becoming a vegetarian I would certainly provide advice and guidance.

 I do believe that too much red meat in a diet is unhealthy so do encourage that people have meat free days from time-to-time for health reasons. In fact; I have read magazine articles recently about a new trend to be a ‘Flexitarian’. This means being a part-time vegetarian, for example; one might choose to be a vegetarian on certain days of the week or for 2 weeks per month.

What is your favourite food?

 

I have so many favourite foods it would be very difficult to say. I love eating falafels with hummus and salad in wraps or pita bread pockets. That makes for a nice and easy lunch or dinner. Couscous with roast vegetables is always great too and it’s winter here in Scotland I’ve been enjoying delicious wintery comfort food such as soup and vegetable casseroles.

What I Ate - 19 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of toast, one with peanut butter and one with Marmite.
1 trim cappuccino with chocolate.
Slice of lemon loaf.
Feta, pumpkin and spinach wrap from Wishbone.
4 apricots.
1 apricot and pear yoghurt.
2 glasses of white wine.
1 falafel kebab from Phoencian Falafel.
3 marshmallow Easter eggs.

I heart Friday!  I also heart marshmallow Easter eggs.

What I Ate - 18 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of Vogel's toast, one with peanut butter, one with Marmite.
Leftover Moroccan stew from yesterday.
Marshmallow Easter eggs.
1 can of Coke.
Potato and chickpea curry with yoghurt raita.

Why does Coke always taste nicest from a can?

What I Ate - 17 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of Vogels toast with Pic's Real peanut butter.
1 apricot.
1 peach.
1 trim latte.
Leftover tofu and vege satay.
Squash and chickpea Moroccan stew with couscous and yoghurt.
Piece of failed caramel slice.

After dinner I had a craving for caramel slice, so I decided to try a recipe from the Edmonds.  Complete fail.  It had an oaty base which seemed ok, if a little too moist.  The real fail came with the caramel topping, which had large amounts of sugar, a cup each of brown sugar and icing sugar.  Once I started to realise that the caramel just wasn't as it should be I then remembered that I had another recipe in my book that I had copied from my Nana's recipe book.  So the moral of that story is to always always make your Nana's recipe.

Interview - Kim the Flexitarian

Today's guest post is from my friend Kim Lone, who is currently teaching in Vietnam. 

As the fourth of five kids, vegetarianism is nothing new in my family, it was one of those good, yet not really dangerous ways of being different and upsetting mum and dad.  I grew up in a family where at some stage at least one or two members were vegetarian. My dad has always been against it yet somewhat resigned.  There is still always the occasional "you sure you don't want some meat with that?". 

At the moment in my family, there is one vegetarian, one vegan, one who will only eat ethical meat, one meat lover, and me, the one that usually eats meat when I've been drinking.  It's been a long and drawn out process till I got to this stage.  The original reason why I became and occasional vegetarian (flexitarian if you want) was because I hated handling raw meat when cooking, and also possibly because I was a poor student so my diet consisted mainly of pasta, eggs and bread.  I grew up in the suburbs completely divorced from the process of how meat ends up in the supermarket.  If you are ever on a country road and get stuck behind a truck carrying sheep the smell is one of indescribable rancidity.  (Is rancidity a word?)  So I only ever ate meat if someone else cooked it.

A couple of years later I ended up living in a vegetarian flat [I'm pretty sure this was the same flat Kim lived in where the kitchen sink had a plaque above it saying that it used to belong to Katherine Mansfield, cool eh - Evealyn].  Which was sweet because my flatmate used to cook dinner every night.  Possibly the healthiest eating I have ever done in my life.  Every now and again I would get a craving and smuggle meat into the house.  If you ever want tips on meat smuggling, ask me.  If my flatmates ever caught me there were disappointed looks all round.  Possibly the worst was when my friend Fe gave me a can of spam for my 21st birthday (I had told her on some occasion that I had never eaten spam).  It was the odd can that just sat in the pantry and my flatmates thought it was funny and anyone who came round thought it was just weird.  Then there was one night when I came home ridiculously drunk and decided to have a fry up.  In went the spam.  My flatmates were so upset when they found out that I had used the frypan to cook meat.

After that I moved back home with my parents due to no money and no job.  My mums a mean cook and she would always cook for my dad so, I ate meat.  Lots of meat and it was tasty.  Its hard to be a vegetarian if you are extremely lazy like me and not big on cooking all the time.

And now I am living in Vietnam.  And it's a pretty sweet place to live.  My occasional vegetarianism has come into full swing here just because of the lack of refridgeration.  If any of you have been to South East Asia and been to the meat section of markets you will know what I am talking about.  Meat is left sitting out in the hot sun and the stench is unbelievable.  So now, for the most part I am a vegetarian apart form the occasional craving for that tasty tasty meat.  My figuring is that it is better being an occasional vegetarian than not even trying at all. 

I've met lots of vegetarians too, the ones who are accepting of your meat eating, the judgmental ones, the ones that eat fish and the animal rights activists who have framed photos of battery farmed chickens on their bedroom walls.  I have one friend who became a vegetarian and the age of 7.  She was watching Neighbours with her mum one day and just turned to her and said "I want to be a vegetarian".  Her mum said "Ok, but I'm not cooking two meals" so the whole family became vegetarian by default.  I also have a friend who agrees with the principles behind vegetarianism but can't get over the taste of meat.  So he has decided that what he will do when he dies is make his friends and family have a big barbeque and they have to eat him, hopefully starting a trend towards eating humans rather than other animals.

What I Ate - 16 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of toast with lovely peanut butter.
1 trim latte.
2 pieces of toast with Marmite, avocado and tomato.
1 Phoenix sparkling apple juice.
1 apricot.
1 peach.
Tofu and vegetable satay with brown rice.
Marshmallow Easter egg.

Sometimes it annoys me when seasonal holiday goods arrive in shops super early, but I am quite excited about Easter eggs.  Today I bought some marshmallow eggs and I also saw (but refrained from buying) a Lindt creme egg.  Maybe tomorrow?

The tofu and vegetable dish was a recipe from my little sister.  As you may have noticed, I really like peanuts.  Dinner was delicious, I barely managed to leave enough for tomorrow's lunch even though I made plenty.

What I Ate - 15 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of Vogels toast with Pic's Really Good Peanut Butter.
1 trim latte.
Glass of pineapple juice.
Leftover burritos and salad.
Mint slice chocolate biscuit.
Pizza with homemade onion confit, roasted aubergine and courgette, and feta.

I am SICK.  Monday morning I felt pretty rotten so I stayed home from work.  No point going in when I had a terrible headache and might pass my illness on.

At the moment I am reading 'Under the Tuscan Sun'  by Frances Mayes.  It's probably better known as a film with Diane Lane.  The book is a travel memoir about the author's experiences owning and renovating a villa in Italy.  It has quite a few recipes, including one for pizza that had onion confit and pork and fennel sausages.  Obviously the sausage was out, but I decided to give the onion a go.  What you do is slice three onions, and slowly cook them in two tablespoons of olive oil and three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.  They need to be cooked for a long time, say an hour.  Use on pizza, sandwiches, that sort of thing.  They are really delicious and I am quite tempted to make up a large batch for onion confit emergencies.

What I Ate - 14 February 2010

Today I ate:

1 piece of Vogels toast with peanut butter.
1 trim latte.
Breakfast burrito made with scrambled eggs, black beans and potato hash and served with guacamole and salsa from Sweet Mother's Kitchen.
Half an apricot.
Mint slice chocolate biscuits.
Pineapple juice.
Black bean enchiladas.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  Unfortunately I have a cold and am feeling a bit miserable.  Still, it's better than last year, when I was sick with food poisoning.

I'm a bit mixed about Valentine's Day.  On one hand it is a commercial holiday etc, but on the other hand, why not have a bit of fun with it?  We decided to go out to brunch at Sweet Mother's Kitchen.  They have lots of vegetarian breakfast options, and we didn't want to go to a place where the vegetarian meal was something of an afterthought. 

We also went to the vege markets briefly and bought, among other things, some good tasting peanut butter.  As you may have noticed, I really like peanut butter.  I would probably lose 3 kilos if I stopped eating it but that is a trade-off I am simply not willing to make.  This stuff was recommended to me by my friend Reuben and I am so excited about breakfast tomorrow morning.

Interview - Vegetarian Showdown Part 2

A few days ago I posted a blog about Michael Keenan's original reasons for becoming vegetarian in 2007.  This is what he has to say about it now.

What were your dietary restrictions? What animal products did you not eat? How long were these restrictions in place?

I was vegetarian from October 2007 to March 2008. During that time I avoided all fish and meat products, but still ate milk and eggs. There were a few occasions where I ate meat, when otherwise the meat would have gone to waste. (The reason for this is that I considered that farming and killing animals might be immoral, so causing demand for that to occur is ethically questionable. It's the buying, not the eating, that causes the demand for farming and killing.)

What were people's reactions like when you tell them about your dietary restrictions?

If I recall correctly, no-one cared. My girlfriend at the time accepted it, and though she didn't become vegetarian herself, she ended up eating many vegetarian meals with me.

How easy or difficult was it for you when you eat out?

It was easy in America, and somewhat easy in Newcastle, England. I discovered interesting new food I hadn't tried before, like falafel and tofu. It would have been more difficult if I'd been a fussy eater, but I was happy to accept whatever vegetarian options were offered. This isn't to say my enjoyment of food didn't go down; it did. But it was logistically easy.

Did you miss the foods that you have cut out?

Yes! Especially chicken and pizzas with meat. And salami.

Would you or have you ever actively encouraged others to adopt your dietary restrictions? Why or why not?

I wrote a couple of emails about vegetarianism, and I sometimes talked to people about it in person, but only if they seemed interested in it. I didn't evangelize, because I wasn't very sure of my position that eating animals might be wrong.

What is your favourite food?

Pizza.

What I Ate - 13 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of Vogels with peanut butter.
1 trim latte.
Halloumi with cucumber, mint and lemon salsa at Capitol.
Homemade pizza with olives, mushrooms, red onion, courgette and mozzarella, and homemade wedges.
3 Mac's green apple drink.
Tomato and basil bruschetta made by Tonya.

Yesterday I caught up with my friend Traci who was in Wellington for the weekend.  Her friend Tonya is a vegetarian and has been so for seven years.  Tonya told us about how she decided to be vegetarian one day when she was a teenager.  She was eating a pasta dish that had been made with mince when it occurred to her that the meal would be that much nicer if it wasn't for the meat.  That got me thinking...Why do we eat such terrible meat?  By 'terrible meat' I mean mince with lots of fat in it, and sausages that are probably 40% flour.  I know that a lot of families can't afford to buy really good quality meat and produce, but why would they choose pre-cooked sausages over say a curry made with chickpeas?  I suppose a lot of people don't really know how to cook with pulses, but gosh, it is worth looking into.

I have quite a sad story to share, which I have probably told a few of you already.  I have a friend from childhood who is in her early twenties and has two small children, the youngest of whom is a newborn baby.  A few weeks before the birth of the baby, she put a status update on Facebook saying 'Jill [not her real name] has $18 to spend on groceries this week.  How am I going to feed a family of three on that?'  I wanted to tell her to go and buy a packet of lentils.  She wrote later that she had bought meat, rice, and a packet of frozen veges to make stir fry with, and then had somehow found some extra cash to buy bread for breakfast.  Between that and a few meals at her mum's house, she was ok.  As my mum would say, we don't know we are alive.

Even though I intend to go back to eating meat in March, I think I will eat it much less often than I have in the past.  I don't want meat to be the default any more, because there is no need for it to be.  Also, I think that when I eat meat, I will make an effort to eat meat that is (a) all right quality, and (b) was raised in a way that I don't think is cruel.

What I Ate - 12 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of Vogels toast with peanut butter, another piece with Marmite.
1 trim latte.
Small handful of chilli and lime cashews.
1 Gala apple.
1 baked potato with black bean chilli, leftover from yesterday.
1 peach.
1 yoghurt.
2 glasses of sauvignon blanc.
Potato chips.
Spinach and ricotta cannelloni and salad.
Mango.

I am coming down with a cold too!  I haven't had one in two years but I woke up with a headache and a sore throat.  How annoying. 

Phil and I had dinner at the flat of our friends Dan and Emily.  They kindly made an excellent vegetarian meal of cannelloni, which I love.  It got me thinking about the social side to being a vegetarian...Is it reasonable to expect my friends to accommodate my preferences?  I would say yes, as long as I'm quite clear about what I will and won't eat, and offer to bring food that I can eat if it's going to be difficult.  For example, if someone invited me to their house for a roast lamb, I would bring a dish of something that I could eat, say a roast vegetable salad or even a vegetable tart. 

Interview - Vegetarian Showdown Part 1

I have never met Michael Keenan but he is one of Phil's oldest friends.  A few years ago he decided to become a vegetarian, and has been kind enough to provide me with some information about his thinking around this choice.  This post contains the email titled 'Vegetarian Showdown' that he sent his friends at the very beginning, asking them to give him some justification for meat eating that he could agree with.  Will they answer him?  Will he become vegetarian 4 life?  Answers to follow in a few days.

I keep encountering people I respect who have made an ethical decision to be vegetarian or vegan. These include old friends, like Mal and Nicola, and new people I have come to respect very quickly, like Bridget Sprouls, and people on the internet, like Steve Pavlina ( stevepavlina.com) and Tynan (betterthanyourboyfriend.com). When I was in Peru a couple of months ago, I ate a local Peruvian delicacy, a roasted guinea pig. I mentioned that to a vegetarian friend and she was shocked. It occurred to me that that was a pretty reasonable reaction. I didn't need to eat a guinea pig. It's more fun for me to watch a guinea pig run around and see how cute it is than to eat it, and I expect that the guinea pig would have felt the same way. I'm kind of a bad person.

That was twenty-four days ago. It occurred to me that the burden of proof that eating meat is ok is on the meat-eaters, and I don't have that proof. I stopped eating meat, pending an actual really consistent moral justification. And I want that justification, I want it very badly, because animals are delicious. Meat-eaters, this email is an appeal to you to please change my mind. Vegetarians, this is an invitation to check my reasoning and clear up some moral gray areas described later.

In sixteenth-century Paris, a popular form of entertainment was cat-burning, in which a cat was hoisted in a sling on a stage and slowly lowered into a fire. According to historian Norman Davies, "[T]he spectators, including kings and queens, shrieked with laughter as the animals, howling with pain, were singed, roasted, and finally carbonized." - http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/pinker07/pinker07_index.html

Today, we properly recognize that cat-burning is totally f*cked up. It's really bad for the cat, and it provides only a mild benefit (sadistic pleasure) to humans. The difference between cat-burning, which almost everyone would say is immoral, and eating animals, which society is generally ok with, is not very clear. The benefit to humans in eating meat - the pleasure of tasting meat - is trivial and replacable, not significantly more noble (as I see it) than the benefit in watching a cat burn.

As for the harm to the animal, battery farming is probably a worse harm than live roasting. But even if we had an ideal animal life - a happy cow grazing in pastures and humping its cow girlfriend - do we really have the right to interrupt all that and kill it for meat? It's not clear to me that we do have that right. It's not especially clear that we *don't* have that right, but given that all that's at stake here is the deliciousness of steak, I have to concede that, absent a clear moral go-ahead, I ought to become vegetarian, pending a real decision.

I suspect that that's where I'll be for the rest of my life - an interim vegetarian, waiting to figure out whether cows's lives are human property. If someone could tip me one way or the other, I'd appreciate it.

I still have questions about gray areas: very stupid animals; and veganism. I hope that someone who has thought about it more, or just has a different perspective, can offer some ideas.

Suppose we assume that it's wrong to eat cows and chickens, because they have lives that are important to them, they feel pain, and they're reasonably smart. They differ from, for example, broccoli, in those ways. What about *really* dumb animals? I think there might be a useful moral line to be drawn between cow-level animals, and animals that are about as robotic as bacteria - little mindless robots. I'm unconcerned by the death of a mosquito. Mosquitoes have no friends and maybe are not really aware they're alive. What about fish? Their behavior is somewhat robotic. Computers can model fish behavior very convincingly. Shrimps are just big, delicious mosquitoes, right? So it's ok to kill shrimps? We might care about collateral damage from some fishing methods (like catching dolphins in nets) but shrimps are farmed. For the moment, I'm not eating shrimps, but that's very precautionary.

The next question is veganism: assuming I don't have the right to take a cow's life, can I take its milk? One might say that it is right to let a cow run free in its natural environment, but thousands of years of selective breeding have changed domestic cows into creatures that *need* to be milked, otherwise they get uncomfortable (if I have my facts right). A farm is their new natural environment. And sheep get too hot in summer if they don't get their wool shaved off. And chickens are going to lay unfertilized eggs anyway, whether we eat them or not, so we might as well eat them. I don't see much of an ethical obligation to be a vegan, but I'm willing to be convinced.

One final thing: the problem is that killing animals might be wrong, not that eating animals is wrong. As I see it, once an animal is dead, you might as well eat it. If I were economically illiterate, it would be easy to say that I'll just only buy the meat of already-dead animals, but it's obvious that creating demand for meat kills animals, so I can't do that. The exception is that if there's meat that would go to waste, like it's leftover from some heartless meat-eater's meal, then I could eat that. Or if - as happened a couple of weeks ago - a meat-eater bought food for me, not knowing I was now a vegetarian, then it would be fine to eat that rather than throw it away. Does anyone disagree, finding that not only is killing animals wrong, but also eating meat is wrong in itself?

What I Ate - 11 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of toast with peanut butter, another 1 with Marmite.
1 trim latte.
Small handful of chilli and lime cashew nuts.
2 pieces of Vogels toast with Marmite, avocado and tomato.
1 fruit yoghurt.
1 Gala apple.
1 mini Moro bar.
Baked potato with black bean chilli, cheese, carrot, capsicum, spring onions, coriander and sour cream.
Bowl of vanilla ice-cream.

So today's food is a bit repetitive.  All I have to say about that is...I really like peanut butter.  And the baked potatoes are that good.

Energy wise, I am feeling really, really good.  Full of beans. 

Tomorrow we are going to our friends' house for dinner and then off to the Phoenix game.  I'm told that they have a spot in the semi-finals and if they win tomorrow's game there might be a semi-final here in Wellington, exciting!

What I Ate - 10 February 2010

Today I ate:

2 pieces of Vogels toast, 1 with Marmite.
1 trim latte.
Small handful of chilli and lime cashew nuts.
Leftover barley risotto from the previous day.
1 fruit yoghurt.
Afternoon tea - assortment of pink lamington, potato chips, melon, rice crackers and feta dip, scone with cream and jam.
2 pieces of Vogels toast with Marmite, avocado and tomato.
Watermelon.

Yesterday there was an afternoon tea at work for a colleague who is getting married next weekend.  I was a little bit worried because I knew there would be sausage rolls.  I really love sausage rolls and it was rough having to see other people eat them, and smell them too.   So I consoled myself with lamingtons and scones.

Last night was quite busy.  I have started a drawing course that goes for two hours on Wednesday nights, and I only had about 45 minutes by the time I arrived home to get changed, have something to eat and then head off to the lesson.  Hence avocado toast.