Blog: throw another tofu-burger on the barbie will ya mate. #Geekgirl on behalf of #tcktcktck
Tcktcktck invited me to write a blog on climate change. I knew immediately what I wanted to pen about – animals!
Have you ever tried to get your head around what it actually takes to feed the planet!? It’s something I find difficult to come to terms with.
Even my little shopping village of Northcote, Melbourne, Australia opened a new butcher the other day. Another one! You’d think 4 existing butchers plus all the restaurants in the area would provide enough meat.
I’ve become more educated lately on the nature of food production, and films like Food Inc are a good start to understand the process from pasture to plate. Â Although, I still don’t quite understand who is feeding, farming & processing the 60 billion animals we kill each year.
It’s horrific that most of this is inhumane and, to be quite frank, not producing animals that even taste good. I’m not a vegetarian (yet) but I have massively reduced my consumption of meat and although I try and stick to the MOOS principle (Meat Only on Sunday). I have a lot of reverence for what I eat, and I am conscious of what it takes to get my food on the table.
I know most people eat meat for the flavour and texture. And my smart vegie friends know a lot of tricks developed by Asian food producers who provide some meat-tasting alternatives. Unfortunately, most of this is soaked or prepared in soy sauce and as a Coeliac I can’t go there. But, there must be a huge potential in coming up with an alternative to meat, which tastes like meat, but ain’t. As much as the electric or hybrid cars are being driven (excuse the pun) by an industry that has to, perhaps rather than wants to. There’s a huge market in developing electric sheep, too.
As Copenhagen (COP15) rapidly approaches I would think that food production especially animal production would have to be high on the agenda. But, if ordinary folks like me can’t persuade the masses to re-think what they eat, what about politician turned good guy Al Gore, musician Moby or even PETA pet Pamela Anderson?
Australia needs to take part on a moral and uber-logistical stand on this issue. We can no longer farm or export meat in an inhumane fashion. Even if we do get our farming processes to the point it is compassionate, we need to become sustainable: that means all of us need to reduce our consumption of animals! “Throw another tofu burger on the barbie will ya mate”, might have to become our new national saying!
So, consume less & be informed more! 🙂
My personal top ten 1) stop live animal exports (join the Humane Chain) 2) make choices that respect animals; don’t eat them – or at least buy free-range, organic etc 3) moderate your meat consumption 4) support organisations that are compassionate re: ‘farming’  like Campaign for a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare (UDAW) 5) support organisations that also protect our marine life like Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd 6) keep having a go at growing your own food and find out what and when to plant 7) read labels when buying food and insist that labels reflect ingredients like palm oil (de-forestation is destroying the natural habitats of Orangutans) 8)become a volunteer join local organisations that protect animals and wildlife (Wildlife Victoria) 9) keep informed of campaigns and if need be, write or tweet our Australian politicians
10) On Dec 12, 2009 join the world for a global day of Action
With much love & respect, RosieX
