My Beef with Beef
It’s boxing day and I’ve just had my first Christmas Day as a vegetarian. I’ll be completely honest- a small part of me did wonder if I should sack in the whole vegetarian thing for the day. I felt the background panic building a week or so before the big day, mum had just ordered the bird from our local butchers (as we always do) and then the worry set in: “but Sarah, what will you be eating on Christmas Day?”. I shrugged off her concerns, “oh I’ll make a nut roast or something” I replied, the fail-safe- go-to answer for any vegetarian as I am quickly learning. The irony is having only become a full-time vegetarian in March 2018 I’d never actually made or eaten a nut-roast- I’m not really sure how I bypassed the holy grail of vegetarian meals for quite so long, but hey-ho. My family’s worries unsettled me and got me thinking would I be able to resist the turkey and all the classic trimmings- would it make Christmas awkward if I refused to eat meat?
I’m the only vegetarian in my house, but since I usually do a lot of the cooking during the week, my family have unwittingly slowly been shifted to an increasingly meat-free existence since my return from university. But Christmas Day is different and meat was definitely on the menu.
Christmas Eve was upon us. My dad was sent on an emergency trip to M&S by my mum to find brussel sprouts, brandy butter but most importantly a nut roast! I said I would make one but she insisted.
The big day arrived- the kitchen was bustling with pots and pans and both ovens on full blast- the turkey and the pigs in blankets in one and my little nut roast in the other. Despite my concerns, and the family surviving the near-meltdown we always have whilst trying to plate everything up, the Christmas dinner was a success. In fact I’d be so bold as to say it was the best yet- my nut roast and its veggie gravy was delicious and I got to pile my plate up with plenty of parmesan parsnips, roasties, red cabbage and my absolute favourite- brussel sprouts! ( Controversial I know, but I love em), whilst my family enjoyed the turkey.
The thing is I’m not a militant vegetarian. I still occasionally eat fish. Personally I’ve never been a massive meat-eater myself but I completely understand why people enjoy it. And it’s not that I don’t think it’s natural to eat meat, I do think it can be a positive part of our diets. The problem is not that we eat meat, it’s the amount we are eating. It’s not sustainable, especially as our population is expected to be near to 10 billion by 2050.
I don’t believe we should be made to feel guilty about enjoying food, but it’s important that people realise the impact of animal products on the planet. Beef has the highest resource requirements of any of the food we eat.
It’s highly water intensive, land intensive and produces 20 x the emissions as producing beans per gram of protein (WRI). My point is that if you don’t feel you can go vegetarian or vegan, a good starting point would be to try and reduce or if possible cut out your consumption of beef. If we all did this it would make a real difference.
The WRI (world resources institute) recently published research looking at how changing diets could help drastically reduce climate change.
If the world’s 2 billion high consumers cut their meat and dairy consumption by 40%, it would make a huge different both in terms of curbing greenhouse gas emissions and in saving land. 40%- that’s all- surely we can all manage that.
If you want and feel you’d like to go vegetarian or even vegan in 2019 then that’s amazing, but nobody should be made to feel they can’t do their bit- we all have a part to play and beginning to eat less dairy and meat is a fantastic starting point.
If you’re at all interested I would highly recommend taking a quick look at the WRI website-it has great resources on how changing our diet can reduce climate change - https://www.wri.org/our-work/topics/food and this amazing article-https://www.wri.org/blog/2016/04/sustainable-diets-what-you-need-know-12-charts
