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In the run-up to the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen there will be many apocalyptic warnings about how we must alter our behaviour to avert disaster.
But the call yesterday by Lord Stern of Brentford, summarised by The Times as "give up meat to save the planet", opened a new front in the rhetorical war on global warming, bringing to mind Omega Man-like images of survivors huddled in bunkers, fighting over the last tin of mung beans.
Mockery aside, the figures are clear enough. Two-thirds of the world's agricultural land is given over to livestock.
Every cow produces 500 litres of methane every day, not to mention 14.6 tonnes of manure annually.
Environmentally, methane has 25 times the impact of CO2, and CO2, we understand from the doomsaying of the blessed Al Gore, is a Very Bad Thing. So why did Lord Stern's warning feel like a rasp of hot air?
More importantly, has he ever dined in a London restaurant? If he had, he would perhaps have refined his arguments to include an acknowledgment that man cannot live by mushroom risotto alone.
The ethical arguments for vegetarianism are not new. In the 1970s, the inefficiencies of meat production were shackled to world hunger, in what anti-poverty campaigner Susan George called the "one less hamburger" argument - the belief that if we all ate one less burger a week, the grain used to feed the livestock might be diverted to feed the Third World.
George knew this was a fallacy but the argument has now evolved into the Meat-free Monday campaign, supported by Paul McCartney. Would one less Big Mac save the planet?
Doubtless Macca understands that it wouldn't but he may also argue that doing a little bit of good is better than doing no good at all.
There is one notable difference between the 1970s and now. Back then, vegetarianism was perceived as a growing trend. It had the look of a movement on the march.
It didn't happen. True, the Waitrosistas may now turn up their noses at battery eggs but according to the last Food Standards Agency survey, the number of vegetarians is roughly the same as it always was.
Three per cent are completely meat-averse, another five per cent are partly vegetarian, eating some fish, and some meat, most usually chicken.
I am in this indecisive club myself, eating no meat but occasionally sampling a haddock, as long as it has been deep-fried and battered to the point where it no longer resembles a fish.
So, is the planet doomed? If vegetarianism is the answer, I fear it is. It feels as if the veggies won the argument while the carnivores won the war.
Many restaurants no longer cater for meat-refuseniks, offering only goats' cheese and a red-blooded sneer from the waiter.
The most-celebrated establishments serve the "nose-to-tail" cuisine pioneered at St John.
As a matter of efficiency, it is surely good that meat-eaters are being encouraged to feast on lungs and spleen.
But it won't save the world, and it doesn't stop me wondering why a city with London's culinary talent can't work out what to do with a parsnip. And no, I don't fancy the goats' cheese.
Reader views (5)
'Many restaurants no longer cater for meat-refuseniks, offering only goats' cheese and a red-blooded sneer from the waiter.' - which restaurants are these?!
I have always been a vegetarian, and proud of the range of food available to vegetarians. I eat out at least once a week, and never just offered goats' cheese or mushroom risotto. London is such a multi cultural city, that a majority of restaurants cater for vegetarians. A lack of choice will mean that the restaurant cannot cater for vegetarians, muslims who only eat halal food and jews who only eat kosher food (unless they serve kosher and halal food). London has an array of Thai, Indian, Chinese, Mexican and Japanese restaurants to name a few. Some restaurants even provide a separate vegetarain menu (for example Patara). Just take a look at veggie dining on the internet for a list of the various options available!!
It's time you tried some new places to eat.
- Helen, London, 10/11/2009 21:41
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London is the hottest city on the planet for vegetarian food. The range of choice, quality and creativity is simply mind boggling. In my book, Veggie and Organic London (2nd Edition) I reviewed over 280 restaurants and cafes ranging from the extravagant to bargain budget. At the top end of the spectrum are first class restaurants run by some of the most innovative chefs in the country.
Amongst the latest are Vanilla Black in Holborn with its modern, sensationally beautifully constructed vegetarian haute cuisine and Saf in Shoreditch producing brilliantly presented raw-style vegan and organic. At Nahm in the fabulously chic Halkin Hotel, David Thompson is creating miraculous Thai vegetarian dishes and indeed made it the first Thai restaurant ever to be awarded a Michelin Star. In Pimlico, Alexis Gauthier at Roussillon offers a spectacular vegetarian multi-course tasting menu possibly only equalled by Morgan Meuniere at Morgan M in Highbury.
- Russell Rose, London, United Kingdom, 28/10/2009 18:18
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Save the planet from doomsters, eat vegetarians....
- George, London, 28/10/2009 13:30
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The only meat reduction that will save the planet would be brought about by human population control, but as nobody is willing to discuss this emotive issue, the rest is all just political bandwagoning or a new market opportunity for "eco" businesses.
Nu Labour has (through the benefits system) positively encouraged overbreeding amongst it`s clientelle, in fact!
The most eco friendly device on earth is made of rubber - a condom stops two polluters becoming more polluters.
- Darius, London UK, 28/10/2009 13:20
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Two confused points in there Alistair, neither of which are well argued. Your first point is that cutting down on meat won't save the planet, but the only stats you offer (the sheer environmental impact of meat production) don't support this position.
And you claim that no-one wants to be vegetarian, the implication being that if eating less meat is an effective way to minimise climate change, people will be too greedy. I fear this rather misses the point that climate change will make a right mess of life as we know it on this planet and the result will be a significant amount less arable land and, probably, less meat to go round anyway.
- Dave, Hackney, UK, 28/10/2009 10:39
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