I listen to a fairly large number of podcasts. I have a
commute of about 40 minutes each way (walk and train) every day, at least two
trips into town (1 hour min return) and gym visits (where I need something to
drown out the awful music) which gives me about 11 hours of time to listen.
When preparing for a concert, this is largely spent with
repeating the music over and over to try and drill it into my head. But the
rest of the time it’s probably two-thirds or more of podcasts a week. And I
listen on 1.5x speed – simply because I find regular speed a bit slow most of
the time. If something is interesting and complex I will shift down to
real-time. But I reckon that gives me 10 hours plus of podcast material to
listen to most weeks.
And I listen to a wide range – from The Guardian on
football, to quite a lot of economics stuff (Freakonomics is good, and More or
Less can be), to law, to science and skepticism.
Usually (probably a factor of also having to be aware of
surroundings and being on 1.5x speed) I skim across the stuff, and the most
that happens is that something comes up in a conversation three weeks later,
and I find that I know quite a bit about it*. But sometimes something really
hits home.
And recently the thing that struck a chord was a discussion
about vegetarianism. It was on a show called “Skeptics with a K” which is a
(quite sweary) fortnightly podcast done by these guys. It really got me thinking about my behaviour,
and whether I should be changing it.
I like eating. Rather too much. And I like eating meat. I've
never been squeamish or sentimental about it. I've eaten horse in France, and
rabbit, and pigeon (not London pigeons – I'm not daft). I would baulk at a
sheep’s eyeball I am sure, but Sainsbury's doesn't sell them yet. (Fill in your own joke about Wall's sausages here.)
But I have known for years that it is a quite a wasteful way
of producing food. There are stats suggesting it takes 8 or 9 kg of plants to
produce 1kg of beef (the argument presumably being that not having the cow
allows three people to eat 3kg of plant stuff instead).
And there is an animal cruelty argument of course. I'm sure
if we were being offered the choice, we wouldn't want to be strung up and have
our throat slit, as halal and kosher practice requires. But, on being told that
option b) was a much more humane death, but still a death, I’d be turning the
paper over and looking for the third option – the one involving being alive. Do animals suffer? Undoubtedly. In the way
humans do? Probably not. So whilst this is a big issue for some and I respect
that, it doesn't have me manning the barricades.
(On that subject, the halal discussion is another of those
proxies – looking for a reason to be racist with a pretext – here animal
cruelty. I didn’t see as much publicity criticising the French for the way fois
gras is made, and that’s a lot more horrible. (No link folks – you might be
reading this while eating your lunch.))
There are counter arguments: that it is harder to get
protein from non-meat sources. And that without animals there is no milk, and
no cheese, and no eggs (this latter isn't really an argument I suppose, it’s a
fact). And that, try as you might, wheat isn't going to grow on the sheep fells
of the Lake District. (Of course, much of this land wasn't sheep fell until we
chopped the trees down – to allow for the sheep!)
In answer to that, I'm not suggesting we ban meat-eating, nor
am I even advocating a non-meat or reduced meat diet for anyone else. I am just
saying that this has made an impression on me, and I am seriously thinking
about reducing my meat intake – perhaps all the way to nothing.
Of course, this produces all sorts of logistical problems –
a lifetime of cheese sandwiches being one possibility – and I haven’t seen
bacon patches available on the NHS yet. But for the first time in a long-time
(and perhaps ever), I have started to think hard about what I am eating and the
impact it has.
Being away this weekend in Scotland, I am guessing that a
diet solely consisting of fruit and veg may be difficult to come by** so I will
be tucking into the odd fried slice just as much as the next man will. But a
seed has been sown, and who knows what is going to grow from it.
* Those of you who know me may be aware that I have a pretty
good memory for fact and detail. Not quite eidetic (photographic) but pretty
close.
** this is a joke. Edinburgh has plenty of fruit and veg. It
may even have a Waitrose (it has two – Ed). Obviously, if it were Glasgow…***
***this is also a joke. Jesus people, do I have to put winky
faces after everything now?
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