Vegetarian Christmas
The Road to Sustainable Food

Vegetarianism is on the rise again, largely due to the number of young people choosing to set off down a road that many still regard as the way of all cranks and choosing to make a statement through food.

What is a vegetarian

This is not the first time that this has happened. There have been several times over the last few decades when vegetarian and vegan lifestyles have become popular.

Those of you who have never walked down this particular path, to the sound of the meat free drum, might ask why? Why do people become vegetarian?

The main reason is to prevent cruelty to animals. Despite the all the cuddly cow and cute pig logos of your average meat producer, the production of meat is never friendly to animals. Interestingly, no meat producers carry images of a slaughter house, in full production as a main stay of their advertising campaigns.

Battery farming

There are other reasons. Pressure on farming land caused by meat production for example. It takes up to 10 times the amount of land to produce the same amount of food as meat than it would to produce the vegetarian equivalent. This means that more land is taken into farming and people and wildlife find themselves on the wrong end of economic pressures that are ultimately threatening the balance of nature.

Meat production

The Gift - A Ghost Story for Christmas
by Guy Jones

 On the top floor of an old Victorian house, that should be empty, there is a light on. A low light. A candle light.

And next to the light, just visible ... or was it my ... a figure ... and was it ... was she looking straight at me?

She? Yes, it was a girl. Check it out

The loss of rainforests at an alarming rate is perhaps the starkest example of this process.

Meat production and deforestation

There are a few other reasons that might come into your reasoning. If you become a vegetarian you will probably live longer, become a better cook and it will cost you less money to live.

Going veggie

Vegetarians may have the highest moral reasons to choose their path in life, but like the rest of us they are prone to the temptations of the flesh.

The bacon butty has often been cited as the reason for vegetarians to step off the path of righteousness and rejoin the rest of us munching our way towards ecological disaster. Even if you do manage to resist the offer of a BLT to start the day, you will be bombarded with the latest pulled-meat-of-dubious-origin-burger fad for ONLY £4.99 with fries and a garnish of limp lettuce, TO GO! on every street corner.

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Another cause of veggie misdirection is the festival of over indulgence that comes our way once a year ... every year.

Unless you only mix with your enlightened friends who have also set off down the veggie/vegan path, you are bound to come across great lumps of meat over the course of Christmas. And the truth of the matter is, for most veggies the arguments might be all on the side of carrying on down the road of plant protein, textured into something resembling a slice of dead pig or the breast of battery farmed turkey. But faced with the smell of freshly roasted furry or feather friends, with the face tastefully removed, so as not to cause undue reminders of just where it came from, the temptation to do that carnivorous 'U' turn and tuck in, can be too much.

Vegans can change the world

So how can you resist the turkey, beefy, porky onslaught that this festive season is going to bring and avoid being diverted back on to the super highway of unsustainable consumerism. How do you turn your back on the dreaded meat eaters who just don't give a damn?

The way forward is to take charge of Christmas. Do the planning. Do the shopping. Do the cooking!

Present your non veggie family and friends with a no brainer. Not of sound arguments for not destroying the planet we live on. That doesn't seem to cut much mustard when there is a 7 course, triple roast with all the trimmings, Chrimbo nosh up on offer.

The only way is to win the argument with better food. Food that is different. Food that is exciting. Food that even the meat munchers won't be able to resist.

Check out some of these mouth watering Christmas dishes and see if it doesn't do the trick.

BBC Good Food

Jamie Oliver

Great British Chefs

by
Duncan and Guy

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Thursday 10th Dec, 7:30 p.m. (online)

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Oh My Nottz is a HotHouse Theatre production. Co. No. 6505843 Charity No. 1154523. Tel 07535138506 email guy@hothousetheatre.com website www.hothousetheatre.com
The views expressed in Oh My Nottz are not necessarily those held by HotHouse Theatre.
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