Today, I lapsed

I apologise for the extended period of time between posts. I have changed jobs in the past month, had a string of shows with my band that we previously did not even think possible and have had people going in and out of our house very weekend thanks to the place being sold (we rent).

So I guess this post is to catch you up. It's probably a good time to give an idea of how this life-change challenge is going!

First, the title. It came from my new boss. I said I had enjoyed the vegetarian option at the Tandoori Den, an Indian restaurant local to my new work in Camberwell, and explained that I had heard the butter chicken was heavenly, but that I only ate free-range chicken. She asked why, and I explained my reasons, and the motives behind "Meating People" as a blog.

"Well, there you go!" she said, winking, "That's a blog post - 'Today, I lapsed!'"

And I did. The idea of generating a post about how I've been going with this whole thing seemed too good to pass up. For the record, the butter chicken was amazing. But I don't know if it was worth it.

My boss' response sums up the attitude I've had from quite a few people, particularly Baby Boomers. Maybe they had enough of the ideologies of the Gen X-ers and were happy when the Y-ers (ie. Kim and I) came along. Perhaps because we are apparently more likely to donate to (or participate in) charity, celebrate diversity and be tertiary educated, pragmatism seems to be our schtick. Hell, you could go with the general criticism of us, if it makes you happy - we'll take whatever comes as long as it's about us. Either way, people seem to yawn when I talk about it being a rule that I don't eat meat that's not ethically farmed, rather than a guideline.

My mum suggested I apply the 80/20 rule. I laughed, but I'm not sure she was entirely joking.

I have significantly lapsed only one other time, and this time it was a big'un. My wife Lily and I went out for breakfast with her Mother, and we ended up at Yum Cha. I'm going to pull Kim's move here and say that, as someone who had never had Yum Cha before (despite growing up in Box Hill - go figure), I felt it was an experience I couldn't pass up. It was amazing food (and amazingly expensive), and it's a sacrifice I think I'm glad I made for a one off. I also don't think I could have found anywhere, or any dish, that would have met my requirements whilst still being Yum Cha; in my experience Asian food - particularly Chinese and Vietnamese - is the hardest cuisine to source ethically.

While I talk about these events as if they were me going out of my way to break the rules, it's not really the case. For the most part, on a day to day basis you generally have to eat vegetarian when you're out. This is not necessarily a bad thing; part of the problem of factory farming is that we've come to rely on meat as a staple for virtually every meal, which is both unhealthy and environmentally unsustainable. I also quite like vegetarian options.

This means that I will try and plan meals I cook at home around having leftovers - again, not a bad thing. This often saves me money.

But the point is - restaurants, cafes and take-away joints are generally not your friends for ethical meat eating. I will be going through some places I have eaten recently that are welcome and notable exceptions, running the gamut from simple cafe to insanely wonderful fine-dining restaurant, but you can't go out into the 'Burbs (or even the Urbs - is that a thing?) and expect to find much more than the occasional free-range egg from most places.

However, it's not all bad news - I'm finding that more and more delis are stocking Ottway ham, and Coles and Woolworths both offer token free-range selections of ham and chicken (the Lilydale free-range chicken has been in both supermarket chains for some time, and has come down significantly in price in the last few years). We are eating less meat at home, and the meat we are eating tastes better, and feels more filling as we're not always plugging the gaps with meat for dinner every night.

Money - Well, it wouldn't be cheap if we were eating meat every night. The per kilo differences are not insignificant, and while I don't think it would have made a huge dollar difference for every meal, the dollars do add up. That being said, as we've changed our eating habits according, it doesn't seem that our grocery costs have changed much. Vegies are generally cheaper than meat, they also keep for longer. You can buy bulk amounts of vegies and not have to freeze them; I don't generally like to freeze meat, so that's a bonus.

Overall - I'm pretty happy with how it's been going. I occasionally get fed up, and just wish it was a simple case of Cafe A or Cafe B, or that I could walk into a pub and order a huge chicken parmagiana, get sushi for dinner from Sushi Sushi (more on fish soon) or have bacon from anywhere but a few places I trust, but generally it aint so bad.

Maybe I am a good little Gen-Yer after all. I won't whinge and whine - I'll just ask, take note, and then make a decision accordingly. I won't tell you off for not serving free-range eggs or bacon, but I won't be back (and I won't eat anything containing eggs or bacon while I'm there).

So that's where we're at. See you next post!

Meating people is easy

If you live in the Brunswick area, and you frequent Barkly Square (or Sparkly Bear, as we’ve taken to calling it) Shopping Centre, you’ve probably seen me. I’m the guy standing in front of the rows and rows of food at Coles trying to work out what politically correct impulse to pay lip service to.

Okay, before I get ahead of myself, I should probably take a leaf out of Kim’s book and introduce myself. That guy, standing in the aisle, that’s me: I’m Wes Mountain. I work a boring day job, where I ostensibly tell people what they do wrong in their job for cash money. I should note that it’s not big cash money, heck it’s not even cash. It’s a salary. I am also in a band called Little Bones, and draw a political cartoon blog called Dickhead Frenzy. I draw a lot, actually, and I’m sure that’ll creep into this blog at some stage.

So anyway, back to the topic at heart. I too recently read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals. I thoroughly enjoyed it; at least to the extent one can enjoy being told uncomfortable truths about their eating practices. While I found it very informative, I think it suffered with the same condition a lot of seemingly universal modern texts suffer from – it was very US-centric.

Australia, much as we like to pretend otherwise, is not America. We’re a much smaller country. Things like free-range eggs, chicken and pork-products (bacon, ham etc.) are much more readily available in Australia than in the US. Our relatively small population, and particular penchant for the coast, means that the distance from the agricultural process to the plate is much shorter, both literally and figuratively. As far as I’m aware, our animal welfare standards are much stricter, and regulation of the environmental impacts of meat production, as well as the use of hormones and antibiotics in farmed animals, is government audited.

But it’s that qualifier, “as far as I’m aware,” that worries me. I mean I hear all of these good things, and until recently (I’m getting better) I’ve paid lip service to the process of improvement by only buying free-range eggs and mostly buying free-range ham, but what about the uncomfortable things people occasionally say about our supposedly ethical Australian meat industry?

Things like how there’s apparently not enough free range eggs to service the Australian population at our current rate of consumption, or that the amount of eggs labelled “free range” can’t possibly all be “free range” given the small amount of farms producing said eggs. Or the fact that “free range” itself is a term that can be self-appointed, and that the RSPCA or industry funded groups are the only organisations that provide accreditation (and, like the Heart Foundation, they both seem to have commercial interests in who they grant accreditation to). Or the idea that, despite the fact that on paper beef seems to be relatively fine to eat, I can’t seem to find much information in lay-terms about ethical standards for the beef industry in Australia.

I don’t think vegetarianism is a viable option. I don’t begrudge vegetarians their position, but I think that for most people their argument doesn’t hold water. I include myself in this. Humans evolved to eat meat, and despite the fact it can be healthy to live without meat, we are fundamentally built to be omnivores. There are nutrients available in meat that are not found in equal, accessible abundance in any other (edible) form. I also don’t believe that one person wholesale removing themselves from the machinations of a colossal industry is going to do anything to better animal welfare in meat production, nor close the industry down.

On the flip side, I think there’re few things worse than a squeamish meat eater. If you can’t hack the idea of watching an animal being slaughtered, bled, skinned and butchered, I don’t know if you’ve earned the right to eat that meat. You don’t need to be a part of the process, but you need to be aware of it, and comfortable with its implications.

So that’s why I’m here. I want to be comfortable, ethically, with what I’m eating. I don’t think anyone should ever be in a position where they can look at their plate and not be able to answer where their meat came from, or what ethical compromises they are making to eat said meat.

I want to know that what I’m eating is ethically produced and, ideally, sustainable. I also want to support businesses that support my decision. Kim and I will use this blog to investigate options, hopefully answer some big questions around meat production and slaughter in Australia (I’m looking forward to visiting a farm too, Kim), and point you in the direction of restaurants, butchers and grocers, who can fulfil our needs. Maybe we can come up with some recipes too? I think that could be good. Add that to the list.

I don’t want to be that guy paying lip service to some vague idea of free range anymore.

So, let’s see if we can do this thing.