A question ethics: animal welfare vs environmental concerns, which stand should you take?

Being vegetarian is far harder than I thought. It’s incredibly easy to do it half heartedly or hypocritically as I have discovered! Whilst sat in the park yesterday, eating my veggie sausage sandwich and feeling virtuous about my veggie efforts I rather naively was ranting about the mistreatment of animals whilst wearing leather shoes! Having looked into the alternatives to leather I have discovered that shoes marketed as vegetarian or vegan are made of cotton or faux leather. The environmental issues associated with cotton production are well documented (including the almost complete disappearance of the Aral Sea due to the use of water for crop irrigation) and faux leather is made of plastic. Call me cynical, but personally I think using one cow to feed several people and make many pairs of shoes is far better than producing plastic, a non-biodegradable substance formed from petrochemicals! The evils of oil are far more wide reaching including global economic instability from the price controls, pollution and destruction of fragile environments for oil extraction, not to mention the heinous nature of the Iraq war. Having said that, beef production in the past has been responsible for the destruction of rainforests for grazing land, global warming from the methane and, ultimately, obesity and heart disease! Maybe I should just stay barefoot instead.

Veggie ventures into the world of meat free food

After a recent incident where I ate some steak which according to various people may or may not have been veal (can you get pale beef?), I have been having a serious rethink of my attitudes to meat. Whilst I was in Tanzania I saw cows kept in tiny sheds in the dark being fed only banana leaves and never allowed out to graze or see the sunshine. These rather callous attitudes to animal welfare in the farming industry are what have prompted various people such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, The Soil Association and Compassion in World Farming to campaign for change. My concern however, is no longer whether or not the ‘steak’ I ate was or was not veal, but that if the thought that I might have eaten veal has shaken me up this much then should I be eating meat at all. So, since Monday I have been avoiding meat until I have made up my mind on whether I should become vegetarian or if I should only buy free-range and organic meat. What has really shocked me is the total lack of vegetarian foods in the supermarket. It seems that the typical British diet is still very much focused on the ‘meat and veg’ mentality of the 50s.
It might be tough but that hasn’t stopped me before so here goes with the whole veggie thing!

Fashion is the opiate of the modern masses

I was going to have a little rant about ethical book buying as seeing that Jade Goody has the best selling autobiography at the moment, outselling perhaps the most important man in modern history (Barack Obama) really wound me up on the weekend. But boycotting book buying wouldn’t last long for me! Plus, books are one of the few things in this world that aren’t considered to be disposable. So, instead, I’d like to complain about channel four’s inability to relate to the public.

Last night, Gok Wan was doing his usual ‘fashion fix’ and taking on the designers with ‘budget’ clobber from the high street. What startled me was the total lack of budget. Whilst most of us are struggling to make ends meet with utility bills and the cost of food through the roof, out of touch Gok was fawning over outfits costs a couple of hundred quid – a steal compared to the several thousand pound outfits being offered up by the rather mental designer-obsessed fashionista (and her pet pooch). Seriously, aren’t we all a bit beyond that now? I mean, who can afford the capsule wardrobe these days? Yes, Gok has a point, ‘buy less, wear more’ is a great idea but it does seem that Gok wants us all to chuck out what we have a buy a select few items which cost more than my mortgage!

Now what would be interesting is if instead of the designer vs high street battle at the end of the show, we had a high street vs shabby chic face off. I personally reckon that someone with a bit of sewing know-how, some style and guts could easily put together some fab outfits from charity shops, second shops and even car boot sales and on a budget that everyone can afford. Fashion is just a way of giving clothes exclusivity; stick a label on it and everyone knows that you’re minted. I say sod it, its time we all felt good about our clothes. Fuck fashion, everyone woman has the right to look and feel good about herself whether her gear’s from Biba or British Heart Foundation! Sadly, channel four are still promoting short-lived feel good fashion which just encourages the credit card crippling and excessive borrowing mentality that we’re all trying to leave behind. This just adds fuel to the fire of worthlessness and low self esteem amongst those who have been hit the hardest by the credit crunch – fashion is the opiate of the modern masses, and a tough habit to kick.

Sitting in the dark whilst the planet cooks from our self-indulgence

On Saturday millions of us spent our Saturday night illuminated by candlelight as part of the worldwide earth hour. The event has been heralded a great success as videos of famous landmarks plunged into darkness are being emailed to us by various organisations and news agencies. I however felt rather uncomfortable with the idea of watching TV by candle light. My low energy light bulbs are hardly energy hungry compared to the rest of the electrical equipment in my possession. Surely an all out electricity blackout would have made a more substantial comment on climate change? I thought this would have been a better idea and proceeded to turn off my heating and all electrical appliances that weren’t essential (fridge and freezer stayed on).

Sitting in the dark, trying to read by candle light I realised why my plan was flawed – who in their right mind would sit in the dark with nothing to do? And that is the problem. That is why WWF and the promoters of earth hour didn’t ask people to turn everything off. After the failure of earth day last year when electricity usage was actually higher than expected you can see why they set their sights a little lower. Sadly, it’s because of the trappings of the modern world, where everything we use consumes energy, that we have got to this stage. Even sadder still is that fact that very few people are prepared to face the truth that unless we force a real change in lifestyle, a complete paradigm shift, a change of perspective away from the all consuming, energy hungry lifestyle, to a more frugal, energy efficient one then all the earth hours in the world will not change the inevitable climate change and loss of what we take for granted now.

Having said that, I spent 5 minutes in the candle light trying to work out how to entertain myself before I turned on my laptop and watched a DVD using battery power. If some of the most ecologically minded people can’t cope an hour without electricity, then what hope does the world have?