Eating Pets, Butchering Pigs and Vegan Absolutism — Part 1: Spiking Vegetarians

A Story About Meat

Spiking Vegetarians

Meat has received a lot of criticism recently, yet, in itself, it’s done nothing wrong. What has served up a big heap of wrong is society’s relationship with meat and the food industry’s pursuit of it, on a global level.

This is the first of a six-part story of meat and how you can change the world, in the most unlikely way.

My childhood diet was firmly in the meat ’n’ two veg category. Cooking was the sole responsibility of my mother, who, despite adventurous tendencies, relied on the formulaic meat plus carbs and veg principle. Grilled chicken breasts, sausages, a piece of fish or pork chops, surrounded by vegetables and spuds, or a good smattering of spag bol made with beef mince and slippery pasta.

Birthdays gave the birthdee free-reign over dinner, choosing whatever delicious morsels their stomach craved and my favourite treat was a meat fondue. A cauldron of oil would be heated in the middle of the table upon a little burner, then using long, thin, pronged forks, we would skewer strips of raw meat and plunge them into the deep cauldron of oil, watching the flesh sizzle and bubble away.