To mark National Vegetarian Week, Bristol artist and blogger Fritha Strickland (below) has written us a guest post about being a vegetarian. There are lots of veggie events happening in Bristol this week, culminating in VegFest, where Miss Dynamite, Goldie Lookin’ Chain and Aswad will take to a stage on the harbourside. Visit bristol.vegfest.co.uk for more information.
It’s National Vegetarian Week this week and it’s another reason why I love living in a city like Bristol at a time like this.
As a born and raised vegetarian I feel pretty passionate about the subject but my attitude is that you are intelligent enough to make your own decisions and your own moral choices. If anyone is actually genuinely interested in learning more about the reasons I am vegetarian then I am happy to oblige.
Often I find people’s reaction to finding out I’m a vegetarian fairly hostile or condescending. I wouldn’t dream of teasing someone about what they had chosen to order on the menu so I find it bizarre to still get this reaction in the modern world. I could just as easy turn around and mention something a lot more horrible about the meat choice they had chosen but frankly I’m not that rude.
In fact I don’t even mention the fact I am vegetarian unless asked and have never tried to enforce my views on anyone.
As I child having an occasional school meal, the veggie option would actually be a pot of grated cheese (at first I was thrilled about this; I was a child and was pretty happy with just cheese for my lunch).
Society has changed so much since then and there are lots more veggie options when eating out. Attitudes towards animal cruelty have changed massively too. People are more aware of factory farming and the cruelty involved in processes like veal and foie gras for at start. But there is still a huge amount of cruelty involved in the meat industry.
If you are a meat eater and are curious about being a vegetarian or simply just want to eat a little healthier for a week, then check out websites like this for some ideas.
And just to be a little patronising, here are some good reasons to be veggie. I am not preaching but these are some of the reasons I feel passionately about the subject:
Meat contains absolutely nothing – no proteins, vitamins or minerals – that the human body cannot obtain perfectly happily from a vegetarian diet. It’s a total myth that vegetarians do not get the vitamins they need.
If we eat the plants we grow instead of feeding them to animals, the world’s food shortage will disappear virtually overnight. Remember that 100 acres of land will produce enough beef for 20 people but enough wheat to feed 240 people.
Cheaper life insurance. Scientific studies have shown that meat eaters suffer from a great deal more diseases including some forms of cancer and most notoriously heart disease. There is a reason our life insurance is cheaper!
And that’s not even going into the moral reasons; animals suffer all sorts of terrible cruelty in the aid of producing meat. If you want to learn more about these there are lots of video evidence on websites such as PETA showing abhorrent cruelty, but it is not for the faint-hearted.
Enjoy Veggie Week and go make yourself something yummy!
Fritha Strickland is a semi-professional illustrator who lives in Easton with her boyfriend Tom and their cats. Visit her blog at tigerlillyquinn.blogspot.com.
