Watch the movies’there is always strength in numbers.

Thanks very much

Thanks for reading and making the effort to comment.

Our insane food system is certainly up there as one of the threats I’m most worried about too, and I guess for me, I need to start turning my own shit around – by that I mean investing in a composting toilet.

Next steps? Head to the hills and self sufficiency, nobody has an answer, but the answer is within all of us. Changing the nature of our economic system and the status quo ain’t gonna happen anytime soon, and I’m not clever enough to even begin suggesting alternatives.

Cheers,

Laurie

Of all the threats facing our species, our insane food system is the one I’m most worried about. It sits at the centre of our lives, few understand it, and few realise the massive level of damage we’re doing; we’re not just creating superweeds, the high level of antibiotics it takes to keep pigs and chickens in woefully unsanitary conditions is creating superbugs.

So Laurie what do you think the next steps are for turning shit around

Thanks for the comments. I agree with most of what you say although am a little confused by your analogy regarding the use of animal rennet. Eating less tasty cheese won’t change the basic fact of dairying. I have encountered many vegetarians at my cheese counter who were not aware of the processes involved in the dairy industry.

I certainly don’t see vegetarians or vegans as ‘greenheads’, and I can only presume that most of points are in response to Geoff’s comments. In my work as a cheesemonger I go out of my way to source, care for, and sell cheese that has been made by farmhouse or artisanal producers who respect and care for their land, animals and cheese.

I think that you must be careful not to put all of the dairy industry into one basket, and certainly making generalising, unsubstantiable remarks like ‘we give them an entire, brief existence of absolute and paralyzing terror’ is wrong. I have visited many biodynamic and organic farmhouse cheesemakers who care for their animals with the utmost respect. Their animals live safe, long lives compared to their industrially farmed counterparts. That said, they still have to kill the males.

In a way I guess I can understand veganism better than vegetarianism from the point of view of ethics, but even then, at what point do you draw the line?

From an environmental perspective cheesemaking can be incrediibly destructive (from a land use and carbon emissions perspective), so if consuming dairy products my advice is to stick to fresher, softer cheeses, preferably certified organic/biodynamic (less petrochemical use means less CO2-e emissions) and probably goats/sheep rather than cow.

For environmental reasons I have reduced my meat consumption down to chicken and fish. I very occasionly eat other meat as long as am certain of its provenance (e.g I have purchased it from the farmer at the farmers market), to ensure both ethical treatment and minimal ecological footprint.

Have a search for my post on Australian supermarkets and let me know what you think!

Cheers,

Laurie

I’m pretty sure most vegetarians and vegans have thought about the idea that a dairy herd requires that the farmers kill male calves and adults. And whether it is a by-product of this slaughter or not is irrelevant. If it involves treating living things that feel pain and suffering just like us, like objects to be used exclusively for our own wants (not needs), vegetarians and vegans alike object. That doesn’t make us horrible people for asking you to eat less tasty and “complex” cheese. It just makes is concerned. That’s like saying that people that wer willing to live a less convenient life by not having a black person as a slave, and asked that the rest of society also do this, were rudely burdening others with a life of slightly more effort. But it’s not seen that way, it’s seen as humane, and that those people were brave trailblazers.

Vegetarians and vegans are not here to ruin your day, and we’re not actually asking that much of people….we’re just asking that you stop thinking of animals as something you own and control and command, something you can chuck about and use for whatever you want, and start thinking of them as just like you – living creatures that breathe and feel.

They’re terrified. We give them an entire, brief existence of absolute and paralyzing terror, and end it with separation and sadness and pain. What vegetarians and vegans are asking you to do is think to yourselves, is that really the kind of being you are? One that imposes such horrible things on to such innoccence? They’re babies. They’re mothers, and families…
Why do we think this is ok? That question honestly bothers me every day.