GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Meat-eating [Was: Clarification: HOW YOU CAN HELP stop fishing?]

16-07-2004, 03:18 PM

(Nick Maclaren) wrote in message ...
In article ,
(Mike Lyle) writes:
|
| Not sure if any in urg are following this irritatingly mixed-quality
| thread; but it's not entirely irrelevant. We do need to change to a
| low-meat diet, regardless of health issues, because high levels of
| meat-production are not sustainable in planetary terms. For some kinds
| of meat and fish, this is already reflected in the price; so, without
| even thinking much about it, many of us already use animal products as
| a treat or a flavouring rather than a major fat and protein source.

That does not follow - we could perfectly well adopt the strategy
proposed by Swift :-)

Sorry, which bit doesn't follow from which other bit?

The Dean's approach would still provide only an intermittent supply of
meat in most families; and I fear the market would very soon get
involved, quickly raising the price of the delicacy to the point where
poorer households would be tempted to take the cash and spend it on
junk food instead. Indeed, EC regulations would most likely, in
effect, divert much of the profit from smaller producers into the
hands of larger enterprises benefiting from economies of scale and
greater political influence. American companies such as Monsanto would
probably use their muscle to gain a high degree of control of all
phases of production and processing, so we might find ourselves pretty
much back where we started (with a significant loss of table quality
into the bargain).

Mike.