Katrina Tweedie
THE sheep’s brain in the freezer was the final straw. I declared myself vegetarian.
As the daughter of a farmer, I was brought up on offal. The local butcher would save the cuts no one else wanted for my dad and we’d have to endure tripe, liver and kidneys.
Then, aged 13, I opened the freezer and saw the brains – a delicacy on toast – and declared enough was enough.
Years of nut roast at Christmas and a carb-based diet followed. It was only when I had my own kids that I started eating meat again, fearing they’d get a vitamin deficiency living on baked potatoes and pasta.
This was before vegan went mainstream, before the Bosh! boys, creators of the fastestselling vegan cookbook ever.
One in eight people now declare themselves vegetarian or vegan and a further 21 per cent claim to be flexitarian, where a largely vegetable-based diet is supplemented occasionally with meat.
The trend is largely fuelled by fears over the intensive meat and dairy industry, impacts on animals, human health and the environment.
The high levels of land and water use and carbon emissions associated with intensive meat production mean cutting back is one of the key ways that people can help tackle climate change. But industrially grown soya, maize and grains – the backbone of a vegan diet – require high inputs of fertiliser, fungicides, pesticides and herbicides and also take their toll on the planet. Confused? Me too. Are we to follow a plant-based regime and ditch the other fad – for high protein, meat-based diets? The barbaric animal slaughter videos posted by zealots on Facebook – appearing between holiday snaps and pictures of our children – are not going to make me turn veggie again. What would, however, is the food fed to our children at school, where less than a fifth of what is served up is from Scotland and the menus include chicken from Thailand and turkey from Brazil. If you do enjoy a steak or burger from time to time, there’s a right way to do it. You could buy locally reared, PGI-labelled beef or lamb – products of sustainable farming that can restore soil diversity and remove carbon from the environment. And whether you are shopping at Asda or a farmers’ market, anyone can choose local, seasonal fruit and veg. That’s healthier and more realistic than a short-lived meat backlash.
Less than a fifth of the food that is served for school dinners is from Scotland