It’s time we ggrew up about what we eat

IF THE discussions surrounding COP26 are anything to go by, it seems people are depending on governments to save us from increasingly disastrous tempests, droughts, fires, floods, and even species extinction, much like the way a child leaves it to his or her parents to make things right.

Unlike children, however, we should know better and must take personal responsibility, or we are doomed.

Governments have agreed to stop cutting down forests by the end of the decade.

At the rate we are felling trees – will there be any left by then?

Perhaps when we admit that most forests, particularly rainforests – our planet’s oxygen centres and natural flood defences – are being destroyed to grow crops to feed cows and chickens, we can silence the chainsaws by drying up the demand for meat and dairy.

Today, that’s hardly inconvenient. In our society, vegan “taste-alikes” abound – from fakin’ bacon.to “chicken” nuggets, vegan caviar, faux fish fillets, vegan sausages, and plant milks – and beans and rice are among the plethora of affordable, familiar foods that provide all the protein and fibre our hearts desire, quite literally.

We may be conveniently oblivious to what we’re doing to animals and our arteries by clinging to our old habits of eating meat and dairy, in part because we don’t see into abattoirs or inside our bodies, but it’s hard to miss a house floating down your street.

It’s high time we acted like grown-ups, took responsibility, and went vegan.

Ingrid Newkirk Founder, People for the Ethical

Treatment Animals