British MPs says eat less meat!
Yesterday, British MPs were published on The Daily Mail saying that they should eat less meat. They were encouraging the public to eat less meat for various reasons… including how grains used to feed animals for livestock should instead be used for human consumption.
Other reasons given by the MPs was that UK is only days away from food shortages. I’m not too sure about this statement given… but any steps forward to stop animals from being used for food, is always a step in a good direction.
Do read the article below, and tell me what you think.
Tsem Rinpoche
[Extracted from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335424/Eat-meat-face-food-shortage-Nannying-MPs-astonishing-warning-unhelpful-say-farmers.html]
Eat less meat or face food shortage: Nannying MPs’ astonishing warning is ‘unhelpful’, say farmers
- MPs warn UK ‘never more than days from a significant shortage’
- They say global surge in meat and cheese consumption is unsustainable
- Lib Dem Sir Malcolm Bruce says: ‘There is no room for complacency’
- But the report was branded ‘bitterly disappointing’ by farming unions
Families should stop eating meat on a daily basis, MPs warn today.
Pork, lamb and beef should be ‘occasional’ indulgences rather than dinner-table staples.
They said the global surge in meat and cheese consumption was unsustainable, with the UK ‘never more than a few days from a significant food shortage’.
The Commons international development committee said farmers should rear more animals on grass because livestock is land and energy intensive and grain should be saved for humans.
MPs say pork, lamb and beef should be ‘occasional’ indulgences rather than dinner-table staples.
The report was branded ‘naive, dangerous and bitterly disappointing’ by farming unions. ‘Livestock farming is an essential part of the fabric of the British countryside,’ said Charles Sercombe of the NFU.
‘We turn otherwise unused parts of land into food and protein that the public can eat as part of a balanced diet. We are using the land as efficiently as possible.
‘With many farmers having been dealing with some of the most difficult conditions in years, to encourage the public not to eat meat is unhelpful to say the least.’
Phil Stocker of the National Sheep Association said: ‘The vast majority of land used for sheep farming is not suitable for any other form of agriculture.
‘Would it be more efficient just to leave the land and import our food? Of course not. Millions have grown up eating meat regularly and it is the public’s right to serve what they like on their dinner table.’
But Sir Malcolm Bruce, the Lib Dem chairman of the Commons committee, said: ‘With the UK never more than a few days away from a significant food shortage, UK consumers should also be encouraged over time to reduce how often they eat meat.
‘There is no room for complacency about food security over the coming decades if UK consumers are to enjoy stable supplies and reasonable food prices.
‘UK aid to help smallholders increase food production in the developing world is of direct benefit to UK consumers as rising world food prices will reduce living standards of hard-pressed UK consumers.’
The MPs are demanding ministers tackle food wastage – a study by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers found up to half the food bought from UK supermarkets goes in the bin, often when edible.
‘There is no room for complacency about food security over the coming decades if UK consumers are to enjoy stable supplies and reasonable food prices.’ Sir Malcolm Bruce
The committee’s report on global food security said: ‘We recommend the Government set targets for food waste reduction for producers and retailers and introduce sanctions for failure to meet the targets.’
On the topic of GM food, dubbed ‘Frankenstein foods’, the MPs recognised the technique was ‘controversial’ but added: ‘GMOs have the potential to make a valuable contribution to food security.
The committee raised concerns about the impact of biofuels – derived from plants such as sugar cane and maize – on the environment and on food prices.
Vast swathes of agricultural land are set aside to grow fuel crops, pushing up the price of staple goods. By law, at least 5 per cent of petrol and diesel sold on British forecourts must be biofuel.
The MPs called on ministers to consider using domestic stockpiles of food to protect against price hikes.
As well as claiming grain should be fed to humans instead of animals, vegetarians and green activists tell steak lovers livestock farming is a major source of harmful greenhouse gases.
But a study in 2010 found that going vegetarian may not be as green as it seems. The Cranfield University research found that switching from British-bred beef and lamb to meat substitutes imported from abroad such as tofu and Quorn would increase the amount of land cultivated.
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A beautiful approach by the British MPs has recommended that people reduce the amount of meat they eat to help prevent food shortages in Britain . Even though it is political approach yet still happy as less animals will be killed for foods on the table.
The massive increase in meat consumption in recent decades has led to the price of grain increase which used for animal feed. Its also lead to widespread deforestation and pressure on agricultural land. The MP are trying to tackle food wastage as half the food bought from UK supermarkets goes in the bin. The UK population are encouraged to eat less meat in long run.
Thank you for sharing.
British MPs urged UK people to eat less meat so to curb the problem of food shortage, due to increased growing of grain to feed cattle was reducing the resources for nourishing people. Even the reason to eat less meat is not based on loving animals’ basis, for me this is still a good news. Because in the progress of consuming less meat in a daily basis (if UK people take the advice) more animals will be saved; and impact on environment can be reduced.
In fact, to curb the problem of food shortage, not only we should eat less meat (or no meat) but aware on the problem of food wastage. For United Kingdom, its households waste an estimated 6.7 million tonnes of food every year, around one third of the 21.7 million tonnes purchased. This means that approximately 32% of all food purchased per year is not eaten. (Source: http://www.unep.org/wed/quickfacts/)
And, UK is not alone, many developed countries in the world, food wastage is high. For US, 30% of all food, worth US$48.3 billion (€32.5 billion), is thrown away each year. It is estimated that about half of the water used to produce this food also goes to waste. (Source: http://www.unep.org/wed/quickfacts/)
However, about 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted every year and yet one in seven people is starving, according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). And the wastage can more than enough to feed the poor and starving in the other corner of the world.
Our choices to eat less meat and cut down food wastage to the minimal, can actually minimize the environmental impact of food production “when about a third of global food production is either wasted or lost, causing an enormous drain on natural resources”. (http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/06/09/951808/1-7-people-starving)
Reduce your FOODPRINT from today on!
Although I don’t see any explanation of eating less meat for health purposes, it is more towards the shortage of food supply and economic purposes, but it is still good at least even going green with different purposes, it still lead to a more healthy lifestyle.
When in the process of enforcing this thought, definitely many people will object especially people who live based on this business – selling meat as food.
Consuming more meats in our daily meals not only having negative effects on our body health, but also the usage of land increases. According to PETA findings, in USA, More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals, and according to scientists at the Smithsonian Institution, the equivalent of seven football fields of land is bulldozed worldwide every minute to create more room for farmed animals. Imagine if this grains that grow from the land, it can use to feed how many people.
It is also a lot of wastage of food for farming animals, it takes up to 13 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of meat, and even fish on fish farms must be fed up to 5 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce 1 pound of farmed fish flesh.
Even if their aim was not to promote compassion their idea is still well in the right direction of it. Eating meat is regular in western countries, with less varieites of vegetables at the super markets, i think the people can do better to do their part in eating less meat. Its really sad though that it was found that majority of the food bought by supermarkets were gone to wastage when they could have been given to the poor or people who really needed them. Many of us take food at our supermarkets, shops and restaurants for granted. Throwing away what seems to be a lot left on our plates into the bin is really sad. I really hope Britain doesn’t suffer food shortages and still consume less meat or none at all. Thank you for sharing this post Rinpoche.
Dear Rinpoche,
WOW!!! This is really great news to know!!
It is very nice of some of the British MP’s suggesting and encouraging British citizens to eat less meat.
Of course the MP’s do have their own motives for this step but in my point of view needless to say as long as lesser animals get killed and not more animals getting killed I am pretty ok with it.
I hope that at least 25 percent of the people will follow the advice given because to me, even though 25 percent of Britain’s Population is very small, 25 percent lesser animals that are eaten at dinner tables is really a big accomplishment!
This advice is actually quite a win-win deal because for the people’s benefit There will be more grain for Human consumption as well as they themselves become more healthier, as for the Government’s side I am sure that because less animals are slaughtered there will be lower pollution records as well as so many other benefits.
I like how some of the MP’s quoted that ‘Pork, lamb and beef should be ‘occasional’ indulgences rather than dinner-table staples.”
If only we in Malaysia would have these similar words said out from our MP’s Here.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this great news!
Love
Jutika
To me, this doesn’t seem like this discussion is out of compassion. It sounds more like a political point. But in the end it doesn’t really matter, because what the main point about this is that less animals die. And that makes this discussion good.
I think by going vegetarian, it could somehow help to reduce the global warming issue. The British environment minister Ben Bradshaw has also pointed out that food production did just as much damage as private transport and housing and this could lead to climate change.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/greenerfood website makes clear that eating beef, chicken and lamb etc dairy products contributes to global warming because of the energy and land needed to rear animals. Cheese is one of the food that is very damaging to the climate because of the way it is produced, packaged, transported and cooked.
Go vegetarian not only contributed to well being and better health, it does help to save the planet that we are living in.
I must agree with Sharon that the talk was mainly on economics rather than compassion… in fact, it’s not even close to concern about the environment, although there is some mention of it, it is however mentioned in the context of strengthening their point of taking less meat.
Whatever the reason is, I’m glad that the PM announced something like this to the whole country… such great impact it has made… as long as animals are spared from being cooked and placed on a plate, I’m totally fine with the methods used.
This really is good news!!!
If the British people are going to eat less meat it is for a good cause.
This means that less animals will be slaughtered.
To reduce eating meat is for the cause of the animal and yourself.
Meat in some cases causes cancer,so the more meat we eat the more we are going to suffer from sickness and cause harm to more sentient beings.
I do hope that everyone would stop eating for the cause of ourself and the animals.
Everything else was quite fine except for the word “occasional indulgences”. I do not mean to be mean but what they said don’t make any sense, there are way too much of contradiction among what the people have to say. But the most important point is– stop eating meat, it doesn’t really matter if it’s for the sake of their economics or something else, the thing that matters is that thousands and thousands of lives will be spared through that.
Thank You for sharing Rinpoche
No matter what the motive is from the British MPs. The awareness for vegetarian and vegan are more severe as more and more people know the cruelty of slaughtering the animal, and to protect the animal’s rights lots of people become vegetarian / vegan especially in Europe. Is great to see the new generations are practising that 🙂
I believe in near future vegetarian will be the trend 🙂
It seems that this discussion is actually more about money rather than the safety of animals. However, despite this, animals will suffer less as less people will eat meat.
No matter what the reason less deaths = good 😀
Whatever the real motivation behind the MPs suggestion to urge their people to eat lesser meat is, in the end less and lesser animals will be killed which is a good thing. If the reports are true, I think the time has come where humans should value the existence of animals and not eeating them.
It is good that the British MPs are discouraging the intake of meat even though it may cause disappointments to the farming unions. Not only is eating meat unhealthy as most animals are diseased and bred/raised in unconducive farms; is it also a major source of greenhouse gases which effects our environment. From another point of view, we should have compassion for all those animals who had to
suffer so much just to please our taste buds.
It is a good sign when British MPs encourage the public to eat less meat! There will always be resistance from those who are against eating less meat. This resistance will be mainly from the meat producers, farmers, those in the supply chain that provides the meat for the general public and those consumers who are attached to eating meat!
There are vearious reasons for and against eating meat as put forth in the article above. It is every individual’s responsibilty when he or she decided to consume meat. There are karmic consequences from eating meat. Eating meat is equivalent to killing the animals whose meat is being consumed. Lord Buddha who is a fully-enlightened being will never lie to us. Lord Buddha has spoken about the Law of Cause and Effect. The Law of Cause and Effect is fair. If you believe in Karma, then please totally refrain from eating meat! There are other better alternatives to eating meat!
Apart from what was said by British MPs, other ethical reason for not eating animals are generally indicated by compassionate sympathisers of many large countries world-wide, especially USA, are as follows:- Compulsorily, all humane slaughtering acts require that animals be rendered unconscious with one swift application of a stunning device before slaughter. In today’s slaughter houses, itis said that this often does not happened, animals often are skinned, boiled and butchered alive. Conveyor lines are pushed to breakneck speed, fequently causing cattles, pigs, horses and sheep to be shackled and throat slit without first being stunned! Factory farmed animals are said to be subjected to weather extremes too. It was reported that over two million chickens died from heatstress in july 1993 in Nevada, and in New Mexico, thousands of calves frozed to death during a cold spell in 1997 without proper care. As amatter of fact,it is said that 97% of animal abuses are against farm animals in USA, where eight billion animals are killed in the country for food. As scripturally said, “The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion and should be discouraged.” A man should wander about treating all creatures as he himself would be treated. Om mani padme hum.
Shelly tai on 11June2013 at11am
There is so many benefits if we become vegetarian as always mention by Rinpoche. I think if we really understand the teaching of Buddha we should apply it seriously by not eating meat is the very first stage of training ourselves to be kind to the animals that it will help us to cut our negative karma as day go by not killing the animals.I think is very important for us to understand that whatever our guru ask us to do is to benefit us is not harming to us just do it.
Whether it is about meat shortage or not, we should cut down on meat consumption for the long term eating will definitely be unhealthy in many ways. Cutting down on meat should be practiced and taught to the younger generation too. Just like schools in which are teaching students the health benefits of being vegetarian. http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/current-affairs/new-york-school-does-what.html
There are many who still think that being a vegetarian is unhealthy then what about the many people who are vegetarian all their life? There are many healthy substitutes for meat.
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/article/why-go-veg-learn-about-becoming-a-vegetarian/
You’ll help reduce pollution. Some people become vegetarians after realizing the devastation that the meat industry is having on the environment. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), chemical and animal waste runoff from factory farms is responsible for more than 173,000 miles of polluted rivers and streams. Runoff from farmlands is one of the greatest threats to water quality today. Agricultural activities that cause pollution include confined animal facilities, plowing, pesticide spraying, irrigation, fertilizing and harvesting.
This is so contradictory. The lands used are not suitable for agriculture, so where do they plant the grains? What is the used of fertilizer? And in the article it was pointed that agricultural land are set aside for growing fuel crops.
It is really disappointing, of course, to the farm unions because they would lose customers and profits from the decline of meat consumption. Eating vegetable is the smart thing to do and not dangerous. Taking meat is naive and the more dangerous because the nations would have food shortage in the near future, not counting, that animals increases greenhouse effect, diseases, and reduce the land for other uses.
It is complete false information and is considered false advertising when meat is said to be better than vegetable. The animals came from eating vegetables as well.
The western farmers and ranchers are all subsidized by their governments and with the current situation of economic turmoil in the world, it was a great idea for the British MPS to think of ways of making people to be more dependent on hard work instead of Handouts from the Government.
As Sharon mentions the British recommends to eat less meat may all be economical reasons, but kudos to them even not out of compassion may this happen.
Meat had always brought on diseases such as mad cow, from pigs and also from chickens.
For the stoppage of killing animals, may more Governments encourage people to eat less meat.
In olden days because of poverty, the Chinese population only ate meat twice a more.
It was good that the topic is discuss, hopefully it will influence other to focus on reduce eating meat.
I agreed with what Sharon has states, most importantly the end result is to reduce killing of animals always in a good direction. No matter it is for economic or political reasons.
Moreore and more influential people are going for vegetarian. Its a good move for our health, and its good for the environment. Read this:-
NEWS/ 13 Celebrity Vegans: Why Brad Pitt, Ellen DeGeneres and Olivia Wilde Eat Beast-Free
http://www.eonline.com/news/362471/13-celebrity-vegans-why-brad-pitt-ellen-degeneres-and-olivia-wilde-eat-beast-free
and, there are so many meat related health issues. Lots of studies and research has already proven that, cut down the meat consumption and go vegetarian today!
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/study-points-to-new-culprit-in-heart-disease.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Eating Meat Linked To Disease, Report Says
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/18/cut-back-on-meat-new-repo_n_901554.html
The British Members of Parliament is in a chicken and egg situation about the consumption of less meat, the effect on industry players in the meat industry and cost of farming land for grains. It is logical to harvest grains to feed human rather than animals due to food shortage. This issue may not only be prevalent in the UK but may soon be faced by all countries globally if this situation persist.
Promotion of vegetarianism is a healthier choice for all, including human and animals.
It looks like this debate is more about economics than compassion, although the final result, should people consume less meat, will lead to less animals being killed which is a good thing.
Food wastage is an important issue to address though. This is a first-world-problem, where people often prepare/serve more food than they can consume and it is wasted. This is worse than consuming meat because when it is wasted, it really renders the death of the animal as meaningless.
Whether being vegetarian is green or not, i think the important factor to consider is that being vegetarian is compassionate living and that should be the priority.
我想少吃肉應該是未來飲食世界的大趋勢！這是一個可以预測的走向，因為大家開始在富庶的環境之下，探索著更高層次的生活要求。很多朋友問我，身為佛教徒，本身就應該是素食者，我沒有否決這樣一個被定有的觀念；但是我更想說的是，整個地球的存亡，不該只是佛教徒的責任，而更應該是每位居住在這星球上的人的責任。
從佛教的觀點來看，持素最主要的原因，避免殺生和傷害其它的生物。透過茹素、不殺害其它生物；而培養個人的慈悲心，即是修心的其中一個步驟。
從環保和環境的角度來看，人們食肉的飲食習慣，破壞了許多自然生態的發展和成長。若果，這樣的飲食習慣持續下去，全球的土地破壞、森林區被濫伐，緊接著是空氣的污染等，都直接對我們的生活品質造成极大負面影響。
所以，如果我們每個人都了解個中的道理，相信那份保護環境、爱护地球的責任心，自然就會萌生！如此一來，不僅許多生物得救，減少大量的屠殺行動，也讓容易讓人們生起同理心，爱护身边的動物和照顧大自然環境的一切。