This article was the sort that I used to long for constantly. It may have watered down considerably by this stage {along with my juvenile communism} but in younger years I was so fierce an environmentalist that I would have doubtless found Douglas’ new party far too soft-core for my liking.

A notable and substantial remnant from that phase is my vegetarianism, which remains in place because I can not and most likely never will appreciate the distinction in the tolerance of eating a pig but not a severely mentally handicapped human. This is a clear instance of bigotry and tautology such as “But they’re not human” only serves to confirm this.

I never previously attempted to evangelise over this as such efforts tend to end in failure and alienation {I had a hunter friend who has never spoken to me since I put it to him that it was impossible to respect and cherish something while destroying it needlessly}. However in this instance the case is clear: that haughty elitist Monbiot has, once again, peered down to inform us of an awkward home truth. Meat eating is destroying the planet and starving a vast section its greatest species.

I am glad that he managed to restrain himself {with visible effort} from his usual all-out rant aganst bio-fuels {why he imagines that all have tired of them I am not sure, personally I could endure them merrily for decades given his passion, vigour and zeal} and addressed this point.

What I find unfortunate is that he seems to have opted for an extreme. Veganism is nearly impossible to survive on, or at least such a vast amount of effort that it will never be tenable for a mass society shift towards. It is also of questionable ethical superiority given that eggs get laid as surely as menstrual fluids are emitted and are of equal sentience to such releases, albeit superior in a gastronomical sense and rather more solid. Milk is a more tricky one to justify but there could certainly be something ethical arranged there, and indeed would have to be were the meat industry to collapse suddenly owing to a shift towards vegetarianism. Alternatively we could all just drink soya milk, which is lovely.

Although it requires careful planning it is perfectly possible to live a healthy vegetarian diet, with plenty of protein consumed. I am endlessly amused at those that inform all 6′3+ of me that such eating habits stunt your growth, with my general reaction being to glance down and enquire ‘Really?’ Since I’ve been off pork from three of four, red meat since I was six and all meat since seven or so I find the notion of being malnourished rather amusing, more than anything.

The environmental impact being as it is I feel comfortable in reccomending vegetarianism to all two of SES’s readers, not to mention the editors. The damage done to the planet by omnivorous appetites amongst westerners are measurable not only in methane {which can be mitigated by shifting feed} and the vast amount of additional transport required to get grain to animal but also the deforrestation of rainforests and other woodland areas in order to make way for more animals.

This is something which must be amended and no appeals to utilitarianism will suffice. The pleasure which you take from devouring a bacon sandwhich {which, I must pre-emptively assure you, I experience no cravings for} is miniscule compared to the suffering caused by Africans dying for want of grain. Supporting the meat industry is supporting starvation. The unethical nature of the action comes not solely from the funding of an untimely execution of a living, thinking being but also from food required to sustain it throughout its life not reaching a sapient being in need.