45 thoughts on “Here’s The Beef

  1. Lan

    I love the way when people are trying to be edgy they decide to remind us all that meat comes from dead animals…

    As if ANYONE doesn’t know that. People aren’t stupid. They know beef comes from cows and well chicken from chickens. It’s not like anyone tries to hide it. Behind the butcher country or on your chicken fillets there’s a picture of an animal (although in the case of chickens it mightent be terribly representative of where the place the chicken lived)

    As for the whole “oh now grinding up organs for meat is bad” and “not meat glue”! Well guess what it’s better that than they get thrown out! I’ve a really old cookbook here that shows how to prepare calf intestines and ankles. So do I care if I’m still eating that but in a more palatable form? No. And frankly neither do most sane people

    1. Harry Molloy

      +1

      I actually think all meat eaters should be brought to a slaughter house to see the animals being led in and understand that they’ll come out in pieces.
      I say that as a farmers son who has and does bring such animals there. It’s very sobering, there’s little talk for some time afterwards, but you appreciate the hell out of where your food comes from.

      1. scottser

        I’d say most meat eaters have no problem with the fact that meat comes from animals. but when it’s swept up off the factory floor and mixed in with god-knows-what-else you have to raise a bit of an eye. having said that, I’ve just had a subway meatball marinara and I reeeeally don’t want to know what’s in there.

  2. Mr. Camomile T

    Go vegan, if you want. It’s easy and you won’t regret it. You don’t have to wear dreadlocks, get any piercings, or enforce your beliefs on anyone else. You can go vegan and still maintain a completely normal existence.

    You can still do your regular grocery shopping in your regular supermarket (Aldi is awesome), and if your cooking isn’t up to scratch you’ll very quickly learn how a few simple herbs and spices can make anything taste awesome.

    Honestly, it’s good for your health and awesome for the environment. You won’t be taking income away from any farmers (it’s up to them to use their land to farm a product that consumers want) but you might be sticking it to the meat industry (who currently stick it to the farmers, in a big way).

    Hope that wasn’t too pretentious for anyone. Go vegan, if you want. It’s easy.

      1. Mr. Camomile T

        It’s pretty easy. If you love cheese, and I LOVED cheese, you may struggle a bit to replace that as a snack. I’ve more or less replaced it with houmous.

        We get our entire weekly shop in Aldi, they’ve started selling some great products: almond & soya milk, falafel & houmous (mulitiple flavours of each), courgetti & carrot spaghetti (replacements for egg-based pasta), meat (& egg)-free mince meat (soya) which is perfect for bolognese or burrito filling, nice veggie burgers (plain & spicy).

        It’s essentially an attitude, you might start off thinking, “Ok, what do I replace this or that specific item with?” but you’ll start to realise after a while that it’s not really about replacing like for like at all. Apart from milk. Almond milk is great. Rice milk is delicious. Oat milk is bloody tasty too.

        1. Neilo

          I find the ALDI falafel a bit dry and bland to be honest but all that other gear you mention is excellent (I’m an omnivore who is trying to cut down or eliminate red meat from weekdays).

          1. Mr. Camomile T

            You gotta add stuff to it Neilo, it’s only alright on its own. Avocado, houmous, cooked beetroot, chopped tomatoes, some green leaves, salsa, (veganaise if you wanna get posh). Get it all in there, wrap it up in a tortilla or pitta, get it down ya!

        2. Dόn Pídgéόní

          Almond milk and soya are terrible for the environment so that argument falls down straight away

          1. Lan

            The lessor of two evils only if you’re buying American milk.

            Soya milk is barely above Irish in terms of GHG per kg and Irish milk is 99% off existing grasslands which are both a habitat and carbon store unlike soya which requires cultivation of the land releasing soil carbon

            A huge majority of the almonds in the world are grown in California which has now entered its 6th year of drought. Almonds are even more water intensive than dairy so they’re rapidly depleting the aquifers in that area
            Add to that commercial almond “milk” barely deserves the name. Producers refuse to say what percentage is actually almonds so it’s basically just sweetened, thickened water. It’s nutritional value like all milk alternatives (except soya milk) is minimal

          2. Dόn Pídgéόní

            @Janet – not to mention the impacts of increasing demands for ‘exotic’ grains such quinoa on food security. See Bolivia for a good example this.

            The smugness and lies about how great eating vegan is for the environment when it has its own issues is why people don’t like vegans and vegetarians. And I say that as a pretty smug person.

            Do not get me started on clean eaters and the gluten free tribe. Charlatans.

        3. Increasing Displacement

          Lidl and Aldi undercut local competitors until they go out of business then hike prices. Go you.

          Almonds, grown in arid climates and use gigantic quantities of fresh water. See California.
          Soy, massive destruction of rainforest to facilitate new plantations. Current producers are US Agentina Brazil China India.
          Chickpeas – major growers India Australia Pakistan Turkey.

          Any of these sound close? Where do you think the plantations go? And we all know how the US grows its goods with chemicals etc.

          Nearly universal requirement of transport over massive distances and nearly all of the foods you mention cannot be grown at all or year round here and must be transported.

          Also, if you were to import both:
          One container of meat transported contains x calories.
          One container of “insert vegetable” contains y calories.
          Fuel cost for transport is not dissimilar.
          But x is of far higher value than y in calories.

          1. Rob_G

            “Lidl and Aldi undercut local competitors until they go out of business then hike prices.”

            – show me one instance where this has happened, ever.

      1. Mr. Camomile T

        I used it three times, which was two times too many. I will cut down my ‘awesome’ output if you cut down your meat & dairy intake?

        1. scottser

          what will happen on elvis day, 16th august each year? i consume a quarter pounder with cheese as a mark of respect to the king. can i replace it with a deepfried peanut butter and jelly while popping benzodiazapenes?

        2. mauriac

          thanks for all the advice.i don’t eat much meat and could go without but it’ll be a cold day in hell before I stop eating chesse.Also do we really need milk?

    1. Lan

      Thanks for being polite and civil T
      I’m going to try to respond in the same manner so if I come off as insulting I don’t mean it

      Ok so I have no issue with your ethical stance or indeed what you choose to eat but on a very practical level the claim that farmers could just switch to something is very false

      Only a tiny percentage of Ireland is suitable for arable production (crops) because of either the climate or soil (too thin, too stoney, too acid etc). Of that even less is economic in arable. The tillage sector in Ireland is shrinking every year as we just can’t produce it as cheap as countries with warm or dry climates. This year is particularly bad
      Of the small % of arable that is economic only a small % could grow veg or protein sources
      Did you know there’s already an EU scheme to encourage plant protein crops? And that even with that barely any farmers are taking it up?

      And before anyone chimes in with “buying local” or “buy Organic” you should understand direct selling makes up a tiny amount of the sold product in Ireland and that Organic is often less profitable as you either have to use more toxic products (Google copper sulphate or rotene) or none at all to protect your crop. So the price is higher but so is the risk.

      Anyway I’m gonna finish with Stay Vegan if you want it’s no one else’s business but understand a big swing to a veg*n diet would cripple rural Ireland as we simply could not change to crops.

      1. Mr. Camomile T

        That’s all very interesting Lan and I absolutely keep an open mind on the subject, I’m in no way cultish or religious about it. I do firmly believe though that we should all be cutting down on our animal products consumption, to a level that’s sustainable locally & globally. And I also must state that a lot of the recent studies linking high meat consumption to many types of cancer put the frighteners on me and helped influence my decision to go vegan.

    2. Starina

      i couldn’t. i did recently go pescatarian though cos i wanted to give up meat but i’m a “meat and potatoes” kind of dinner person and lentils just don’t scratch that itch – at least not seven nights a week. i’ve felt more energetic this way than when i’ve attempted vegetarianism before. soz, fish.

  3. Mary

    If you prefer not to be the cause of animals suffering, adopt a Vegan diet.

    Meat eaters cause by their choice of food, horrific suffering to animals.

    If there’s no demand for meat and other animal products, then there’s no supply.

    Simples.

    1. Jones

      Replace the word suffering with slaughtering. The killing process is done in such a way that the animals do not suffer. Just because the sight of a lamb being cut into pieces upsets you don’t let your emotions cloud the process.

      1. Starina

        not necessarily. it can be incredibly stressful and brutal for the animal. which is inhumane for one, and bad for the consumer as well since the animal released tons of stress hormones into its muscles just before dying.

  4. Increasing Displacement

    To all vegans….when you do think the last time humans ate just vegetables etc?
    Long ago. Way way long ago. When people were not homosapiens.
    And we most likely didn’t eat grains and soy products at the same time eh?

    We’ve evolved to eat some meat. Get over it.

    Meat eating gave us the calories to indulge in more social activity, expanded our brains and allowed for larger groups and you know civilization.

    Yes you could say we eat too much, and you’re probably right, but vegan is no answer.

    All that Tofu and grain your filling up causes has massive environmental damage all around the world and especially in the last wild places, Borneo for example. Most of your food, in this country anyway, is transported from far far away as it isn’t grown here.

    I can go to a butcher and get beef from a cow that lived in a field a few miles away. We do not raise beef the same as the US do.

    So before you drone on mind numbingly about how great you and your diet are think…I am just annoying people?

    1. Mr. Camomile T

      The current Western diet that comprises 20-30% meat is a relatively new phenomenon because meat has only really become affordable (financially, not environmentally or otherwise) to the masses since the mid-twentieth century. Ask your parents how often they ate meat, or could afford to eat meat? Meat was a luxury item, and still should be. If you were to properly consider how much it costs (All costs; feed & water, natural habitat destruction, overuse of antibiotics, greenhouse gas emissions) to produce meat & dairy, versus how much you pay for the product in the supermarket, you would have to conclude that someone (farmer or consumer), or some animal, or the planet itself, is getting royally ridden somewhere along the chain. And it’s not the supermarkets or meat barons getting ridden, that’s for sure.

      1. Increasing Displacement

        One side ate meat once a week and fish twice. The other side had meat or fish daily.
        But I did say I do think meat consumption is too high. But going vegan is not the solution, nor is going vegetarian. People just need to eat less and worldwide adopt less intensive methods. Yes it may be more expensive but that’s a price I’m willing to pay.

        As i said, here in Ireland beef for example is mostly grass fed, with little use of antibiotics and little destruction of habitat. But the American model suits most vegans/vegetarians to quote because its the worst of all.

        1. Mr. Camomile T

          Agreed the American model is an extreme, but it’s also the culture that the Chinese base a lot of their aspirations on, and if the Chinese were to start consuming as much meat per capita as the Americans, the planet simply couldn’t handle it.

          Also, I don’t think it’s fair to say the Irish farming model contributes little to the destruction of natural habitat – the natural habitat was destroyed generations ago, and farm run-off is still one of the leading causes of freshwater pollution in Ireland. Notwithstanding that, if all cattle worldwide were grass fed like they are in Ireland there simply isn’t enough land on the planet to facilitate that.

          1. Lan

            Ok so again I’m gonna focus on the practical end of things, but what you should understand that while Iron Age farmers clearing Ireland’s forests was a form of habitat distraction so too would be the idea of planting or reforesting it.
            Much of the land now under cattle grazing is permanent pasture or clarified using habitat terms Western European grasslands. In many cases such as much of the west of Ireland it is considered to be “high nature value” farmland. This means it is protecting the rich diversity of species that have populated there since the last habitat change

            Removing the cattle and the grasslands they find would spell the end of many species for Ireland, a common example of this is the Corncrake and curlew (and many other farmland birds) whose habitat has been lost not just to intensification (or cultivation) but also to land abandonment. So much so Birdwatch Ireland considers it to be one of the biggest threats to farmland birds now.

            One of the greatest threats we face from habitat loss though isn’t just the species loss but in the likes of Brazil the release of carbon from the rainforest. Draining to plough or planting conifers on soils such as peat would do exactly the same thing.
            While the constant cover of grass protects these vulnerable soils from soil erosion during heavy rainfalls over the winter months.

            Cattle are even being used now in arid climates to return carbon to the soil and repair it. I had dismissed regenerative grazing, as it’s called, because it’s claims seemed too good but I see a paper in Nature this week backing it up!
            If you’re interested in a really new perspective it’s worth checking out “In defence of beef” by Nicole Niman (a former vegetarian and environmental law lawyer turned beef rancher!)

        2. Starina

          +1 moderation and awareness in all things. buy local, eat happy animals if you’re going to eat them. forget pink foam chicken.

    2. DavidT

      “Meat eating gave us the calories to indulge in more social activity, expanded our brains and allowed for larger groups and you know civilization.”

      Wrong. Cooking did.

  5. Fully Keen

    I like the taste of salt and fat and gristle and skin and meat in general. Life is short. Let me enjoy it. I don’t care how the sausage is made. It tastes like happy. That is enough.

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