Friday 29 March 2013 - Meat Free Good Friday

Somehow along the lines of time it became a Catholic tradition to abstain from eating pork or beef on Easter's Good Friday. My husband, who has a background of Catholicism in his family, reminded himself of this fact as the day approached and it made me realize that although not eating meat everyday is so normal for me that for him and so many other Australians the act of getting through the day without it requires a great deal of conscious thought.

I found this information in an article from the Gosford City Councils website:

Meat is the sleeping giant of a sustainable lifestyle. The Australian National Dietary Guidelines (published by the Federal Government's National Health and Medical Research Council) recommends one to one-and-a-half serves of meat, fish, poultry or meat alternatives each day.

A serve constitutes 65-100 grams of cooked meat. Hence, the Australian National Dietary Guidelines are recommending that if a person adopted the highest edge of their meat consumption recommendations (i.e. 100g of meat 1.5 times a day) they would consume 54.75kg of meat, fish, and poultry or meat alternatives per annum.

However, the average Australian consumes 123.8kg meat, fish, poultry per annum (ABS 1997-98) despite the highest recommended amounts being less that half of this (i.e. the 54.75kg noted above).

If we adopted the recommendations of the Australian National Dietary Guidelines and halved our meat consumption we would save both money and the environment while also improving our health.

In a rather timely manner on Easter Sunday 60 Minutes ran a segment on the chicken factory farming industry. The story included some devastating footage on the lengths that factory farmers are going to in order to fill the Australian consumers order of 10million chickens a week. If you didn't see the story you can watch it online here http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8633776

I was incredibly surprised by the negative attitude of the Coles representative when it was suggested that perhaps one day we might have only Free Range chickens available to buy at Supermarkets. She seemed to think the idea was impossible because "there is not enough land available to do so."

That might be true if we continue to demand the product at the current consumption rates but the thought was not introduced that perhaps only Free Range meat production is possible if we collectively:

1. Accept the fact that we will have to pay a little more for the product
2. Determine to eat less of it

It's entirely possible to have a nutritious, satisfying meal that is vegetarian; and to do so for at least half of your meals throughout the week. (In fact some people live a perfectly healthy life without consuming meat at all!) If we cut back on the amount we purchase and use cheaper alternative sources of protein for our vegetarian meals (like lentils, beans or quiona) then the extra money spent on ensuring there is a high standard of welfare for the animals will not be as unaffordable as the Coles representative suggests.

It's really a case of the old Quantity vs Quality debate. And while we are working out if we are prepared to sacrifice the amount we eat in order to have a better quality product it's the animals and the environment that are suffering. How is that fair?

As a starting point maybe instead of thinking of each Easter Friday as a "meat free Friday" we could commit to at least one day out of every week of the year being a meat free day?

And we can prove that Coles lady wrong about the way Australian consumers think by voting with our dollars for a Free Range future.