29/01/2012

Fowl Dinners

Last week I stumbled across this program by Jamie Oliver via Nienie's blog. It's about the food industry, particularly the egg and poultry industry.



Eye-opening, to say the least.

It got me thinking and:
- I decided to renew my adopt-a-chicken contribution, not just for a year like a few years ago (which I was too lazy to renew...) but open-ended this time so I won't forget to renew it next year.
- when grocery shopping this week, I paid extra attention to buying organic products. It's a work in progress (and I know I won't be able to part with some of my favourite items which aren't organic), but every little bit helps, right? In the past, I already made a point of always buying free range eggs, but from now on I'll also make an increased effort to buy more organic foods.
- This week I made the concious decision to get some vegetarian meat-alternatives for dinner. (some were a bigger success than others...)
Going totally vegetarian isn't an option for me - to be honest, I simply like eating meat too much, and biologically we are omnivores after all (in my opinion, we need some animal-derived products in our diet to stay healthy. To all nay-sayers: I respect your opinion, but I think I know at least a little bit of what I'm talking about since I've been battling chronic vitamin deficiency for some years now)
All in all, I consider being a part-time vegetarian to be a happy medium.
- Cheap meat = animal cruelty. I need to make an effort to buy organic meat. The animals are still killed, but at least they've had a good life and they are killed somewhat humanely.
- Since 2 of my cavies died last November, I've thought of getting 2 new cavies to complete the pack. Instead of buying 2 babies at the pet store, I drove to Utrecht yesterday to adopt 2 rescue cavies. Tommie and Annika have meanwhile bonded and are getting used to their new surroundings. In a few weeks, I'll introduce them to the rest of the pack.

They say "a better world starts with yourself". It's a humble start, but I'm trying to do my part.

1 comment:

Naiyaru said...

the poor chickies :( I was horrified when I saw his show. you know I am a vegetarian, but I do consume eggies, so we only eat pure biological and free-range eggs.

what I find the weirdest, is people being appalled, even crying, and then claiming they won't change their behavior. People, what WOULD change your mind?