Vegan Living & Ethical Buying

Like all our ancestors up to 10,000 or so years ago, I'm an omnivore. I believe that being vegetarian/vegan is not as healthy and is worse for our planet than eating meat, vegetables & fruit produced using permaculture methods which are fully sustainable and better for biodiversity. #monocultureisbad

I have solar panels on my roof that power the house and an electric car. My mains electric & gas are from Ecotricity who use solar & wind and are starting to produce gas from a renewable source (grass). I was hoping that we'd be getting V2G (car battery to grid) soon but it looks as though I will be able to afford a separate battery before we get it in this country.

I also have an allotment and grow my own vegetables and soft fruit without the use of most manufactured chemicals. I will protect my potatoes from blight with a copper mixture until I have collected enough marestail to produce an organic spray. Fertiliser so far has come from spent mushroom compost and horse manure but I am now building up my supplies of home made compost.

drinkupretty wrote: »

Found there is a cropshare veg scheme in my area. Not for profit, coop company, cheaper than the main veg box delivery companies. All organic, seasonal and locally sourced, comes in a reusable cotton bag and are picked up from collection points. Any bags that go uncollected and any excess stock goes straight to the local food cycle which repurposes to charities, lunch clubs and food banks food to reduce food waste. Been getting very annoyed with the amount of unnecessary plastic packaging on fruit and veg at supermarkets!

That sounds brilliant, don't suppose they know of others across the country do they??

drinkupretty wrote: »

I know of one in Burnley and Cambridge as well as Manchester. There may be similar schemes elsewhere, google vegetable box cooperatives.

Well that would give people a start, thought it would be good to compile a list of them for everyone interested

drinkupretty wrote: »

I am wondering how you came to this conclusion?

Also meat healthy? Red meat and processed meat products have been linked to an increase in bowel cancer rates!

Humans were hunter gatherers for millenia before farming grains and cattle came along.

I mentioned Permaculture as the way to harvest our meat. Grass fed beef is perfectly healthy to eat, although we should eat the whole animal and not just muscle. Grain fed animals are a little less poisonous than the grains they are fed on. I did not state that processed meat is healthy, but I do say that naturally fed animals are healthy to eat. Permaculture methods can feed many more people than we have on the planet today. Google Geoff Lawton and see what he has to say.

Here's another view on what to do about deserts http://!!!!!!/2thJ5QO

I respect a person's choice to be vegetarian or vegan but don't try and preach that it is THE answer to the world's problems when it clearly is not. We need diversity and not vast monoculture fields of grains grown using enormous unsustainable amounts of energy, poisons and chemical fertilisers.

bugslet wrote: »

I don't think that anyone is preaching. Far as I can tell, this thread is for people who are following, or trying to follow a vegan lifestyle etc, not for having an argument about which is better, which is worse as a diet.

Very well said bugslet!

NigeWick - would really appreciate if you didn't try to 'preach' about a non vegan lifestyle in this thread, nobody is interested in arguing with you, thank you.