Cooking & Baking
In reply to the discussion: A couple of weeks ago I got the dreadful Beyond sausages... [View all]Saviolo
(3,282 posts)The beef industry has an enormous carbon footprint, and giant agribusiness factory slaughterhouses are horrible for the animals, the workers, and consumers. But there are a lot of people who think that the dinner meal must be a giant slab of grilled protein along with a pile of starch and probably some vegetables maybe.
On our cooking channel we do a bunch of interesting vegetarian dishes, including a bunch of great salads and slaws, and we'll be doing a vegetarian saag paneer (replacing the paneer with feta) in an upcoming video sometime in the next few months. Hubby also makes mapu tofu, which frequently has pork, but it is not required. The idea of meat "substitutes" reinforces the idea that we have to be eating meat all the time.
Don't get me wrong, I am nowhere near a vegetarian (though I frequently feel that I should be for environmental and corporate ethics reasons), but it is easy to have very satisfying meals that are not only meatless, but do not have a "meat substitute" either. Lots of ways to get protein and such if you're careful about what you're eating and maintain some balanced meals.
And don't get me started on those far right bitcoin carnivore cultists. There's this fringe group that has decided that the best diet for humans is 100% meat all the time, no carbs, no fibre. Just meat, fat, organ meat. Please note: This is -not- a healthy diet, and they're all going to be in agony in 15-20 years from diverticulitis.