LETTER TO EDITOR FIN Times:
You could have mentioned the term "flexitarian" in your leader ("Meat needs to justify its place on our tables", 20/21April).
I've just recently discovered that I am, myself, a flexitarian. That is, largely vegetarian, but not manic about it. I'll happily chow down on the occasional snag or chicken wing.
The reason I morphed to flexitarianism is for all three of the reasons you mention: human health, animal welfare and the environment.
Bill Gates admitted recently[*] that he'd been talking a lot about "cow farts". His point being that carbon emissions from the agricultural sector as a whole are about as large as from the electricity generating sector. Yet it's electricity that grabs most of the attention. We should be talking more about soil and animal husbandry, says Gates.
To that point, you might also have mentioned "Clean Meat". That is meat — actual, real meat — that is grown in the lab. For now it's far too expensive. But the hope is that, not too far in the future, we can manufacture actual real meat in the laboratory and enjoy its unrivalled taste without the worry of mistreating animals or damaging the environment. Sadly we spend only tens of millions per year on the Clean Meat project compared with the trillions we spend on renewables.
Meantime, if I, a septuagenarian gent, can become flexitarian, anyone can. This has benefits all round: for animals, for the planet and for ourselves.
Pf, Hong Kong
