Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 5:15 pm on 25 March 2009.
Jane Kennedy
Minister of State (Farming and the Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
5:15,
25 March 2009
First and foremost, may I say how delighted I am to see you in the Chair this afternoon, Mr. Benton? Not only is it always a pleasure to see you in the Chair; it is a pleasure to be reassured about the robust state of your health. It is good to see you here.
I congratulate my hon. Friend Kerry McCarthy on securing this debate in the momentary and wonderful lull in the terrible noise from that person across the road. I put it on the record that I regret that I could not properly follow the debate on asbestos led by Paul Rowen and the Under-Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, my hon. Friend Sarah McCarthy-Fry, because of the intrusive nature of the noise. I hope that the House authorities look again at seeing what could be done, particularly in respect of debates in this Chamber because we are much closer to it. People have the right to protest, but we should be able to carry on our business properly.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, East rightly said at the outset that she was a vegan but that that was not the primary reason for calling this debate. It is an important debate in its own right. She has put on the record that she is a vegan, and I respect her views on food, but I have to say that I am not. I suspect that my mum was probably introducing me to meat as a food even before I can remember: she probably fed me home-made shepherd's pie as she was weaning me. All I can say is that I have stuck with it.
Traditionally, here in the UK meat is an important source of protein, iron, calcium, zinc and other vitamins and minerals. I have a lot of sympathy with those who say that there is no such thing as bad food, that it is the diet that we get wrong and that we need a balanced diet and must exercise greater portion control. Delia Smith was arguing for that just the other day and I think that she is right.
My hon. Friend quoted an American who said that, in order to help deal with climate change, it would be better to become vegetarian or vegan than to change from a high-performance car to a hybrid car. I had better get it on the record and say that I am not going to do that either, I am afraid. Having blotted my copybook quite seriously from the outset—
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Annotations
Lotus Pearl
Posted on 19 Apr 2009 12:16 pm (Report this annotation)
'It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada that appropriately planned vegetarian [inc. vegan] diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. .....' http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/advocacy_933...
'In his 1583 text, Anatomy of Abuses, Stubbes wrote that previous generations "fed upon graine, corne, roots, pulse, hearbes, weedes, and such other baggage; and yet lived longer than we, were healthfuller than we, of better complexion than we, and much stronger than we in every respect." A century later, Macauley noted that, "meat was so dear in price that hundreds of thousands of families scarcely knew the taste of it," while half the population of England, "ate it not at all or not more often than once a week." .. "The potato is the principle food of the Irish peasantry, and few portions of the human family are more healthy, athletic, and active...That portion of the peasantry of England and Scotland who subsist on their barley and oatmeal bread, porridge, potatos, and other vegetables, with temperate, cleanly habits (and surroundings) are able to endure more fatigue and exposure than any other class of people in the same countries. Three-fourths of the whole human family, in all periods of time...have subsisted on non-flesh foods; and when their supplies have been abundant and their habits in other respects correct, they have been well nourished." .. The hardy Scotch have never been great meat eaters. In the remote districts kailbrose, shredded greens and oatmeal over which hot water is poured, is eaten with or without milk...According to Douglas, writing in 1782, the diet of the Scotch of the East Coast was then oatmeal and milk with vegetables. He says: 'Flesh is never seen in the houses of the common farmers, except at a baptism, a wedding, Christmas, or Shrovetide.'" ...' http://www.all-creatures.org/murti/tsnhod-14.html