It was my sister that first introduced me to a vegetarian diet. She was in her early teens in the late 80s and made a decision to no longer eat meat. Our parents didn't know quite what to do. Thinking of myself as a good cook, I took over the catering for her new 'fad diet' - she has not eaten meat since so fad it was not. I was only in my late teens at the time and although it would be another 10 years before I made the same decision myself it was a great experience at the time. I have been inflicting my vegetarian diet on my husband and son for the last 10 years, at least for the majority of the week. My son complains and often questions what's actually in my meat free version of bolognese and cottage pie. Unless they are going to cook they know they have to eat what I'm preparing. Vegetarian they are not but at least it's a little more than just a meat free Monday in our house. Eating a vegetarian diet is more sustainable. We grow grains to feed animals but this is much less efficient than eating grains ourselves. The livestock industry also produces 18% of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions (source, Vegetarian Society, 2006). Not everyone will adopt a full vegetarian diet but small changes can help. The Vegetarian Society has a whole host of advice on its web site. They are also based in the North West in Altrincham with their own cookery school. The BBCs Hairy Bikers even visited the school recently making an interesting version of fish pie. Have a think about what you can do during this week and what a huge range of vegetarian foods we now have available. We even have access to some fantastic Vegetarian restaurants in the North West, I'm also pleased that more and more restaurants do cater for a vegetarian diet. The Gaeia team visited Greens in Didsbury last year owned by Simon Rimmer and had a fantastic meal. Posted by Helen Tandy Sources www.vegsoc.org www.nationalvegetarianweek.org http://www.vegetarianvisitor.co.uk/nthwest.html
SHTBlog/220513