Plant based diet.

Interesting article on a very broad subject. There has been a lot if news coverage on this subject this week, and i am inclined to agree with the report. There was an interesting TV debate one morning between Chris Packham and a chef/farmer and oddly enough they were broadly in agreement, particularly on how the food system is fundamentally broken. It is totally wrong that whilst our government imposes high production standards on our farmers they are happy to allow imports of foreign meat produced under appalling welfare conditions thus keeping prices low and feeding the frenzy for cheap meat.

It is a complex issue though, and I wonder if the report has taken other factors into account. I heard a farmer recently claiming that beef production is carbon neutral, due to the amount of land it requires that also locks in carbon from the atmosphere. Is this true? Logic also tells me that there is something wrong about drinking milk made from nuts grown on the other side of the world and processed in a factory as opposed to drinking cows milk from a farm a few miles up the road. And how many gallons of water does it take to grow one avocado? Can this really be better to eat than an egg from one of my neighbours chickens? It is a bit confusing.
 
It is very confusing!

I keep reading how “bad” soya production is for the environment so not sure it’s a better switch from milk.

Difficult to know what the right thing to do is.
 
I agree - its very complex. One issue is that in the UK we can't really survive very well on purely home grown plants and rely on imports of fruit and vegetables thus clocking up 'air miles'. I'm not sure of the logistics involved in trying to grow all our food here in the UK, but I suspect, given our high population in relation land and our climate that it would be very difficult indeed if not impossible and that our diets would become very restricted.

This probably would not be the case in other countries of course - in India, for example a huge percentage of the population is vegetarian and I doubt that much of that food is imported.
 
I found this recent article - its really worth a read. https://www.countryfile.com/news/can-the-uk-feed-itself-after-brexit/


A few extracts:

Food import figures
  • 79% of the food and drink we import comes from the EU
  • 11% is from countries granted Most Favoured Nation status, such as the USA, China, Brazil and Australia.
  • 9% comes from bilateral agreements with countries such as Canada, Norway and Chile.
  • 1% from Generalised Scheme of Preferences (lower than WTO tariffs), such as India, Ukraine and Iran.
Self sufficiency advantages and disadvantages:

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I found this recent article - its really worth a read. https://www.countryfile.com/news/can-the-uk-feed-itself-after-brexit/


A few extracts:

Food import figures
  • 79% of the food and drink we import comes from the EU
  • 11% is from countries granted Most Favoured Nation status, such as the USA, China, Brazil and Australia.
  • 9% comes from bilateral agreements with countries such as Canada, Norway and Chile.
  • 1% from Generalised Scheme of Preferences (lower than WTO tariffs), such as India, Ukraine and Iran.
Self sufficiency advantages and disadvantages:

View attachment 22062

View attachment 22063
That all makes sense. There really does need to be a re-alignment of how we value food. Sadly, I suspect one likely outcome of Brexit is that we will be forced into importing more substandard food as part of the "exciting new trade deals" that will be struck.
 
What's got popular here in the Southwest are the plant based meats "Impossible and Beyond Meat".
Figures as soon as I buy and figure out to use our smoker wife becomes vegetarian.
So, I cook the Beyond meat hamburger patties, and use the ground version in our spaghetti sauce.
It's working.

The Beyond Meat patties don't have an appealing smell when removed from the package, but I broil them then finish them on on the flat top and that odor goes away.

I had colon cancer. I was treated at three different cancer research facilities, all non related. They all testify and stress to me that red meat is a colon cancer carcinogen.
I still eat hot dogs.
 
When I first stumbled over the phrase, "Plant BASED diet", I figured the meals and recipes were based around plants, and if some meat happened, it would be a condiment. Sounded absolutely wonderful to me. Alas, I "based" my interpretation upon the English language, not how it got perverted to mean something else.
But then again, it took me a couple of decades to come to terms with "Organic foods". after taking sophomore year college Organic Chemistry.

Think about this.
 
When I first stumbled over the phrase, "Plant BASED diet", I figured the meals and recipes were based around plants, and if some meat happened, it would be a condiment.

I think it sort of does mean that - except that meat wouldn't be a condiment exactly but an occasional addition to the daily diet. As I understand it, the term vegan means that no animal derivative foods are eaten. The term plant based means that the majority of food eaten is plant based.

OTOH it may well be that the term vegan had so many negative connotations (and stupid jokes made about it) that a new term was sought - so plant based was invented.

I'll do a bit of research...
 
There seem to be conflicting interpretations and there are many sources which assume vegan and plant-based are the same in terms of diet. There are also quite a few that suggest that 'plant-based' has a more fluid interpretation and can include meat (see below)

Plant-based or plant-forward eating patterns focus on foods primarily from plants. This includes not only fruits and vegetables, but also nuts, seeds, oils, whole grains, legumes, and beans. It doesn’t mean that you are vegetarian or vegan and never eat meat or dairy. Rather, you are proportionately choosing more of your foods from plant sources.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog...-diet-and-why-should-you-try-it-2018092614760

A plant-based diet is any diet that focuses around foods derived from plant sources. This can include fruit, vegetables, grains, pulses, legumes, nuts and meat substitutes such as soy products. People often have different interpretations of what ‘plant-based’ eating looks like. Some people still include small amounts of animal products such as meat and fish

https://www.cookingbites.com/threads/plant-based-diet.14179/#post-147942
 
I'm helping by growing our own veges, tonight we are having lamb chop casserole made with home made tomato sauce and worst ever sauce. ( Worcester) home grown butter beans and corn and potatoes from the garden. Tea to feed 10 people was a $5 raffle ticket where I won a tray of 16 chops. So $5 to feed 10 people is cheap as chips. And helping the planet.

Russ
 
The Blue Zones are apparently the places in the world where people have the most longevity. Somewhere lost around my home is a copy of one of the books that discuss this phenomenon. Places like Okinawa, some place on the Greek islands, the 7th Day Adventist colony in California... I forget the rest. At any rate the commonalities appear to be diet (low but not NO meat), no highly processed junk, and a sense of long term community. So it isn't an actual set of recipes per se.
 
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