Do I miss meat?

Monday afternoon/evenings is a regular babysitting afternoon with Z-monster and my mum – lots of fun, picnics and dancing is done during these times! No matter how crap the train journey is on a Monday afternoon, I know that I will be met with a running hug, massive smile and kiss when Z-monster sees me! I look forward to when S-monster, my other niece is able to join us on Mondays!

Anyway, last night my mum was getting dinner ready for Z-monster – we feed her dinner before she goes home – and last night was chicken, cheese and carrots. Z-monster was watching CinderElmo (a very entertaining Sesame Street version of Cinderella! It features Keri Russell from Felicity!!), and I was cooking some more red lentil and vegetable stew (couldn’t help it, so delicious), when mum shoves a bowlful of cooked chicken in my face and says ‘oh this is so fresh, it smells delicious’. I gave her a look, politely pushed the bowl away and said no thanks. It took her a minute to register why I wasn’t interested, and quickly put the bowl down. Then she asked me a question.

“Do you miss meat?”

I easily answered that question, without even needing to pause for a breath.

“No. Absolutely no way.”

Having learnt about factory farming, bobby calves, puppy farms, general cruelty to ALL animals – I actually now feel ill at the thought of eating meat.

Ironically, yesterday there was an article by ABC News about a poultry farm in Melbourne that had financial issues and they were literally not feeding the chickens. Some of these poor chooks were so malnourished and ill that they were put down. How can I support that?

There’s a great article in The Age Epicure section today – vegan or not, have a read. It’s not a long article but it’s a good one, and worth the 4 minutes it takes to read.