Janet defends meat eating

Date Published:

13/09/2007

Janet Street-Porter loves to talk about food. And she was doing a lot of it for series 3 of the F Word. She tried to convince race goers in Newmarket to eat horse burgers and started a debate about whether force feeding geese to make foie gras was morally correct. In a series of exlusive features, Janet tells us what she really thinks about eating out, eating meat, eating ethically and more.

Is the Government about to go soft on our meat market? Surprisingly, this is one area where even the French have got it right

I have spent this series of the F word trying to persuade people to think a bit more about what they eat, and promoting horse meat which is a wonderful source of protein and iron. It is widely eaten on the continent, where it is especially bred for the table, and reared on an organic diet.

New legislation in France means that horsemeat is no longer just sold in special butchers, but is widely available in supermarkets, and sales are booming. Sadly, animal rights protestors in this country misunderstood our report, and very cleverly dumped a ton of horse manure outside Gordon’s restaurant in Claridge’s, Mayfair. That’s what I call a really sophisticated way of conducting an argument! Now a leaked email from an official working for the government at the Environment Agency shows sympathy for a vegan diet, and says that DEFRA is thinking about telling us we should eat less red meat in order to protect the environment.

Farm animals produce methane, one of the gases responsible for global warming, but you can’t tell me that a load of farting sheep, cows and chickens do more damage than a hundred factories in China! The vegan group Viva wants crops to be grown for human consumption, not used for animal feed, and amazingly, the Environment Agency official they contacted seemed to imply that the government was considering asking people to review their consumption of animal protein.

There are plenty of ways to save the planet without becoming a vegetarian, thanks very much, and it’s nauseating that one group of people, veggies, think that everyone who doesn’t agree with them should be targeted and vilified. So I shall carry on eating red meat, in moderation, and hope that the government minds its own business.

Yours

JSP.