Changing my meat eating habits?

If you haven’t already figured it out… I am a meat loving, steak eating, chicken frying, carnivore, and always have been.

Meat is a staple in my daily diet, if there isn’t meat, it isn’t a meal (unless it’s beans on toast)!

I have even been known to receive joints of beef or luxury sausages as birthday presents, mmm, and I am at my happiest sat at home with a big plate of Mum’s roast beef dinner piled high in front of me with blood dripping from my mouth.

So it came as a surprise to many of you that know me that I chose to spend 2 weeks living in a forest, eating nothing but vegan food. VEGAN FOOD! Not only does that mean no meat, that’s no milk, eggs, cream, butter, yoghurt… argh! What was I thinking!?

I like to try new things, and believe it or not I coped rather well… mainly because I went out just about every day for my fix of ice cream, coca cola and yep even some meat! This was allowed, as long as you didn’t bring any contraband substances into the forest you were free to do what you wanted outside in the big wide world … well, anything except alcohol. That was strictly forbidden everywhere while staying at Sadhana.

But then came movie night and we watched ‘Earthlings’ and everything changed…

The movie Earthlings focused on how all of us on this planet, humans and animals alike are all earthlings and so should be treated equally, it included sections on the way we treat animals as pets, for food, for entertainment, for clothes and for science. The movie was filled with animals getting their throats cuts to be turned into burgers and steaks, being injected with deadly medicine trials, whipped for not doing their circus trick correctly and dragged thousands of miles with no water to later be killed and stripped bare for their fur or skin.

By the end of the movie, half the room had tears in the eyes and a sombre silence filled the air.

I was soon asked if I would still eat meat after watching the movie (already known as the extreme carnivore of the forest) to which I replied YES!

Am I a cold, heartless, uncaring earthling? According to most at Sadhana Forest, YES!

I will continue to eat meat after watching this movie, it was harsh what we do and I don’t agree with many of the ways we treat animals, but no meat in my diet just doesn’t seem the answer to solving these problems… however I have decided to be a bit more conscious of the meat I eat and animal products I use in the following ways…

–          I’m turning MEGAN … that means I will be Vegan on Mondays … this is going to be tough but I am confident I will be able to manage it?! Maybe I will start by being MEGETARIAN?

–          When buying meat I will try to only buy the decent stuff … this is something I need to research as to just how I know what is the good stuff? Which steak comes from cows that spent their life in a field rather than crammed together in lightless, spaceless farms, which pigs were killed humanly? Any tips welcome

–          Eating less meat in my daily diet … I guess I don’t need to have meat with every meal, cutting back and using some of the delicious recipes I have learnt while at Sadhana Forest

–          Not going to zoos, the circus and other animal entertainment. This one could be tough, as where do I draw the line? Are safari parks wrong? What about shark cage diving?

So the film did have an impact on me and Sadhana Forest, and I will change my life in small manageable ways accordingly. But I will still eat meat, I love meat and it is hard to give up what we love. Maybe another day…

I encourage everyone to watch Earthlings and make up your own mind. http://www.earthlings.com/