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Plant Food

November 19, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

I wonder if McPlant can save the world? I’ll bet the CEO has the same question. One company’s sales of 75 burgers per second represents a lot of slaughter. And there are many burger outlets across the globe. And we all know that abattoirs aren’t nice places. Perhaps that’s why so many humans close their eyes when they bite into the machine ground flesh between breads. Industrial death is surely as unacceptable for animals as for humans?

Ungrievable: street photography in Dublin 2018

I wonder how many abattoirs the CEO of McPlant has inspected? How many knockers and stickers the CEO knows from the industrialised disassembly lines that convey animals from bolt death, to carotid draining and to chainsaw disarticulation.

The Guardian has an interesting article here. It’s not a laughing matter despite the crass title. Many consider that a sustainable planet is the reward for eating less meat. I’ve only been vegetarian for about 18 months and I made the switch for personal health reasons. However, my reading on the insufficiently discussed issues of animal slaughter (and horrific husbandry) has changed me. I’m now firmly of the opinion that all living creatures should be considered grievable. My ambition is to live on a planet that survives in part as a result of humans accepting that all living creatures are grievable.

And besides, there’s a burger truth that seems to be widely misunderstood. McDonald’s makes money from rent rather than meat. It once owned more retail property than any other company on earth. Specifically positioned in the best urban locations, their sites are generally more valuable than their products.

Perhaps you recall Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. It was published in 2001 and many thought it would sort out the fast food industry if not change human eating habits. Much like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring revealed the problems with pesticides. I read it and thought it brilliantly researched and detailed. We’d just had horrible outbreaks of foot and mouth in the British Isles. And in Ireland, the Purchase for Destruction Scheme brought death to 278,025 animals in less than six months. Despite being appalled at the fast food industry, I guess I hoped world leaders would react and help sort it out. I did nothing myself. And I’m all the worse, because my spouse, it must be admitted, has been vegetarian since the start of the Purchase for Destruction Scheme.

Twenty years on and we have the McPlant. It’s a late, a very late start but I was a slow learner too.

Filed Under: Anchoritism Tagged With: booklink, eric schlosser, mcdonalds, mcplant, photo, rachel carson, the guardian

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