In case you hadn’t noticed, good vegetarian food is important to me. I am a vegetarian because of ethical reasons and have been since 2003. I don’t want animals to die for me to eat. This is my choice & I don’t impose it on anyone (well, maybe my OH because I won’t touch meat!)If people want to eat meat, that’s their choice. If they must, I’d rather they ate organic, free-range meat. I also wish that ‘vegetarians who eat fish’ wouldn’t call themselves vegetarians because they aren’t. They’re pescatarians. Anyway, I digress.

I do agree that meat-eaters should know & respect where their meat comes from. When I found out about the living conditions of mass-produced meat (this is pre-Jamie & Hugh F-W), it put me off eating anything like that. I know not all meat is grown in those conditions now, but when I think of tucking into a bacon sarnie, all I can see is something like the image below & I feel sick. No meat for me.

So when I saw that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was making a programme about veggie food & was going to be meat-free, naturally I was intrigued. As a veggie, you often feel like you’re an after thought in restaurants, which is why I like Atomic Burger, Atomic Pizza & Big Bang so much. There was actual choice. Sometimes you feel lucky to have anything that’s not just a broccoli & cauliflower bake (Gross!) I watched last nights episode and was really pleased with the food that they produced. I think that Hugh & River Cottage showed that being veggie isn’t about lentils & evangelising about the woes of meat.

The show has certainly encouraged me to eat a wider variety of vegetables (am in somewhat of a food rut) & I’d like to have a go at growing them too. I hope this show encourages restaurants to offer more choice for everyone, not just vegetarians. The meat industry is having an impact on the environment, health & people’s bank balances. As a nation we don’t eat enough veg so hopefully this will encourage us all to look at our diets and see if we’re eating the right things for us, for the planet & for the super-cute farm yard animals. x