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The most common weakness I hear former vegetarians or lacto-ovo vegetarians admit to is cheese. I understand. It's tasty, it's satisfying and it's ubiquitous. Masher and EG still eat it; they get a pizza with cheese on their half and none on mine. I didn't really have any issues giving it up, but I probably would face a challenge if I had nut allergies. I eat seeds and nuts every day. I also buy Vegan Gourmet brand "cheese" sometimes, but not to fill a void left by the real thing. It's a closer to being a garnish than a main ingredient. Overcheesing is an easy trap for converts, but if I were asked for guidance in transitioning to a plant-based diet I'd rather see them eat a tiny bit of meat occasionally and sever their relationships with dairy.
Many cheeses aren't actually vegetarian unless they contain vegetable rennet. Enzymes used to turn milk into cheese are often sourced from sheep stomachs, so if you get technical about your definition of lacto-ovo you'll only get the vegetable rennet kind. Even so, the only way to get cow cheese is create a calf who will become a by-product and go to slaughter as either a calf, a steer or a cow. I've talked to dairy farmers and there's no way around it. It just doesn't seem worth using all the resources needed to create cheese. According to Mark Bittman's review of "The Meat Eater's Guide to Climate Change and Health" by the Environmental Working Group, " Of 20 common proteins and vegetables analyzed, cheese has the third highest greenhouse gas emissions." We just don't make that association, because it isn't made out of the cow herself, even if it is made *by* the cow. Bittman is a meat eater who chooses to investigate the sources of his food. It's not as fun as it sounds, as he also discusses in his attempts to visit some of the larger farms in the Midwestern U.S. But that's another topic.
I still don't understand what bottle calves drink. If it's formula or milk replacer, isn't it made out of cow's milk?
Here's a futuristic option, which fascinates me: make meat in a lab. We're talking about any meat, any kind of muscle, which means even human steak would be possible. I'm not interested in eating meat anymore no matter how it's made, but it's an option that would (gasp!) eliminate ranching while providing beef. I wonder what other scientific or medical side effects could be beneficial from making muscle. A lot of people reacted with disgust at the idea, which is bizarre considering how nauseating a slaughterhouse is. I want to give the guy credit who pursued this with little support and whose interview first made me aware of it, but I can't find or remember his name. Masher read the interview with him on a flight several years ago.
I've read or heard the phrase "Animals aren't people" many times, which is sort of true in that non-human animals aren't people, but let's remember people are animals. We're in the taxonomy. Pigs aren't people as fish aren't birds. We're complicated but we're not that much more special.
Sources:
More weight on less meat: http://bit.ly/o25e9R
Follow Mark Bittman on Twitter: @bittman
Will lab-grown meat save the planet? http://www.slate.com/id/2191705/
Nice article. I did not know the thing about sheep stomachs being used to make cheese. I might need to think twice about it now. I am as you say guilty of cheese eating. Although recently I've limited it tremendously. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks Pat! But I was mistaken in thinking it was typically sheep stomachs when calf stomachs are more commonly used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennet
ReplyDeleteI must have been thinking of sheep's milk feta or something.
There are also vegetable sources of the same enzyme and many manufacturers use them. It's not always obvious from the label. From the manufacturer's perspective, it does seem logical to use the rennet from calves in cheese making.