Grossly Inaccurate Preconceptions

[Susie]

I think you can buy rennet but you would probably have to go to a specialist shop. Blessed are the cheese makers.

[Zonda]

All the veggies are fuming now, it comes from calves stomachs........yew!!! (picks up burger).

[Piers]

A byproduct of milk production. Waste not want not.

[Susie]

I thought rennet was calves stomach acid, and I think there are vegetarian alternatives otherwise how could there be vegetarian cheese?

[Piers]

I thought rennet was calves stomach acid, and I think there are vegetarian alternatives otherwise how could there be vegetarian cheese?

Like vegetarian sausages - similar in name and shape only.

Rennet is a byproduct of milk production; calves are slaughtered en masse in the production of milk and rennet is an enzyme called chymosin, extracted from the calves stomach lining. Rennet is used in the coagulation of the milk to produce curds.

"Vegetarian cheeses" are manufactured using rennet produced from fungi (keep up Zonda!), however recent advances in genetic engineering means they can also be made using the active enzyme found in rennet produced by genetically altered micro-organisms.

Although I still do not understand how a vegetarian can consume milk, so the rennet issue shouldn't exist..!

Felix.

[Zonda]

My sister is a vegan, and as such is basically limited to just beans and pulses. She drinks soya milk, which i quite like, in coffee. However, large areas of natural forest are being cleared in order to grow these beans, that are used in a myriad of products. So she is in fact contributing indirectly to global warming, just because she has an aversion to meat products. Flesh gives us certain trace elements that are essential for healthy bodies. This is why, at 57 her bones are crumbling. I know this all sounds a bit private Godfrey, 'my sister Dolly makes very nice cucumber sandwiches', but we are omnivorous creatures. I knew that quorn is a fungi derivative, and i really enjoyed Felix's piece about rennet, and i reckon that his middle name is Britannica. All this has put me off junket and my aunty.

[Roger Gibbons]

I hope Guy's not reading this!

I think he follows quite a strict vegetarian regime, if not actually being vegan. However, on the subject of health and fitness, do not accept an invitation to go butterflying in the mountains with Guy unless you are superfit, because you will not be able to keep up.

I am of the generation that was brought up on eating meat and am probably not going to change, but my oldest son is vegetarian and superfit, so I don't see too much evidence that not eating meat can affect your health.

Equally, environment-wise, cows and sheep are considered to be contributing very significantly to global warming.

Roger

[Zonda]

Equally, environment-wise, cows and sheep are considered to be contributing very significantly to global warming.

Are you sure that's not a grossly inaccurate preconception?

[Zonda]

By the way, some brilliant sites you've shown us today Roger. Thanks.

[Piers]

I like Vegans. They really do have the courage of their convictions.

Equally, environment-wise, cows and sheep are considered to be contributing very significantly to global warming.

Indeed. Let's kill them all. In fact, all manner of grazing mammals arguably contribute to the global warming theory. Let's kill all those too, especially the billions of African mammals.

I have been hassled by my Local Authority to use more energy saving light bulbs, you know, the ones that illuminate with a strange sickly hue, but only ten minutes after you turn them on.

China are building a new coal fired power station each week, Las Vegas is lit up like an unholy Christmas Tree, and LA have to build roads as wide as a small English town to accommodate all their traffic. I was under the impression that they were the significant contributors to global warming, but no; according to my Unitary Authority it's me and my bloomin' light bulb.

There is now a massive detachment between the consumer and the origin of their food. Personally, I don't think you should eat meat unless you would be prepared to slaughter the animal yourself. It demonstrates a certain sense of responsibility, rather than the ''ll eat it, but I don't want to think to hard about how it got on my plate" attitude. A significant number of people would probably, when faced with looking a heifer in the eye, choose vegetarianism rather than have to take any responsibility for the death of the animal to provide them with food. Thus the methane problem would be solved.

Felix.

[Zonda]

I like vegans too, but i couldn't eat a whole one. I've just realised that Homo sapiens are the only species with opinions. Mind you,,,,dolphins may have opinions too. They are just unable to relate them to us. Mixed blessing, the gift of language.

[Ray]

Yeah---what a great idea---kill all the world's grazing animals---------but hold on, that's taking control,-----managing wildlife,------we don't do that anymore!!!
The last people that did that were " gamekeepers"----------remember them?-----they were the guys that gave us the lovely wildlife balance of the 1930's,1940's----the balance we all hanker after, yellow-hammers and buntings on every hedgetop, grey partridges under your feet, and myriads of small birds around.-----Gamekeepers,---remember them, they controlled the crows, magpies, sparrowhawks, etc., (to protect their pheasants, of course,)but what a spin-off benefit for all our beloved farm-land birds.
It is well-reported that many of our farmland birds are in rapid decline,yet other farmland birds,(magpies, crows, sparrow-hawks,etc.), are increasing like never before--------why arn't THEY affected by changing farmyard practices????
Do we want a "managed" countryside, or do we continue the present policy of "leave-it-all-to-nature".
I don't pretend to know all the answers, but it does appear that our "protection" organisations are sentimental in the extreme in their attitude to the management of wildlife, and a little more "management",despite the furore it would no doubt cause, is desperately,desperately needed.

[Zonda]

I cant go with shooting raptors to protect a few grouse that will be shot anyway. We need the raptors to keep the pigeons down, now that we've stopped shooting pigeons. I walked around Abbotsbury this morning, and you could hardly move for pheasants, they were everywhere. So someone is still gamekeeping here. Saw loads of buzzards too. The butterflies were all in a hurry.

[Gruditch]

Pheasant shooting is still very much in abundance around my area, without it the local landscape would change beyond recognition. There would be no need for cover anymore, hence every small copes, and wood in the district would be levelled to make larger fields.

Some gamekeepers do a good job, others are still trigger happy and even the heron is not safe.

Regards Gruditch

[Zonda]

They say the French are 50 years behind us as regarding agricultural practices, with more smaller farms, fields and such. This has probably saved much of their wildlife. Now that farmers are setting aside on a regular basis here, i reckon they ought to replant some of the hedges they ripped out in the 70's. I've got a feeling they can get a grant for it. Some parts of Dorset are like the Great Plains now, and are managed by mostly big, and very commercial companies. This is where the hobbyist farmer of the Blair boom came in quite handy, they preserved some of the few little farms that are left. I have to say though, that a lot of farmers are trying to preserve the wildlife. I noted one in my area had left a fifty yards strip of rough grass all down one side of his oilseed rape crop, which was full of Birdsfoot trefoil.

[Jack Harrison]

Zonda’s mug shot is impressive. I have never seen such symmetrical bogeys.

Jack

[Susie]

Now that farmers are setting aside on a regular basis here, i reckon they ought to replant some of the hedges they ripped out in the 70's. I've got a feeling they can get a grant for it. Some parts of Dorset are like the Great Plains now, and are managed by mostly big, and very commercial companies.

Lincolnshire is horrendous. Flat open fields with hardly a tree. Even the Wolds, where there are a few bumps, seemed so very bare.

[Zonda]

Jack.......Is a kiss out of the question?