The Annoying Vegan has become more annoyed today with what they see as the NSW Farmers getting on their high horse about the use of the words ‘meat’ and ‘milk’.
NSW Farmers are calling for clarification of the vocabulary for alternative proteins and they have submitted a motion to the Senate Standing Committee to review the use of meat vocabulary on plant-based products.
NSW Farmers’ are taking exception to plant-based foods having the word ‘meat’ written on plant-based products or even animal pictures on the packaging.
NSW Farmers president, James Jackson, says that at the end of the day ‘meat’ means ‘meat’, but the Annoying Vegan says that farmers also are not honest with their naming and packing.
It’s dead flesh
‘What they are selling is earthling flesh, and not only is it flesh, it’s dead flesh. They also show animal photos on their products – cutey cute lambs with long wiggly tails on the packaging of dead sheep, magestic looking cows of the packaging of milk – sometimes you will even see a mother and calf. Why don’t we see photos of massive sheds of cows being milked on milk bottles? Why don’t we see photos of calves aching for their mothers? Those calves aren’t getting that milk! That’s dishonest packaging!
‘Why don’t we see photos of pigs after a huge bolt has been shot into their heads on those tasty little pork sausage wrappers?
‘How many butcher shops have murals of dancing cows and pigs painted on their windows? This is not what they are selling! Those cows and pigs are no longer dancing – not that they ever were.
Meat is not just ‘meat’
‘If we want honesty in product naming and packing, lumping the dead bodies of cows, sheep, pigs and a huge variety of other earthlings, under the banner of “meat” isn’t truthful.
‘We don’t see packaging on wrappers that say “Calf 4,672’s mother” or “battery hen number 24, 278,583” do we?’
The Annoying Vegan thinks that the NSW Farmers are just getting a bit precious. ‘The NSW Farmers have suggested referring more to the flavours, i.e., “beef flavoured plant-based burgers”. The Annoying Vegan would like to see the same on actual beef burgers – ‘Death flavoured cow’.
‘I mean, what is beef? It’s a cow or if you want to be technical, it is a cow, or a calf, which as we know is a baby cow, or a steer, or a bull. Using the word “beef” removes it from what it is. The same with pork. We don’t see baby porks running around a paddock (or cramped in feedlots more often than not). Why don’t we see the word “pig” on packaging? That would be way more honest. But I think if you had that kind of honesty on packaging, if people were confronted every day by what they are really eating, you’d have more people looking at the “beef flavoured plant-based burgers” section of the supermarket than the “meat” section, and more people buying the juice squeezed from an almond than calf food stolen from a mother cow.’
$150 million on plant-based food
Why do NSW Farmers want honesty on packaging? ‘According to their own media release, the red meat and livestock industry in 2018-19 contributed to GDP totalling $17.6billion. They don’t want to lose those bucks. They say “The market for alternative protein products currently generates $150 million. This is little compared to the meat market” – but, according to the NSW Farmers report, 50 per cent of Australians already consume plant-based products. Fifty per cent? What I’m seeing is $150 million that used to be spent on the death industry is now being used for plant-based products.
‘If I were an Australian farmer I’d be looking at the $150 million sailing away with an ever-increasing plant-based consumer and I’d be switching to growing almonds, mushrooms or soy.
‘Also: milk thistle. Are we changing the name of that too?
Straight talking Eve. It’s what the flesh eaters need. Well done.
Almond milk is not “juice squeezed from an almond”. It is a suspension of finely ground almonds in water.
What a load of rubbish mixing emotive vegan thought with semantics. Rather than get into the emotions surrounding the of eating meat, stick to the topic!
Milk comes from cows, not almonds, soy, and whatever white stuff you can squeeze from vegetable origin. Meat come from the flesh of animals, like it or not most people agree with this definition. By all means follow your religious, moral or ethic beliefs in following a vegan diet, but why, oh why, do you spend so much time and energy over the use of words!! I don’t know who you are, but in my book the use of the word journalist doesn’t apply
‘why, oh why, do you spend so much time and energy over the use of words’
one could ask NSW Farmers the same thing
They are not the ones who are pushing for a change of tradition. They are defending the rights of meaning against fools that want to cause fractionation and unnecessary change
English evolves, as I hope do we. Words are adapted to new meanings at an ever accelerating pace. Check an old dictionary for “gay” or “cloud” or “viral”, or try to find “meme”.
The aim of language is not to fossilise tradition but to communicate meaning. When I fancy the taste of a burger but don’t fancy paying someone to confine, torment and kill an innocent animal, I am going to go looking for a plant-based meat section. That’s why it’s such a popular section, and the ACCC has told this pathetic enquiry into ways of propping up dying industries that there is no evidence of anyone accidentally buying plant-based meat thinking it was bleeding flesh. Customers are not as stupid as the death industries think or hope.
The term ‘meat’ includes all manner of things, not just animal flesh. Perhaps those farmers need to educate themselves on the word.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, ‘meat’ is any of these:
* what is taken into the system to maintain life and growth
* the edible part of fruits, nuts, eggs, etc. – the pulp, kernel, yolk, and white, etc. in contradistinction to the rind, peel, or shell
* a kind of food, an article of food
* the penis; the female genital organs; the human body regarded as an instrument of sexual pleasure; a prostitute
* something enjoyable or advantageous
* matter of importance or substance; the gist or main part (of a story, situation, etc.)
* the centre (of a cricket bat, of the head of a golf club, etc.)
* a meal, repast, feast – sometimes used for the principal meal, dinner.
Would the farmers demand the end of all those usages that don’t refer to their dead-animal products?
While I defend the broad use of the term ‘meat’ I must confess to finding most commercial vego/vegan meat substitutes utterly boring in taste and texture; they make cardboard seem appetising.
totally agree GBH X
(and yes some vegan food is just wrong town)
Yes GBH, meat substitutes are awful but they help flesh eaters transition.
* the penis; the female genital organs; the human body regarded as an instrument of sexual pleasure; a prostitute
Pathetic argument!! Tell me how many people would normally refer to their genitals as “meat” for Gods sake.
A purely pedantic argument, with no substance just a paste and copy from a meat head. (excuse the pun)
Methinks you are getting a bit precious here Eve.
I also take exception to plant based foods being labeled meat or milk, because they are not
It is disingenuous for vegetarians and vegans to label things l ‘meat like ‘or milk when they are not
meat is meat, and, milk is milk.
Meat comes from an animal as does milk.
Pork comes from pigs as does bacon, lamb from lambs beef comes from cows , chicken from chickens fish from fish.
Couldn’t be clearer . All meat items that I eat are clearly labeled, what it is and where it came from.
Being pedantic, what is a vegetable ? And why not call a vegetable what it is ? Cauli, broccoli spinach. I eat them as well
You see, I sometimes eat meat and drink milk from organic well run sources and don’t have a problem with it
And I don’t have a problem with you because you don’t eat meat or drink milk.
The problems are all yours.
But I am really sick of being lectured to by self- righteous vegans.
Oh Peter – I don’t think you read the article…
“Methinks”
and you think Eve is precious!
Can pubs also start calling a mixed grill a “protein salad”?
they can call it what they want!
If the MP/Butcher that is leading this enquiry really wants to help her fellow producers and sellers of dead animal flesh, I suggest she calls an enquiry into why 60 per cent of dead pig that is consumed by Australians is imported (ABC rural news 22 Sep). Surely Australian producers of pig flesh would see that as the biggest competition to them, and not the “poultry” 150 Million dollars they are griping about. I’m certain this is the case with all animal flesh products, and if you’re talking about truth in labelling – how about they say where the dead animal flesh comes from, What’s that you say? You mean they were killed in a slaughter house in South American where there are no animal welfare laws, no meat workers union and workers are paid a slave wage and are forced to work in disgusting conditions? Hmmm now that’s truth .
yes
What fun language is!
Communication to clarify and to deceive!
Plants are living thing, but nut meat is dead vegetation.
Oh for the days when I could ask for my meals on a flight to be ovo-lacto-vegetarian! Better food than the standard fare, but I can’t stand margarine so I hoped to get butter with my rolls. But don’t give me almond milk (yuk) in my tea, as the monoculture almond groves make the bee hives sick. Bad karma.
Might as well wear a vegan leather belt.
And pesticides like glyphosate are carbon compounds, so are organic according to my organic chemistry. We wouldn’t want organic farmers claiming that putting organic compounds on plants stops them being organic.
“Oh what tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” I hear that wasn’t written by Shakespeare, but by another person who was also called Shakespeare.
I know right? Almond milk (bleghk) I prefer oat!
I don’t think Walter Scott was ever called Shakespeare, except perhaps in his dreams.
there’s a huge opportunity for someone to create, trademark and market new names for plant-based meat, milk and butter. plant-based cheese is tofu, right? personally, i’m happy with the use of plant-based (insert plant name) meat, plant-based milk and plant-based butter etc. anything that informs the buying public what they are actually purchasing.
You vegans show how you are unfit for making the decisions when you demonstrate your ignorance so clearly – like suggesting farmers should switch to growing alternative crops like almonds and soy.
You see, grazing is a dryland operation, dominating the hills too steep for cropping. So, without a huge amount of water for irrigating a crop, and without an army of peasants to cultivate a hillside too steep for a tractor, how would a beef farmer in the hills switch to these plant crops, even if there was a market?
Plus, how is it better for the earth to use copious amounts of fossil fuels to manufacture chemical fertilisers to grow the crops vegans prefer, and blow/wash away huge amounts of topsoil in the process, than to do dryland grazing sustainably?
Flesh mongers who cannot pivot to cropping should leave the land. Eve is too kind.
Almond irrigation is a major contributor to the disaster of the Murray – Darling River management plan! It’s a highly unsustainable crop which demands water even when there isn;t any in the river – other users including the environment and towns are ignored since almonds are very profitable. And almond ‘milk’ is not milk and you only get a few percent of almond in the product – the rest is water!
I’m not a farmer or a vegan. ‘M elderly& was brought up on eat from the butcher & milk from the milkman. We always knew what we were buying & our food was nourishing. I well continue to eat meat, milk, vegetable as I know it to be. I don’t wish to eat imitation foods. All food products should be labeled exactly as to what they are.
So almonds are good. You do know they are bigger uses of water on the Murray darling system than cotton and other crops. Really eve you do know the companies producing these are not doing it for ethical reasons like you imagine but to make money out of the marketing. Plus they are high in added sugars and salt, much higher than meat and real milk.
The peanut “butter” manufacturers are getting worried too.