Meat

Friday

Laurie Graham

Do the vegans want blood?

Veganism is upon us. Something which was a minority dietary choice five years ago is now mainstream, a seemingly unstoppable bandwagon. I’m not here to discuss its merits, whether ethical, environmental or dietetic; the jury is still out. What interests me is the etiquette. I have fed guests at my table for more than 50 years, and many of them have been vegetarians. No problem. Perhaps I’ve been blessed with particularly lovable vegetarian friends, but somehow their food preferences have always trumped my own carnivorous tendency and we all eat vegetarian. I hated the idea of serving separate dishes. Veganism turns up the dial. It is, frankly, a cook’s nightmare.

Monday

Amber Duke

Americans are paying the price for the rotten meat business

Please don’t make me eat the tofu dog. America has reopened in time for the Fourth of July, but COVID-19 is forcing plant-based mock-meat onto the nation’s festive paper plate. The meat industry’s supply chains are disrupted. Families will be forced to consume tofu, mycoproteins and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Meat at their annual cookouts. This is not the American way — but meat is money. The meat industry, like any other American industry, is being wrecked by corner-cutters and monopolists — and we all have to digest the results. More than 4,000 meatpacking workers have been infected with COVID-19. Single plants have experienced hundreds of cases. Entire operations have closed down.

meat

Tuesday

Freddy Gray

Land of empty

Coronavirus is so insidious that it is hitting America where it hurts — the stomach. We’ve seen huge lines of cars lining up for food banks since lockdown began, and now a growing number of reports suggest that the nation’s meat supply is breaking down, as outbreaks of COVID-19 affect the largely immigrant workers in pork and beef processing plants. Wendy’s, the fast food chain, is facing complaints from customers who say they can only order chicken — a ‘where’s the beef?’ meme has developed on social media. McDonald’s is putting its meat products on ‘controlled allocation’ to prevent shortages. Tyson Foods, one of the country’s largest meat producers, has said that 'the food supply chain is breaking'.

hamburger

Thursday

Melissa Kite

Could this pandemic be the death of veganism?

From our UK edition

‘Do you want some of the private stuff from out the back?’ said the butcher to the builder boyfriend, leaning forward over the counter and winking theatrically. The builder b winced a little for this was starting to feel like the terrifying scene in League Of Gentlemen when Mr Briss starts selling a mysterious and highly addictive ‘special’ meat to the residents of Royston Vasey. Thankfully, this butcher was only selling private lamb. He revealed his secret stash to the BB because he took a liking to him. The butcher grinned, revealing big teeth between rosy cheeks, before disappearing out the back and returning with an entire side, which he butchered in front of him, offering him as much as he wanted.

Saturday

Lauren Chen

The carnivore confessions: I’ve never felt better than on my meat-only diet

Since late last summer, I’ve been experimenting with something pretty crazy. It’s not drugs. Nor is it a trendy celebrity religion. It’s meat. Like Jordan Peterson and other great apes, I’m on the carnivore diet. The carnivore diet is a lot simpler than keto, for example, which involves counting macronutrients. On carnivore, you merely refrain from eating anything that isn’t an animal product. Beef, lamb, chicken, pork and seafood are all in, but vegetables, fruit and grains are out. It’s reverse veganism, or the hunter-gatherer diet, but with more hunting and no gathering. Apart from those who work at a zoo, most people know of the carnivore diet because of Peterson and his daughter Mikhaila.

meat-only

Wednesday

Ben Sixsmith

The trouble with the Petersons’ ‘carnivore diet’

One of the odder statements of Canadian self-help supremo Jordan Peterson is that his health problems have made him so sensitive to food and drink that when he drank some apple cider he did not sleep for 25 days straight. This, if true, would mean that he had doubled the record for the longest time of constant sleep deprivation. Insomnia? It happens. Cider-induced insomnia? Perhaps. Cider-induced sleeplessness that would make the inmates of Guantanamo Bay look well-rested? I can believe he thinks it happened but I can’t believe it happened.Peterson adopted an all-beef diet on the advice of his daughter, Mikhaila, who had been following a similar meat-based diet in what she claims was a successful attempt to treat her chronic auto-immune problems.

mikhaila peterson carnivore