An omnivore’s tale
Dorothy Searle reflects on a dilemma shared by many Friends
I am a human being. Evolution has made me an omnivore, which means that I have a wide choice of things to eat – even though the climate and culture in which I live have restricted that choice to some extent.
Some forty years ago, I realised that the world population was increasing rapidly and newly developing communities were expecting to copy the Western, high protein, diet. I didn’t see how our planet could support the level of meat production that would be required and decided to make a tiny contribution to sustainability: I’d have only two meat or poultry meals a week. I can’t eat fish and my experience of a rabbit stew prepared by an aunt in my childhood had put me off game for life, so those two meals really would be all of that type of protein I’d have. Other meals would contain free-range eggs or combinations of pulses or dairy products with grains.
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