Ruth Mottram

To go back to my previous post, for a plant-based diet to be attractive, we need to help people choose plant based alternatives to meat for more or less all occasions. So meat is no longer the default
That's what we need good chefs for: to help turn traditional foods into vegetarian/vegan alternatives that are tasty and easy to prepare.
Most traditional dishes are surprisingly modern. Our tastes can easily be changed...

As an example, in France, the markets are laden with charcuterie and cheese, BUT ALSO, beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables - a nudge towards the latter would improve human health, animal welfare and reduce emissions...

https://fediscience.org/@Ruth_Mottram/114856950779865966
Ruth_Mottram - Have been in France for week + a half now, it's not impossible to get vegan food + vegetarian is straightforward if you eat dairy.
But I was struggling to find good traditional style French #PlantBased food.
This site however is outstanding making french cuisine vegan

https://menu-vegetarien.com/

Ruth Mottram (@Ruth_Mottram@fediscience.org)

Have been in France for week + a half now, it's not impossible to get vegan food + vegetarian is straightforward if you eat dairy. But I was struggling to find good traditional style French #PlantBased food. This site however is outstanding making french cuisine vegan https://menu-vegetarien.com/

FediScience.org
Jul 15 at 11:19amWeb
Show threadBrad Rosenheim1d ago
@Ruth_Mottram In the last ten years, France has made remarkable progress in vegan foods. I was last there in 2023, and there was a chain of vegan bakeries (Land & Monkeys), there were excellent cheese-like products in health food stores, non-dairy butter and even fake foie gras (!) in carrefour! I would say that recent traditions are holding back the transition there, but the high bar set by those traditions is making good vegan products available.
Show threadRuth Mottram23h ago
@Brad_Rosenheim it is much better than it was!
Show threadkit1d ago

@Ruth_Mottram
I'm a fairly unreformed carnivore, but I want to know where my meat came from and that it was treated well, which means I do eat a largely plant based diet a lot of the time, and cook a reasonable amount of mostly vegetarian foods.

That said, a conversation about vegetarian sausage stuck with me. I don't like them, and never understood why they were, until a friend explained about the social aspect of eating similarly to others, rather than the beans & barley, hummus, salads, soups, and what not that are my usual gotos.

Sometimes I feel have to serve something that looks 'normal', rather than something that is merely good, but inspiration from sites like that one absolutely help.

Show threadRuth Mottram1d ago
@hypostase @Ruth_Mottram Yes that's exactly it. Too often vegetarian menus focus on food rather than the social aspect of eating which is, at least in our plentifuæ societies, maybe even more important than nutrition.
Show threadAnne Ominous23h ago

@Ruth_Mottram

honestly, i think a huge part of the meat problem will become keeping people who do not now eat meat, from eating it

it's very hard for the global rich to tell poor people that once they rise out of poverty, they should not start eating meat.

but that's aready a serious problem.
for example, i was recently in bhutan, and meat is just a common thing there now for everyone to eat.
this was a basically vegetarian society a few decades ago.

Show threadEwen Bell 📸22h ago

Even a single decade ago.

I remember when the royal wedding took place and the entire supply of chicken was diverted to the event and for a week or so you couldn't buy chicken momos anywhere. A friend told me that nobody in Bhutan was willing to wear the burden of killing wholesale quantities of chickens, so they just imported them from India instead.

Today that is no longer the case, they grow all the chickens they want locally.

Show threadAnne Ominous22h ago

@ewen @Ruth_Mottram

yup.
& who are we, mass consumers of meat, to tell them to stop?
but it's terrible for all of us.

when i try to talk to poeple around me about going veg, they act like i'm suggesting they stop breathing.

IMO, this is an issue that is about entitlement, more than taste, more than cuisine.
people tend to be good about positive changes for the environment until it actually requires a personal sacrifice. i dont know how to change that, but i dont think better food will do it

Show threadEwen Bell 📸22h ago

Bhutan is changing in a lot of ways, mostly for the worse and mostly with far greater gravity than just the chickens. It's a society that has found strength on the idea of being happy with your lot in life, now tipped sideways by the internet and desire to possess all the things they see elsewhere in the world.

Used to be that a plot of land from the parents would allow oyu to grow enough rice to pay for a decent living. But growing rice doesn't buy iPhone and Landcruisers. A huge percentage of Bhutan's best have left the country since the pandemic, looking for greater wealth. It makes me very sad that they didn't see their existing lives as more valuable.

But I digress :)

George Monbiot made a good point a few years ago about "lab grown meat", which sounds terrible at first but absolutely can taste great to those who enjoy the real thing. There exists a world not far away where no animal needs to die to satiate my carnivorous desires. A bit like solar electricity... It's taking over not because we want to save the world but because it's better and cheaper.

[ sorry this was a long one! ]

Show threadAnne Ominous22h ago

@ewen

great point about the lab meat!

and thanks for your thoughts on Bhutan!
(dont apologize!)
it is such an interesting and unique place. but i noticed that wariness with which locals regard tourists, and wondered how 'good' we really are for them

but nothing will stop the internet 😩
i'm not sure i'll ever get to visit again, but it seems like a place that is undergoing lots of changes right now

Show threadEwen Bell 📸22h ago

I remember watching China changing back in the early 2000s, and wishing things could slow down a little so they could see how wonderful it was to be connected with thousands of years of continuing culture. But China was growing up fast, and changing so much.

That's when I started spending time in Bhutan. It felt like they were holding onto what mattered, in comparison to China and in comparison to my own western life in Australia. The internet was too much however. Facebook and IG especially.

Lessons for us all here.

I don't think the human mind evolved to deal with the sheer abundance of modern life as we know it. We have too many calories, too many luxuries and too many stimulations. We are creatures designed to survive incredible limitations, now dropped into a life of unrestrained abundance. And our minds explode.

Show threadAnne Ominous22h ago

@ewen

indeed! i so agree -- overabundance and a wealth of choices -- not something the natural world primed us for AT ALL, and not something we seem to be dealing with very well 😣

Show threadmillennial falcon21h ago
@ewen @Ruth_Mottram @rustoleumlove homes this long post was dope, I learned more from one toot than I ever learned from the mainstream media
Show threadAnne Ominous22h ago

@ewen

that is fascinating, btw. thanks for sharing.