Monday 26 January 2009

"If I can't have any meat then I ain't going."

NHS hospitals are taking meat off the menu in a bid to cut global warming. Maybe MPs should set an example, and follow suit?

22 comments:

LDN said...

I bet there are mothers in Rotherham pushing beef burgers and chicken wings through the gates of the local hospital as we speak

Old Holborn said...

Luckily Lord Holborn is BUPA and therefore will eat what he damn well likes

Unknown said...

how about making pies out of the amputated body parts and bodies a la sweeney todd and soylent green?

therefore 'killing' 3 birds with one stone?

1/less expenditure
2/less gasses from livestock
3/less emmissions from hospital incinerators..........

top idea all round!

westcoast2 said...

The comment "If I can't have any meat then I ain't going." would suggest that at least one person could cost the NHS more money in the long run.

Although a hospital could produce a balanced diet using Vegetarian principles, the majority are omniverous.

If someone decides to become a type of vegetarian (many types) that would be their choice and they have time to reflect and prepare, not the case here.

Have studies been done on people switching diets in these circumstances? There are probably two switches involved since the person would go meat-no meat-meat again.

As for global warming, is CO2 a thermostat?

Katabasis said...

It's simple pretence that this has anything to do with global warming.

It's an austerity measure to prepare us for the energy crunch. We're already peaking in Oil, gas is right behind.

Oil is the precious commodity here affected by people's eating habits, not spurious claims of emissions.

Kerry said...

Nothing spurious about it. But I've blogged about it loads before, and it's all over the media so I don't really feel like regurgitating the arguments here.

Cows, regurgitation.... I'm good, aren't I?

Katabasis said...

There are lots of things "all over the media". Usually not the things that we might want to be told about though are they?

Even assuming the current fashionable model of anthropogenic global warming is correct, it is the shortage of oil that will impact our food supply catastrophically before global warming even gives us a sweat. The government is fully aware of this.

As I said, any kind of food rationing is an admission that the austerity measures are related to peak oil, NOT to "global warming".

The idiocy of using land previously used for food crops for "biofuels" has already been exposed and given us a taste of the first shockwave of food shortages.

John A said...

"Katabasis said...
It's simple pretence that this has anything to do with global warming."


So far I am with you.

Look, kilo for kilo (pound for pound, but not currency?) veggies are less expensive than meat, much as iron-bearing ore is cheaper than stainless steel. NHS is using one [fake - CO2/methanefarts] argument because it is more popular than the other - cost cutting meals [rather than administration?]. Like cutting the laundry bill by stopping the "free" laundering of doctor/nurse scrubs and then complaining that scrubs are not laundered...

NHS does an important job quite well but its glitches are never minor, as they might be if they occurred [and were caught] at single hospitals rather than nationally.

Anonymous said...

Judging by the fact that most MPs are probably overweight and therefore less efficient in their jobs, and to lower their carbon footprint, yes, take it off the menu.

Sorry, had a pepper,tomato and couscous concoction tonight, so feeling righteous !

Dick the Prick said...

So folks should have the choice for euthenasia but not brekkie?

I can cook, worked in a restaurant for years, also love food. You being a vegan? No probs, give me 24 hours. Same goes for veggies - let us know and i'll do my ting.

However, if someone thinks Coleman's mustard is better with lamb than beef - i'm talking - that's a conversation.

Bet there's no olives. Tossers.

Fidothedog said...

Kerry a sudden change of diet can affect the immune system as well as causing all sorts of problems.

Its a disaster just awaiting to happen like all labour policies.

Steven_L said...

You weren't by any chance one of these 'Sustainability Officers' or 'Environmental Policy Officers' in a previous incarnation were you?

I think it's all a scam to attach a cash-flow to 'pollution rights' so men in pin-stripe suits can get minted trading leveraged derivatives of cow farts.

Longrider said...

But they aren't taking meat off the menu, are they? I always think it is a good idea to read reports before making comments, don't you?

Bristol Dave said...

Good grief, I'm so fed up with all this whinging about CO2 and Global Warming. These people ramming it down my throat every day need a carbon footprint to the face.

You may criticise me but I am *not* alone in my apathy. Years of having this alarmist nonsense (a great example of "alarmist nonsense" is "not leaving devices on standby", anyone with the slightest amount of electronics knowledge knows that this is simply rubbish, a device on standby consumes a barely-measurable amount of power, more is lost through supply cables) shoved in our face is simply going to result in people not caring any more.

How to do it properly:

* Cut out the misinformation (e.g. standby, unplug mobile phone chargers - they are switched mode power supplies and don't consume any power when not charging a phone)

* Stop all this alarmist nonsense, it only increases apathy in the long run, especially if scientists "predictions" (which, let's face it, are really just guesses, nobody knows what's going to happen) turn out to be even slightly flawed

* Stop trying to tell people what they can and can't eat (I'm never giving up meat and have every right to enjoy it)

* Tell people that you believe climate change is a real danger and humans are contributing to it, but increase investment in things that matter - e.g. public transport - to show that you're willing to make it easier for people to change rather than just screaming at them to stop killing the planet.

Oh, and

* Get those awful, condescending, misinformed (that good old "standby" chesnut again) Act On CO2 adverts off my telly. They drive me mad.

6000 said...

Longrider - Correct. They're not.

They're just wasting money that could be better spent on er... looking after patients... on yet another hare-brained scheme for silly, silly reasons.

I spent 9 yrs working for the NHS and I've seen this time and time again, while patients suffer.

Anonymous said...

Kerry

This is exactly why you'll be out of a job on 4th June 2010.

I shall celebrate with chateaubriand and a crate of Margaux.

AJ

Kerry said...

Welcome to the blog. It's a pleasure to meet you too.

Unknown said...

i spent 6 weeks in hospital: the only decent meal was breakfast. is it too much to expect that hospital food is made from identifiable ingredients, properly-prepared and free of foreign bodies.

The Filthy Engineer said...

As a matter of interest, how much did it cost us, the taxpayers, for this ludicrous exercise in cost cutting stupidity?

The food is bad enough in hospital as it is.

Especially as many hospitals out-source their catering anyway, and it has to be transported by road

The Grim Reaper said...

MPs are the very last people who can talk to us about keeping healthy. Who are the ones who get heavily subsidised booze at the Houses of Parliament's bars? It ain't Joe Public, I know that much. I've heard about the diets of some MPs - leaves a lot to be desired.

On another note, I notice that Old Holborn is back on the blog once more, much like a bad smell. Has he got a crush on you, Kerry? We should be told.

timbone said...

PERSON IN CHARGE
These pesky bills are mounting up, and we are spending lots and lots of taxpayers money on silly things like my overinflated salary, now how can we save?
FAST TRACK ADMIN PERSON
How about stopping meat. That will save money, and we can use an 'it is good for you and the environment' excuse like we always do. Also, the patients have no choice, because they are a captive audience. Oh, I nearly forgot, you will be alright great and mighty one, because you are in BUPA.
PERSON IN CHARGE
Darn good idea. Take an instant promotion and hefty pay rise.
FAST TRACK ADMIN PERSON
Thank you very much, that will help pay off my student loan for my degree in "Star Trek and it's effect on tourism", just one thing, how can we pay for it?
PERSON IN CHARGE
Think of something...

Elby the Beserk said...

Noweher to escape any more is there - wherever you go, someone obsession will have made sure you won't have things the way you used to.

Please, please, you up there or wherever - please rid us of these meddling so-and -sos who not only believe they know better than us but also believe they have the right to impose their beliefs on us.

I used top vote Labour. Over 30 years. And then New "Improved" Labour came along.

New Labour. New Stasi. Destroying the little things that make life enjoyable, one by one.

I shall take my own meat. Lightly roasted best Sirloin, from Stourhead Farm Shop, pink and bloody in the middle.

FFS.

What the next? Do they have nothing better to do, or are they too busy finishing off the economy.

I ****ing HATE New Labour. ***ing HATE them. Even more than Manchester United.