Vegan

soon where have you been? Teachers hated Michael Gove when he was Education. And doctors hate jeremy Hunt

If other teachers are the same as my daughter they STILL hate Michael Gove!

But that is not the same thing trisher and Tegan.

In this case, it is the minister who doesnt approve of what they are doing. At all with some of them.

So it is like Michael Gove not wanting teachers to teach, well anything!
And Jeremy Hunt not wanting doctors to treat anyone.

If I understand vegans correctly.

Jeremy Hunt believes in homoeopathy.

Kerry McCarthy is going to be here next month if anyone wants to see her in action.

london.vegfest.co.uk/news/94-vegfestuklondon2015-event-programme-now-available-to-view-online

Teachers may have hated Michael Gove (that was very much in evidence on previous threads on here).
However, soontobe, to clear up confusion, his remit was not to please teachers. I am sure many parents liked and admired him.

I do not think Kerry McCarthy wants farmers to stop producing food. She is an ardent supporter of animal welfare groups, as we should all be.
She wants animals to be treated properly.
If you look at all the animal welfare problems that occur, it's groups like Viva! that expose them, and farming groups that hide them.
She is also a solicitor, which could come in handy in her battles with the NFU. Perhaps they will think more carefully about how they treat their animals, even those with little red tractors and Freedom Foods logos.

Kerry McCarthy is being spoken of as if she is the Minister, not the Shadow Minister.

'Battles with the NFU' - surely not!

I expect so; thank goodness she is the Shadow Minister, otherwise we would be seeing empty shelves in the supermarkets if battle should commence with those who produce our food.

I wonder if she will be able to bring any pressure to bear on the RSPCA, even as Shadow, as, although they spend a considerable amount fighting causes they may consider worthwhile, they seem to put down healthy animals at the drop of a hat without any attempt to re-home them.

I do not think Kerry McCarthy wants farmers to stop producing food

Would that include meat?
According to dr google, vegans dont eat honey either. So no joy for beekeepers where she is concerned.

The Little Red Tractor no longer means the same thing as when it was introduced and some people would be disappointed at the changes.

I really don't understand why some posters think she will try to impose her beliefs on others. That's not her job is it????

The DEFRA remit is wide ranging, so perhaps this link will help explain just how wide

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs

I would also think Kerry will have to limit events she attended in her capacity as a vegan MP now she is a shadow minister - she just won't have the time.

And as for it being an advantange that the current minister has a farming background, well that depends on your point of view. I've just watched a piece on the BBC News of dairy cows fed and milked using a robot style machine. I thought it was amazing - until the report said the cows never left the barn. Intensive farming has just moved to a new level. Cows that never chew the cud.

Was that in the UK Wilma?
It has been like that for a while in the USA. Not sure where or for how long.

In the UK a while ago, there were plans for something the same in the UK, but I think that plans were turned down. I could be wrong.

It isnt about imposing her beliefs.
It is about having their interests at heart.
The very basis of interest in actually wanting them to do what they do.

Yes, it was in the UK. I've seen cows being fed and milked by machines before years ago, but they were brought in from the fields.

I think she will have their interests at heart. Again, that will be her job and you are still focussing on one part of her wide ranging job.

Yes, I saw that too WilmaKnickersfit and I don't feel entirely comfortable with it.
However, they were well cared for - they need to be obviously.

I have seen cows leaping for joy as they are let out of their sheds after the winter, going out into the fields.

However, and it is a big however, the more the population increases (and many on the far left with very wide open arms would like it to increase more), the more food we need and the more intensive farming will have to become of necessity.
And unless people are prepared to pay more for their food, more intensive farming will increase.

So there it is - unfortunately.

I live in a farming community and can assure you the local cows are brought in from the fields twice a day for milking, they are walked along the main road through the village to the track leading to the milking parlour. Of course cows are milked by machine - do you think there is an army of milkmaids milking them by hand . I can only speak for what I have seen myself and I can assure you the cows are healthy and well cared for. At the moment there is a small amount of beef cattle grazing in the field behind my house, again they are healthy and well cared for.

Only if they continue to eat meat, rose.

I am surprised, soon, that you needed to google that vegans do not use honey. They do not use eggs either.

sunseeker I think it was something we saw on the BBC news - it's robot week or something!

Cows were kept indoors all the time, fed automatically etc etc. Milk yield was up. Hurray!

Well, if robots can replace humans watch out.
The Daleks are coming

Was that an ironic hurray? Milk yield is not a problem; the price farmers are paid for their milk is.
Perhaps robots can replace cows if GM is practised more. Then cows will be obsolete as well as humans.

I was surprised durhamjen, because it was animal welfare that was at the forefront of why they dont eat or use animal products.

I dont think there is harm done to bees ever? Hence my surprise.

I missed out the, I thought it was animal welfare...

The technology was amazing. The cows move into a milking area when they want - who knows how that happens! - but to never leave the barn? That doesn't sit well with me. And what standards of milk is a farmer producing that he can afford such technology? As dj says, it's the price farmers are paid that is the problem.

sunseeker I suspect what you describe happens on 99% of farms and this farmer is an early adopter. The article was about the technology at the forefront of agriculture as part of a series called something like Could A Robot Do Your Job?

soon are you talking about why vegans don't eat meat because as a vegetarian my main reason for changing is simply that I don't like the idea of eating another creature. Animal welfare was below this for me. Everyone will have their own reasons.

Beef farming, whether for meat or dairy is very intensive and, to my mind, inhumane in the US. I would probably have to be vegan if I went there.

In this country, and elsewhere these methods are being introduced, which is why all the meat I eat is organic, or raised to the highest welfare standards and, living in a quasi-rural area I can buy from local farmers. The meat and milk I eat comes from grass-reared cattle, who may be overwintered in barns, warmer, drier and healthier to being out in all weathers up to their hocks in mud, and destroying the pasture they use in the summer, and will be fed hay and fodder mainly grown on the farm they live on.

Some land, like high uplands and grade 5 land is not suitable for arable crops unless there is a high input of nitrogenous fertilisers. Grazing cattle and sheep is the best use of it and their droppings fertilise the flatter land so that occasional arable crops can be grown.

Back to the shadow DEFRA government minister being vegan and vegans not eating honey (I didn't know that) I do hope that she does encourage beekeepers, because the bee population is struggling, and the bees do a sterling job pollinating the crops on which vegans, vegetarians and omnivores all depend.