Food for thought - March 31 - 3.32pm - 2022

Rob Percival considers the ‘Meat Paradox’

Now this was a revelation. And before I explain why, let me put up my hand and admit I’m a meat eater. Consequently, when I first saw this event was taking place, I was, let’s be honest…“carrying some baggage”. Indeed, I went along having already made up my mind that it would certainly be, in some way, confrontational, angry and spoiling for a fight. Well, the clue I think to my about-face 5 minutes into the interview with Rob Percival (head of Food Policy for The Soil Association) was the explanation he gave to his book’s title ‘The Meat Paradox. Eating. Empathy, and the Future of Meat’. And especially the use of the word ‘empathy’. As Percival explained, we as a nation are animal lovers. We profess to care greatly about animal welfare and yet manage somehow to justify our eating of them. Hell. Talk about a revelation. I’d never once thought about it from that point of view. Ever. And that I assume is the ‘paradox’ Percival is relating to in his book’s title. I can honestly say it was a breakthrough moment, not life-changing or spiritual or anything as transformative as that but certainly the first time I have been able to reflect on the a-m-b-i-g-u-i-t-y of my contrasting perspectives. Far from arguing vehemently without pause for those of us who might have different opinions, he set out his table in a fiercely intelligent, compassionate and compelling way. Genuinely Impressive.