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Changing our attitude to meat consumption for environmental reasons

love smoked sprats, used to have them as a kid. Last time I saw them was on the fish counter at Harrods.

Sardines, had them over the weekend in Spain, but cant for the life of me get decent ones round here. Best fish counter is Waitrose, and they are just ok. The rest round here are hopeless, and no fish monger
 
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I've not had sprats, as far as I know. I did have whitebait the other night, I rather like it. That's typically juvenile herring but I'm sure that the odd sprat would go down just as well.
 
stevec67 said:
That's typically juvenile herring
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In UK waters it is more likely to be juvenile herrings, but, I believe it can be the juvenile of many species including herring, sardines, . The fine mesh isn't selective.

In parts of Spain it is banned as it is unsustainable. One of my favourite restaurants in Barcelona no longer sells the deep dried tiny fish.

The marine conservation society would like white baiting banned as catching vast (almost every restaurant) has them on the menu quantities of juvenile fish is contributing to the destruction of fish stocks.

The Chinese are farming fish for juveniles, which are exported in huge quantities, They are bigger than normal whitebait.

Our local restaurant chain often has sprats on the menu, fried as you would whitebait, delicious and sustainable.
 
Ah whitebait.

I was young, on an office pub lunch and trying to look like I knew what I was doing so confidently ordered whitebait thinking it'd be some cod-like chip accompaniment.

What arrived was a cartoon-style mound of what looked like the torched occupants of my fish tank.
 
When environmentalists suggested reducing meat consumption to lower your carbon footprint I don’t think they had in mind to start eating the local fauna.

Lots of wild turkeys in our neighborhood lately- I’d better warn them that it’s thanksgiving next Thursday
 
gintonic said:
love smoked sprats, used to have them as a kid. Last time I saw them was on the fish counter at Harrods.

Sardines, had them over the weekend in Spain, but cant for the life of me get decent ones round here. Best fish counter is Waitrose, and they are just ok. The rest round here are hopeless, and no fish monger
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Westons Fishmonger at Battlers Green farm shops near Radlett is not too far from you and worth the drive IMO

http://www.battlersgreenfarm.co.uk/westons/
 
deebster said:
I was young, on an office pub lunch and trying to look like I knew what I was doing so confidently ordered whitebait thinking it'd be some cod-like chip accompaniment.

What arrived was a cartoon-style mound of what looked like the torched occupants of my fish tank.
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I've never got past the fact that each one comes with its own little piece of fish shit.
 
Took me a while to eat them again after getting a free dog end in a portion at Elton's restaurant.

A rare treat fora gout victim.
 
mandryka said:
Or , and this is just a modest proposal, why not eat poor people's children?
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In the post-Brexit interregnum we could factory farm leave voters. Or just let them run free and hunt them for both meat and sport. As time goes on the game will be harder to catch, but will get leaner and better for us.
 
Cut down on our meat intake for 10 years now it's not a hard thing to do. Seafood, Pasta , Turkey , Chicken Venison are all readily available and healthy. The reason I cut down on beef is the antibiotics pumped into cattle willie nilly. Still like a fillet steak and peppercorn sauce with a good Argintanian Malbec twice a month but that's as far as beef goes.
 
Although beef farming is the most CO2 and water intensive form of production, so it would be a small step environmentally.
 
gingermrkettle said:
Although beef farming is the most CO2 and water intensive form of production, so it would be a small step environmentally.
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This varies a lot by system, probably the big American feed lots are the worst.

We use a lot of food waste, bread waste and brewers grains (stuff left from beer production) recently. The bulk feed is maize silage which isn't irrigated, makes a great break crop in the rotation. The fertiliser for this is mainly FYM, we add in about half a tonne per hectare of bought fertiliser. Similar for fodder beet which we are harvesting now. The only water input is rain and drinking water; any run off from the deep straw bedding is stored and applied to crops.
 
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