Vegetarian Glastonbury?

[Quark]

So, at the Guardian debate on Sunday morning the question was raised of whether the festival should go vegetarian, in line with its ethos. Do you think this would work? Would it affect the size or type of the crowd?

Personally it wouldn't be a problem for me. I'm not an avowed veggie but I do love veggie food, and will quite often go for it restaurants etc if it looks good. At Glastonbury I probably eat 90% veggie anyway.

Thoughts?

EDIT: should make it clear this was based on the resource consumption of meat production vs arable farming rather than animal welfare ethics.

Edited June 30, 2015 by Quark

[ImGonnaLive4eva]

I said to myself I was going to have a veggie glastonbury this year, but then I saw the number of pulled pork vendors.

[A Guy Called Matt]

We go veggie at all festivals and have never had a bad meal.

 

You also seem to get lots more food for less money which is a win win!!

[Teddington]

It's one way of reducing the crowds I guess.

[pouxin]

Perhaps pescatarian? Couldn't do without my kedgeree in the mornings - it's delicious! Always go pescatarian for glasto - there's so many delicious veggie offerings it's not hard.

[Ruwise]

I'm veggie but I see no reason why everybody should be forced to be. They do lots of great veggie options. I think ethically sourced food is the ethos of the festival. It obviously wouldn't bother if they did go veggie and my husband eats a lot of vegetarian stuff over the festival purely so we can share food and try more stuff. 

[weaz]

I went mostly veggie due to my halloumi addiction.

I'm considering properly doing it in real life too and Glastonbury has pushed me that way

[russycarps]

It's ethos has never been about vegetarianism. It's a dairy farm for heaven's sake

[ink1ing]

Wouldn't bother me.  My mum and stepfather are vegetarian so from the age of about 8 I lived in a veggie household.  

 

I tend to stick to the vegetarian options at Glastonbury anyway.  Like mentioned its often safer and you get more bang for your buck.

 

Got myself a gigantic Manic Organic potato and chickpea curry before I left yesterday afternoon.  It was awesome.

[Quark]

It's ethos has never been about vegetarianism. It's a dairy farm for heaven's sake

Should have clarified that Russy. It was the climate change debate, and the point originated from the relatively vast quantities of resources that are used to produce meat when compared with arable farming.

Ecological pov rather than the animal ethics.

[russycarps]

Should have clarified that Russy. It was the climate change debate, and the point originated from the relatively vast quantities of resources that are used to produce meat when compared with arable farming.

Ecological pov rather than the animal ethics.

Ah fair dos. I'm a vegetarian so I'd be all for it for either reason!

[Quark]

I'd draw the line at vegan. No one is taking Le Rac Shack or cheese toasties away from me!!

[payneruk]

Not Glasto related but my friend recently went veggie after doing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayahuascain the Peruvian Amazon and got told by crying headless chickens "Please don't eat us".

That's one way to make the change to veggie I suppose haha

[tHomBleached]

I'm not vegetarian, but always go to the hare krishnas at least a couple of times when I'm there. Always the best meal of the weekend.

 

The munch place opposite the other wasn't bad as well, humous falafel for £7 was a bit pricey but pretty filling.

 

Not sure I could cope without the oggies though, they were £2 on Sunday

[LostRiot]

I'd draw the line at vegan. No one is taking Le Rac Shack or cheese toasties away from me!!

Think it would be hard to justify having a vegan festival held on a dairy farm.

 

To be honest, Glastonbury isn't about vegetarianism, its nice because it has elements of lots of different subcultures, I would encourage more vegetarian options, and certainly more high quality meat places (which there are) but no need to go full veg.

[found home in 2009]

had some great vegetarian food and wouldn't mind if the festival tried to encourage people to eat more vegetarian food, but would be against a blanket ban of meat.

Firstly because banning things and less variety isn't what I associate Glastonbury with. And secondly because then we would all miss out on Le Grand Bouffe.

Edited June 30, 2015 by ewankenobi

[Amy Lawn]

I'd be mighty proud if it did, but for a million reasons, it wont any time soon. Perhaps in the future when your resource-guzzling meat diets have bled the planet so dry that meat is an expensive luxury for the rich, all festivals will be vegetarian.

[Teddington]

I like meat.  Fortunately 90% of the population agree with me. 

 

Vegetarian stuff just does not cut it.  It's fine every once in a while, but I am always hungry immediately afterwards.

 

Besides no vegetarian meal on this planet can compare to a juicy medium rare steak.

[Untz]

Wouldn't bother me too much, but I was vegetarian for 8 years or so. 

 

It wouldn't go down well at all for the masses. There were people complaining about the lack of meat at the Fluffy Rock Cafe which is about 30 seconds away from meat stalls in West Holts.

[riverman]

The worst value food I had this year was from 'Tea and Toast' - the vegetarian place up at The Park. I had 'Catalan Toast', which was literally a quarter of a tomato over four halves of toast. I'd asked for it with cheese but was so shocked by the paucity of tomato that I didn't notice its absence until too late. Of course being very English I didn't say anything.

[Porcelina]

As a vegan, if you didn't go to Happy Maki's vegan sushi by William's Green then my absolute condolences.

[the_lost_girl]

Been a veggie for over a decade and have to say the food at Glasto is amazing and wonderful and defo a highlight for me. I did notice though that the 24hr breakfast place in the middle of pennards charged a fiver for a cheese crepe and a fiver for a bacon and cheese crepe - either that's shitty bacon or the veggies were being overcharged -probably both.

[eFestivals]

So, at the Guardian debate on Sunday morning the question was raised of whether the festival should go vegetarian, in line with its ethos. Do you think this would work? Would it affect the size or type of the crowd?

Personally it wouldn't be a problem for me. I'm not an avowed veggie but I do love veggie food, and will quite often go for it restaurants etc if it looks good. At Glastonbury I probably eat 90% veggie anyway.

Thoughts?

EDIT: should make it clear this was based on the resource consumption of meat production vs arable farming rather than animal welfare ethics.

 

in the 80s there was almost no meat available from the stalls - they were all pretty much veggie.

 

In (I think it was) 1987 I had a stall next to a steak sandwich stall, and by the sunday the guy had sold just two since the Wednesday  - so rather than chiuck the steaks away he decided to giuve them away. He still took home over half the meat he'd brought with him.

[Rumblestripe]

I'd be mighty proud if it did, but for a million reasons, it wont any time soon. Perhaps in the future when your resource-guzzling meat diets have bled the planet so dry that meat is an expensive luxury for the rich, all festivals will be vegetarian.

Yeah, I've read this nonsense before "resource-guzzling meat diets have bled the planet so dry".

 

OK, lets ban meat generally, there some immediate consequences.

 

1. The countryside is left with no animals, no sheep, no cows, etc. in some areas you will simply returning the land to the wild like the uplands of Britain, you can't grow crops on it but you can keep sheep and other suitable livestock on it.

 

2. You still have to kill animals to stop them eating the crops. Rabbits, deer etc.

 

3. You have to find a way of replacing all the animal by-products that we use, wool, leather, milk, eggs, bonemeal, etc.

 

If you stop people eating meat, it only delays the depletion of food resources. The truth is there are just too many homo sapiens on the planet. As someone who does eat vegetarian food a lot at festivals and elsewhere but still love to eat meat I think some of the aggressive preaching of the veggie brigade is over the top. And I'm not saying that "GETOFFAMYLAWN" is doing so, but I've heard all before and I've taken his quote out of context to illustrate my point. (So nothing personal dude!)

 

Let's take Haloumi as an example, veggies love it, I love it. It is made from Goat and Sheep milk. Goal milk production is the worst offender of any food group. There is a growing demand for goats' milk but less demand for meat. Quick biology lesson - only girl goats produce milk. The young male goats are often killed straight after birth as there is no demand for the meat. Actually more accurately there is a small demand but not an economic one, because Goat tastes a lot like sheep but the animal is slower growing it is almost impossible to make money on producing Goat meat.

 

How about Venison? In this country deer have no natural predators since we killed all the Lynx and the Wolves. We may at some point reintroduce the European Lynx but it is impossible to foresee the wolf coming back any time soon. In the meantime we have to cull deer. The alternative is to let them starve as they over breed and over graze their environment. Oh and to anyone who hasn't tasted it, Venison is delicious! Much nicer than steak. And if it helps to salve your conscience they are shot in the field not herded into a slaughterhouse so they are happily grazing and them boom, dead.

 

The peccadilloes and moral stance of vegetarianism and veganism is illogical. I have no problem with anyone choosing not to eat meat and indeed I think we would all be a lot healthier if we ate less meat and particularly removed intensely farmed meat from our diet. But to blame the ills of the world on meat eaters is simply abrogating your own part in the rape of this blue jewel.

 

Responsible and ethical meat production and consumption is a good thing. And tasty.

[grumpyhack]

Mrs GH has been a veggie for 40 years+ and we tend to eat veggie at home, just because it's easier to eat the same food.  Glasto would have been food paradise for her.  I was also pleased to see so many gluten-free options, which would have helped one of my daughters.

I ate mainly veggie at Glasto, just because I found so many of the offerings so much tastier but that said, I did enjoy a Tartiflette with bacon at La Grande Bouffe.