What's My Beef?

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I'm not sure about the rest of the world but certainly here in the UK we're being encouraged to cut back on meat and dairy or, better still, give it up completely. I'd been a vegetarian for some while but still had dairy but, since January, I've cut out all dairy and, to be honest, with all the wonderful vegan things in the supermarkets these days, I haven't found it particularly hard. I also eat fish provided it's not farmed although I tend to restrict this to three times a week at most.. However, I didn't give up meat and dairy for environmental reasons but rather because of the treatment of the farm animals. I won't go into detail as to what I've discovered about livestock farming but, if you don't want to cut back on animal welfare grounds then maybe you'll do so on environmental grounds. I read today research has shown that beef has a carbon footprint up to nine times higher than the same weight of chicken and around 200 times higher than vegetarian protein such as beans. When it comes to non dairy, plant based 'milks' however you need to be aware that soya milk, although considerably less harmful to the environment than dairy, is the worst plant based product compared to rice milk or, very low impact oat milk which is very much like dairy milk - nice and creamy. I tend to choose the oat variety as it's very close to dairy in flavour. Give meat a miss a few times a week and try a plant based milk. You'll be helping to reduce cruelty in the livestock 'industry' and helping the planet. I can get vegan cheese, squirty cream and ice cream which are all delicious. I've also discovered some delicious vegan burgers which have a very similar texture to beef and even have a red 'juice' which resembles the blood in beef. If you decide to give veganism a go,let me know how you get on. If you are a vegan, I'd love to know what delicious products you've found.