麻豆社

Good morning. Goldsmiths, university of London has banned the sale of beef from its campus to cut down its carbon footprint. The National Farmers' Union calls the move overly simplistic: it says that British beef production is among the most efficient in the world.

I suspect that people want to feel like they are helping, that they are doing their bit for the planet, and speaking as a religious person I find it fascinating that people鈥檚 instinct is to cut down and give things up. Many faiths see a link between the body and the soul, preaching that self-denial in one can help cultivate the other.

There are critical differences between avoiding animal products for straightforward ethical reasons and religious fasting. The ethical diet is primarily intended to reduce suffering or environmental damage: its concern is for the world around us. Religious fasting, by contrast, is generally performed as part of the worship of God: it compels us to look both inwards and upwards. For instance, Catholics like me are encouraged to abstain from eating meat on Fridays. It was actually to combat the fall in burger sales on a Friday that McDonalds first introduced the Fillet o鈥橣ish in 1962.

What Catholics do isn鈥檛 vegetarianism and they only do it for one day. So what鈥檚 the point?

I think it鈥檚 the particularity 鈥� and the peculiarity 鈥� of meat-free Fridays that makes them effective. When I started observing them, I can tell you I found the exercise irritating. I never ate that much meat but, strangely, the one day I wasn鈥檛 allowed to was the one day I really wanted a steak and chips, a bacon sandwich or a just a big plate of non-specific meat, piled high and deep. This niggling nuisance forces me to step outside my normal routine and think about the way I live and why. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 eat meat on a Friday because Jesus died on a Friday. I eat fish instead because the early Christian symbol is a fish.鈥�

Religious fasting is sometimes called 鈥渕ortification鈥�, from the Latin 鈥渕ors鈥� or 鈥渕ortis鈥� meaning death 鈥� literally letting things we do die away so that we can become better people. And those who give up animal products often say that part of their motivation is the cultivation of their own virtue.

It鈥檚 about refusing to be driven by appetite 鈥� by 鈥渨hat I want.鈥� It becomes instead about considering what is better to eat鈥� for me, for you for the whole planet. And by cutting out what you don鈥檛 need, our attention is also drawn to what we are lucky to have. A simple, well cooked meal with good company.

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