The Game Fair is not the place to be if you are a vegetarian! So it's a good job I'm only half way there at the moment!
As you walk around the showground the smell of fried bacon, venison burgers and sausages assaults the nostrils. I like a nice bacon bap and I'd have to say that those provided by the Barn Bacon Company were my favourite and were the best value for money I encountered.
So what's all this about being half-vegetarian? Isn't that like being half alive? half pregnant? or half male? No, I don't think so, it's more like using half as much petrol, half as much pesticide or making half as many mistakes. In other words, it's not, for me, an all-or-nothing decision - eating less meat is perfectly feasible, and may make a positive environmental difference.
I know lots of vegetarians and admire their will power, and they each have given up meat for different reasons but mostly on animal welfare grounds. The thing that pushed me towards eating less meat was the realisation that meat-production is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and that meat production led to inefficient land use decisions in a world that is a crowded place. About 40% of cereals grown in the UK are fed to livestock - imagine how many vegetables could be grown on that land that could go more directly into human food consumption.
In the 'rewilding' 'debate' on Saturday, a gentleman from the audience made a point suggesting that we couldn't spare land for nature when there are people starving across the world, and an ever-growing world population. I think he's wrong. If we destroy the nature around us the world won't be worth living in and won't sustain a growing human population. Much more effective would be to find a way that we can all live on this planet but reduce our impact on it. Eating less meat is one of my decisions in that direction.
Having the odd meat-free day is not a big deal, and actually I think I enjoy the meat that I do eat more for not having it every day. This year I am averaging four meat-free days a week. The Game Fair is not the place to get your average up! And I will be visiting the Barn Bacon Company next year.