Comments on: An Interview with Mike Small of the Fife Diet http://transitionculture.org/2010/02/23/an-interview-with-mike-small-of-the-fife-diet/ An Evolving Exploration into the Head, Heart and Hands of Energy Descent Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:35:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Mike Small http://transitionculture.org/2010/02/23/an-interview-with-mike-small-of-the-fife-diet/comment-page-1/#comment-66761 Mike Small Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:13:50 +0000 http://transitionculture.org/?p=3336#comment-66761 Interesting comments. Adrian I'm not sure I agree with you about meat but I agree it's not a simple issue. I personally eat a low-meat diet. Maybe its clearer if we talk about what sort of meat system we are discussing? I suppose I'm talking really about industrialised food systems and people eating large quantities of highly processed meat products. I think this is highly unsustainable for ecological, ethical and health reasons. It's also a social justice issue with poor diet and ill-health mappable against poverty. The research section on our site has a number of documents detailing the carbon impact of meat and dairy, its pretty irrefutable. However I agree that livestocks can be part of a sustainable (and healthy) food system. It's just that's not what we have. Alex Renton has a good piece on the issue here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/feb/24/vegetarianism-save-planet-safran-foer On the 'where is Fife' question. Fife is a region of about 360,000 people to the north of Edinburgh. In many ways it's a natural bio-region, marlked to the south by the Firth of Forth and to the North by the Tay river estuary, to the west by the Ochil Hills and the east by the North Sea. Glenrothes is in Fife. Interesting comments. Adrian I’m not sure I agree with you about meat but I agree it’s not a simple issue. I personally eat a low-meat diet. Maybe its clearer if we talk about what sort of meat system we are discussing? I suppose I’m talking really about industrialised food systems and people eating large quantities of highly processed meat products. I think this is highly unsustainable for ecological, ethical and health reasons. It’s also a social justice issue with poor diet and ill-health mappable against poverty.

The research section on our site has a number of documents detailing the carbon impact of meat and dairy, its pretty irrefutable.

However I agree that livestocks can be part of a sustainable (and healthy) food system. It’s just that’s not what we have.

Alex Renton has a good piece on the issue here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/feb/24/vegetarianism-save-planet-safran-foer

On the ‘where is Fife’ question. Fife is a region of about 360,000 people to the north of Edinburgh. In many ways it’s a natural bio-region, marlked to the south by the Firth of Forth and to the North by the Tay river estuary, to the west by the Ochil Hills and the east by the North Sea. Glenrothes is in Fife.

]]> By: pauline mckelvey http://transitionculture.org/2010/02/23/an-interview-with-mike-small-of-the-fife-diet/comment-page-1/#comment-66757 pauline mckelvey Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:51:17 +0000 http://transitionculture.org/?p=3336#comment-66757 This post was inspirational for me and it covers a lot of the issues that come up when thinking about localised food supply.I will be taking the Fife diet ideas to my food co-op planning group and they are going to help in designing a sustainable operation. This post was inspirational for me and it covers a lot of the issues that come up when thinking about localised food supply.I will be taking the Fife diet ideas to my food co-op planning group and they are going to help in designing a sustainable operation.

]]> By: uberVU - social comments http://transitionculture.org/2010/02/23/an-interview-with-mike-small-of-the-fife-diet/comment-page-1/#comment-66756 uberVU - social comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:00:59 +0000 http://transitionculture.org/?p=3336#comment-66756 <strong>Social comments and analytics for this post...</strong> This post was mentioned on Twitter by robintransition: Posted an interview with Mike Small of the Fife Diet which I did at the Soil Association conference recently. http://tinyurl.com/yeahxqh... Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by robintransition: Posted an interview with Mike Small of the Fife Diet which I did at the Soil Association conference recently. http://tinyurl.com/yeahxqh...

]]> By: Ian G http://transitionculture.org/2010/02/23/an-interview-with-mike-small-of-the-fife-diet/comment-page-1/#comment-66754 Ian G Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:44:12 +0000 http://transitionculture.org/?p=3336#comment-66754 Where is Fife? near Glenrothes? I thought maybe it was one of the islands, all the more impressive to be living on a local diet. Ian in Dundas ON Where is Fife? near Glenrothes? I thought maybe it was one of the islands, all the more impressive to be living on a local diet.

Ian in Dundas ON

]]> By: Adrian Hepworth http://transitionculture.org/2010/02/23/an-interview-with-mike-small-of-the-fife-diet/comment-page-1/#comment-66753 Adrian Hepworth Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:53:23 +0000 http://transitionculture.org/?p=3336#comment-66753 Excellent. A good example to follow. The only thing I disagree with is "We know that we need to eat less meat and less diary". This simply a misunderstanding. True, no one should eat too much of anything but there seems to be some mis-information going about that meat consumption and dairy is harmful to the environment because of the methane produced. It isn't because its closed system, especially when all the meat and dairy is organic. Put simply its a case of what goes in is what comes out. If cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens etc. have been grass fed or on an organic diet then the ingredients would all have removed CO2 etc from the atmosphere only months before it was turned into meat, and some turned some into methane. Any way, methane only lasts between 10 and 15 years in the atmosphere while CO2 last for several hundred years. The CO2 causing global warming has been released from oil and coal that took millions of years to make and we released it in a few hundred. If Mike Small said that for health reasons then again its some bad science but this isn't the place to discuss that. Excellent. A good example to follow. The only thing I disagree with is “We know that we need to eat less meat and less diary”. This simply a misunderstanding. True, no one should eat too much of anything but there seems to be some mis-information going about that meat consumption and dairy is harmful to the environment because of the methane produced. It isn’t because its closed system, especially when all the meat and dairy is organic. Put simply its a case of what goes in is what comes out. If cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens etc. have been grass fed or on an organic diet then the ingredients would all have removed CO2 etc from the atmosphere only months before it was turned into meat, and some turned some into methane. Any way, methane only lasts between 10 and 15 years in the atmosphere while CO2 last for several hundred years. The CO2 causing global warming has been released from oil and coal that took millions of years to make and we released it in a few hundred. If Mike Small said that for health reasons then again its some bad science but this isn’t the place to discuss that.

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