Sunday Snippet: Blog Action Day (#BAD11) - Gordon Ramsay

“My biggest nightmare would be if the kids ever came up to me and said ‘Dad, I’m a vegetarian.’ Then I would sit them on the fence and electrocute them.”

When it comes to renowned international chefs, Gordon Ramsay has to rank near the top. In addition to have several restaurants around the world, he also has multiple television shows and an increasingly large library of cookbooks.

While I can understand why some people may choose to be vegetarian, I also understand that there are many misconceptions. Human beings have evolved to be omnivorous. Evolution has led us to eat both plants and animals. That’s why I have no issue eating meat. At the same time, I also recognize that the food industry has many non-sustainable practices.

That’s why it’s important to know the origins of your food. That’s why concepts like the 100 mile diet are growing in popularity. Fresh, local food is the way to go, both for health and environmental reasons. And yes, that includes meat.

You may have heard of Blog Action Day. I’ve participated in previous years, writing about water and about the environment. This year’s topic is food. More specifically, the official blurb for Blog Action Day this year reads as follows:

Food is something that we all share in common, but is distinct to each of our cultures. The way we produce, distribute and consume food is crucial to our shared future, and the unhealthy imbalance of food scarcity in developing world and food over-abundance in the developed world is unsustainable for us all. Blog Action Day 2011 will be an opportunity to open the conversation about how food impacts all of us – individually and globally.

Yes, we have to be mindful of what we eat, just as we need to be mindful of the global village and how we feed our fellow man. We’re all in this together and we can all take this one bite at a time.