There are a number of things that I’d change with the world if this was one of those sci-fi films where a well-meaning man was given the power to wreck the world with good intentions. I’d have to ask for world peace, well you would, wouldn’t you? And en end to disease. But with more people on the planet this would pretty much lead to the end of the world.

Back to the drawing board.

Everything you ask for has probably got unforseen consequences. I won’t go through them all here, but as an example, paying a fair price to producers in the developing world will only mean they consume more, and probably buy more Nutella.

The point of this is two-fold, one is that big changes can be dangerous so maybe we should all look to small changes. I’ve just started having meat-free days. I can’t bear to describe myself as a part-time vegetarian because that would align me with those misguided individuals who think that eating only fish (or even chicken) makes them vegetarian. I’m just a man saving money on his shopping, and as a side-effect of this I save –

84,000 gallons of water 

245 pounds of grain

7,700 sq feet of rain forest

15.5 gallons of gasoline

87 square feet of topsoil from erosion

I’m not totally convinced about all the figures, as I’m pretty sure that giving up a pork chop a week won’t actually save 7,000 square feet of rain forest, and the gallon will be American, so it’s only about 11 proper gallons.. However, it does make sense from a lot of other viewpoints.

If we all give up a pork chop a week it might put some pig farmers out of business, so we should ensure we give up imported meat. This will save fuel and, from a purely selfish point of view, shift the problem to some other country.

It’s not easy making ethical decisions is it?