In 1978, I was doing a Ph.D. in Electrical Metrology at the department of Electrical and Engineering and Electronics at UMIST (Manchester University) situated in the centre of the city. My supervisor was Dr John Rawcliffe. At the time his wife was receiving treatment at a hospital to the south of the city, close to where I lived. He on the other hand lived on the north side of the city. So to save him having to prepare a meal late at night after such a long journey -and by the way men were not then good around the kitchen-, I suggested that he could join me for the evening meal after visiting his wife. But he said ‘Oh, Amir you won’t be able to. You see I am vegetarian’. Now being vegetarian then was quite a rarity.
I was no great cook myself, but still managed to put together a few small Middle-Eastern dishes such as hummus, tabbouleh, baba ganoush, etc. John was most appreciative and took some notes for his wife to add to a vegetation cookery book that she working on. Then there were so few such books.
Vegetarianism has been gaining popularity over the years. Nowadays it estimated that 12% of UK adults are following some vegetarian diet. Among the 16-24 year-olds, it is much higher at around 20%.
In our household, it is a mixed but a representative picture:
1. The boys (myself and Zane) are meat-eaters.
2. My wife (Dawn) is now a flexitarian (cutting down on meat).
3. The girls: Faye is almost vegetarian, Rema (who is temporarily staying with us while on contract work nearby) is a vegetarian, while Lena (staying with us for the summer holiday before going back to Rome University in September) is vegan (no meat and no animal produts).
Now you can imagine the fun that Dawn has in preparing dinner, it could go along one of the following lines:
1. She cooks multiple dishes to cater for everyone’s different dietary requirements.
2. She cooks vegan/vegetation dishes while the boys perhaps do a barbecue.
3. She cooks a meet dish, the girls cook separately a vegetarian or a vegan dish.
The permutations could go on.
It is interesting to note that while young people are becoming more vegan/vegetarian, they also becoming more caring about the environment in general. This is reflected in their political affiliations with more voting for the more environmentally-caring political parties such as the Greens and the Lib-Dems. In their manifesto, the Green party “supports a progressive transition from diets dominated by meat and other animal products to healthier diets based on plant foods”. The Lib Dems also care about sustainability and say they want to improve welfare conditions for animals kept on farms. However, the two major parties (Conservative & Labour) do not seem to have clear policies on vegetarianism.