Guiding young people

1694: 

School canteens: places where nearly every student goes to on a regular basis, to pay for what passes for food. Some canteens provide a valuable service and are improving, but all of them have to run as a business – they provide foods which students are used to and will pay for. Mostly, school canteens perpetuate poor food habits. They still offer salty meat dishes, sugary desserts and sweet confections. But there is a move towards providing healthier foods. Salads and fruit dishes are starting to appear on the menu, but animal foods still predominate. Substantial, savoury plant-based dishes are rare; although in fairness, a vegan meal can be ordered in advance at some school canteens.

But generally, young people are not being introduced to healthy eating, let alone being encouraged to avoid the ‘cruelty-foods’. They are not learning much about what they're putting into their bodies or about the health-giving qualities of non-animal-based food. Teachers and parents could be taking the lead ... if it really were their lead. But knowledge is thin, and the nutritionists are reluctant to speak out against animal foods for fear of losing professional credibility. Or worse, for fear of losing their animal-industry sponsorship. No one wants to offend food traditions; meat and dairy choices are prominent on every school's canteen menu. The most recognizable dishes are the best sellers. And if they're popular with students, they’re also cheaper to make, since their highly subsidised animal-ingredients are so readily available. And volunteer canteen staff  may only know how to prepare meat- and dairy-based dishes. Few know how to prepare attractive, main-course, plant-based dishes.

Ideally, school teachers (many of whom students already trust) could be teaching their students about healthy foods, introducing young people to a plant-based regimen and telling them about the horrors of life down on Animal Farm; but they probably know as little about nutrition as they do modern-day animal husbandry. And they aren't keen to promote vegetarian foods anyway, since they probably eat meat themselves.

Therefore it’s down to those who have a ‘clean slate’ and the information at hand, to inform kids about animal farming and the dangers of animal protein. But many of us are not teachers or have access to young people. So until there are enough parents and school teachers who are at least practising vegans, kids won't get to know what they need to know, at least not until they are old enough to discover things for themselves. By which time too many bad food habits will have become entrenched.

For children and adults alike, there’s so much ground to cover and so much to learn. Being seduced by, addicted to or craving certain foods, holds most people back from contemplating the possibility of an ethical diet. Apart from animals suffering, it's the young people who're suffering, from a severe lack of responsible and enlightened guidance.