Film and Discussion evening (Rebecca's comments)

What an interesting evening we had last night!It was a pity we had to break it up so early as there seemed to be so much to discuss!Thanks to everyone who came along.

As a speaker for vegetarianism I was a bit nervous debating with meat-eaters as it can seem that you are condeming someone just because they eat meat and naturally that can make people feel hostile towards you.

My own feelings are quite clear cut:I don't believe in any form of farming of animals for whatever pupose.

Dave Pemberton generously agreed to give up his evening to argue the case for being an omnivore on a diet that included meat, but not daily.At the end of the evening the overall conclusion was that most people would like to reduce their meat consumption but not to cut out meat and fish altogether.

Coming back to St Dominic afterwards I thought over some of the comments that arose from our discussions and wished that we'd have had longer to talk about them

Marianne commented that men 'seemed to need meat'.Of course I don't agree but perhaps men feel subconsiously that if they dont eat meat they will lose their virility and strenght!!!comments please!!

Actually the irony is that by eating meat often they are probably consuming vast amounts of female sex hormones which may be having the very oppersit effect on them.

Dave made the claim that it was eating meat that made homo sapiens so successful as a species.My comment was that perhaps had we stayed vegetarian we wouldn't be overpopulating the planet as we are now!

We talked about the potential of the sea to provide us with food but there were concerns about overfishing and fish farming.

Our next film and discussion evening is on 'population matters' and takes place on 22nd November at 7.30pm in the Guildhall.See you there!