Letters

Food choices and sustainability

What’s on the menu?

Thu Sept 15 2022 - 00:10

Sir, – I read Angela Ruttledge’s article “I am one step closer to my last glass of milk” (Opinion & Analysis, September 13th) with interest. She informs us that she has been a vegetarian since she was 16. The byline states that “continued promotion of the dairy sector runs directly contrary to need to reduce carbon emissions”.

Encouraging children to consume dairy products as part of a balanced diet gives her “the creeps”. In her thirties, she woke “up to the fact that eating dairy and eggs is just as bad, ethically and environmentally as eating meat itself”.

In light of these comments, I was drawn to look online at the menus for the restaurants (Monck’s Green and Olive’s Room) which she co-owns. It was a surprise to find food choices such as sausages, streaky bacon, West Cork pudding, chorizo, eggs, pastrami, a variety of cheeses, Hereford beef burger (served with cheese and smoked bacon) and buttermilk fried chicken. There are plenty of non-meat and dairy (vegetarian) options too, so I suppose the menus have more balance than the article. – Yours, etc,

GRAHAME WALSH,

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Clontarf,

Dublin 3.

A chara, – I read with interest Angela Ruttledge’s article concerning the ethical position of consuming dairy products and the somewhat unsurprising response from Pat McCormack of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (Letters, September 14th).

Instead of engaging with Ms Ruttledge as someone who is on the verge of removing dairy from her diet and assuaging her valid concerns, Mr McCormack proceeded to attack her through distraction and the age-old fallacy of whatabouttery. Mr McCormack knows absolutely nothing about Ms Ruttledge’s diet or carbon footprint but assumes because she lives in the city it must be high and therefore any criticism she levels at rural farmers regardless of merit is hypocritical and invalid.

I suspect there are many more people in the general populace, urban and rural, harbouring the same concerns as Ms Ruttledge, and Mr McCormack’s testy response will do nothing to convince them that consuming dairy products is in any way ethical. – Yours, etc,

CÍAN CARLIN,

Carlingford,

Co Louth.

Sir, – Angela Ruttledge calls for an end to dairy exports and the effective shutdown of the agrifood sector on the grounds that such exports, as well as the importation of soybeans as animal feed, are adding to our carbon emissions .

After reading her piece, I visited the websites of both cafés which the article mentioned as being part-owned by Ms Ruttledge. You can imagine my surprise to find menu items which include ingredients such as avocados, peppers, maple syrup, bananas, lemons, limes, coconut, almonds, pecan nuts, and sultanas.

Six separate dessert items are listed as containing soybeans, and both establishments serve soy milk.

If Ms Ruttledge can import ingredients from Asia, Africa and the Americas for her customers, surely business owners on those continents can import Irish milk and cheese for theirs?

Are we to believe that importing soybeans to feed cattle is a gross act of climate vandalism, but that importing soybeans to sate the sweet-tooth and non-dairy preferences of Dublin café customers is perfectly acceptable?

Never has an article in your newspaper so clearly illustrated the almost comical disconnect between the urban climate activists who seek to set policy in this area, and the rural people whom they expect to bear most of the consequences of those policies. – Yours, etc,

SARAH-ANNE CLEARY,

Strokestown,

Co Roscommon.

A chara, – After reading the headline of Angela Ruttledge’s article “I am one step closer to my last glass of milk” (Opinion & Analysis, September 13th), I was initially in agreement. After all, considering our time on Earth is limited, aren’t we all one step closer to our last ever glass of milk? – Is mise,

MICHEÁL Ó DÁLAIGH,

Cnoc na Cathrach,

Gaillimh.