Sacred Cows

Vegan activists argue that most of the world's farmland should be re-wilded rather than being used to feed livestock, and that genetically modified yeasts and bacteria should replace meat as a source of protein. They also recommend a government-enforced overhaul of the food industry, which may prove rather difficult in a country where capitalist self-regulation has the status of a religious precept and where the government is too busy fighting itself to bother organising anything else. Even if the reforms were technically feasible, they would still face implacable opposition from those with patriotic qualms about endangering British beef, or ethical qualms about cruelty to micro-organisms. Since the intellectual and moral abilities of the average yeast or bacterium arguably exceed the combined endowments of the last half-dozen Home Secretaries, the risk of a slippery slope appears not inconsiderable.