Not wanting to sound too pompous, but I have tried to make some progress in vegetarianism and animal rights in this country in various ways, useless as it sometimes may seem. However, now I'm done with it as I'm maybe done with the country. So next year in Jerusalem as they say.
So what are the things that stand out in Australia's history, the first is that Australia has for long and still does kill, trade and eat animals out of all proportion to the rest of the world. Secondly, vegetarianism has always been a struggle, first for things to eat, it is amazing to think how hard it was to get even the most basic of foods like vegetables for at least the first 150 years of white settlement, (for instance it took US administration during WW2 for a reasonable system of fruit production and distribution to be brought about (the US needed fruit for its soldiers in the Pacific)) the second is how much antipathy there has been to vegetarians and for so long, in the press, in business and in parliament. The meat industry has many friends and much money, even today it is seen as quite acceptable for television adverts for dead sheep products (video here) to denounce vegetarianism as un-Australian - but in truth that is exactly what it is, profoundly so. Australia is the least vegetarian of all western nations; it eats the most meat and is consequently the fattest nation on earth (it recently won this from the Americans). The most prominent vegetarians were always foreign born settlers from Europe (mainly Britain) they tried appealing to peoples sense of decency, and when that failed tried to use arguments of better health, but always with the same result. Even today looking around at the grass roots of many vegetarian or animal rights organisations, you will find still a predominance of the non-Australian born. It used to be just Europeans, but since the 1970s now happily there are growing numbers of Asian vegetarians also. In fact every vegetarian restaurant I know in Australia is run by Indian or Vietnamese vegetarians. It was for long the case that vegetarians that came to Australia facing the traditional dietary opposition gave up their diet, today I hope that isn't still the case. Though however I did read a report on Korean vegetarian immigrants, which found that since migration to Australia most have adopted the Australian diet.
So what future for Australia, well maybe the knowledge that meat eating is the largest cause of greenhouse gases may do some good, but realistically I know that no great change will happen, but I am least consoled that in future not living here, I won't have the day to day slaughter of animals thrust in my face.
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