Baa.

My career in vegetarianism began when I first realised what veal was. After eliminating baby cow from my diet aged 11 (baby! cow! tiny baby cow that had only drunk its mother’s milk!), it was swiftly followed by lamb. The pendulum kept swinging in that direction until I was only eating seafood and then, after about 10 years or so, it began to swing back.

But it never EVER swung back to veal.

Or any small or baby animals. No duckling or suckling pig or quail or lamb or veal or spatchcock. None. Which is why Masterchef contestant Claire Winton Burn’s recent piece for Fairfax about eating babies made me shudder.

From SMH, Claire writes…..

This marks a subtle but palpable shift in public sentiment when it comes to the consumption of all creatures cute and fluffy, although it’s not hard to see why these diminutive delights are prized: their meat is sweet and tender.

Ugh. Seriously. How can you eat anything that’s prefaced by the word SUCKLING? That means breastfeeding!

Are you cool with eating baby animals? Is there anything you won’t eat for ethical reasons?