How to coax those around you to eat a little less meat

By Paula Goodyer July 19, 2021 â€" 5.00am

Movies urging us to cut out meat aren’t new â€" think What the Health or The Game Changers. But the new US documentary Meat Me Halfway doesn’t demand meat abstinence â€" it just wants us to eat less. As its narrator, Brian Kateman, co-founder of the Reducetarian movement, says, persuading a lot of meat lovers to reduce their meat intake could have more impact on animal welfare and the environment than getting a small number of people to turn vegan.

The film is a non-preachy look at why it’s so hard for people to eat less meat, the impact of factory farming on the planet â€" and our acceptance of eating lamb but not a golden retriever. It also raises the touchy issue of getting those closest to you to eat less meat. Kateman himself has been trying to coax his dad to cut down for years and in one of the movie’s opening scenes, tries to convince him that eating less meat can help slow global warming.

The most valuable advocacy is showing that plant food can be delicious and joyous, as well as healthy.Credit:iStock

“It’s a joke â€" I don’t think there’s anything to it,” his dad shrugs â€" yet by the movie’s end he’s eating less meat and has lost weight.

“It happened because my dad rediscovered his love for exercise, and when a trainer told him he was ‘throwing it all away’ with his unhealthy diet, he made a shift,” says Kateman. “In the end, climate change and animal suffering weren’t motivators, but his own health was. After years of me trying to persuade him to eat differently, it was someone else who convinced him â€" although I like to think I planted the seed.”

So how easy is it to persuade someone close to you that fewer burgers are a win for the planet?

“The worst thing you can do is get into a heated argument. If your too-assertive people get their back up and the message gets lost,” says Shaun McCoy who adopted a mostly plant-based diet after seeing Dominion, the 2018 documentary about factory farming. “It made me realise how unsustainable factory farming is.

“I do cop some flak when I talk about factory farming but I think people are interested â€" I work for a car dealership in Melbourne and when I organised a vegan barbecue everyone was on board. My family are willing to try a meatless burger and listen â€" I try to approach it by offering bits of information and just letting people think about it. ”

Good food helps too. Since swapping her own meat- and- dairy- rich diet for plant food four years ago, Sydney film maker Amelia Foxton has won over many of her friends with her vegan laksas and burritos.

“The most valuable advocacy I have is showing that plant food can be delicious and joyous, so some people have changed their eating after trying my food. I also lost weight when I switched to a vegan diet â€" from a size 22 to a fit size 10 over two years. A few friends changed their eating too because they can see I’m healthier for it.”

“The most valuable advocacy I have is showing that plant food can be delicious and joyous.”

Factory farming’s impact on the environment is also making it easier for men to change their diet, adds filmmaker Glenn Fraser, Amelia Foxton’s partner.

“Giving a damn about animal rights was once seen as a threat to a guy’s masculinity but now that meat and dairy consumption are acknowledged as a problem for the environment, not just animal welfare, guys are realising they can be vegan and not be seen as a lesser man for it,” he says.

Erin Remblance who works with the Carbon Reduction Institute posts a weekly vegan recipe on Facebook, with regular posts on animal welfare and climate change. She’s had some wins, and some losses, including friends who say she should just, well, shut up about eating less meat.

But it’s often her food that does the talking.

“My dad is a truck driver who eats meat â€" but he also likes my posts and my food and he’s started cooking my lentil shepherd’s pie himself. He even made one for his neighbour â€" a lamb farmer â€" and she asked for the recipe. I think that’s progress.”

And if you feel you’re getting nowhere with your meat-loving friends and family, remember that change doesn’t happen overnight â€" you might just need to plant the seed and hope it grows. As Brian Kateman says at the end of Meat Me Halfway, “If my dad can make a shift in this direction, anyone can.”

Meat Me Halfway is available on demand from Amazon, iTunes, Google Play and other digital platforms on July 20.

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