Give to GOSH: Why I’ll be giving up meat ... from today

I am giving up meat for January largely because I want to show my solidarity with the heroic team at GOSH

The editor of The Independent, Amol Rajan

A few years ago I tried to go vegetarian. This was difficult to reconcile with my part-time role as a restaurant critic. But the case for vegetarianism is so overwhelming on health, ecological and moral grounds that I tried to make it work. I wrote an essay on the subject for The Independent on Sunday, a column for the Evening Standard, and even did one of those 3 Minute Wonder programmes on Channel 4. All this set me up for a fall, which I duly embarked upon when presented with a strip of hot, greasy, salty bacon one fine morning. I’ve been falling ever since.

One brief interlude of pescetarianism, inspired partly by that unforgettable Kurt Cobain lyric –“it’s OK to eat fish / Cause they don’t have any feelings” – quickly drowned in an ocean of offal, poultry and sundry fleshy delights. Meat, it turned out, was too delicious to resist.

Or was it? I am giving up meat for January partly because it’s the right thing to do, and largely because I want to show my solidarity with the heroic team at GOSH. Nobody who has read our campaign coverage could be in any doubt about the urgency of this cause, or fail to be moved by the suffering of often desperately ill children.

I believe strongly in the central role of campaigning in journalism, and believe in using all the tools at our disposal to stir you lot – the readers and viewers – to lend your support too. That’s why I shall be giving up meat for January, for GOSH. Thank you in the meantime for all your support for this year’s campaign.

To Give to GOSH go to: http://ind.pn/1Mydxqt

To find out more about our appeal and why we're supporting GOSH go to: http://ind.pn/1MycZkr

DONATE
NOW