mayukh dewan

Chicken meat consumption in Malaysia is one highest per capita consumption rates in the world. In the latest release by the Department of Statistics, Malaysia (December 2015) the per capita poultry meat consumption of Malaysia stood at 46.6 Kgs at the end of 2014. It is seen as one of the most popular and cheapest source of protein in the country. This is mainly because of the non religious or dietary prohibitions of Malaysians and also due to the low cost of procuring chicken. Convenience practices like beak trimming, (Larrère and Larrère, 2000; Porcher, 2004), featherless chickens, clubbing (to death), antibiotics and drug pumped chicken, confinement in 24 hour bright light, battery hens and confinement in crowded are sources of real concern in intensive breeding of poultry, and affect even the breeders themselves. This literature review aims to explore the latest trend of meat consumption in Malaysia, primarily Chicken; and the reasons for chefs in Malaysia to procure and sell factory farmed chicken in the restaurants. It also seeks to explore weather these consumers are aware of the convenience practices in the poultry production methods and their feelings towards such methods. The paper touches on meat consumption from various angles of religion, health, environmental impact, economic reasons and food safety. A very important aspect of meat consumption is to understand the reasons and attitudes for people to choose a particular meat product in comparison to other food products in the market. During this literature review, it was found that there is a dearth of research in most of the Asian countries regarding this topic. This lack of research is not surprising, considering that most of the researchers are striving to solve practical problems in this field rather than researching about it. With animals like Chicken becoming a commodity in an industrialized production system, efficiency developed at the expense of the human-animal link or of the care for animal wellbeing is at stake. In this research in-depth semi structured and semi directive interviews of professionally trained chefs from different cultures and religions based in Malaysia were conducted. The results were coded into the different emergent themes. The resultant three emergent themes were pricing, awareness and food and race/ religion. This research aims to find and highlight the consumption behavior, and ethical behavior patterns of professional chefs in Malaysia towards factory farmed chicken and battery eggs.

This conceptual paper aims to explore the latest trend of vegetarian diets all over the world and the reasons for people turning vegetarian. The paper touches on vegetarianism from various angles; religion, health, environmental impact, economic reasons and food safety. Patterns of food production and consumption are at the core of all human ecology (Dietz, Kalof and Frisch 1996: 181). Every culture consumes different food products in different ways. Dietary habits and the food production processes that support them clearly have dramatic consequences for the global environment and economy (Goodland 1997). These impacts and consequences are getting compounded and enlarged at a very large scale post the industrial revolution and the world wars. Due to the environmental implications of food production and consumption, it is important to understand the factors that influence the human diet and the aspects of food production that are most harmful to environment. Many studies have shown that industrial meat production is a leading cause of many ecological. Also the production of meat and livestock for human consumption has significantly impacted virtually all aspects of the environment including climate change, land, soil, water and biodiversity. The most important non-CO2 greenhouse gas is methane, which is produced by a number of sources, including coal mining and landfills but the main source of methane produced worldwide is animal agriculture (Delgado, Christopher et al 1999). The global meat consumption has increased five times over in the past five decades, and it shows little sign of settling down (Ruminant Livestock, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). Most of the methane gas is produced from the livestock meant for human consumption. If we turn our focus on vegetarian diets, this big chunk of environmental damaging greenhouse gas can be successfully prevented from causing further damage to our planet.

Food consumption around the world makes up the basis of human ecology as we eat foods based on our cultural, religious and moral beliefs. Ethical and spiritual concerns have motivated many Greek philosophers like Pythagoras, Plato, Plutarch, and Porphyry to abstain from meat consumption. There has been an increase in the meat abstinence and vegetarian lifestyle due to recent philosophical world views put forth for anti-speciesism, anti-carnism, ethical issues about killing of animals, animal rights, and communal feeling and identification with the animal world. Scientific arguments for the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle and diet are quite recent. Vegetarianism as a lifestyle is difficult to quantify and study, primarily because there are so many interpretations of the word " vegetarian ". This confusion on the term " vegetarian " has presented problems for empirical research. There has been a lot of research with regard to motivations of people turning vegetarian; from environmental concerns, ethical concerns, religious concerns, animal rights concerns and health but little to no research on the experience of being a religious vegetarian. The motivation to understand the experiences of a Hindu religious lacto-vegetarian in a predominantly meat-eating society prompted me to undertake this study. For this purpose, I became a vegetarian for a month and noted down my experiences in an autoethnographical study. I discovered how my culture, my reflexivity and my past life experiences influence who I am and how I choose my food. The loneliness and fears that I faced during the study will also be discussed. The second reason for this research was to understand and experience the challenges of autoethnography as a research methodology and to try to legitimise it as a credible genre of scholarly work.