It ain’t easy being a vegetarian. I’ve always known that, but apparently a member of the rodent family is discovering that as well. Water voles, a rodent found in British waterways, have long been vegetarians, but a recent study shows that they have abandoned that foolhardy eating habit and come to the better side.

It’s pretty easy to learn about the water vole eating habits, because they bring their food to the edge of waterways and leave their leftovers in handy little piles for nosy humans to check out. For the first time, though, the study found dead frogs with the other water vole food. This isn’t strange on its own, because in a battle of rodent versus frog, I would expect rodent to win. But these frogs weren’t just dead from battle, they were all missing their legs, which means that the water voles had acquired a taste for frog legs.

Perhaps these water voles are just French immigrants?

Barring that, it is pretty amazing that these little rodents have finally discovered the joy of eating meat. It is a taste to be treasured and I wholeheartedly welcome the water vole into the world of meat-eating.

So for changing your hereditary eating habits into something more conducive to the consumption of meat, water voles, you are true Unvegan Heroes.

Once upon a time there was a group of people called vegans. Among other things, these people claimed that their diet was better for the environment than eating meat. Had they been right, the world would be a much different place, but luckily for us, they were wrong. In fact, they eventually learned that their diet was actually worse for the environment than eating meat.

Ok, so maybe the vegans haven’t learned yet, but new research shows that vegan staples like soy, chickpeas and lentils are doing more harm than good. It’s enough to make you want to sing “Killer Tofu,” by The Beets. Remember that fictional band from Doug on Nickelodeon? If not, here’s a refresher:

But I digress. The WWF found that in Great Britain, since most of the land is unsuitable for growing soy and other vegetarian crops, these products have to be imported from thousands of miles away. This transportation itself is bad for the environment, but to make matters worse, these crops are grown in countries like Brazil, where they are clear-cutting the rainforest. I won’t get into all the details of the effect this clear-cutting has on the environment, but it’s pretty terrible.

So next time you opt for the vegetarian option in a meal (which I’m sure you would never do), make sure you think about the environmental implications first.

(via Times Online)

Being stuck in London’s Heathrow airport, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to find anything to eat beyond a bag of “crisps” and a bottle of Irn-Bru…gag. I was actually surprised when I found myself with a decent selection of restaurants. After carefully checking out each menu and price (since the British pound is worth about 1.5 dollars) , I settled on The Crown Rivers. They served up mostly pub food, but also had a good-looking selection of curries. I settled on the Thai Green Chicken Curry, since I always wanted to know what green chicken tasted like…just kidding…maybe.

The ingredients listed in the curry were lemon grass, coriander, lime leaf, cumin, coconut and choi sum. None of these sounded like vegetables to me except for the choi sum. I figured I would take a risk and allow it, hoping it could be some incredible new meat I had never heard of.

Another bonus to this dish, was the list of sides that it came with; basmati rice, naan bread, mango chutney, onion bhajis, poppadums and shrimp paste. Most of these words meant nothing to me, yet my taste for adventure wouldn’t let me order my food without them.

When my food arrived, I was happy to find it nearly vegetable-free. There were a couple green and red substances (possibly the choi sum?) in the curry that I was careful to avoid, and the sides all looked pretty. I found two confusing-looking clumps of fried dough on the plate and took a bite. To my severe displeasure, I found onion inside and thrust these vegetarian spies off of my plate. The rest of my meal was without incidence. Everything tasted as I hoped, the curry was spicy, the naan was thick and the mango chutney was tastefully seasoned. Even the shrimp paste, which turned out to be crispy shrimp-flavored shells went happily into my unvegan belly.

Next time I’m in Heathrow, I’ll be sure to stop by The Crown Rivers again for a good meal.