Animals Should Be Off the Menu

Bruce McGregor is an animal scientist with international standing in his fields of animal production science. His voluntary community environmental work has been acknowledged with a Centenary of Federation Medal.

Bruce works at Deakin University, undertaking research into improving the nutritional management, animal health and product quality associated with mohair, alpaca, cashmere and wool. He is the author of over 450 research, technical and advisory publications and an Associate Editor of the international journal Small Ruminant Research. His interests in geography, history and biodiversity have led him to visit many traditional animal production systems across the globe.

Growing up in rural Victoria instilled in Bruce a love of nature and addiction to Aussie Rules football. He has been involved with many community environmental groups but particularly environmental restoration and protection of the Merri Creek catchment in Melbourne. Bruce is a long-term supporter of Oxfam, Bush Heritage Australia and other philanthropic causes.

Philip was vice president of Citibank, specialising in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions.

At age 34, he was rated by Australian Business Magazine in their Top 40 Australian head-hunted executives. At age 40, he witnessed cruelty on such a colossal scale that it affected him profoundly. He decided to give away everything he owned with warm hands, and die broke. ‘And so far, we are right on budget,’ he jokes.

Today he devotes his life to children, animals, the environment, the terminally ill, the homeless and the arts. He supports over 500 humanitarian projects in over 40 countries with schools, orphanages, shelters, sanctuaries, clinics, and scholarships.

In 2005 he received the Order of Australia. In 2007 he was Australian of the Year, Victoria. The Australia Day Council said of him, ‘Essentially a private man, Philip Wollen seeks no personal publicity but is not afraid to step into the limelight for a just cause.’

Veronica Ridge is an award-winning writer and editor, and co-founder of the Issimo publishing platform. She has held leading roles with major metropolitan newspapers, including senior editor of the Saturday Age and Sunday Age during 25 years at Fairfax Media.

During her time as editor of Epicure, the Age’s weekly food and wine section (2007–2010), Veronica won Best Food Journalist at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards for a series of three articles on food ethics and the future of food. 

Fiona Chambers is a lecturer at Marcus Oldham Agricultural College in Geelong. She holds a Diploma of Applied Science in agriculture, specialising in animal health, nutrition and genetics and is undertaking a Master of Animal Breeding Management at Sydney University.

Fiona has farmed organically at her Daylesford property since 1990 and began breeding Wessex Saddleback pigs in 1995. She is a founding director of the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia and is a director of the Rare Breeds International world board. She has delivered papers on the subject of sustainable farming and the conservation of farm animal genetic diversity at conferences in Australia and overseas, including the UK, America, Germany, Fiji and Vietnam.

Fiona has been awarded a number of awards and fellowships in her 20-year farming career, most recently the 2011 Delicious Food Heritage Award and Best Bacon (The Foodies Guide to Melbourne 2010). She has been inducted into the Melbourne Food Hall of Fame.

Adrian Richardson is head chef at Melbourne’s La Luna Bistro and a co-host of Ten’s Good Chef Bad Chef programme.

For many people air travel and good food are two mutually exclusive experiences. But for Richardson it was one that led him to the other. Thankfully for Melbourne gastronomes his dreams of becoming a pilot were trumped by the captivating chaos of the kitchen. “I started working in kitchens part time to pay for my lessons and that’s where it sort of kicked off, I gave up the flying lessons and went back to school.” Since then he has worked in some of the most prestigious kitchens around the world. Richardson can also be found every afternoon on Ten Network’s Good Chef Bad Chef.

Despite his early stint in aviation Richardson had “always been around good food, from day one” admitting “I didn’t know what “bad” food was”. Growing up in a household with “a mélange of North African, Middle Eastern and Italian cuisine” Richardson’s heritage definitely helps explain his enthusiasm for quality food that’s packed with flavour. What his heritage doesn’t help explain is his interest in all things blood and guts, given one side of his family are strict vegetarians.

Nevertheless when it comes to meat Richardson wrote the book on it: literally. MEAT was released in 2008 and provided readers with a simplistic guide on how to buy, cook and enjoy meat. At his restaurant every cut has been dry aged, on the bone for 7 to 8 weeks and is butchered on the premises, “we actually use a lot of cuts that aren’t mainstream, so we’re using the whole animal in our own particular, strange sort of way.” He encourages people to “eat good meat, sustainable produced if you can, grass fed, animals that live a healthy life”.

His second book, The Good Life, is a throwback to his younger years. Influenced by memories of times spent cooking at home, “the book is about just enjoying food with your family and friends and taking it easy and making some things at home. It’s a simple pleasure, it’s not rocket surgery”. Richardson’s philosophy on food has always involved unabashed enjoyment. “A lot of chefs make really fine, pretty, tiny, beautiful food and that’s great, but for me I’m more about family and getting together and sharing things”.

Peter Singer is a philosopher and author of over 25 books on ethics. He is best known for Animal Liberation, widely credited with starting the animal rights movement. Peter Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946 ...