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Vegetarianism in Australia


ghostgirl

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I am a (non preaching) vegetarian, I avoid gelatine, animal rennet, animal stock, fish ingredients etc and I am slightly worried about food labelling in Australia as I have heard they will put 'suitable for vegetarians' on things that maybe aren't! I know it is ridiculous to judge their food labelling standards when we have just experienced the horse meat scandal over here... I was just wondering if any other fellow veggies have experienced any problems over there? I know I am being mega lazy because I could just read the ingredients on packets, but I have come to trust our little green leaf & 'V' signs over here, although I am a lot more cautious after the meat scandal, who knows what we are all eating!

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Just googled Hungry Jacks, if thats like McDonalds I think I'd be staying away from it anyway, not particularly health conscious I just wouldn't trust any fast food joints being fully vegetarian!

 

I like cooking a lot but I am guessing grocery shopping is gonna be mega expensive, maybe I will just have to eat like a student! Hopefully the heat will put me off food and save me money ha

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oh this brings me to another point... I am predicting that I will fall head over heels in love with Australia & want to stay, and am more than willing to get my hands dirty doing the required farming work to extend my WHV, but I absolutely could not work in any environment that contributed to the meat industry, is there any way to avoid this?

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A winery, that could be fun! Could I specify that I only want to help with vegetarian wine?! Haha god I am gonna annoy them so much with my demands!

 

I can't wait to see all the Aussie brands & chains!! Britain is boring me now!! Costa Coffee on every street is boring!

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am more than willing to get my hands dirty doing the required farming work to extend my WHV, but I absolutely could not work in any environment that contributed to the meat industry, is there any way to avoid this?

 

Most of the WHV workers in the agricultural industry work picking fruit and vegetables on orchard/cropping properties so I don't think it will be a problem.

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People cook and eat differently here, there is far less reliance on convenience food so as a veggie I find it little different than I did in the UK 30 years ago - in fact probably slightly easier as there are some pre-prepared veggie sausages and the like in the main supermarkets, It is not as veggie friendly as current day Britain and very often we find the children's menu has no veggie choice but we rarely eat out so its not much of a problem. The ubiquitous BBQ can cause grief as even if there is veggie food, it is usually packaged veggie burgers or sausages cooked with the meat! I'd take a nice salad to share and stick with that, although if the host has gone out of the way to buy veggie food for you it's awkward.

 

Plenty of agricultural work outside of live stock, our au pair went on to a mushroom farm :)

 

Wineries would be mainly grape picking but I don't think you could choose that they were only used in veggie wine!

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Thank you very much for your reply, I am not one for convenience foods like I said I love cooking so hopefully I will be ok! Barbecues are a worry though!!

 

Ha I was kidding about the wine, I was just worried because one of the first things mentioned in my Visa confirmation thing was butchery which obviously I wouldn't do. Mushroom picking sounds cute though.

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I know you are joking about the parasol but just we careful not to get romantic ideals about agricultural work, it is back breaking hard work for little pay - why do you think they reward WHV holders for doing it.

 

Do you know about Wooofing? If not google Wooof (world organisation of organic farms) - some qualify as agricultural work and you may find more like minded people.

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Oh I am under no illusions about that! I've heard about what hard labour it is. And thank you very much I will check that out now, I guess I just wasn't sure if I was allowed to be picky about what work I did, by picky I just mean not wanting to help slaughter animals haha

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You can be totally picky, you aren't placed somewhere, you apply for jobs you want to do. Obviously the more pleasant jobs closer to the major cities /towns have more competition. I'd suggest you leave yourself plenty of time to do the required agricultural work, maybe even do it first - if you are just one day short when you're WHV expires you cannot get the second year and I have known students have their contracts ended with only a couple of weeks to go through no fault of their own (poor harvest, bad weather etc) and with no time left to make it up.

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I don't like being out in the midday sun, do you think they can get someone to hold a parasol over my head whilst I pick strawberries??

 

No...They'll say "This is Straya, mate...if you can't hack the sun get yourself a hat..or nick off!" :wink:

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Thank you so much for your help, I'll be sure to get it done in good time I'd be gutted if I left it too late!

No...They'll say "This is Straya, mate...if you can't hack the sun get yourself a hat..or nick off!" :wink:

 

Oh no not one of those dangly cork hats, I don't have any shoes that would match one of those :(

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Hi there,

As a devout veggie myself I can give you a couple of tips . . . Australia is a vastly meat-eating population, but veggies are growing rapidly. As in most other parts of the world, MacDonalds, (AKA Maccas) and Burger King is also huge here. BK here is Hungry Jacks. As in the UK, there's Aldi's here with their "suitable fr vegetarians" labels. Watch the cheeses here though. Yoghurts too. Coles is like Asda, they have veggie labels on their cheese.

​I was in a pub the other day though, on the menu was calamari, it was labeled as veggie! (I really hate it when people assume that true veggies eat fish).

We live in Melbourne, there's a few veggie places around. We found two in St Kilda. "Lental as anything", I think there's a couple more of those around. There's also a vegetarian pizza restaurant there too.

​All in all. . . Once you get to know a few of the products, you can shop without reading all the ingredients. It takes time to begin with. If I'm not 100% sure, I usually put it back on the shelf.

In the major supermarkets, they sell basic Quorn products, (mince, pieces, fillets, etc). We've come to really like Fry's products. Shops own meat-free don't seem to be as nice.

Fresh fruit & veg are tops here though. :-)

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Guest Ptp113

Australia has more land under organic/biodynamic cultivation than any other country. Amazing when you consider how little arable land there is here.

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