I think I may be heading vegetarian

[Villain-lover]

I became pescetarian (still eat fish,) for mostly the same reasons as you. I think it's a decision everyone has to make for themselves, but with all the fake meats out there now, I think it's easier then ever, just make sure you start reading labels, because there are a lot of foods you wouldn't think contain meat products that do.

Is this a recent thing for you? Your dining reviews have always had a wide variety of meat dishes in them. Just curious.

 

[Colleen27]

As others have posted, if you are okay with eating meat but just have a problem with how the animals are raised and killed, there are some ways to find meat products that are more humanely treated. I'm looking to go down that road myself. I like meat, I think that nature made man omnivores and it's okay to follow our own natures, but there is no reason to be cruel to the critters that we eat. Yes it will cost us more (which is why I haven't done it yet, all our extra income is going into renovating our house) but once things are more settled in our lives, I plan on doing (and spending) what is needed to find cruelty free meats/eggs/dairy.

This is exactly how I feel.

I don't know if either of you have seen it, but localharvest.org is a great place to start looking for small, humane farms to buy from in your area. Industrial scale food production is alarmingly cruel and ecologically devastating but there are a growing number of alternatives out there.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

That is incorrect. If one person stops eating meat, the demand will go down (fractionally, it would seem) and so less animals will have to be killed. The more people who do it, the less and less flesh will be demanded, which means less and less supply needed.

I don't have a degree in animal husbandry however when demand goes down they do mass slaughter to pay the bills. While it seems logical that less animals would be killed, the reality is slaughter increases.

 

[jsmith]

I don't have a degree in animal husbandry however when demand goes down they do mass slaughter to pay the bills. While it seems logical that less animals would be killed, the reality is slaughter increases.

There is a logical reason-the farmer is a business man just like the rest of us-if demand is down hes not making money and can not afford to feed cattle and hogs. because they will wind up selling for less than it cost to raise them-the result is sell and slaugher now while the price is high enough to at least make some profit. this is not the case as much with dairy cows, goats and sheep because they all provide products other than meat-beef cattle and hogs have no reason to be bred and fed if people are not eating them.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Is this a recent thing for you? Your dining reviews have always had a wide variety of meat dishes in them. Just curious.

Yes, it is a fairly recent change in my diet. I really thought it would be harder for me to give up meat, but I really haven't had that many cravings at all. It helps that I find that some of the meatless imitations are actually pretty tasty.

 

[southbarringtonjen]

I personally think vegetarians are more highly evolved. I really do.

Vegetarians like to think they are saving some poor animal from a horrible fate, when the reality is they are murders themselves. You can try to rationalize it all you want, but pulling a vegetable out of the ground and eating it ends its life. Look up the dictionary definition of life, a carrot counts as being alive. Just because the carrot isn't cute and doesn't scream while vegetarians murder it doesn't change the fact that it was murdered.

If you want to not eat meat, that is great. Just don't act superior, because you aren't.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Vegetarians like to think they are saving some poor animal from a horrible fate, when the reality is they are murders themselves. You can try to rationalize it all you want, but pulling a vegetable out of the ground and eating it ends its life. Look up the dictionary definition of life, a carrot counts as being alive. Just because the carrot isn't cute and doesn't scream while vegetarians murder it doesn't change the fact that it was murdered.

If you want to not eat meat, that is great. Just don't act superior, because you aren't.

Actually the poster who said that isn't a vegetarian.

 

[chisnpeke]

I've never been a big meat eater. About two years ago I just decided no more. I have slacked recently though, and got a couple hamburgers, chilli, and ate pepperoni on a pizza. I feel guilty...I hate that an animal died so I could eat that. I have no plans to go back to eating meat all the time though I do miss eating hamburgers and chilli...I love morningstar farms brand but sometimes I really want a nice burger. The smell always gets me. I have cheated though and ate soup with beef stock and chicken stock throughout these two years.

Meat also grosses me out. I love animals and eating meat as least amount as possible is how I plan to live my life. I probably will cave every once in a while but I will never consume meat on a regular basis.

Not vegan though...that would be way too hard for me.

 

[Tinkermommy]

I personally think vegetarians are more highly evolved. I really do.

I don't get this thinking. There are good and bad vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

Hitler was a vegetarian and "believed that a vegetarian diet could both alleviate personal health problems and bring about a spiritual regeneration." (snipped from Wikipedia)

If we were not supposed to eat meat we would not require certain nutrients (some B vitamins?) that are only obtained from animal sources.

We would also not have canine teeth.

I think you can be ethical in how animals are treated whether they are a food source or not. And people are free to make the food choices they want, but I think they should be informed choices.

 

[bettymae1121]

I don't have a degree in animal husbandry however when demand goes down they do mass slaughter to pay the bills. While it seems logical that less animals would be killed, the reality is slaughter increases.

I see your point, but I don't think that's quite accurate.

If a signifigant portion of the population went veggie/vegan all at once, then yes it would like play out like you stated in your post. But in reality it would most likely be a slower, more gradual decline as more people, in ones and twos and threes, change their eating habits. They'd just stop raising as many cattle/pigs/chickens over time as demand slowly decressed. Even if there was a mass slaughter, it would be a one time thing as again, they'd just reduce the supply of livestock being born going forward.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Hitler was a vegetarian and "believed that a vegetarian diet could both alleviate personal health problems and bring about a spiritual regeneration." (snipped from Wikipedia)

I actually think it was proved that he wasn't a vegetarian.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Vegetarians like to think they are saving some poor animal from a horrible fate, when the reality is they are murders themselves. You can try to rationalize it all you want, but pulling a vegetable out of the ground and eating it ends its life. Look up the dictionary definition of life, a carrot counts as being alive. Just because the carrot isn't cute and doesn't scream while vegetarians murder it doesn't change the fact that it was murdered.

If you want to not eat meat, that is great. Just don't act superior, because you aren't.

Also, comparing animals to plants is comparing apples to oranges. Plants don't have a cental nervous system, so feel no pain and suffering the way animals do, and animals eat plants too. I could argue that non-vegetarians eat more plants then vegetarians, if you include all the plants the animals ate that are only raised to be eaten.

 

[Mrs. Darcy]

I don't know if either of you have seen it, but localharvest.org is a great place to start looking for small, humane farms to buy from in your area.

Thank you for this information!

If you want to not eat meat, that is great. Just don't act superior, because you aren't.

Some people may feel that way but for me it's just that I feel very troubled by the cruelty the animals go through. The incident I saw was a guy getting ready to slaughter a pig and he picked it up and threw it against a cement barn wall to make it stop squirming around. Then he cut it's throat and let it walk around until it bled to death. I honestly never thought about how slaughtering is done. I just assumed it was done more gently.

 

[wildernesslodgelover]

Actually the poster who said that isn't a vegetarian.

Thank you for pointing that out.

as a non vegetarian (so far) I still aspire to be a vegetarian, and I stand by my theory/personal belief.

The Hitler reference was ridiculous. Are humans more evolved than bugs? Umm...yeah. Was Hitler a human? Umm, yeah.

The whole thing with plants being compared to animals was so stupid, I cannot even compose a reply.

Just because someone wants to continue eating animals...they should't feel so defensive about it. No one here "dissed" anyone for being a meat eater.

 

[Tinkermommy]

I actually think it was proved that he wasn't a vegetarian.

He may not have been a strict vegetarian, but he didn't eat very much meat and espoused a vegetarian lifestyle. He also didn't drink or smoke. But my point was that a PP said vegetarians are more evolved and I disagree and used that as a proof point.

Sometimes people are just grossed out by meat. A friend of mine is like this, and she makes no claims of having a better diet (loves sweets) but eating meat is just not for her.

I have come across vegetarians who think they are making the "superior" choice, not just a different one.

 

[Cooky]

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[The Mystery Machine]

I see your point, but I don't think that's quite accurate.

If a signifigant portion of the population went veggie/vegan all at once, then yes it would like play out like you stated in your post. But in reality it would most likely be a slower, more gradual decline as more people, in ones and twos and threes, change their eating habits. They'd just stop raising as many cattle/pigs/chickens over time as demand slowly decressed. Even if there was a mass slaughter, it would be a one time thing as again, they'd just reduce the supply of livestock being born going forward.

I guess you don't pay attention to the government market and animal slaughter. It happens all the time. Esp. when "mad cow" was the thing.

I think long term they would ship overseas. I think you are wrong about the reduction. If there is land and a market it will be done.

 

[wildernesslodgelover]

I guess you don't pay attention to the government market and animal slaughter. It happens all the time. Esp. when "mad cow" was the thing.

I think long term they would ship overseas. I think you are wrong about the reduction. If there is land and a market it will be done.

I don't really think this is the entire resoning behind becoming a vegetarian, tho. There will always be child labor issues...but if I can decide for myself that *I* don't want to contribute to it by buying something made using child labor, then *I* am doing the right thing.

If I don't like that sports team recruits a athlete with a criminal history...*I* don't have to spend my hard earned money on the team. Will the team "go out of business?" Nope. But I am doing what is right for my conscience.

 

[bettymae1121]

I guess you don't pay attention to the government market and animal slaughter. It happens all the time. Esp. when "mad cow" was the thing.

I think long term they would ship overseas. I think you are wrong about the reduction. If there is land and a market it will be done.

But the mad cow thing was just a short term drop in demand. As reports of possible Mad Cow went down, demand for beef recovered. If people make a lifetime choice to not eat animal products, that demand won't return ever. If enough people make that choice that it makes a noticeable dent in demand, they will eventually just not raise as much lifestock to begin with.

Now you are correct that demand overseas for meat, beef especially, is on the rise, especially in China as the middle class there grows. If there is a drop in domestic demand (and that may or may not happen, though I hope it does), you are correct that they will likely export the excess stock. But that still translates into net animal lives "saved" because instead of having to increase production to meet both domestic and international demand, they raise the same amount (or close to it) and just export more of it.

My personally going veggie, vegan, or just looking for cruelty free products won't do a dang thing other than to appease my concience, you're right about that. But if enough people do it, it eventually can have an impact. As demand for humane products grows, more farmers will raise more livestock to meet that demand. All we can do is try, if we just throw up our hands and say "it's no use" and head to McD's for a Big Mac, nothing will change for certain.

 

[CowboyCO]

Thank you for this information!




Some people may feel that way but for me it's just that I feel very troubled by the cruelty the animals go through. The incident I saw was a guy getting ready to slaughter a pig and he picked it up and threw it against a cement barn wall to make it stop squirming around. Then he cut it's throat and let it walk around until it bled to death. I honestly never thought about how slaughtering is done. I just assumed it was done more gently.

Efficient processing plants don't have time to do all of that. The animals go through chutes and have chains placed around their back legs. An airgun shoots a rod into the head which knocks the animal unconcious. The chains are tightened and the animal is drawn into the air. The throat is cut and the animal bleeds out and expires. It's not pretty, but it is not inhumane. The torturing that is caught in videos is not the norm.

I know the person doing the slaughtering doesn't thank the animal for it's life, but in our family, we thank God every day for the food on our table. Isn't that the same thing?