Vegetarianism

[Snadger]

Snadge just go veggie without being puritan about it......for example if you want to carry on eating eggs you may as well breed your own hens and give surplus cockerels a life before they are rehomed...or killed. If they are killed eat them or give them away to someone who would normally buy a factory farmed bird. Its not an attitude which sits well with militant veggies, but you will have no more blood on your hands that you would have buying free range eggs..............I dont know what happened to my laying hens male siblings...but I have a fair idea :-(. As human beings we will always have to be hypocrites or rigid unflexible fools. Its the nature of the beast. Im a hypocrite I suppose but Im at peace with it now.x

Can't do that........need to reason it out in my own mind first!

[dave_norm_smith]

I suppose that would be down to being a vegetarian yourself TS- no need to preach to the converted.

I have known a few over the years, real soap box types. However the funniest (worst) one was caught out eating a bacon butty a while later which obviously delighted us 'evil flesh eaters', her words not mine!

I eat meat but just love food in general- hence the growing of my own veg. I often eat meals without meat, but I don't regard it as consciously a 'vegetarian' meal, just good tasty food. However I do try to eat/use meat following an Anthony Bourdain quote I once heard that stating something like ' to honour the sacrifice that the animal has been made to make to feed us, it is our duty to ensure that we do not waste a single morsel, respecting the animal (including the husbandry etc) and wasting only the ‘oink’’
The one thing I won’t eat is the replacement meat products as they generally remind me of corrugated cardboard, with a similar taste! I often think of a certain President who smoked but” didn’t inhale” when I see these products, i.e. What’ s the point?

[Potstubsdustbins]

Whilst I respect peoples right to be veggie/vegan if they object to eating meat/fish etc I find those who preach on the subject difficult to live with and yes 2Sheds they are out there as there are zealots in all walks off life.

The truth is that GYO is entirely different to commercial farming a farmer has to make a profit for a start.

I am still struggling to think of a commercially produced food that does not involve some form of death to a living creature with the exception of probably bean sprouts and maybe rice.

Colin

[Fruit&2veg]

Always puzzled me too, if you dont agree/like something, why would you need a substitute??? Bit like "I dont agree with drugs, what else can I inject in me arm!!

[zazen999]

Always puzzled me too, if you dont agree/like something, why would you need a substitute??? Bit like "I dont agree with drugs, what else can I inject in me arm!!

Don't be puzzled. People who don't eat meat or fish also need protein. Whatever way that comes, is good for me.

Or do you mean like veggie sausages? Well, sausage is a shape as well as a product, all we are doing is having protein in that shape. It's really simple. What else are we gonna do with it? Make it in impractical star shapes so as not to confuse meat eaters?

[Fruit&2veg]

Sorry, Wasnt meant as a dig at vegetarians, I have a great respect for other peoples beliefs, but why is it called a meat substitute? Good point about the sausage shape though, Hadnt thought of that!
Doesnt take much to confuse me, by the way lol

[di]

I became a vegetarian when I was ten or eleven,purely because I didn't want to eat what was a living creature...I used to help feed a neighbours lambs,naively thinking they were his pets,when I found out the truth I was horrified.I didn't stop liking the taste of some meats though and little veggie bacon bits became a favourite.

I started eating meat again in my twenties...had a rethink and couldn't separate eating meat from dairy,perhaps I made the lazy decision but opted to start eating meat instead of becoming vegan.

My stance now is that I don't like an animal to suffer to provide me food so opt for either wild or well farmed meat,but I don't like waste either so IMO if I'm to carry on eating dairy then why not meat.

Just one last thing and I promise it's not to cause aggro as this is a really interesting thread and I don't want to be the one to spoil it...I came across a lot more meat eaters trying to catch me out about being a vegetarian than I ever have vegetarians 'preaching' at me.

[zazen999]

Sorry, Wasnt meant as a dig at vegetarians, I have a great respect for other peoples beliefs, but why is it called a meat substitute? Good point about the sausage shape though, Hadnt thought of that!
Doesnt take much to confuse me, by the way lol

Soya milk has been around just as long as [and probably longer than] milk, but they now call it 'soya alternative to milk'. Used to get me right riled up, as for some of us, it's a milk of choice not a substitute.

A bit like why we have to suffer the 'vegetarian option available' thing - because people don't understand we have money to spend too. For me, it's not a substitute; but for meat eaters, it probably is because it can be grabbed off the shelf to fill in for meat when feeding veggies.

[Glutton4...]

...What else are we gonna do with it? Make it in impractical star shapes so as not to confuse meat eaters?

Yeah! Why not!?

[Glutton4...]

...I came across a lot more meat eaters trying to catch me out about being a vegetarian than I ever have vegetarians 'preaching' at me.

That's probably because some people say they are Vegetarian, because they think it's clever in some company, or just because they don't like the options in front of them. These people are fun to catch out - trust me, I know someone just like that - claims to be a Vegetarian, but gladly scoffs a roast dinner, just leaving the meat, or a casserole/stew, but puts the chunks of meat on their partner's plate. Mental - hasn't got a clue!

[zazen999]

Sorry, Wasnt meant as a dig at vegetarians, I have a great respect for other peoples beliefs, but why is it called a meat substitute? Good point about the sausage shape though, Hadnt thought of that!
Doesnt take much to confuse me, by the way lol

Sorry, but you have no idea how many times I've heard that in the last 27 years.

Usually I'm alot more severe and sarcastic back, depending on whether I have a gob full of felafel or not. Which incidentally, is food of the gods. Just in case you have never had any. Closely followed by Dosas.

[zazen999]

Yeah! Why not!?

Even if we did, the star shaped food would still go long before the meat. This ALWAYS happens; the meat eaters load their plates with the veggie food and THEN go to the meat plates once the veggie ones are empty.

#anotherbugbear

[Hilary B]

Much of our plant-based food is commercially grown on some level. If you eat bread, the grain has been grown on a farm, where fencing out rabbits is not a practical option, pigeons will also come and help themselves to it, as will crows and rats.
In our house live 2 real carnivores, they go 'woof'. It would be real hypocrisy to carry on feeding them on meat if we humans didn't, and no way would I give up the companionship of dogs (I like cats too BTW).
Eatin a lot LESS meat, yep, but unless I can produce ALL the plant food I want, without the need for 'pest control' beyond the level of insects, my food has involved the killing of SOME creatures, and I just don't believe that is possible, certainly not on the scale necessary to feed the population of this (or indeed any) country.
I don't know how soya milk is produced, but since livestock farming probably predates arable, I don't see how it can have been around as long as the stuff that comes from domesticated mammals.
I keep meaning to work out just how much meat would be a 'parallel' to the other stuff (example, for every lactation's worth of milk, 1 beef-beast) and try to eat the balance level for a year. It woulkd have to include the pigeons and rabbits that would be culled to protect the crops... I can't quite face the idea of eating rats or crows, but in theory they should be included.
As a final look at it, all things which live will die. They may die of predation (and eating livestock IS a form of predation), of disease, or of starvation. There are no large predators in Britain (and indeed in most of Europe) apart from humanity. If we stop eating cattle etc, they will eventually starve, which is hardly humane!

[zazen999]

I don't know how soya milk is produced, but since livestock farming probably predates arable, I don't see how it can have been around as long as the stuff that comes from domesticated mammals.

In Europe maybe, but many cultures predate Europe and domesticated animals.

[Snadger]

Right you lot.
I started this thread hoping to hear some really convincing arguments as to why becoming a vegetarian is the 'right' thing to do!
Up until now all I've heard is that meat is bleugh, there's loads of good vegetarian cookbooks,parents were vegetarian so I am, health reasons dictated a change in diet, and the CJD scare was a start.
Sorry, but this all seems a bit 'wishy washy' to me. Please give me some facts and concrete reasons for to change.
One thing I will say is that the vegetarians on the vine deffo don't blow there own trumpet or ram it down your throat.
Trying to get some info off you lot is like pulling teeth!