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Vegetarianism/Veganism/etc.

I am a...

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That is less compelling than the fact that it is more efficient for your body to eat average amounts of meats to compliment normal fruits and vegetables. I don't think that's the point, however, if you don't care about dietary things etc. and only about the environmental factor.

Doing things for the environment is always good, but my point is that vegetarianism is probably one of the worst ways to go about doing it. Not only is it true that the resources required is almost entirely water, which is not in short supply at all (crop-grade I mean not drinking), but eating meat is healthier in that you gain the required nutrients faster and easier.

Also, one single person, even a small group does nothing to help the environment by being a vegetarian, but said person could help (albeit a very small amount) by doing various other things like saving energy in their home, driving an electric car or bike, and so on. While a very large group certainly would do something, decreasing the meat market, the energy required to do that on the vegetarian's part (huge) would be much better spent elsewhere.

If they honestly feel that not eating meat will somehow better their life (again there are circumstances where this is indeed quite true) then I do not care at all if they choose to. If they are ignorant, and attempt to convince others to not eat meat (90% of the time their arguments are based on ignorance of the facts or cluelessness of the larger picture) this is when I start to get irked.
 
What makes you think that saving energy at home does something, but that vegetarianism does nothing?
 
I'm not a shove-my-beliefs-down-your-throat person, but surely "If they ... attempt to convince others to not eat meat", which you find so annoying, that'll be exactly what does happen?

The "I can't make a difference" attitude is the biggest threat to the environment, I think.
 
I have no idea what the first part of that was saying.

You also can't read very well, can you? I am quite aware of how much of a difference I can make; vegetarianism does nothing unless done in tremendous groups, which makes trying to convince others to become one a waste of effort (over convincing them to use public transportation, ride bikes, turn off and unplug things when not in use, etc.).
 
Vyraura said:
Because the meat market is only going to produce less meat if a huge number of people stop buying it.
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Surely the meat industry works in the same way as other industries. It makes its supply meet demand. If I were to eat less meat, meat companies would make slightly less money, and the next year perhaps they would choose to make slightly less meat. If I were to turn things off in my home, electricity companies would make slightly less money, and the next year perhaps they would choose to make slightly less electricity. You are trying to draw a distinction between consumers' directly hurting the environment, for example by motoring, and industries' hurting the environment on behalf of consumers, for example by burning fossil fuels. But eating meat and turning things off are the same, because they both fall into the category of 'industries' hurting the environment on behalf of consumers'.
 
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I think we should be careful with the amount we all eat... so we don't drive anything extinct, but that's about it. And I'm christian... I don't eat pig. And either way, pigs eat rotten milk and stale bread so they are definitely not healthy.
 
Ruby said:
Surely the meat industry works in the same way as other industries. It makes its supply meet demand. If I were to eat less meat, meat companies would make slightly less money, and the next year perhaps they would choose to make slightly less meat. If I were to turn things off in my home, electricity companies would make slightly less money, and the next year perhaps they would choose to make slightly less electricity. You are trying to draw a distinction between consumers' directly hurting the environment, for example by motoring, and industries' hurting the environment on behalf of consumers, for example by burning fossil fuels. But eating meat and turning things off are the same, because they both fall into the category of 'industries' hurting the environment on behalf of consumers'.
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The meat companies will not notice you not eating meat. Chances are someone else will buy the one package of meat you don't; I have never seen the butcher have 'leftovers' of the fresh meat (although that could be local, I would assume it to be a trend). While I don't know for sure, I do know that many industries don't actually change production when they have such a huge market (in fact more meat is produced each year). Also, electricity is produced based entirely on the demands of the city, not based on a company plan. If you could get me information stating that if a thousand people stop eating meat then the company loses a noticeable amount (or 10k people or whatever) then I might start to beleive.

Even still, it is a rather backwards way of trying to help the environment (and one that makes your life more difficult).

turbler said:
I think we should be careful with the amount we all eat... so we don't drive anything extinct, but that's about it. And I'm christian... I don't eat pig. And either way, pigs eat rotten milk and stale bread so they are definitely not healthy.
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You stupid block. We aren't putting any farm animals extinct. Christianity is not an excuse for not eating pig (unless you're secretly jewish).
And either way, you are a total dumbass for thinking that eating anything that isn't a directly transmitted toxin or disease would make eating pork 'definitely not healthy' .


took me all night to do this because I kept getting pulled away so sorry if i missed replies
 
I think we should be careful with the amount we all eat... so we don't drive anything extinct, but that's about it. And I'm christian... I don't eat pig. And either way, pigs eat rotten milk and stale bread so they are definitely not healthy.
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Uh, what? Pork is actually pretty good for you, unless you're stupid enough not to cook it properly. Not to mention that pigs are one of the few animals in which nearly everything is eaten.

You also can't generalize like that; not all pigs eat scraps. And even if they did, food scraps also consist of vegetables. Pigs are natural omnivores and eat mostly anything that's given to them, that's true, but they don't exclusively eat spoiled food.
I'm perfectly fine with you not eating pigs for religious reasons, it just bugs me that you're placing a prejudice on an animal over what it does.

As for vegetarianism, I'm perfectly for it. Vegetarians can enjoy an incredibly healthy diet without meat so I don't see a problem with it. I dislike shove-down-yer-throat vegetarian activists though; I mean, if you don't like meat, don't eat it, but people should be able to eat what they want.
 
I've always been a healthy eater; I ate whatever my parents gave to me. My mum's careful with buying food - she specifically buys the most expensive meat on offer in Tesco so she doesn't get 5% meat, 95% hydrogenated fat/added water/worse stuff. I'm not so bothered about the killing of animals (although I strongly disagree with battery farms) as what else is actually in the food. It just makes me feel gross when I remind myself sausages are usually less than about 70% actual meat, the rest is just other meat shoved together mechanically, or sinews and all sorts of crap I really don't want to eat. XD I watched a programme a while ago, and it said that it's only legal to have about 30 to 50% meat in sausages. And one company got sued for having 5%.

I really would like to become a vegetarian. I just don't want it to be awkward for my parents, as they would be really disappointed that I won't eat meat any more - I've always had a healthy diet, like I've said. I don't know much about it, and I'm hesitant to find out more in case I get bad information or something. I want to try Quorn and stuff, see what it's like (I'm not too bothered about stuff that doesn't taste of anything, my sense of taste is crap as it is and I forget what I eat ten minutes later).

Is there anyone who could give me some advice on becoming a vegetarian here? D: Not the best place to ask, I guess, but seeing this is like a discussion...
 
Cirrus, meat substitutes are horrible.

Vyraura, I'll write you a proper answer when I have the time to do so. Bear with me.
 
Eggs have a lot of protein. I remember when I went off meat for a while, I was craving eggs like a mother. o.O Other than that, I dunno. I just thought I'd throw eggs in there.
 
Lentils and other pulses are high in protein, too.

I think some meat substitutes are really nice. Cauldron make vegetarian/vegan subs and thier sausages are delicious <3
 
I'm a corpse cruncher myself.

I don't disagree with vegetarianism/veganism as a principle but it annoys me to hear of veggies forcing it on other people and yelling at meat-eaters for being "murderers" or whatever. We eat the meat, fools. You'll be thinking of the abattoir/food company there.
 
D: Vegitarians are murdering vegitables! How can they sleep at night when they have spilled the innocent blood of a cucumber?!

Those monsters.
 
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