I now this is going to sound VERY silly, but it makes sense to me (to vegetarians)

[Fille Friday]

I remember watching a university lecture when I was like, 12 or something on why people are vegetarians regardless of their viewpoint on the cruelty to animals debate.

Apparently in history it was viewed as a wealth status when you could give plants and other vegetables to an animal and fatten them up before you eat the animal. You're not eating directly from the source. Essentially you have leisure and enough crop to give surplus to an animal and something different to eat. You could be seen as wasting food you grew by giving it to an animal and not eating it yourself.

Secondly, the energy debate. You get more energy from plants and vegetables than you do from animal meat and products from animals because it is from a primary source of the sun, soil, etc. When the cow eats a plant or whatever, she is taking that energy and using it in her body before you can take that energy and use it in yours. So you're only getting a fraction of that great amount of energy and nutrition that the animal is getting from the plant. Thus it seems better that you eat the plant rather than give it to the cow/animal.



It was a weird lecture, but I found it extremely interesting.

 

[AvsGirl41]

What irkes me:

Think about all the PLANTS you are killing. I mean, uprooting all those poor carrots and yanking all those poor cabbages from high up in those cabbage trees.

THIS is MURDER.

Save the fruits and veggies!

Two of my friends became "Megans" at college for awhile to protest just such a thing.

 

[nbcrusader]

Only free fruitarians are morally pure. No killing. No stealing.

 

[Carek1230]

I don't understand completely why someone would choose to be a strict vegan, vegetarian, etc....but I believe in to each his own. Choices.....we are all lucky to be able to make them every day of our lives here in the States. What I strongly believe in health and otherwise is BALANCE.

 

[AcrobatMan]

i actually worked with a vegan once who didn't speak to me for weeks when i killed a spider. believe it or not, people like that really are out there.

I believe that there are millions of them here

Although I am not so fussy but I have a sense of "special regard" for them...

Means..I wont consider anyone who kills spider as bad...but anyone who doesnt intentially try to KILL SPIDER...its good..

I will quote RADIOHEAD

"careful to all animals (never washing spiders down the plughole)"

(no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants)

 

[AcrobatMan]

The kind of logic we are using is wrong...

Ant is a living being

Killing ant is ok

Elephant is a living being

Killing elephant is ok.

I think sustaining with killing as little animals as possible ( Homo Sapiens included) is best...

There is no end to it..we have our limits...lets live within it..


For me..I am not a vegetarian but it has been many months since I ate non-vegetarian food.. its all because of taste...non-veg food tastes repulsive to me..most of the times...

My gym instructor asks me to eat non-veg food...but I simply cant....

 

[verte76]

The vegetarians I know are vegetarians for health reasons, not because they don't believe in killing animals. And as others have pointed out one-celled organisms aren't animals, and plants are living beings.

 

[anitram]

Jains will wear a net over their mouth so to make sure they don't swallow any insects or microbes unwittingly.

I work with a guy who told me he doesn't eat fruits and vegetables because he thinks it's cruel to eat the food of his food.

 

[nbcrusader]

I don't understand completely why someone would choose to be a strict vegan, vegetarian, etc....but I believe in to each his own. Choices.....we are all lucky to be able to make them every day of our lives here in the States. What I strongly believe in health and otherwise is BALANCE.

I think we are trying to analyze the moral basis for some of these decisions and its consistency across different moral choices and different food groups.

 

[joyfulgirl]

I was a vegetarian for 18 years and thankfully I got over it because it left me in poor health (and I was a damn good vegetarian, not just a pasta-eating vegetarian). My nutritionist said that he has never, ever seen a truly healthy long-term vegetarian over 40. Everything is usually fine until they hit 40 and then problems start showing up.

Anyway, it was never an animal rights issue for me. I just didn't have a taste for it. I started eating meat again as naturally as I stopped

But one thing I've noticed now as a recovering vegetarian is how liberating it is not to be so high-maintenance. Many of my friends used to nervously scan a menu on my behalf before they even decided what they wanted. I have a friend who is sorta new in my life and she's a strict vegetarian and I'm discovering that everytime we eat out it's always on her terms and in some ways it seems like a control/attention issue with her. I'm seeing my former self in her and it is very illuminating (in not a good way). No offense to any vegetarians here to whom that doesn't apply.