Why I am a Vegetarian

[cloquewerk]

I've been a vegetarian for about 8.5 years now. Some of those years were as a vegan (or quite close to it), but I haven't knowingly touched any meat products in that time (oh except for one jello shooter once, I think, heh). It's actually only in the last couple years that I have really solidified my reasons for becoming a vegetarian, my

Comments

Re: my congratulation on 8.5 years of standing for what you belive

[cloquewerk]

Cool, in general I think it's good for us to at least occasionally step back from all the processing & industry out there and do something by ourselves, be it hunting or farming. :) I helped out a tiny bit on a community-supported farm a couple years ago, and we finally have room for a garden here, which I'm looking forward to. Probably won't have a huge yield, but I think the experience is good in and of itself, and I haven't had a garden since I was a kid.

As for cookbooks, hmmmmmm that's largely a matter of taste (heh no pun intended). I am a very big fan of Asian food, especially Indian, largely because a lot of that food was "designed" with vegetarianism in mind--as opposed to the Western vegetarian dishes adapted from meat. My current favourite cookbook (and for the last few years) is Eastern Vegetarian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey, which has recipes from Iran, India, Indonesia, China, Japan, Korea, and other such places. I think that edition is out of print, but she has similar books like World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking

[girlintheclouds]

i agree whole heartedly with your post.

I read this quote just the other day that reminded me of what you said:

Peace Pilgrim (in reply to the question "Why are you a vegetarian, and how can you be sure you are consistent?)

As to my vegetarism, I do the best I can. I have never refrained from doing something I believed was right because I could not do it perfectly. I do not believe it is right for me to ask someone else to do my "dirty work" for me. I would not kill a creature, and I would not ask someone else to kill it for me, so I will not eat the flesh of the creature.

[cloquewerk]

Very nice.

[dang_dodo_ditty]

harro, i came to ur lj from pingugirl's lj. i agree with you on a lot of points. i think that if you can hunt it and kill it and skin it and cook it, and you NEED TO, then it's 'okay'. but in our world you don't NEED TO eat meat, unless you have some kind of nutritional disorder or something complicated like that. so imho, plenty of people are supporting cruel meat industries by being lazy and not using the alternatives like tofu or more vegies etc.

but, i'm not going to force my opinions on anyone else. if someone had forced me to become vego at age 12, rather than me coming to it at my own choice at age 20, i probably wouldn't have that many strong feelings about it.

[pingugirl]

yay go livejournal... thanks for coming over and reading what my friend had to say.

I have heard the argument that you are offering. I do know that too much soya is not good for the sexual development of males. I myself do like tofu very much. I think I'm mostly worried about not getting the proper nutrition and coming off as irritating/causing difficulties for others when having meals together. meep.

[freddielyddell]

Gareth, I did not know you had personal history there. I hope you will share more of this online sometime with the world.

[canuckotter]

If I were less lazy, I'd be doing a ton of research to figure out where to buy meat from so that I'm supporting smaller-scale, local farmers. Not because of the ethics involved in factory farms -- don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan, and I think they should go away -- but because meat from well-raised animals grown in humane conditions actually tastes so much better. Just a total world of difference. And it's generally not much more expensive, and if you have, say, an uncle who can hook you up with the occasional quarter beef (like I do) it's actually cheaper. (And better. So, so much better. Yes, it's worth repeating.)

And having lived on a farm and raised animals for slaughter, I'm allowed to eat meat without the qualms you face. :-) I totally understand where you're coming from though. Probably as a result of my time living on a farm, I find it funny when people can't tolerate the thought of their food as a formerly-living animal and yet that doesn't stop them from chowing down.

[pingugirl]

wow... you definitely have an advantage over me in having lived on a farm. I'm not sure if I have a problem with animals being raised for slaughter or not. So far I've only been eating animals that I know have been treated humanely while only eating vegetarian when eating out.

[waltonroyss]

Xrazor PM I actually like mcdonalds and its not that bad if you have it once in a while not like every day then it just becomes disgusting.

[wlach]

I agree with that you shouldn't endorse activities through consumption that you wouldn't be willing to do yourself.

On the other hand, your complaints about suffering ring a little hollow to me. Living things die, that's how nature works. If an animal had a good life before it was humanely killed, I see no issue (on the contrary, better to die that way than of old age).

On another note (unrelated to your post), it irritates me somewhat when vegetarians assume that I (as someone who occassionally, eats meat) haven't thought through these issues as deeply as they have. Reasonable people with similar values can still come to different conclusions.

[cloquewerk]

Sure, I agree that living things die. But we are currently so removed from nature that arguments about how humans should act naturally never make sense to me. To me, agriculture and herding are "unnatural", and I am not going to argue that being natural, however that is defined, is either Good or Bad. But we have removed many, many, many generations of animals from nature, and I for one can't say that they are necessarily happier this way. To me, morals are essentially a human construction, so they aren't in a sense natural either.

And yeah, I think those vegetarians you talk about (and I've known some and might have been one for all I can remember) are often new converts. I have noticed that most if not all people need to reinforce new beliefs by essentially preaching them. Damn annoying, but it generally goes away after time (or the n00b gives up the belief entirely).

[wlach]

Far be it from me to argue for some kind of blood and soil morality. :) That being said, I think morality has to take the brute facts of reality into account and that, at least for the time being, includes death.