Veganism...why?

Lamnidae

New member
Apr 16, 2009
53
0
0
squeekenator said:
Lamnidae said:
Because a plant can't look you in the eyes and tell you just how miserable it feels doesn't say they are less equal to any other living organism...
If you have solid evidence that plants have brains and are thus capable of feeling miserable you should probably be collecting your Nobel prize rather than posting about it on random internet forums.
Hah, brains are not required for feeling...
You say plants don't fight wars for the best spot in the habitat they wish for?
And Yellyfish are brainless... Yet the boxyellyfish has been known to be an active hunter...
Brains are overrated... How little do we humans use of our brains to get the technology of our modern world?
 

Calibanbutcher

Elite Member
Nov 29, 2009
1,702
8
43
BlueberryMUNCH said:
Seems that there's a lot of misinformation, or a lack of it, going around.

I'm vegan, and I'm not gonna go on a huge rant or have any arguments with anyone.
Do the research before slating someone's lifestyle.

I'm vegan for moral reasons, health reasons, and general 'ew' reasons (I'm sorry but the idea of eating eggs makes me feel ill, and the same goes for drinking milk)

Can I recommend you watch 'Forks Over Knives'. Very, very informative documentary which helped encourage me to make the switch from vegetarian to vegan.

So yeah. Have a go at me and call me an idiot and whatnot, but I'm sure if you do the research you'd be able to understand.

I am not supporting this.
Simply eating more plant-based food is not the answer, generally speaking.
Most of these patients are sick NOT because of a high meat intake (although that DOES help. A LOT) but because they decided to also indulge in a ton of plant-based foods.
Treats, such as:
Corn Syrup. Made from Corn, duh.
Chips and crisps, and french fries. Made from potatoes, fried in plant-oils.
White Bread. Made from plants as well. Also water. And bacteria. But you get my drift.

Going vegan does not automatically mean that you will become healthier or fitter.
In fact, if you go vegan and do not take care, you might just end up harming yourself ( and I mentionned this before) via Vitamin B12 deficiency, and there are other nutrients you have to make sure to get enough of, which isn't always easy as a vegan.

However, I fully agree with the notion, that in order to become healthier, one needs to take more care with food. We need to think before stuffing ourselves, because if we do not, we might just kill ourselves.
 

userwhoquitthesite

New member
Jul 23, 2009
2,177
0
0
Because idiots exist, and because people need to feel superior in some way.
There are NO health benefits to being vegan or vegetarian. You have to eat just as carefully to remain fit and healthy on plants as you do eating meat. And since most vegans I know claim that vegan is not only not eating, but not USING animal products at all, I'm gonna go ahead and call idiocy again. It is impossible in this world to do anything without involving animals in some way. makeup? soap? Oh wait, hippies don't use those anyway, what am I saying?

Unless you are actually allergic to meat, there is no reason to ever be vegan or vegetarian. All it accomplishes is making you poorer and miserable company.
 

flarty

New member
Apr 26, 2012
632
0
0
Soopy said:
I find it ironic.

One of the reasons we have have the ability to make such a choice is because our brains developed to the level needed by consuming large quantities of iron. Which we get/got from red meat...
i guess they must get their iron from spinach and kale or other leafy greens.

But my brother turned vegan for a short while. Firstly he turned veggy for the health benefits, then progressed to become vegan after seeing how unsustainable intensive farming is (especially the beef industry in the us, remind me never to eat the meat when i visit). But with it being so expensive to be vegan and having a child on the way he had to revert back to being a veggy.

8-Bit_Jack said:
Because idiots exist, and because people need to feel superior in some way.
There are NO health benefits to being vegan or vegetarian. You have to eat just as carefully to remain fit and healthy on plants as you do eating meat. And since most vegans I know claim that vegan is not only not eating, but not USING animal products at all, I'm gonna go ahead and call idiocy again. It is impossible in this world to do anything without involving animals in some way. makeup? soap? Oh wait, hippies don't use those anyway, what am I saying?

Unless you are actually allergic to meat, there is no reason to ever be vegan or vegetarian. All it accomplishes is making you poorer and miserable company.
And smoking doesn't cause cancer.
 

Conn1496

New member
Apr 21, 2011
265
0
0
Secret world leader (shhh) said:
Why is veganism a thing?

I understand that there are moral and nutritional reasons behind vegetarianism, but veganism just seems...unnescary? Is that the word? (EDIT: as so many of you kindly pointed out, unnecessary was the word :p) I think we're animals and we have a place on the food chain that must be adhered to, it's our duty as humans to keep the lower species in check. There's no need to divorce ourselves from animals completely when it comes to food. Veganism just seems like vegetarianism taken to an almost sillly extreme to me.

Anyway, if someone could explain this to me it would be much appreciated.
It's simple really...
Veganism: Because people want to.
 

BiscuitTrouser

Elite Member
May 19, 2008
2,860
0
41
8-Bit_Jack said:
Because idiots exist, and because people need to feel superior in some way.
There are NO health benefits to being vegan or vegetarian. You have to eat just as carefully to remain fit and healthy on plants as you do eating meat. And since most vegans I know claim that vegan is not only not eating, but not USING animal products at all, I'm gonna go ahead and call idiocy again. It is impossible in this world to do anything without involving animals in some way. makeup? soap? Oh wait, hippies don't use those anyway, what am I saying?

Unless you are actually allergic to meat, there is no reason to ever be vegan or vegetarian. All it accomplishes is making you poorer and miserable company.
The arguement is usually a moral one. I agree there are no health benefits. Id argue though that after i did my biology work on trophic levels i considered being vegetarian. Never got veganism though. Seems weird.

Lets look at food production through two routes:

Sun > Plant > Cow > Human

Sun > Plant > Human

Now you have to accept there is wastage in every arrow, energy is lost to the system. Cows actually only use 1% of their (digested) food for actual biomass. The plants use the sunlight (assumption here) 100% efficiently due to it being a basically infinite resource. However when humans eat the cow we have YET another loss. Not sure how high this is. But it means we have less than 1% efficiency of energy transfer. If we remove the incredibly inefficient cow link we have a far better system for producing and using food. Far less energy is wasted and more land is available for the production of food. Basically in terms of pure logic eating meat is insanely wastefull in terms of energy use. But that isnt really the main point.

Id love to point out here i DO EAT MEAT. These are just thoughts ive had on vegetarianism.

The main point is the morality of it. Lemme pose a question for you here. Lets say i hand you a knife. And a cow. You can stab the cow and kill it painlessly (it wont feel anything) and the reward is 5 mins of a nice taste in your mouth. It seems immoral to take a life of an animal not because you NEED the food, you could very easily manage without it, but because it tastes nice. Not even the best. Just good. Out of laziness to find another diet you would murder a living thing to save you the effort of changing it or giving up a certain taste.

How much killing is a single taste worth? Or a smell? Ive debated if its worth it or not or if its moral but obviously vegetarians dont think it is. The addition of middle men to kill the cow for you doesnt change the morality of it at all. Ive wondered if it makes me a hypocrit to eat an animal that i personally probably couldnt look in the eyes and kill. I would for survival no doubt. But just for the taste? When there was something else RIGHT next to it to eat? It seems like a needlessly cruel option.

Thats my 2 cents.
 

royohz

Official punching bag!
Jul 23, 2009
330
0
0
Secret world leader (shhh) said:
I think we're animals and we have a place on the food chain that must be adhered to, it's our duty as humans to keep the lower species in check.
What? "Lower species"? Are you kidding me? Every animal and plant on the planet is exactly as evolved as homo sapiens. I think we are all of equal value. Now I won't bring this to an extreme level, but I certainly hope you understand what I'm trying to say.

To me, veganism isn't completely insane. I understand the reasons. It's a really big restrictive diet to minimalize the suffering of other animals, hinder (probably not the right word) global warming due to greenhouse gasses, and potentially indirectly help ceasing world hunger. I know that it might not sound like that could help, but it works in theory. Now, you can probably figure I also agree with vegans that everybody should be vegan for the sake of all of us, but as of now, people are far too greedy and selfish to give up "guilty pleasures" for the sake of others, and I understand that it's not that easy.

However, I don't see anything wrong with eating insects simply because it is impossible to avoid. We all eat insects and insect parts every day through plants and processed food. The act of eating insects is called entomophagy and it is only in the western world that we distinguish between eating insects and other foods, because 80% of the world already eat it as a stable source of protein. So why can't we? Why are we so much "better" than the rest of the world? In a way, we aren't... And we aren't.

Captcha: meat with gravy
...The magnitude of irony is immense.
 

BiscuitTrouser

Elite Member
May 19, 2008
2,860
0
41
Abandon4093 said:
The thing is it's not a linear process.

On paper this would probably get you a tick in biology class, but it's not really how it works.

For a start, animals also provide a lot of energy to plants via reabsorption of nutrients through fertilisers such as bonemeal and faeces. So cutting animals out of the equation would seriously effect the quality of crops that would be readily available. Ecosystems are very complicated things and do not work in linear equations.

But more than that, meat is much higher in calorific content than equivalent biomass of plant or crop. It's also higher in essential proteins, fatty acids, oils and heme-iron.

What you're looking at is solar energy loss, via digestion. What you're not taking into account is the other forms of energy that aren't passed down in this solar table and as a result aren't lost by this inefficiency. There's also the fact that animals also gain energy from the sun too. Not in the same quantity that plants do with photosynthesis. But certainly with vitamin D.

There's also the effect of agriculture on land to take into consideration. High crop yield effectively drains the soils of nutrients even with animal and synthetic fertilisers, so crops have to be constantly cycled so as not to irreparably(as far as we're concerned) damage the earth. This means that plots of land that could yield (for the sake of simplicity) 3 crops usually only yield 2 or sometimes 1.

Then you've got to take into account the seasonal nature of this type of farming. Crops can only be grown as certain times so you often have to grow 4-5 times that amount of what is currently required and store it, then large plot of land go unused for half of the year.

Crops aren't as efficient as they seem. They're certainly a necessity, but it is a much more wasteful process than naturally reared livestock.
I understand the need for crop rotation. But the issues youve raised are only problems in a VEGAN system, not the vegetarian one i was making a point for. Diary cows can be cycled onto old plant fields and all soil can be regenerated without the need to farm meat. Animals are a neccessary part of the farming process. The killing of them is not. All use of animals in farming for soil regeneration or rotation can be achieved with diary cows and poultry assuming they are free range.
 

Jammy2003

New member
Feb 28, 2011
93
0
0
Abandon4093 said:
Sorry about how late this is, had a lot of shit to do at Uni this week.
No worries, in the middle of exams myself, no time for anything.

I dunno, if you really look into it. Livestock rearing and farming in general is constantly changing, legislation is changing faster than farmers can keep up as is. Making it faster wouldn't really be feasible.

Maybe streamlining the changes would be a good idea.
Well that's it then, bigger changes but fewer of them. Keeps the rate of change the same but doesn't leave everyone confused with where things stand.

Good point, but I just don't see the non-meat eating portion of the population having had an effect on the meat industry simply because of how small it is. And the percentage of the population that doesn't use ANY animal products is even smaller still.
5-10% isn't exactly SMALL, not in my mind anyway. It'd enough for a revolt to get rolling, so why not a revolution to an industry? Though that's true, but partly that's due to the difficulty in avoiding the products as they are everywhere.

You could say that if there was no war the world would be a happier place. There are lots of ideals that would make the planet a better place, but you can't compare these unrealistic ideals to our current projections. Any major change in something as global as the food and produce industry is going to take decades. In an ideal world it might not, but this is not an ideal world.
You can compare, just to keep things in perspective, though not to use them as an actual time scale... I stand by it though, we don't have decades. It currently takes about gallon of petrol to produce 1 lb of grainfed beef, and unless the balance shifts soon, there will be just as big a problem as suddenly changing now, as it simply won't be possible then.

I'd still argue that without supplements it's not a balanced diet. A balanced diet is just that, balanced. By it's nature veganism is unbalanced in that is cuts out a whole range of foodgroups.

It can be a healthy diet, but not balanced.
Well depends on your definition of food, apparently mine is different to another's in this thread so I'd have to check. It's completely possible to get everything you need from food, without the need to take tablets, powders or concoctions to supplement it. The only really area that vegans struggle with, is the need to have food fortified with B12, but other than that, everything is attainable in the amounts needed.

Lots of Vegans do.

And actually, wheat is much more the cause of obesity than meat produce. Wheat is one of the most widely consumed crops in the developed world, and it makes up a huge part of our convenience diet. It's astronomically high glycemic index. (Around 60-70 on average)
Not the ones I know, and I bet a good amount of those that would claim it would change their tune if given the exact conditions I stated before. Usually they don't get that indepth into a conversation before someone starts shouting "Lalala, I can't hear you" or how good Bacon is and they'd never be able to manage without it. Check out the overarching tone of this thread and tell me you don't understand the defensiveness, or the need to talk in generals and broad terms.

That's not how population dynamics work. The countries lower on the demographics scale have higher populations, the countries higher on the scale have lower populations, but suffer from other problems such as an ageing population because the birthrate is generally lower than the death rate.

When a country moves up the demographics scale it's population markedly decreases. With contraception becoming more readily available, healthcare getting better and the need for large families lessened. People have less children and the population decrease means that communicable disease outbreaks that have a large impact on heavily crowded slum like societies teeter out.

What I'm getting at is that the countries who are contributing to the rapid growth of the overall population are also constantly on the verge of uncontrollable pandemics, in fighting, and have incredibly high death rates.

This is why a global population count is pretty meaningless. In the west we have a relatively low birth rate in comparison to our death rate, and our issues such as an ageing population are completely different to say Africa's issues which is an astronomically high birth and death rate.

Talking about a global population count is completely meaningless.
It still holds weight, as even those people in countries lower on the demographic scale must eat and will cause some form of pollution. Not as much, and maybe I've been overstating the problem of total global population, but as it stands there are too many people for the current system, and so it needs improving or we need less people.

Drop it for your own sake any way. It's an extremely ignorant and narrow-minded way to look at things.
Yes, I'll remember to throw out my mental disorder with the rubbish next wednesday. Thanks for the advice. It's not that simple.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's 'around the corner' technology. I was just saying what would be ideal in my opinion.
Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

And a pescivourous diet is probably quite good for a dog. Because fish have most if not all of the benefits of red and white meats whilst having few if any of the drawbacks. Plus great bonuses such as tons of healthy fatty acids and oils.

Fish is certainly my favourite meat.
The same could be said of a lot of things in our society today. He gets what he needs, though he sticks his nose into the cat food a times, though that's partly just greed. Could do with more walks, so I'll be getting him and myself fit over summer.

I was really hoping hydrogen cell cars fuel would take off, but I've not heard of that in years.

A major and ultimately damning aspect of capitalism is that eventually companies gain too much power and influence. I know in the medical field cures for hundreds of diseases are constantly suppressed by pharmaceutical companies because treatments are more profitable than cures. Much the same as companies that have vested interests in current fuels would likely suppress viable alternatives.

If it was up to me, that kind of behaviour would be grounds for execution. But unfortunately, big companies have to much power and there really is no way of fighting them at this point.
The problem with hydrogen cell cars was we never learnt of a way to create hydrogen without having to actively put more energy into the system, and clean energy hasn't taken off the way it should have, so we couldn't create enough cells sadly, even if it was popular.

Understandable, Capitalism used to have the idea of no one was allowed to stand in the way of progress, but it's kind of ground to a halt of late...

I was talking about this in another thread actually.

Have you read a Brave new World by Aldois Huxley? It's a distopian story in the same kind of vein as 1984... only it's much more accurate.

Basically, he thought that over-saturation of information would be a much more effective tool to control the public because it makes them feel ultimately helpless. Because of this, people then turn to things such as mindless entertainment because it's not taxing and doesn't make them despair.

Bringing something to the publics attention rarely has a favourable outcome. The people who are truly interested will find out on their own. As we did, hoisting out the dirty laundry for everyone to see isn't going to accomplish anything.
Read 1984, so maybe I'll give that one a go. Sounds interesting, and pretty much right. The problem is there is only saturation of certain topics, if you manage to change what's being thrown at people by making it a big enough issue, then more will learn that there is something to find out about. Until recently, when I've done more reading on both Femanism and the food industry, I didn't know there was a problem to even look up. It's only when it's brought to your attention for the first place that most people will find out about things.

It probably would if everyone suddenly changed. But if that 5-10% had always eaten meat, I think that the overall demand wouldn't be 5-10% higher than it currently is. 3% more maybe, something quite low in the grand scheme of things. Because demand doesn't work in absolutes, it's not that everyone in the UK eats 5 chickens a week or 3 lambs.

Generally, we eat what's available.
Which means there is still 3% less meat than would otherwise be produced, due to these people's efforts. It's not bad, and certainly not nothing.

That's hardly anything new though. And how you have to think about it is like this.

Who do you think was more prised in some ancient nomadic tribe that decided to settle down somewhere in a desert? Safe, but far from water. The men who made the spears? Or the guy that came up with an irrigation system?

Both would have been important and necessary, but the irrigation system would have had much more of an effect on their society in general.
True, but it's more of a long term thing. The spears had instant results and those people became heros, the irrigation designer usually doesn't end up appreciated until after death, when everything comes to fruitation.

Still, I'll be trying to focus on something positive, whatever I eventually end up doing.
 

BiscuitTrouser

Elite Member
May 19, 2008
2,860
0
41
Abandon4093 said:
Livestock is just more efficient than crops if we're talking about a purely square meter measure.
Is this statistic for battery or free range animals? Can you cite this?
 

userwhoquitthesite

New member
Jul 23, 2009
2,177
0
0
BiscuitTrouser said:
using animals as food and product sources is sometimes considered immoral
which is stupid, hence my post.
I realize you weren't saying it was, so I'm not calling YOU stupid, just the position that you chose to explain to the forum.

it is true that excessive harvest or cruelty to animals is not okay, but that's a far cry from insisting that drinking milk is a sin.

until vegan academy opens to teach us how curds and whey muck up your latent psychic powers, there is no reason to ever become one.
Except to impress other stupid people for sex.
 

Adultism

Karma Haunts You
Jan 5, 2011
977
0
0
I know someone has probably already said this but....


On topic however. No reason to become vegan. Though some people generally do not like meat.
 

MASTACHIEFPWN

Will fight you and lose
Mar 27, 2010
2,279
0
0
Do you know what they put in those animals?
I'm not a vegan or a vegitarian or anything, but it's fucking disgusting what's done to those animals in factory farms, and I'm not saying that on a morality point, no, not one bit. I'm saying it's stuff that makes me want to throw up and never eat meat again.

Is it really hard to understand that they don't like animals being tortured? I know they aren't humans, but they can feel pain, isn't that enough?

Also, if animals are fed antibiotics, it could end up killing you one day.
Another thing to chew on... if you see what I did there.
 

flarty

New member
Apr 26, 2012
632
0
0
8-Bit_Jack said:
BiscuitTrouser said:
using animals as food and product sources is sometimes considered immoral
which is stupid, hence my post.
I realize you weren't saying it was, so I'm not calling YOU stupid, just the position that you chose to explain to the forum.

it is true that excessive harvest or cruelty to animals is not okay, but that's a far cry from insisting that drinking milk is a sin.

until vegan academy opens to teach us how curds and whey muck up your latent psychic powers, there is no reason to ever become one.
Except to impress other stupid people for sex.
Until you can claim that all the meat you eat is free range or organic you have no right to blast a vegan/vegetarians moral choice. (In fact you have no right to blast anyones moral choice unless its harming others)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkhdGG5pVW8 go watch the whole of food inc and see how the meat industry combats this problem and you too may consider giving up meat. Hell it may not even be for animal welfare it might even be the bureaucrats involved that bullies the farmers just trying to make a living.


and that's how big macs are made. Luckily here in the u.k all beef is free range we just have to make sure we are buying British beef.
 

pppppppppppppppppp

New member
Jun 23, 2011
1,519
0
0
As a vegetarian who has considered going vegan on occasion, I'd just like to touch on a few points.

Speaking for myself at least, my problem isn't as much with the act of eating other animals since that's part of the natural food chain. My problem lies with the meat industry in which the large majority of businesses utilize practices that are unnecessarily cruel to their animals. Killing for survival is one thing, but I do have a problem with letting animals live in terrible conditions just so meat can be as cheap to sell as possible. I honestly don't have a problem with hunting and would consider buying meat from more reputable sources, but I'm too lazy to distinguish the good from the bad.

Vegans in cases like this don't use milk or eggs because the cows and chickens used for these products are often treated just as badly as the ones raised for slaughter, not because the act of drinking a cow's milk is evil in and of itself.
 

squeekenator

New member
Dec 23, 2008
228
0
0
Lamnidae said:
Hah, brains are not required for feeling...
[citation needed]

You say plants don't fight wars for the best spot in the habitat they wish for?
And Yellyfish are brainless... Yet the boxyellyfish has been known to be an active hunter...
Don't be ridiculous. A mind complete with emotional responses is not required to perform complex tasks, otherwise our wonderful human technology wouldn't function. Or do you think that microwaves have feelings too?
 

userwhoquitthesite

New member
Jul 23, 2009
2,177
0
0
flarty said:
watch the whole of food inc and see how the meat industry combats this problem and you too may consider giving up meat
and that's how big macs are made. Luckily here in the u.k all beef is free range we just have to make sure we are buying British beef.
YUM

also, not all british meat is free-range. SAUCE

I have every right to attack ANYONE'S belief or moral code if I consider it wrong, just as everyone else is free to attack mine.

It's two in the morning. I'm gonna go cook a nice tasty burger just to spite you

EDIT: with bacon mixed in the meat!