What are you thoughts about Vegetarianism and why do you feel that way?

lacktheknack

Je suis joined jewels.
Jan 19, 2009
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The way we consume meat nowadays is completely unsustainable, and when I live on my own, I'll be eating little meat.

But as for now, it's delicious and it's what I get served. Humans ARE omnivorous, and meat can easily be part of a healthy diet (it's protein without all the estrogen in soy), so there's no reason to stop eating meat. But I'm probably going to be shelling out to the local cattle farmers around here to avoid needless suffering and to support local industry (hooray for living in Beef Country! :p).
 

soulfire130

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Jun 15, 2010
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I'm an omnivore, so I eat meat and veggetables.

I'm fine with vegetarians but leave the 'I'm better than you' attitude at home or atleast away from me. Because it just shows how much a prick you are.
 

nondescript

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Oct 2, 2009
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I know some vegetarians and vegans. Yeah, it's healthy, and I try to cut meat out here and there, but I like the taste, and economically it's unsound to switch everyone to vegan diets.

But that's only half the story:

Vegetables have feelings too.
 

Khada

Night Angel
Jan 8, 2009
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Peteron said:
Khada said:
All living creatures have a right to live and a right to survive. Sometimes survival means violating anothers right to live. This is our unfortunate reality... but to knowingly cause the death of another without need or necessity... is to walk the path of psychopathy.

In todays world, there is NO need for the consumption of meat, at all.
Other than the fact that is part of having a healthy, balanced diet, right? Listen, its cute that you think its "the path of psychopathy" and all that good stuff, but in reality, its natural. Animals eat animals.
Your overlooking that fact that consuming meat is in no way necessary for a healthy, balanced diet.

And yes, animals eat animals, though this is due to either necessity or the animals lack of a neural cortex that would allow it to overcome the more instinctual R-complex dominant part of its brain and/or dna/rna memory playing a dominant role in it's behavior.

In other words, those animals do it because they have to or because they haven't got a developed enough brain to know otherwise. WE DO.
 

Jinx_Dragon

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Jan 19, 2009
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TestECull said:
I live next door to average cattle farmers. Maybe it's different where you live, but here, they aren't fed on crops. My neighbors own vast swaths of natural pasture, around which there are fences to keep the cattle out of everyone else's land, and on which the cattle graze. Their herds are fed no differently than those herds would have been in the wild.
It was the same for all the cattle we have in Australia, the vast majority of which is grazed on massive open pastures in the Northern Territory. Even the area I lived in had a few smaller cattle farms, where you think feed crop would be used because of the smaller sized farms, the vast majority of cow feed came from whatever was growing in the pasture. Not to say their numbers are not right, I simply do not know and it might be different for the US, but I have not seen it with my own eyes.

Still argue also the majority of feed crop is not suitable for human consumption and normally contains the waste product of farms already growing food for human consumption. Meaning reducing the meat based farming might not free up more then a fraction of the farmland the vegetarians think it will and likely will lead to a situation where we have high levels of waste to deal with and no animals to consume it.
 

solemnwar

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Sep 19, 2010
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If we weren't meant to eat animals, then why are so tasty? ;P I love meat, it is a delicious, delicious product. My dad's steaks are some of the most lovely things to chew on.

But hey, you don't wanna eat meat? More power to you. Just don't be an asshole. Like someone at the very beginning of this thread.

It's actually hilarious how humans are one of the very few species who actually gives a shit about other animal species. Probably because we're the only ones capable of it. Me? I don't really. I care about cats and dogs... because they're adorable and I have one of each... otherwise, don't really care about that cow. At least we're not like, say, lions, which will begin chowing down WHILE THE ANIMAL IS STILL ALIVE. Our animals at least die relatively quickly...
 

Zyxx

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Jan 25, 2010
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Each person has the right to restrict his or her own diet, for whatever reasons he or she chooses, or even for no reason at all. They don't have to answer to me about it. I might ask someone "Why are you vegetarian/vegan?" purely out of curiosity - it's not an attack or a demand for explanation, and I try to make that clear. I won't try to change their mind, just Don't Be A Dick about it, eh?

Me, I like meat, and a lot of vegetables (lettuce, asparagus, spinach) actually do trigger my gag reflex when I try to eat them or are just unpalatable to me (tomatoes.) Do we need to make our farming habits less destructive and more humane? Of course. If we could get that "cultured meat" thing off the ground (growing meat that was never actually part of an animal) in a cheap and sustainable way I'd be all over it.
 

Black Arrow Officer

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Jun 20, 2011
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Meat is good for you in a balanced diet that includes fruits and veggies as well, so I don't see the point of omitting it out. Animals will still die regardless of your choice, and even the veggies that you eat cost thousands of animal lives to plant, harvest, pack and transport. Hell, some people estimate animals die from vegan diets than ones that include meat. If you REALLY wanted to be free of animal blood on your hands, then stop buying medicine, throw away your computer and t.v, dismantle your car, never buy another book or use any paper whatsoever, and go live in the Sahara desert.
 

manic_depressive13

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Dec 28, 2008
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geekRAGE said:
I think it's a flawed concept of a lifestyle in most cases, unless the person really just doesn't like the taste or texture of meat or something, it's pretty much just dumb.

We're omnivores, we're meant to eat other animals, it's ok to kill an animal for food. If every carnivorous creatures suddenly just switched to a vegetarian diet, shit would hit the fan and our ecosystem would go out of whack.

Ever see all the environmentalists talking about how disastrous it is when apex predators suddenly go away? Like the shark crisis in the ocean right now, it's all true, when we see apex predators stop doing their jobs for whatever reason, ecosystems change for the worse.

We are the most significant apex predator in history, it is each and everybody's job to eat as many animals as they can get their grubby paws on, we are goddamn sharks.
I could argue how eating meat is unsustainable, drastically detrimental to the environment and causes health problems due to the western world's tendency for over-consumption.
the first quote i completely agree with and the second quote, well health probems caused by over consumption that is each persons own problem. if you can't limit the amount of meat you eat and and get problems from it then you're just a dumbshit and deserve it.
You agree with the notion that it would be disasterous if we, as apex predators, stopped eating meat? Yeah, whatever would we do? If we all stopped eating meat, cows, pigs and chickens would be running rampant on the street. It's not as if we would stop breeding them just because we wouldn't be consuming them anymore. They would just multiply exponentially. Sure.
And to all the brainiacs saying that there are animal casualties in crop harvesting: You do realise that male chickens are thrown into a rotary blade after they are born because they don't lay eggs or grow to full size quickly enough (that is, within two months) in order to be slaughtered. So spare me your nonsensical "the animals killed in vegetable farming are sucked into a harvester and aren't even used for anything" argument. Compare that to approximately 50% of chickens ever hatched. (Clue: we breed a fuckload of chickens)
 

JoesshittyOs

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Aug 10, 2011
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There is a certain creepy factor when you realize a lot of animals are pretty much raised to be summarily executed. I'd support research on making animals practically brain dead. Put my mind to ease.

Yeah, I considered being a vegetarian once, but I just love meat too much to give it a try.

And I got a cousin who's a vegetarian. Rarely says anything about it.
 

TheMatsjo

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Jan 28, 2011
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Vivi22 said:
TheMatsjo said:
Yes, we can eat animals, but not eating them leads to a better net result.
It's worth noting, and I'm not trying to start an argument here or anything, but there are large parts of the world which are entirely unsuited for the production of crops, but because they readily grow grass in large quantities (which we can't consume) the best agricultural use for said land is to raise animals such as cattle and sheep (thus converting otherwise unusable land into food we can consume). There are even some parts of the world (particularly the northern territories of Canada and places like them) where the growing season is so short, or the amount of land capable of supporting crops is so small, that the only alternative to meat for much of the year would be trucking in fruit and vegetables which would be costly to say the least, not to mention resulting in more pollution. And if the weather prevents shipments from getting through for any length of time, could result in mass spoilage and possibly people running out of food altogether until shipments can go through.

I'm really just trying to make the point though that things are rarely as simple as they seem, and what the best agricultural use for land in one area might be is not necessarily what it would be in another area.
Yes, you're right, I should've added the caveat "where possible" in my original reply. It could be argued that people shouldn't try to live where such unhealthy diets would be the only way to go, but I'm not up for doing that :p.

Cheers!
 

Philol

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Nov 7, 2011
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I don't really mind, it's their choice if they don't want to eat meat, besides all the more for me :D
 

Imperium9990

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Jul 24, 2011
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My thoughts on it? I don't care. If they don't wanna eat some good 'ol fashioned preserved animal carcass good on them. Just leaves more for me.
 

SextusMaximus

Nightingale Assassin
May 20, 2009
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papdefer said:
Has any body read that Cracked.com article where they explain very nicely how humans are designed to WIN rather than find truth in an argument?

Here, read it it's very eye opening: http://www.cracked.com/article_19468_5-logical-fallacies-that-make-you-wrong-more-than-you-think.html

The thing is, taking any sort of ethical stance towards vegetarianism or any of its offshoots is likely to get yourself shot in the foot because of some obscure fact somewhere that somebody never considered. And this will vary from person to person and region to region. For example, the above argument about meat vs. veggie farming and environmental effects. My area is extremely rich in pig and sheep farming as well as dairy production, however due to 9 months of cold weather 90% of our vegetables and fruit are trucked in over huge distances. Or worse, produced "locally" in greenhouses heated at immense cost with hydro-electricity which is arguably very damaging to the environment but produces a huge bonus in wealth for my province. You see how this is all one giant mess?

Also I become extremely annoyed at vegetarians who wear pearls (oysters aren't alive apparently) and leather (the tanning industry kills its own separate cows) or who eat eggs (look up chicken culling in the egg industry, it ='s a lot of dead and unused roosters) or cheese (also look up rennet while you're at it, it's the inside of a calf's stomach and a very common ingredient in cheese).
Thanks very much for the link, I absolutely love cracked, but haven't seen this article yet!

OT: Vegetarians should eat what they want as should meat eaters, but neither should A) take any moral highground, B) force their beliefs on others (unless they've been pushed to) or C) cause restaurants to compromise and make veggie specific meals. (IMO)
 

Eisenfaust

Two horses in a man costume
Apr 20, 2009
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disliking/avoiding meat due to a dislike of the taste, etc, i can perfectly understand. disliking/avoiding meat because the animals suffered, etc? sure, i imagine it might be a little unsettling to some but meh? not to me. much like evangelicals or atheists, i prefer it when vegetarians don't try and convert me. eat what you want, so will i

beyond that, when a vegan/vegetarian tries to convert me, i respond with various hyperbolic situations. The first of which states that all vegetarians want us to be killed by cancer - freeing all the animals in captivity = no more animal testing = reduced likelihood of cancer vaccine, etc = everyone dies. The second states that simply freeing every animal in captivity would cause massive road blocks and injuries when the 10 billion chickens and how ever many other billions of animals we have wander the streets, crapping everywhere and randomly dying(or just immediately get killed by other animals who weren't grown in captivity, and are merely doing what we're apparently not meant to...). YES, i understand that these statments are clearly examples of catastrophising, and so presumably biggoted, but hey, it's a rhetorical tool, alright?

granted, vegetarianism doesn't necessarily equal freeing all the animals, but considering that there'll be little other use for them, the only options are to free them all or kill them all... a massive inconvenience or a massive slaughter... seems like an odd course of action to be pushing for... (and hey, if we go the slaughter option, why not just eat the meat anyway instead of wasting it? hehehe)

but seriously though, meat is a rather large section of most economies and (presumably) damn helpful to surviving in 3rd world countries... cutting it out would probably mean the extinction of several species now dependent on humans, or at least the deaths of starving kids!!! (another rhetorical statement, if that wasn't clear)
 

Jonluw

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May 23, 2010
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I give very few fucks so long as they aren't trying to impose their world view on me.
They may eat whatever they like, but I will not accept their ludicrous notions that eating meat is somehow wrong.
Meat is food. End of discussion.