Vegetarianism

Personally, I've never been able to understand the reason someone would be one. Some people say "meat is overprocessed" when in truth veggies get overprocessed too (perhaps not as much, but still it is done). All that biotechnology that gets put into growing plants, the gene altering and such.

I've heard arguments like "it's wrong to kill animals," which also doesn't make sense to me. An animal is an organism, just as a plant is an organism. So what makes it any better to eat plants rather than animals. If you don't need meats you can live that way. Or perhaps you don't like them. Which is understandable. But someone who chooses not to for some reason is the strangest thing to me.

At the end of the day I can't say I find vegetarianism a very "global" perspective. It's marginalization, imo, in the sense it contradicts the logic it seeks to justify with. Not one, but the other is just fine. And just because you stop eating it doesn't mean the cows will be slaughtered any less.

 

I don't necessarily think vegetarianism is improper, but I know for sure I don't agree with it. I just cannot imagine myself living on everything but meat.

 

clint eastwood is a vegetarian

therefore it's no longer gay

 

I think I love you.

Since animals used in our foods are being grown for slaughter anyways, and have no other useful benefit to the earth (that the average person can see), we had better keep eating them, since the track record of humanity shows that if something's not useful, it's pretty much extinct.

 

I'm a vegetarian and I'm doing just fine. However, it's not like we can just do it haphazardly. Vegetarian's make the decision and then stick to it. We have to make sure that we're eating right - just like everyone else. I don't think it's right or wrong or dangerous to be a vegetarian as long as you know what you're doing.

 

That is very true. I agree with you on this 100%.

It really isn't that Vegetarianism is wrong, so much as knowing the right way to do it if you really want to. Thing is, I'm not educated enough to live that way, plus I love meat, and have no reason to stop. Veggies get abused almost as badly as meats anyways.

 

I can see why some people would go vegetarian, i.e. cultural, don't like cruelty to animals, etc. But it may effect them, because meat does contain some things you need, i.e. iron, but they can get that from green vegetables. But there's nothing wrong with it, one of my friends is a vegetarian and nothing's happened to her, so I guess it's okay.​

 

I think that being vegetarian is arrogance. It's saying "Oh look at us, we can eat meat but we aren't going to because we are better than that. We aren't animals anymore". We are still animals, and omnivores at that. We need to eat meat for several important nutrients and minerals. We did not evolve to only eat vegetables, so why change that now?

Although, it is completely different if people just don't like meat. At least they have a reason >_>

 

As well as religious. They ahve to make a commitment.

 

I'm fine with vegetarianism. I mean, I'm no vegetarian but with all of the 'crap' being put into the cows and livestock we eat nowadays, is it really unhealthy to eat only plants?

I don't think eating meat is wrong. But, we need to find more humane ways to raise and kill the animals we eat.

 

I see nothing wrong with a person choosing to be a vegetarian. If someone wants to remove meat from his/her diet, that's fine with me. It's his or her body and it's not mine. However, I wish some vegetarians would stop acting holier than thou because they can and do make their choice and it works for them. Some things that offend me... and keep in mind this isn't directed at all vegetarians. Just some I've had to deal with.

When some vegetarians try to act like they are not killing to eat because they choose to eat plants and frankenfood that tastes similar to meat. They are killing plants. They aren't any better than anyone else. There are so many odd chemicals and stuff in vegetarian food that I am allergic to it and soy milk tastes nothing like milk to me. If some people can eat it and like the stuff, more power to them but if I say I'm going to go eat a steak, I don't need to hear about how I'm supporting slaying innocent cows. Yes, if there were not farms, I'd be out getting me some steak the ol' fashioned way.

When some vegetarians forget that some animals are carnivores and are -not- plant eaters. They cannot force those animals to like what they feed them because some vegetarians feel they must impose their diet on them. This is horribly wrong to me and I consider it animal abuse. I can't say how many idiot vegetarians there are out there that try to make cats and dogs eat vegetarian meals etc, but it's just wrong and the animals are miserable for it, despite what any vegetarian may ever say. Humans have a voice to say hell no. Animals don't.

When some vegetarians try to say that everyone can follow their way of eating. Plants, for their information, have toxic chemicals in them that are there for defense so that animals won't eat them. Some people react to these and it is what gives people 'allergies' to the plants. People are more likely to have allergies to plants than animal foods. Also, the way people deal with getting protein, for some of us, meat processes easier and is absorbed into the body easier than plants are. Other people can deal with plant stuff fine. In the end, we are omivores for a reason and it is a luxury that we can all try to mold our diets to fit our personal needs and to be able to get around allergies and foods that just don't make us feel so good.

So in the end, I don't care what anyone eats for the most part (unless they are being cannibalistic. xD) but I also don't think they should be caring about what I'm eating either, or trying to bend nature to their whims by forcing animals to eat as they do, or I will naturally start picking apart their choice as easily as they can try to guilt me on mine. Everyone should eat what makes them feel healthiest and what they enjoy.

 

Ethically, there is a massive difference between eating a plant and eating an animal. A plant feels no pain. A plant is not sentient. For many, eating the produce of the plant does not kill the plant. Animals are sentient, and enjoy life like we do. If you make the large jump from "It's okay to eat plants" to "It's okay to eat animals" because you see no difference between taking the life of a plant (Which again, not always happens) and taking the life of animal, it is a relatively smaller step to then say "It is okay to eat humans" by following the same premise. Now is anyone here against me snacking on their leg? A show of hands please.

Another thing: Everyone here seems to have forgotten the law of supply and demand. Namely if there is a lot of demand for a product, the supply will go up. Similarly, if there is little demand for a product, supply will drop. Therefore the vegetarians in this world are making an impact, albeit a small one. Their reasoning is the same as those who are against Global Warming. Sure, one person turning off their lights may not save power globally, but if every single person turned off their lights at night, well that would make a large dent in worldwide power useage.

If someone is turning vegetarian through moralistic reasoning, they should also be against leather, and only buy free-range eggs. It's the same situation. If they're feeding the market for leather, then the animals will still get killed for the leather, making their efforts in vain.

 

Yes, but (and this applies mostly to fast food) many times, if a certain amount of meat is not sold or consumed, they don't cut down on the amount slaughtered, they just A)throw it away or B)send it to some other use (dog food, maybe, or something similar? I don't really know). Now, personally, I would rather eat the meat than see it thrown away.

And it's not like these slaughtering processes are calibrated to cause the most pain possible before death. All the horror stories you hear are usually the worst of the worst. Most cow enclosures, for instance, are automatically cleaned daily, and the standard of life there is actually quite high, considering their destination. The only reason they aren't aloud to roam free before slaughter is because you would need an area the size of Texas (probably) to house them all without denuding the grass.

Besides, without the use of meat and hides from most food animals, they would probably be extinct by now, since the human race is not known for it's tendancy to keep useless natural things around (see: Mountaintop removal here in NC, rainforest destruction in the Amazon, the Dodo (slaughtered because they were an easy kill), etc). I think any animal, if it could be asked, would rather be farmed and eaten than extinct.

 

Supply and demand will win out. That meat thrown out is money going into the trash. If enough of that cash goes into the trash, they will reduce supply. At first it will be ineffective, but if everyone banded together, we could effect a change. Unfortunately for vegans, people use lines such as "I would rather eat the meat than see it thrown away" to justify complacency.

Extinct? Doubtful. They are very wide spread. The mountaintop removal is for mining I presume, the rainforest destruction is for wood and the dodo was meat. They were all resources that were useful that we drew dry. If we stopped drawing upon meat, there is nothing to suggest that they'd die out. If we were to harvest them without repopulating them, they would go the same way.

 

People can do whatever they want, but I really can't see why anyone would want to be a vegetarian. There's alternatives to meat, but there's nothing quite as healty (or tasty for that matter). As for the moral standpoint, there's really nothing wrong with eating animals for food purposes in my eyes.
I mean, just look at a cow. Does it really serve any significant purpose other than supplying meat and milk for humans? I don't think so. I believe God put it there for the sole purpose of being eaten and milked.
But I honestly don't have any problem with vegetarians (I do, however, have a strong dislike for people who do it as a 'trend'), in fact I have an amount of respect for people who can resist the deliciousness of meat.