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Vegetarian?

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TheAlchemist

I am Meadlemania
GotMead Patron
Sep 9, 2010
2,464
8
0
near a lake
As long as we're on the trending question, I don't reckon this will be quite so popular, but how many of y'all aren't carnivores?
 

akueck

Certified Mead Mentor
Certified Mead Mentor
Jun 26, 2006
4,958
11
0
Ithaca, NY
I eat vegetables. Sometimes I eat the critters that eat vegetables too. ;)

We're trying to move toward the local/sustainable meat production. Ideally we'll eventually be involved in the killing too. Figure you might as well confront it, and if you can't you shouldn't be eating it. [confront here doesn't necessarily mean chop its head off yourself, but at least acknowledge--in a non-academic way--the source.] Working on it...I've killed fish.

From a "footprint" standpoint I think we're doing pretty well for ourselves despite continuing to eat meat. We probably buy about 1.5 lbs per week with our groceries (two of us). Eating out adds some as well, but not much. Growing up we'd eat 1/2 lb per person per day. So mostly veggies, with a meat garnish. Mmmm, meat.
 

Echostatic

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 5, 2011
468
1
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Dallas, Tx
I was vegan for 4 months, then vegetarian for about 7 years. A couple years back I went back to meat... *Shrug* I need it.
 

Lorela

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 5, 2011
16
0
0
New Hampshire
Hi all , if a newbie lurker can reply...
I am a vegan EXCEPT for honey. I know many people would not consider me a vegan for including honey, so maybe more like a vegetarian that also doesn't include dairy or eggs.

Lorri
 

AToE

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 8, 2009
4,066
3
0
Calgary AB Canada
Hi all , if a newbie lurker can reply...
I am a vegan EXCEPT for honey. I know many people would not consider me a vegan for including honey, so maybe more like a vegetarian that also doesn't include dairy or eggs.

Lorri

Welcome!

This is exactly what my ex girlfriend is, vegan except for honey. Frankly, I think honey being in the definition is a mistake so I'd go right on calling yourself vegan unless you're talking to vegans, then I'd just say vegan except for honey (which is in no way even close to eating eggs or dairy, so lumping folks like you in with the vegitarians just seems dumb).
 
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AToE

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 8, 2009
4,066
3
0
Calgary AB Canada
I eat vegetables. Sometimes I eat the critters that eat vegetables too. ;)

We're trying to move toward the local/sustainable meat production. Ideally we'll eventually be involved in the killing too. Figure you might as well confront it, and if you can't you shouldn't be eating it. [confront here doesn't necessarily mean chop its head off yourself, but at least acknowledge--in a non-academic way--the source.] Working on it...I've killed fish.

From a "footprint" standpoint I think we're doing pretty well for ourselves despite continuing to eat meat. We probably buy about 1.5 lbs per week with our groceries (two of us). Eating out adds some as well, but not much. Growing up we'd eat 1/2 lb per person per day. So mostly veggies, with a meat garnish. Mmmm, meat.

I'm about the same, in the average month I doubt I consume much more than 1.5 kilos of meat total, maybe a little more if I'm on a fish and chips binge.

Last night all that crazy meat talk made me totally crave red meat, so I went out and bought a 1.5lb (roughly) t-bone steak (which was OK... every time I eat a steak it's less good than I expect. I've got to just skip beef and stick with elk/bison/etc). And since it was free range grass fed I'm not going to lie, it cost me about triple what a similar steak would cost if factory farmed - but what do I care? That steak is all the red meat I'll eat for at least a month, more likely closer to 3 or 4 months.

Eat what you kill is my ultimate goal too. Right now I'm trying hard to eat only happy animals (and only the eggs/dairy of happy animals), I'm not 100% there yet, but getting closer. This summer I'm going to start fishing for and packaging my own trout so that I can stop buying fish (eat what I kill) and eventually I'd like to slaughter a few animals a year, from chickens, cows, whatever I would eat a piece of.

With the big animals I don't want the whole thing, a cow would be decades of meat for me. I just want to kill the thing (preferably off with it's head, Sikh style) out of respect to it.

I'm with you that if you can't confront the animal while it's live, watch it die, etc, then it should be left alive. (The other plus side to this is you'll never be eating from a factory farm, they don't let the public anywhere near those places)
 

Braxton

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 29, 2010
188
1
0
Twin Cities
Vegetarian and loving it for many years. But I share most of the sentiments expressed here, I think. I plan on going deer hunting in the fall, would like to learn how to clean and prepare/butcher animals. Just not interested in paying for the commercial slaughter and preparation of meat.

Also, I do know many self-identified vegans who do eat honey and honey products, so you are not alone.

This could probably lead into a great gardening thread, too!
 

TheAlchemist

I am Meadlemania
GotMead Patron
Sep 9, 2010
2,464
8
0
near a lake
In growing season I subscribe to CSA.

Am currently reading Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma.

I haven't really purchased much meat for over a year, and still have a tiny bit left in the freezer that I haven't polished off yet.

I still eat meat when dining with my parents. They've had a hard enough time adapting to the fact that I don't eat beef.

If I had a Polyface Farm option nearby, I might reconsider.

I love when I have a chance to purchase free range chicken eggs where you can see for yourself that the chickens actually do range freely, like at the Art Barn. Otherwise I go for farm fresh hen house eggs where I personally know the farmer.
 

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,443
53
48
Ottawa, ON
I agree with that, I feel less guilty about eating venison than cow because at least I know that the deer had a natural life up till the end, which was hopefully quick if the hunter was sufficiently skilled. I just don't know many hunters who take home enough to share :)

I'm trying for the localvore thing, but it's really hard when your growing season is so bloody short, if I stayed 100% localvore I would never see citrus fruits or blackberries and I'd see strawberries and peaches for about three weeks of the year (and the peaches are from southern Ontario, they don't grow this far north)... So I generally select Ontario produce before other provinces, Canada before other countries, North America before other continents, and if all else fails, anything in the bargain bin (slightly bruised or about to go, etc) is fair game, since it'd be going to waste otherwise...
 

akueck

Certified Mead Mentor
Certified Mead Mentor
Jun 26, 2006
4,958
11
0
Ithaca, NY
I'm with you that if you can't confront the animal while it's live, watch it die, etc, then it should be left alive. (The other plus side to this is you'll never be eating from a factory farm, they don't let the public anywhere near those places)

There's a feedlot on I-5 70-80 miles north of Bakersfield, we passed it (twice) on our trip to Death Valley. Just driving by it is enough to make any sane person with a working olfactory system swear off factory farmed meat for life. Good god what a terrible smell and one of the most depressing (non-human) sights you can imagine. The worst part is that all along the highway north and south of the feedlot are cows out in the pastures. Those poor cows stuck in the feedlot!
 

TheAlchemist

I am Meadlemania
GotMead Patron
Sep 9, 2010
2,464
8
0
near a lake
I eat vegetables. Sometimes I eat the critters that eat vegetables too. ;)

Pollan would say "You are what what you eat eats." And, appallingly, the CAFO's feed their beevs beef products. Look our, E coli 0157 & bovine spongiform encelopathy...here we come!
 
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