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Vegetarian who eats meat? Huh??
Started
by Syeera
on January 4, 2010
The last paragraph saved me from being confused with the article. The author is saying what I personally have always thought and that is, not matter how an animal is raised, it still suffers in order to be our dinner.
I ALWAYS mess up - and don't call myself a vegetarian or vegan as a result of that.
Hopefully for all the people who were once vegetarian who now eat meat, we have more people who once ate meat realizing the benefits - moral and health - of not eating it.
Yah, my thoughts through the whole article where what was finally covered in the last paragraph.
Hm. Just read it, and I was also irritated. I agree that cows should be grass-fed and that animals should be raised free-range and cage-free, but I don't think that is an excuse to give up on being vegetarian. I mean, you are still "eating something with a face" whether it had a happy life or lived in a battery cage. Also, meat isn't exactly the healthiest thing around, even though feeding animals their natural diet of mixed grains or grass instead of GMO corn will naturally make their meat healthier because it makes them healthier (kind of like us on a plant based diet)! The last sentence really irked me, that we would be doing battery caged hens a favor by eating them and putting them out of their misery. Ugh. If that metaphor were used for people in third world countries, for instance, it wouldn't be so kosher. Anyway, these days it's really easy to have a disconnect with what ends up on our plate, seeing as we don't have to raise/butcher our own meat anymore, and we can have pineapples and mangos every day in December if we wish. I think that's how people find it easy to eat meat, since it can be bought at a butcher shop or grocery store every day. I've actually been to the Fleisher's meat market that they mentioned in the article because my boyfriend was going to make filet mignon. I'm glad these places offer alternatives to grocery store factory farmed meat, but I wish that people wouldn't think it was suddenly okay to kill just because the animal had a happy life and good food.
Evie,
I agree - and the other problem that most people don't think about is that grass-fed animals use even more natural resources because they continue to eat grass on several acres of land. One cow and her calf require 40 acres of land in order to get sufficient nutrition. 40 acres!! Imagine how many PEOPLE we could feed if we farmed that for veggies/fruits/grains??? Way more than that cow/calf will feed once they are killed.
Not to mention, even if these cows have a good life, they are still sent to the same dirty, unsanitary, horrible slaughterhouses all of the caged and abused animals are. So in the end, they can end up contaminated just like their abused counterparts. Death in any form, when done in production, is not a happy thing. I would rather not eat meat, thanks. Not to mention - it's still not great for my health even without all of the abuse/pesticides/hormones!
what about eggs and chickens? the terms "free-range" and "cage-free" mean ZERO/are completely unregulated.
as far as i'm concerned there is no (even marginally) "ethical" way to eat the majority of the meat we have access to.
I was a meat eater and had a" it doesn't affect me attitude" once. I have changed since farming for ourselves. I personally don't ever want to harm an animal or eat one. I insist my hubby farm organically and we grow all are own produce in the summer and fall. We used to have animals and I felt so bad when we raised them from babes and then ate there eggs and ate the mothers and fathers. I will never ever do it again. Also all the hormones in these poor animals has made me physically ill to where if I wanted to eat them I get so so sick. I wish everyone could experience a farm the way we have. It would open many many eyes. Have a Happy Healthy Day to all!
Its really interesting to juxtapose this article with one in December's issue of National Geographic. The NG article is an anthropological perspective of a tribe in Africa known as the Hadza. What makes the Hadza so remarkable is that they (along with having no sophisticated number system and no sense of time) is that they are hunters and gathers. They plant no grains and raise no livestock. They own little and survive by eating what the land gives them. Although it was gruesome to see photos of hunted animals, it did make me think that this type of meat collection was certainly alot more ethical than the mass produced meat collection we have today or even the idea of organic or free range meat. Wonder how many meat eaters today could collect their own meat??
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