Veggie or Meat Eater?

[Helen]

Meat - Tasty or nasty? Do you eat meat? Are you morally opposed to the idea of eating dead animals? Or is it because of health reasons?

[nightshade]

Homo Sapiens was designed/evolved as an omnivore,the fact that we eat more meat gave us a more dependable food source and more leisure and a better physique (veggie mammals have a broader rib cage to acommodate more intestine for the longer absorbtion times of plant material,look at the chimp then at Victoria beckham)

[wildone]

I went off meat some years ago. No specific reason, just didn't like eating it any more. However as I do eat fish I can hardly be a vegetarian more a piscatarian. So am unable to vote in your poll.

[glsammy]

I won't eat "red" meats, i.e. beef, pork, lamb etc. Mainly for health reasons, although I don't miss them. I eat fish and occasionally chicken or turkey.

[Fourwings]

I do eat meat but do try to limit the amount of Red meat I eat for health reasons.
My wife has been a vegetarian for the past 14 years and I have to say that I do eat loads of "veggie" meals and they are fantastic, I honestly think if I had to become vegetarian it wouldn't bother me at all.

[HelenF]

Meat eater here.

Helen

[RobF]

I prefer to eat game rather than industrially produced meat, its much tastier and has less fat on it. Give me venison, pheasant or trout and I'm a happy bunny.

I'd rather have a small amount of high quality game meat twice a week, rather supermarket BOGOF chicken every night.

Rob

[Helen]

I wish I enjoyed game, I could be self-sustaining here, with deer and pheasant!

However, although I don't mind venison in very small amounts, the taste of game in general is always a little "strong" for my liking.

I never buy those chickens in supermarkets. I buy from two very local butchers, and the turkey at christmas was running around an orchard about 10 miles up the road before being eaten!

I believe you get what you pay for, and I have no problem in paying over the odds for good locally sourced meat, which fortunately, is plentiful around Oxon/Bucks.

The same goes for eggs. I purchase local eggs.

[Tragus]

A vegetarian here
My philosophy (and it is only mine before anyone starts) is ...If you can kill it then you have the right to eat it!!
I used to eat meat when I was younger but after watching a TV program on slaughter houses I stopped there and then and have never eaten meat.
I used to love Wine Gums too, but they have Gelatine in (yuccccch) so I don't eat them anymore
Anyone know of an alternative or Gelatine free wine gums, they have these vegetarian gummy things but they tastle foul
Anyway, each to his/her own and I have no problem sitting down to a meal whilst someone else eats meat, it's a personal conscious decision I have taken and I won't push my own views on anyone else!
Jo

[RobF]

Originally Posted by Tragus

A vegetarian here
My philosophy (and it is only mine before anyone starts) is ...If you can kill it then you have the right to eat it!!

My sentiments exactly!

Gameiness in pheasants depends on the length of time its hung. We hang ours for only a couple of days and they are no stronger than the indian game cross light sussex chickens i reared for the table. Breast fillets of pheasant are very nice sweet and soured!

Rob

[Imaginos]

I don't eat fish-my University course at Aberystwyth opened my eyes to the unsustainability & environmental damage of most fishing practices. I do eat meat, although I try to eat organic, price considerations usually forbid this.
If the whole world went vegetarian the ecological implications would be spectacular-field after field of herbicide & pesticide saturated monoculture cereals.

[nightshade]

A quick census of opinion points to more white meat ,fruit and veg being eaten by friends and aquaintences

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Helen

I wish I enjoyed game, I could be self-sustaining here, with deer and pheasant!

However, although I don't mind venison in very small amounts, the taste of game in general is always a little "strong" for my liking.

I never buy those chickens in supermarkets. I buy from two very local butchers, and the turkey at christmas was running around an orchard about 10 miles up the road before being eaten!

I believe you get what you pay for, and I have no problem in paying over the odds for good locally sourced meat, which fortunately, is plentiful around Oxon/Bucks.

The same goes for eggs. I purchase local eggs.

I agree with that. I find game strong. Our local butcher raises his own meat. Roll on summer and those BBQs cant wait.

[Boddie]

I'll eat anything. Nothing I would not consider, short of cannabalism.

[Fritillary]

Quote
Imaginous wrote
"I don't eat fish-my University course at Aberystwyth opened my eyes to the unsustainability & environmental damage of most fishing practices. I do eat meat, although I try to eat organic, price considerations usually forbid this."

Well if we began to think all the implications about the food, we would just starve to die....

Organic food, it sounds great, but if we look more carefully, there is a lot of waste in supermarkets and I am almost sure that a lot of organic vegetables (so normal ones) are being just put in the bin because they cannot being selled.

The comsumption economy preferes to threw the food on the bin instead of reducing prices. Now with the etiquettes of " better eaten before...", even a lettuce have one , so a lot of food is destroyed just because is out of date, when it can be eaten without any danger to the health.

Now what about organic food brough from far away? all the pollution that is being generated because of that. What would be more sustainable in this case, eat a chicken from your farm or organic food from south Africa??

The problem is not in being or not carnivorous, the problem is that we are too many people on the planet and the richness is badly distributed. How is possible that in USA people are dying of fat (eating red meat every day) while in some other places, people is just starving.

Maybe if people reduced the comsuption of meat once a week, it would be much better for their health as for the environment.

Fritillary

[Fritillary]

..sorry for orthographic mistakes

[Imaginos]

Originally Posted by Fritillary

Well if we began to think all the implications about the food, we would just starve to die....

True, but when you have to research & write essays on certain subjects it's likely to put you off for life. I happened to go to a university department that specialised in marine biology, if I'd gone to a more agricultural biology based university maybe I'd be striving for self sufficiency who knows, as it is I exercise what control I can over part of my diet-hence no fish.

Originally Posted by Fritillary

Organic food, it sounds great, but if we look more carefully, there is a lot of waste in supermarkets and I am almost sure that a lot of organic vegetables (so normal ones) are being just put in the bin because they cannot being selled.

The comsumption economy preferes to threw the food on the bin instead of reducing prices. Now with the etiquettes of " better eaten before...", even a lettuce have one , so a lot of food is destroyed just because is out of date, when it can be eaten without any danger to the health.

If you restrict your buying to supermarkets then this is likely to be the case. However, despite all the gloom & doom merchants it is still possible to buy local produce from local shops (or farmers markets, or food collectives, or even probably online). Thus allowing for a smaller economy of scale & therefore less waste.

Originally Posted by Fritillary

Now what about organic food brough from far away? all the pollution that is being generated because of that. What would be more sustainable in this case, eat a chicken from your farm or organic food from south Africa??

Very true, there is very little point in buying organic food flown in from other continents...or is there? Although transport costs (economic & environmental) do need to be taken into account there is also a case to be made for encouragement of organic farming in the third world, where use of pesticides in agriculture is far, far more damaging than it is in the UK due to more relaxed restrictions.
You ask which is more sustainable; having your own farm or importing organic food from abroad. I would have to argue for the latter option on a global basis-current forecasts claim that carbon pollution has passed its tipping point, whatever we do now will not reverse the trends we have put in place- whereas all the world can benefit from less chemicals being sprayed on farmland.

Originally Posted by Fritillary

The problem is not in being or not carnivorous, the problem is that we are too many people on the planet and the richness is badly distributed. How is possible that in USA people are dying of fat (eating red meat every day) while in some other places, people is just starving.

I cannot argue with the logic here, unfortunately unless there is a major change in the global world order neither of these situations is likely to change. What we can do is find ways of working around these problems to at least mitigate against the damage we cause.

[matt_xyz]

Originally Posted by Imaginos

If the whole world went vegetarian the ecological implications would be spectacular-field after field of herbicide & pesticide saturated monoculture cereals.

..although a very large proportion of arable crops are grown for livestock feed. Maybe we'd be overun by Quorn factories instead

Veggie here. Personal choice, of course, and I never try to convert others. Why am I a veggie? Well, for animal welfare reasons. But beyond that, other things being equal, I would always prefer to eat a meal that didn't require an animal to be killed.

It's a sensitive topic, a bit like discussing politics at a dinner party!

Matt

[henrya]

Quote
But beyond that, other things being equal, I would always prefer to eat a meal that didn't require an animal to be killed.
Endquote

Don't forget, though, that lots of animals die to get even your vegetarian food to your door.

henrya

[matt_xyz]

I assume you mean through milk production etc (not roadkill )

Maybe. But being vegetarian is the only way I know to minimise these deaths.

Point taken though.

Matt

[Fritillary]

Yes Matt I feel that talking about Veggie or carnivorous is almost like talking of religion...
Even among veggies (and carnivorous) are different points of view: Someones are veggie for morality and other ones because of ecological reasons. Some carnivorous eat meat because of a ressource of proteins, other ones because it is a pleasure to do it (even kill the animal like the hunters).

I would like just to reply some things to Imaginos, I like forums because of the interchange of ideas, but I dont like to argue.

I like that he is doing research and he is learning about the ecological situation and taking this information to his life of everyday.

I do research as well and I think my life is quite ecological. But if I know about what science says, I keep an eye on what society does and most of times, are just incompatibles.

Personally I agree with Imaginous about several things like going to the markets instead of supermarkets, but most of people go to the supermarket, have several cars, eat a lot, waste a lot, and I cannot oblige them to change their way of living. I could (in the future) talk with them and try to modify some things, but not more.

Even people with degrees in research in Biology and Ecology do the same that people with a secundary level. It is a way of living: dont recycle, eat a lot of meat, etc. But fortunately, people with no high degres in sciences are helping to protect the environment as well. That is great, but why is all this? because we are just humans (I could say animals) before that anything else. Someones more sensitive that others and that is all.


In the period of the first men, human being had not knowledge about ecosystems and the relation among plants and animals, but we were just too few, that if there were changements, they were not too important as affect the Earth. These men were carnivorous, vegetarians, what they could get every day and nothing happened.

Nowadays, we are just too many and with technology and fancy of war and domination, so we are changing the planet in such a way to destroy ourselves.

The ideal would be a society were energy were not wasted, people were vegetarians, equal distribution of richness, etc etc, but that become an utopia, because for the majority of humans, it is more important the power and the economical aspect that whatever else.


Fritillary

[nightshade]

Homo Sapiens evolved as an Omnivore

[matt_xyz]

Originally Posted by nightshade

Homo Sapiens evolved as an Omnivore

you imply we've stopped evolving....

[nightshade]

If you look at the world situation you would think so.The evolution seems to have slowed/stopped as I said earlier, vegetarians are not taking on a different shape they are exercising one facet of an omnivore,need could change this to another, as we all may find out

[henrya]

Quote
I assume you mean through milk production etc (not roadkill
Endquote

No, I hadn't considered milk production. I was thinking of all the animals that die in cultivation of the ground, protection of crops, storage of produce, and yes, roadkill in all the transport involved.

I accept that you may reduce the number of deaths by being a vegetarian, but it annoys me when I hear people say, when eating a salad sandwich, "No animals died for this food." as it's clearly not true.

henrya