Food & Animals

Anything About Anything...

What do you eat?

Meat Eater
24
92%
Vegetarian
0
No votes
Vegan
2
8%
 
Total votes: 26

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Light
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Food & Animals

Post by Light »

I'll start off by saying that I've very passionate about the topic at hand, but I'm not here to attempt to shove it down your throat. This is simply curiosity of where this community stands. For the most part, we seem to have a decently progressive community, and topics such as religion, politics, human rights and treatment of minorities have been brought up plenty of times, but I don't see too many around here ever really post about a species other than our own and with the time that's passed, the people I knew around here that really cared are gone.

So, if for nothing else but to satisfy my curiosity, I'm throwing up a poll on what people eat. I'm not going to fall into all of the sub-groups, but list three commonly known. If you feel the need, you can always leave a comment to explain your position. Please avoid the trolling ...
  • Meat Eater - Eat some meat and possibly dairy.
  • Vegetarian - Avoids all meat, but not dairy, such as eggs, milk, and cheese. No, you're not a vegetarian if you eat fish ...
  • Vegan - Doesn't eat any animal products, and commonly avoids all animal products such as leather, fur, wool, etc.
My girlfriend and I are both vegan. We do not use any animal products in our daily lives. We have both been active in working with animals, volunteering at sanctuaries, and taking in abandoned or abused animals.
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sinewav
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by sinewav »

I eat meat sparingly. I aim toward a meat and cruelty-free existence as much as possible, for a wide variety of reasons. I used to be more strict about avoiding meat in my diet, but my biology got in the way. After a decade of vegetarian living I went back to eating flesh because it provides some positive heath benefits to me. I will not fall into a discussion involving generalizations about human health. I'm talking about my health and my biology, which is different from you, the reader. I regularly get lab-work done to check my levels of things like vitamin D, cholesterol, iron, HbA1c, and whatnot. From what I can determine through medical bio-feedback and self-assessment, a lifestyle with limited meat consumption is better for me than one without. That said, I can't wait for the day I can try lab-grown meat!
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by Word »

I also don't eat a lot of meat, simply because my body can't process it that well. I like the taste and I need the iron, but I'm healthier without consuming huge quantities of it (beef and chicken are OK, but millet is less expensive). My grandparents were farmers, so when my family was visiting them during my childhood, I sometimes saw/heard how the cows were dragged in the butcher's van. I often remember their screams when I eat meat, and I've seen all these Greenpeace videos about the conditions in some other farms - I think killing young animals is somewhat more cruel than killing old ones, so I don't eat products made of those, and it's true that cooking meat somehow disguises the origin of the food. One of my biology teachers once said, "we all are corpse eaters!", that's when I really became aware of what meat-eating means. Of course I already knew at that point that animals were slaughtered in order to provide us with food, but I didn't really care, I just took it for granted. Many of my closest friends are vegetarians, and not the evangelist kind. Some just say they couldn't bring it over themselves to kill an animal with their own hands. Honestly, I don't have problem with butchers doing the dirty work for me, and I wouldn't have a problem doing it myself; I just think the conditions in the farms should be better (it's somewhat ambigious to demand that, though - after all, the animals are killed either way).
Last edited by Word on Mon Dec 21, 2015 2:21 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by kyle »

should like there should be a moderate meat option.
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by [Anonymous] »

Meat = Protein fam MUHAHAHA
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by Light »

Word wrote:after all, the animals are killed either way).
I disagree with this. They are subject to torture for time on end until finally put to their death, which isn't exactly a peaceful death either. They have pretty much no restrictions in how animals are treated, which I think is complete shit. They can openly abuse the hell out of animals, often punching, kicking, stabbing with pitchforks, etc. and they are not subject to the penalty of animal abuse, where someone that ever did something like that to a dog, would be.
[Anonymous] wrote:Meat = Protein fam MUHAHAHA
I realize you're just a troll, but people really are dim enough to believe this. You get protein from just about anything you eat. Plants give protein, and without the negative effects of animal protein. Meat isn't good for you, and you don't need it.
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by Word »

Light wrote:
Word wrote:after all, the animals are killed either way).
I disagree with this. They are subject to torture for time on end until finally put to their death, which isn't exactly a peaceful death either. They have pretty much no restrictions in how animals are treated, which I think is complete shit. They can openly abuse the hell out of animals, often punching, kicking, stabbing with pitchforks, etc. and they are not subject to the penalty of animal abuse, where someone that ever did something like that to a dog, would be.
Yeah, that sounds a little too insensitive in retrospect. Knowing how my grandparents treated their cows, I really regard the animals as innocent beings, but I accept that they are there to be killed at some point. But I feel the same way about life and death as a human. I would prefer a long, painful life over a short and healthy one, as long as I have a certain amount of freedom.
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by Light »

Word wrote:Yeah, that sounds a little too insensitive in retrospect. Knowing how my grandparents treated their cows, I really regard the animals as innocent beings, but I accept that they are there to be killed at some point. But I feel the same way about life and death as a human. I would prefer a long, painful life over a short and healthy one, as long as I have a certain amount of freedom.
They don't exactly get freedom either. Different animals go through different things, but when it comes to dairy, as it seems that's what you relate to best, they are forcefully impregnated by a hand & arm or metal rod (raped) to force them to get pregnant. This is because mammals (such as humans) only produce milk once they become pregnant or have a child. The baby is dragged away and chained down, which the cows act much the way a human would when their baby is dragged away. The baby is often sent to a veal farm, where they don't get to ever move to avoid having them gain muscle so they stay tender. The mothers get milked way more than they ever should, causing more than just milk to enter your drink. You can have up to about a drop of pus per cup of milk, which is a bit disgusting to me, but they get infected from overmilking on machines around 3 times a day. They are usually stuck standing in one small area until the next time they get milked.

I grew up around farms as well, and I know small farms are not quite the same, but they're still not treated anywhere near decent many times. The babies are still taken away and they still go through torture their whole lives before they get their throat slit and bleed out.

If I had to go through the tortures of being in the holocaust, where I was without a chance of surviving, I think I'd rather not live longer. And no, that's not a harsh comparison. Animals are treated very much the same, they are enslaved, they are transported nearly identically, jammed into small areas, gassed, murdered, beaten, etc.
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by Ratchet »

I'm from a Cajun heritage and I couldn't imagine life without meat. I can't actually remember the last meal I ate that didn't involve meat in some fashion.

Something I've noticed is that you guys are relating meat-eating with the method in which animals are treated on those 'animal farms.' My grandfather currently raises rabbits, chickens, and an occasional pig for butcher. The chickens are fed multiple times a day, have a radio near the coup that plays soft country music during the day, and so on and so forth. They generously give up their eggs each day :) The rabbits are raised, played with and scratched as they age, and are killed in the most humane way possible. That's sort-of an understood thing, that you should treat animals with care, even if you do plan on eating them.

I do agree with you guys, but I tend to not think about the cruelty when I go to the market to get meat. I'm more worried about the growl in my stomach ;)
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by Word »

Light wrote:They don't exactly get freedom either. ...
I'm not denying that - if they had more freedom in such farms, I would feel much more comfortable about consuming meat than I already do. I guess that since I know much better conditions from my grandparents' farm, I'm thinking of that when I eat meat (applying it to local meat production in general), thereby making it more excusable.
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by Light »

Ratchet wrote:I'm from a Cajun heritage and I couldn't imagine life without meat. I can't actually remember the last meal I ate that didn't involve meat in some fashion.

Something I've noticed is that you guys are relating meat-eating with the method in which animals are treated on those 'animal farms.' My grandfather currently raises rabbits, chickens, and an occasional pig for butcher. The chickens are fed multiple times a day, have a radio near the coup that plays soft country music during the day, and so on and so forth. They generously give up their eggs each day :) The rabbits are raised, played with and scratched as they age, and are killed in the most humane way possible. That's sort-of an understood thing, that you should treat animals with care, even if you do plan on eating them.

I do agree with you guys, but I tend to not think about the cruelty when I go to the market to get meat. I'm more worried about the growl in my stomach ;)
So, what happens when the hens age and stop laying eggs? It only takes a couple years for most places to get rid of them and get some younger hens in because they don't keep up with their demand. I'm sure you would keep them around longer as a small family thing, but they will stop laying eggs soon enough, then what? Time to die because you no longer lay eggs?
Ratchet wrote:killed in the most humane way possible.
I think that would be by old age .. If you were out picking up animals that were roadkill, or had a pet die naturally, I'd have no moral objection to it. If you want to eat your cat when it passes away at a nice 14 years, go for it ...
Ratchet wrote:I do agree with you guys, but I tend to not think about the cruelty when I go to the market to get meat. I'm more worried about the growl in my stomach ;)
If you think about more than your stomach, you then realize that because we're not meant to be eating meat, our intestines are too long causing the meat inside of us to rot. I know how it is when you think about it, that you have rotting flesh from another (was) living being, because society has made it feel like nothing to take the lives of billions of animals. For some reason, we can kill over 3,000 animals a second, yet 1 human is something to get all upset about. Don't' get me wrong, I care about our species as well, but I think we should look at the people who can treat animals that way a bit differently as well. They feel nothing .. or worse proud when they abuse animal. I know it's not all, but the percentage is high enough that it's common, and they have no consequences for doing so.

Speaking of caring about our species as well .. We would be able to stop starvation in a vegan world. It's been estimated that we could feed about twice the world population that way. To put it into more realistic numbers, you can get 250 lbs of beef, or 3 - 5,000 lbs of vegetables from the same area of land. I know we're a far way away from that world being real, but it looks promising for a distant future. It would be good for the people, animals, and planet.
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by [Anonymous] »

[Anonymous] wrote:Meat = Protein fam MUHAHAHA
[Anonymous] wrote: I realize you're just a troll, but people really are dim enough to believe this. You get protein from just about anything you eat. Plants give protein, and without the negative effects of animal protein. Meat isn't good for you, and you don't need it.
Nothing is 100% Safe. Meat taste good and plants aren't to appealing to most taste buds.
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by Light »

[Anonymous] wrote:Nothing is 100% Safe. Meat taste good and plants aren't to appealing to most taste buds.
I highly doubt that meat tastes good to you. You like how it's prepared, seasoned, etc. You can get the same kind tastes out of plenty of plants. You just need to learn how to cook, or pay to have it prepared for you as you do with meats. If you really believe "meat tastes good", then go try taking a bite of roadkill. Try eating it like a real carnivore does.
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by Monkey »

Light wrote:Meat isn't good for you
Light wrote:We aren't meant to eat meat
Where do you get this nonsense from?

We are omnivores, having an omnivorous set of teeth, amongst other things. Meat *is* good for us but only as part of a balanced diet. Most, if not all foods contain chemicals that are both good and bad for us. For example, onions contain allicin, which is a toxic substance that can cause anemia, blood thining and even death when taken in too large doses. Nutmeg is hallucinogenic, etc... Also, many substances interact with other substances in complex ways so as to neutralise their negative effects on the human body...take soluble fibre and the effect it has on saturated fats for example.

Both of my grandmothers lived till they were nearly 100 years old and both ate meat daily as part of a balanced diet. They didn't have much wrong with them during their lifetimes either.

If you want to discuss animal welfare issues then that's fine but don't propagate misinformation about meat.
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Re: Food & Animals

Post by Light »

Our teeth are good for grinding, like herbivores. We don't have teeth like the meat eaters.

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