this is an indirect response meme due to that militant vegan person that made that post earlier, isn’t it?
Vegans are correct, people just don’t want to change their lifestyle. I am not a vegan (yet) for what it’s worth, but they are definitely correct.
Yep. I’m a vegetarian for environmental reasons. There’s a huge amount of will behind ending humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels, but very few care about ending our reliance on meat, the most inefficient source of food.
What if eat meat and just don’t have kids? Sounds like I get to be selfish and think about the environment at the same time
Noooo you have to breed for the economy!!!
No, we will not make kids affordable.
Get back to work.
Would you like to go vegan and need advice?
Not the same person, but I’m in a similar position, just further along. Getting meat out of my diet was actually really trivial. Cheese is the big problem.
Fully vegan when I cook at home, but vegan options in restaurants and fast food are non-existent where I live, so I have cheese whenever I eat out. I’ve also come to terms with the fact I can never be fully vegan because I have 2 cats who need their cat food.
Dairy contains a morphine-like substance so baby calves are drawn to it. Cheese is literally addictive.
While many scientists believe cats to be obligate carnivores, one study attempted to show that many of the studies conducted in plant-based diets to not show any detrimental effects, when the test wasn’t conducted poorly or there was already a selection bias in place.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9860667/
Just something to consider. This doesn’t cement veganism for domestic felines, but it does show that better studies need to be conducted.
Cheese is literally addictive
I’m aware, but I don’t eat cheese out of choice. The times I do eat cheese are because I’m in a restaurant with family/friends and my options are being hungry the whole night, eating meat, or eating a salad with cheese in it. With those options, I take the cheese. Again, I don’t eat cheese at home.
This doesn’t cement veganism for domestic felines, but it does show that better studies need to be conducted
Fair enough. I’ll keep an eye out, but I’m immediately skeptical because unlike us humans, cats are naturally carnivorous.
That’s still a big improvement. Even if you don’t go full vegan, cutting out meat has massive benefits
I’m working my way towards it! Did a one month trial run, now I am back to my previous diet but increasing my vegan meals and decreasing my meals with animal products.
I would welcome tips, though!
A fair amount of vegans might say that their experiences made them change overnight. I was not one of those people, as addiction is significant in me. When I was transitioning, I would go all in and keep abstaining from animal products as long as I could. Then I would mess up, and fall back into bad habits for a while. But the key thing that made the difference is that I never gave up. I’d track how many days I went without animal products and count that as my high score. Then when I tried again I would gamify it by being determined to get an even higher score.
As time went on I became more skilled at cooking plant-based, which helped keep me going since the food I was eating was beginning to taste better. Likewise my palette was growing more accustomed to plant-based foods. Eventually I messed up one last time by eating some pepperoni, but the experience was different. Because I had gotten so used to eating more wholesome meals, the pepperoni was such an intense salt bomb that I found it inedible (and that’s coming from a salt-fiend).
But the other thing that changed was in my mind. Consciously I was already well aware that vegan diets are entirely adequate nutritionally. But a lifetime of unconscious carnist societal conditioning gave me this constant feeling as if I could not survive on plants alone. That was one of the things that always got in the way - this strange feeling like I was missing something and had to eat the stuff that was missing or I would die.
But when I bit into that pepperoni I suddenly had this calm recognition: “I don’t need this. In fact this isn’t food.”
And things have only gotten easier over time. Hopefully this helps?
It does! The bits on reframing how you view food resonates. Burgers are still delicious to me, but I now feel more guilt and reach for plant-based equivalents more frequently. I no longer feel the necessity of meat, if that makes sense, so it is getting easier over time.
Burgers are something I missed a lot too! Fortunately plant-based options are becoming more common in fast food places and grocery stores. It usually does come at an upcharge though, so I don’t get them too much. Other people have mixed opinions on meat substitutes, but they have been great for me.
Have any recipe sites or suggestions?
There is a universal type of “recipe” that covers a ton of basic dishes around the world:
- Fry hard veggies in oil until soft - can be onions, leeks, carrots, celery, potatoes etc.
- Add spices, soft veggies, and/or pastes and stir to form a sauce - tomatoes, peppers, garlic, ginger, etc.
- Stir in your beans/chickpeas/lentils/peas. Most beans should be cooked, lentils and peas usually can be dry/raw.
- Add water, bring to a boil, and simmer. Amount and time depends on if you want a soup, stew, or just some sauce.
- Add leafy greens and anything that should be dissolved - spinach, kale, lemon, vinegar, sugar, cilantro etc.
This can make lentil soup, Mediterranean or South American style bean dishes, chana masala, coconut curry, and lots of other stuff. Most can be made with a single pot.
Helpful. Thanks a lot.
For more wholesome foods I like Dr Greger’s recipe books.
https://nutritionfacts.org/books/
I’ve had a few dishes from them as well, and they are really tasty.
There’s plenty of others too, particularly on YouTube. Sauce Stache, Cheap Lazy Vegan, the Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show, etc.
Thanks 🙏🏻
Hope it goes well for you. 😁
Same. I use the Forks over Knives app to find new recipes. But, with picky eating kids, it’s difficult to maintain a diet. Lots of black bean burgers. 🍔
Not who you replied to originally, but since you said you welcome tips:
Learn to cook tofu. There’s different levels of firmness, and an infinite number of ways to prepare and cook it. Try them all. Not everyone’s texture preference is the same. So the way I cook it and the way you cook it can vary drastically.
I hated tofu for ages until I found a way to cook it that yielded the outcome I liked.
Once you figure out the best way to achieve the texture you’re after, you can start worrying about seasoning it. Then you’re golden.
If you’re offering, im always looking for good cheese, yogurt or dairy substitutes
Well milk is easy. Just get soy milk or almond milk as a drop-in replacement. There’s even weird ones like cashew milk. Depending on where you are at though that might be too expensive compared to dairy milk.
Where I live, soy milk is less than half the price of cow boob milk. Perks of living in East Asia, I guess.
I bought a 936 mL (1/4 gallons) carton of soy milk today, and it was only about US$1.1 (NT$35). Very affordable.
Why does Taiwan sell soy milk in gallons?
They don’t sell milk or soy milk in gallons. The soy milk I got was 936 mL. 936 mL is 0.2472 gallons, which just so happens to be close to a quarter gallon. A quarter gallon is closer to 946 mL.
When I wrote the previous comment, I actually thought that 936 mL was exactly 1/4 gallons, and it did surprise me. The tool I used to convert units rounded the result to 2 decimal places.
That’s even stranger! Do you have any idea why? Is there maybe a pre-metric system measurement that’s closer?
Or maybe soy milk is just 6.4% less dense than water and it’s a kilogram
Oat milk is really good too and is usually cheaper than almond milk, at least where I live.
I normally prefer soy for flavor, with oat as a close second.
For nutritional value, I think soy is the top, followed by pea, and oat way behind.
For environmental impact/needs, I think soy and oat are also among the best.
Soy milk is a miracle food and we should embrace it.
Honestly, I’ve stopped chasing substitutes a while ago. Giving up meat and dairy is going to be a lifestyle change, that’s why people struggle so much with it. You can’t expect to just sub in imitations and keep eating the same foods. They’re not close enough to fool anyone, and they’re usually expensive and unhealthy.
The best way eat vegan is to fill your diet with minimally processed legumes, grains, fruits, and vegetables. Learn to cook a few staple meals from cultural cuisines where animal products are expensive (most cultures outside US/Canada and Western Europe) and you’ll realize how much great food you can make with a few simple ingredients and one or two pots. A huge number of them fall into the same basic formula, so if you learn one, you can easily make them all. Plus, it’s much, much cheaper than eating meat.
I’m not vegan but I do eat 95% vegan because my wife is and I agreed to buy and cook solely vegan in the house. I come from a culture with plenty of (accidentally) vegan home cooking already, so it wasn’t hard at all. But those substitutes are gross to me. Apologies to those who like them.
Could you share some suggestions for the 1-2 pot recipes with a variation or two to demonstrate? I’ve started stocking up on oatmeal and frozen fruit, then frozen veggies that I season in the air fryer. Outside of that things like hummus, green bean casserole and chili are my go-tos. I’m not exactly a great cook but I’m trying to experiment more slowly replacing other simple shit like pizza rolls, bacon and eggs, etc. Especially if I can do large quantities to freeze and save leftovers
Sure. I posted the “formula” these recipes below:
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Fry hard veggies in oil until soft - can be onions, leeks, carrots, celery, potatoes etc.
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Add spices, soft veggies, and/or pastes and stir to form a sauce - tomatoes, peppers, garlic, ginger, etc.
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Stir in your beans/chickpeas/lentils/peas. Most beans should be cooked, lentils and peas usually can be dry/raw.
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Add water, bring to a boil, and simmer. Amount and time depends on if you want a soup, stew, or just some sauce.
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Add leafy greens and anything that should be dissolved - spinach, kale, lemon, vinegar, sugar, cilantro etc.
So here is a really simple one I make at least once a week, as you can eat it hot or cold, with or without rice. It makes a great packed lunch. You can make the beans or chickpeas ahead of time or use a 30 oz can, but cooking them is much cheaper. Either way, make sure you rinse them off. I put in 1 cup dry beans/chickpeas (makes 3 cups cooked) in my Instant Pot with 4 cups water for 25 minutes for beans, 35 for chickpeas, instant release. Then I use the pot to cook the meal.
Also, you can chop and freeze most hard veggies (carrots, leeks, onions, celery, ginger, garlic). They aren’t as good as fresh, but it’s a lot more convenient if you have to cook after work.
This recipe is really flexible so I’ll just tell you what I do, but the ratios are all preference:
1 large onion, finely chopped
Equivalent amount of carrot, quarter slices
3 cups cooked pinto beans or chickpeas
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped or crushed
3 tablespoons tomato or red pepper paste (I use half of each but red pepper paste can be hard to find in US grocery stores)
Juice of 1 lemon or white vinegar
1.5 tablespoon sugar
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Optionally, bay leaves, paprika, and parsley
Step 1: frying hard veggies. Heat up a medium or large pot (stainless is best but any material will do) and add enough olive oil to fully cover the bottom and a bit more. It might be more oil than you think you’ll need. Fry your onions until soft.
Side note about onions: you can cook them quickly in 5-10 minutes at medium-high heat. They are ready when soft and translucent. But if you have the time and want a complex flavor in your dish, you can cook them for up to 20-30 minutes at low heat. Always salt them to help draw out the water.
Either way, add the carrots when the onions are almost done (2-3 minutes left).
Step 2: make the sauce. Add your garlic and let it cook a bit until fragrant. Add black pepper and optionally a couple of bay leaves and paprika. Stir for 30 seconds to let the spices bloom and then add your tomato/pepper paste and stir continuously until a sauce forms. About 1-2 minutes. The oil should be reddish.
Step 3: add the beans. Just stir them in and make sure they are covered in the sauce.
Step 4: water. Add 3 cups water (less if you’re in a hurry) and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
Step 5: anything that should be added to the water. Add the sugar and lemon/vinegar. This is really to taste, so you can add more when it’s almost done if it needs it. It should be just a little sweet and tangy. You can also add leafy greens like kale or spinach, but I don’t add them if I plan on eating it cold later.
Let it simmer until it’s a very beany stew (not a soup), but at the very least 10 minutes. It should be a little watery. Check the flavor and add salt, pepper, sugar, lemon/vinegar, or olive oil as needed. Parsley makes a great garnish.
This can be eaten hot or cold, with or without rice. Will keep about a week in the fridge.
I’ll reply below with a lentil soup recipe that’s more or less the same thing.
For lentil soup you need:
As much chopped leeks as you can handle. Should cover the bottom of the pot at least. Leeks are huge, cheap, delicious, and freeze really well chopped, so I always keep them stocked. You can use onions instead, but I think leeks are much better for soup.
2-3 medium carrots, quarter slices
2-3 celery, sliced
2-3 cloves garlic
2 cups dry/raw green or brown lentils or split green peas
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup pearled barley or orzo pasta (or other pasta/grain, or just use more lentils)
Half bunch kale leaves in bite size pieces
Extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon or white vinegar
Salt, pepper, paprika
Optionally, bay leaves and turmeric
Step 1: heat a pot with oil and cook your leeks, carrots, and celery until soft. Leeks cook a bit longer.
Step 2: add the spices and let them bloom. Add tomato paste and stir until sauce forms.
Step 3: stir in lentils/peas and barley/orzo.
Step 4: add 7 cups water (adjust to preference) and bring to a boil, then let simmer. Cook for 30-45 minutes (or 15-20 in pressure cooker) depending on the lentils/peas you picked. Lentils are done when they are just about bursting.
Step 5: add lemon and kale
Obviously, a lot of this is to taste. If you don’t have good fresh veggies, the broth can be a little flavorless. You can add a bit more lemon and salt, or bullion if it’s really bland. If you know the veggies aren’t great, just use more of them in the first step. You can also use less water.
You can broil the kale with a bit of olive oil and salt for 3-4 minutes until it’s crispy before adding to the soup. This will give it a less fibrous, more crunchy character.
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I live in the US, so depending on where you live these may or may not be available to you.
Cheese for me depends on the application:
On a pizza, I like Miyokos liquid mozzarella. I’ll often get a chain pizza with no cheese, add a little on top and bake for a bit.
Melted in a quesadilla, etc., I’ll usually go for daiya.
Cold on something like a burrito bowl, I like Violife or Vevan. Violife also makes a great feta.
For parmesan and blue cheese dressing, I’ll usually go with Follow Your Heart.
For cheese sauces and mac and cheese, I like to make cashew cheese sauce.
My favorite non dairy for drinking and baking is oat or soy, I just like to make sure it’s not sweetened.
I started making my own yogurt in an instant pot with cheap Asian grocery store coconut milk and vegan cultures, and it’s fantastic.
Hope this helps!
Over here all vegan cheese is violife or similar. It is not bad but lacks the cheesiness and the flavor is frankly a little weird - I suspect the coconut oil to be behind it but can’t verify as all I have available is cockonut oil based :(
I haven’t gone full vegetarian or vegan. I should for the health of our world though. I have however cut my meat consumption down to about 1# a week, usually chicken. For whatever that’s worth.
I didn’t realize I was straight up addicted to meat in my diet till I tried cutting it out. I think that’s why people get angry with vegans, cause then they gotta look inward, and then that’s gonna be this whole other thing. Oofta
I wonder how bad eggs are for the environment though?
To be fair there was a large amount of time (2010s at least) where vegans weren’t even trying to be appealling. It was either. Stereotypical vegan dishes but even more limited or extremely bad vegetarian meat. Vegetarian meat has improved a lot and more importantly vegan food is represented as less one note.
Don’t think I’m strong enough to give up dairy but respect to those who can do so without being elitist
I didn’t care for the “beyond meat” so much. I don’t mind the old school bocca burgers. Throw it on a bun and dress tf outta that burger you’ll be alright. I’ve been big into beans. Making hummus. Bean salads. Enchiladas. They really are the magical fruit. Cheese is tough I hear ya.
And they’re not all elitists. Some are just really good environmentalists who maybe aren’t so good at communicating and have maybe been burned in the past. But ya some just like the smell of their own farts.
I agree with you to an extent, but, like, what about my local farm that pasture raised pigs and cows and, yes, eventually slaughters them, how do they compare to what I think everyone agrees are terrible, the meat processing plants of the Midwest?
You can show a lot of differences, but the end result is always the same: Sentient beings dead way before their natural expiration.
So all the carnivorous predators are also evil?
I’m not even trying to be a jerk about it, but I’ve never been given a single good answer on this.
Carnivores have just as much right to live as their prey, as unfortunate as the cost of life is.
We, as humans, are in a rather unique position, being omnivores with many of us in the developed world having easy access to food. And those of us can make a choice to not cause the death of other sentient beings in order to have food.
Nothing is black and white, of course, but slaughtering animals for consumption is animal exploitation and worse for the environment. The impact is much smaller, but still fundamentsl.
Ultimately, it comes down to how we see animals, life, and the environment.
At least for the public at large such methods aren’t practical (not enough space to raise enough meat) and not able to produce meat at a cost the general public could afford.
It’s also still horrible to butcher the animals, I don’t consider any such killing to be humane. They are also killed at a rather young age, barely even adult just max size. You also have the forced pregnancy of the animals and odds are the pigs are still crated after giving birth, the cow calves separated from their mothers, etc.
There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.
“Buying meat is unethical because of how the animals are treated” ~ sent from my iPhone made by child slave labor
I’m not saying veganism is bad. What I am saying is that people who think veganism is a moral high ground are wrong. I also think that veganism is a luxury to be even able to follow.
You can be opposed to unethical treatment of animals and child slave labor. If someone tells me they are against slave labor, my response isn’t ““buying products made by slaves is unethical” ~said by someone who eats factory farmed meat”. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.
I don’t think people go vegan because they want a moral high ground, at least I know I didn’t. People do it because they genuinely believe it’s the right choice to make. And yes, having that choice is a luxury not afforded to everyone, but vegans are no more entitled than the people around them who also have the luxury of being able to choose not to support animal agriculture, but do so anyway.
You say people don’t want to have a discussion while at the same time calling people who might actually engage in a discussion “self-righteous assholes”. This leads me to believe you may not actually be looking for a good faith conversation.
The last part of my message was an edit after being downvoted to the negatives and other peoples very toxic responses.
Which response(s) came across as very toxic? I see six responses to your parent comment and they all seem quite civil.
Well in germany it’s really easy to be vegan. Lots of affordable options
Congrats on that luxury being available to you
Funny thing is that Meat is waaay more expensive to produce then any Vegan alternative but why is Meat not seen as a luxury?
Because that’s a short-sighted perspective. Production costs are not the same as consumer costs.
Yea meat is being heavily subsidised to bring the cost down, but in reality you pay with your tax money. Also plant based stuff is differently taxed (at least here in germany). Cow milk has a 7% tax and soy milk 19%. There is so much groing wrong because of lobbying by the meat companies.
Meat is just an extra costly step to produce the food we consume. Instead you could just skip that part and it would be less expensive.
There’s so many other equally or even more important issues with how taxes are used, or misused, than just the meat industry.
Yes add animal cruelty to on top of that + health issues with meat consumption. Many good reasons to not eat meat and support that terrible buisiness.
Sorry, how is it a luxury? Vegetables, grains, and legumes are far cheaper and healthier sources of calories and nutrition than meat, despite the government subsidies. This perception that you should eat McDonalds and rotisserie chicken every day if you don’t have money to buy groceries is so strange to me.
This perception that you should eat McDonalds and rotisserie chicken every day if you don’t have money to buy groceries is so strange to me.
That’s because no one here brought that up and you’re using a straw man argument.
So in what way is it a luxury?
The devil is in the details, but in most cases it’s eating animal products that’s the luxury.
https://www.veganeasy.org/discover/news/oxford-university-researchers-finds-vegan-diets-are-cheaper/
Nice cherry-picked argument there. Notice how the article doesn’t link the study.
Doing my own analysis for myself, this is not the case.
You could have just googled the doctor’s name and found the study yourself. Somehow I doubt ‘your own analysis’ is as unbiased as you think. https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1523119113
I shouldn’t have to look up the study myself if an article is based on it. Also, that study you linked is not the one that the article mentions.
And yeah, the analysis is biased because it’s literally for myself, where I live, and what I need. You think that’s a gotcha?
Also if we’re to speak of cruelty and environment shit why don’t vegans speak of the animals farmers need to kill in order to protect crops? Or the fuel spent by importing vegetables and fruits?
Now I’m not saying that meat is better since tastes are subjective and animals do get treated badly and raised in bad conditions but some of them live in titanium bubbles
Many vegans speak extensively about these topics, especially since they’re used as a favorite “gotcha” by animal-ag supporters.
Yes but I think those vegans don’t go wrecking havoc because their cause is “good”
Who’s wrecking havoc?
Vegan protesters: spilling milk in stores, sending death threats to farmers and chefs, disrupting restaurant and more
Lol. The vast majority of vegans don’t do anything like that, including the guy in the video linked, but the ones who do are the only ones you hear about.
If certain activists discredit veganism in your mind, would you say that climate activists who do similar things also discredit environmentalism as a whole?
Yeah? If someone suddenly showed up and they took your phone smashed it saying that Chinese kids made it and we need to protect them and so on, would it help their case or make you wanna hear none of their shit and create a need for a new phone? If part of your community acts like that it’ll drag the whole community down and put a bad light over you
It’s pretty ethical to grow and hunt your own food. Hunting even benefits the eco-system and animals haunted since the natural predators that used to keep deer, turkey, elk, and other game animals population in check are no longer prevalent.
Personally, I can agree in some circumstances. However, not everyone agrees with that and that is also fine.
Just don’t try to shove your morals down my throat.
However, not everyone agrees with that and that is also fine
It’s even finer because in those situations those people would just die
Wut. Are you saying you’re happy that people who disagree with killing animals themselves “would just die”?
Are you saying
Has anything truthful ever come after those words?
I was asking for clarification. Why are you implying I was trying to be dishonest?
Lots of people don’t agree, but we have data to support the benefits, and the legislation to ensure it is enforced. Yes, in an ideal world we’d all be vegans, and nature would balance itself. Maybe some day that will be the world we have, but it is not the world we have now.
I find it always irritating how people constantly say “vegans are annoying”. Being Vegan would be waaaay easier if meat eaters wouldn’t be so damn annoying about their meat consumption. Just say the word “vegan” and some will lose their shit.
Yup. I have lots of vegetarian friends that keep it to themselves. But when someone sees them eating vegetarian they start asking all these obnoxious questions and comments about it. I’ve seen more annoying non-vegan/vegetarian than the other way around.
I’ve never met a vegan in real life who is annoying (about veganism. Maybe about other things…) Most of them it even takes a while to find out they’re vegan. Several bosses I only found out because a team lunch. Several others I only found out because I befriended them at work and after months of talking to them it finally came up one way or another. Never even be criticized by them, and likewise, I’ve never criticized them (in general I have very few issues with veganism. Maybe I disagree with them on honey bees, and not even sure that’s all vegans. Oh, and perhaps the belief that one cannot love any animal if they eat meat, but its not a topic i wish to agrue so I dont bother engaging anyway.)
Online you may have someone being more abolitionist or mutant about veganism, but even them it’s hardly an issue unless you go into vegan spaces or are commenting about certain things like that dolphin shooting, and even then it’s not really mostly on the level of whataboutism and being really extreme and preachy.
How nice for you. I lived in Montreal. the amount of vegans that won’t yell at you with a bunch of assumptions about your lifestyle and you haven’t even ordered any food yet is minimal.
On the other hand I’ve ran into far too many ‘red meat eaters with trucks’ in English speaking culture who will never hesitate to impromptu continue a dont-tread-on-me argument with randos as if we are aware what they are going the fuck on about which just makes them seem some of the most irrational, fragile, whiney, pissants I’ve ever met in my life.
Self absorbed fuckheads will come from anywhere. It’s hard to pick who to hate just based on argument. I don’t even care for their argument. I just hate them as a person.
I’ve seen a lot more hate coming from non vegans, both unprompted (like this post) and in reaction to casual posts about a recipe or something on social media.
Meat eaters: Vegans are annoying
Also meat eaters: lOoK at the bAbY wItTlE VeGaN bAbY pAnSy LoSeR WhO CaReS aBoUt aNiMaL wElFaRe bOoHoO
20% mad about this already, that’s pretty good numbers honestly
Everyone’s annoying and it’s fine to be annoying.
If you’re putting forward arguments for anything, it is more convincing and pleasant to be not annoying.
If you are right and annoying, you are still annoying.
I have said obvious things here, most people still need to hear them anyway.
Vegans were annoying…
20 years ago, when veganism was getting traction in modern culture and it was all they could do to spread the idea that we might be able to not consume meat.
Vegans can be annoying, but at the end of the day they’re right about a lot of things. It’s just that the ethics of consuming meat and animal products can be a delicate conversation, and requires a pretty big change in how one views not only themselves but life as a whole. A lot of online vegans like to approach it the with tact of a sledgehammer.
Trust me, irl vegans are usually way more chill in my experience.
From my experience, switching diets doesn’t require turning your world view upside down. Maybe if your reason for going vegan is some life-altering epiphany? But I think most people already understand at this point, they just don’t want to change. I’m not speaking here with judgment.
I’m vegan at home, though I’ll sometimes make some exceptions for dairy when I’m out. Explaining that to anyone who wants to share a meal with me ranges anywhere from a brief heads up to a full on ethics debate initiated by the other person. It’s weirdly common how often non-vegans feel challenged just by the existence of a vegan in their presence. Like I’m not trying to have a conversation about it. This is a very practical thing for me and that’s mostly how I see this “lifestyle choice.” It made sense for me to stop eating meat, so I did. No internal struggles or questions about my place in the world. Just logistics about how to navigate our meat-centric food culture. So yeah, I think the biggest challenge isn’t overcoming some personal hurdles, but simply pushback from people and other external factors that make it harder to change.
Online vegan here. Just wanted to add that after a couple of years of the same jokes and arguments and demeaning comments that were forced upon you because you had to explain why you don’t want to eat what everyone else around you eats, you kinda lose your tact a bit.
Never went to somebody with a burger in hand and called him a murderer. Been called an emasculated pussy and wittle little rabbit for eating a salad so many times. Same people then complain about annoying vegans. It’s a bit infuriating.
I can understand that. Constantly needing to justify your existence or preferences is exhausting, especially when there’s a stereotype that people are using to project.
Choosing what you eat is your own thing and right to do. But when that decision becomes what defines people they become very annoying. We live in a world of abundance which we created by exploiting people, animals and nature as a whole. So when someone comes without asking and calls you a murderer and animal abused for something they themselves did until recently and still rely on modern medicine and whole set of other animal products it’s annoying, hypocritical and most importantly dishonest.
It’s really not though, inability to do something perfectly does not invalidate the efforts people make.
Nor have I implied it does. But calling people names just because you do something less than others is dishonest and quite frankly disgusting.
Except we’re talking about a situation where enough people doing one of these things has the possibility of actually ending atrocities like factory farms, as well as possibly vivisection and other animal abuses in science. You’re acting as if vegans only think about diet, when in fact I’ve expressed that everything you’ve brought up is something that vegans do make efforts to improve.
In fact you’ve never moved away from factory farms and have been completely ignoring any facts and just quoting random stuff that suits your narrative. You are not making an argument for your position, you just yelling “lalalalal I can’t hear you #GoWegan”.
No, pretty sure you’re the one whose been making wild assertions with no supporting evidence.
I went vegetarian for a bit. I was never vocal about it. I just skipped ordering meat from the menu and asked for veggie options from the waiter. I was surprised the amount of people that gave me shit for it. It was like, “you know animals eat other animals right?” I used to respond with: “yes, but I want to do it for ecological reasons because factory farming is destroying our environment”. I remember getting short with people after a short period of time and started saying: “I graduated from university, what do you think?”
Most of my vegan friends are so nice. Their partners eat meat and they let them live.
Very rarely will you get a “vegan gainz” type person that laughs at people that die or have cancer because they’ve eaten meat. Those type of people are completely repulsive but they’re rarely the people I’ve encountered that are vegans.
It’s just that the ethics of consuming meat and animal products can be a delicate conversation, and requires a pretty big change in how one views not only themselves but life as a whole
I was raised vegetarian by a vegan. I’m now a hunter and eat meat almost daily.
it’s tiring to have to use tact around people in order to placate their sensibilities.
That’s what being a part of society entails.
the reality is that they will hang on to one thing they dislike and focus on that. because the alternative is the realise that they could be a better person. so easier to blame the horrible vegan.
Yet people don’t do that to vegans. Vegans are often ridiculed for being vegan.
Yeah, well it’s still unfun!
Be careful OP. There are angry meateaters among us using Lemmy.
They’re gonna lash out again.
I would hope that most people who have seen much of anything about industrial ranching would have a hard time not showing a bit of empathy.
Some descriptions of hell aren’t as upsetting as seeing how those animals are kept and handled.
I only ever see meat eaters argue about what the body needs or how our teeth are meant for meat. There is no way to argue that the modern meat industry isn’t horrific, I think some carnists that react strongly to vegans unconsciously know this and react with anger because of guilt and shame.
among us
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Sus
Omg is that a susSy baka? im so scared they’re amogus!!
You could reduce meat intake and buy higher quality meat whenever financially feasible. Then you help fight the problem but can still look down on vegans
Or you could just not support abuse and murder. Also an option.
You will get more people to join your cause with a positive message: i.g. “Do these small steps to start” than a negative one, I.g. “If you don’t go fully vegan, you are still part of the problem.”
“Perfect is the enemy of good.”
So it is easier to convince people to reduce meat consumption, which than makes it more likely that people will go vegetarian or vegan later
And i actually feel like vegans on the internet can be too aggressive, alienating people they could get on their side
If you feel facts are “aggressive”, the problem is you, not the facts.
Of course facts can be aggressive
Let’s assume you talk to someone from a first world country. It is aggressive to say your lifestyle is responsible for the death of children in the developmental world, you are indirectly a murderer
It is more helpful to say: try fair-trade chlothes and check for companies that you buy from
Dividing society does not help better it
The facts aren’t agressive, it is the tone.
best is the enemy of better.
why are you giving vegans advice on how to market veganism? if the facts won’t change your mind then it’s not the fault of the vegans.
Because I want more people to become vegan and the way most people on the internet argue does not help this goal
I also want more vegans. there is no right way to change someone’s mind. attack the problem from different angles is my view.
All compassion is good compassion
It’s kind of hard to approach this in a tactful way. I think a lot of why vegans don’t appreciate this approach is because it often doesn’t work in actual practice. I’ll give a personal example as an analogy - I used to be a smoker. I tried quitting at least 50 times over the time period I was addicted to nicotine. One of the tricks I would use was to reduce the amount I would smoke each day. It would help briefly, but what would always happen is that I would get to a point where it was too hard to reduce any further, and then after plateauing for a few days, I would rebound and smoke even more than I used to.
Reduction still played a role in my effort to quit, but there were a lot of other tricks I had to employ to make it stick, and the overarching point is that reduction as a goal went nowhere, but reduction combined with the intent to stop all together did eventually work.
And that’s what also happens with dietary changes. Reduction starts with halfway good intentions, but when it’s the goal it becomes a temporary self-soothe that simply ends up rebounding in the end. In fact the people who run wfpb health coaching clinics have stated in interviews that people are most successful when they go all in with the dietary changes - because it turns out that people often feel dramatic positive changes to their health within only days of going plant-based, and those positive changes reinforce their motivation to keep going.
And as this article points out, reducitarianism can never achieve justice. It’s like when suits-wearers promise to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% by 2035 or something. It’s better than nothing, but will never solve the problems that need to be solved.
Your comment is about looking down on people… tongue in cheek or not, this is always the kind of stuff people post before complaining that the big mean vegans are alienating them… victim complex much?
Or vegans can just mind their own business and leave the rest alone. Claiming abuse and murder and yet still buy smartphones whose materials are sourced by abuse of the poor, drive around on liquefied animals and use plastics.
Just because they do one good thing doesn’t mean they have to live the perfect life. It’s pretty hard to live in the modern world without a smartphone, while its realy not that hard to not eat animal products.
Or animal abusers can just mind their own business and stop abusing and murdering innocent animals?
Stop using medicine and vaccines. K? Thank you. Those rely on horse shoe crabs donating blood and that’s animal abuse. Not to mention other medicine testing. Oh also, stop buying organic, since you know that’s exploitation of animals. Only veggies with good old artificial fertilizer are to be used. We don’t want you looking like a hypocrite while criticizing others.
I’d rather be a hypocrite one out of ten days, than to systematically support animal abuse and murder to feed me - which can be done perfectly fine in harmless ways.
10 out of 10. You just think you are not.
No, the data definitely doesn’t support your position. Going vegan absolutely makes a hell of a lot of difference, even from just one person doing it.
https://thehumaneleague.org.uk/article/how-many-animals-can-you-save-by-going-vegan
Some vegans are against organic agriculture, and there currently is a huge problem where the various regenerative agricultural movements have been astroturfed by the animal ag industry with the whole free range thing.
But it ignores that conventional industrial agriculture also appears to be sending almost the entire arthropod phylum into extinction, which is still worse than organic ag.
There are a lot of reforms that need to be made to the agricultural sector, and veganic farming/gardening is one of those needed changes.
There are a lot of things that are not perfect in this world. But convenience trumps all, which is why diets reflect country’s policies and climate for the most part. USA shoves corn syrup into everything simply because of its abundance and everyone loves sweet stuff. But in the long run it’s creating a huge problem with obesity and diabetes. Meat is on the same level.
For some climates meat comes off as a byproduct almost. Remaining plant matter from plants used for human consumption are normally used to feed cattle and other animals. Without animals all that would have been most likely burned. Even if there was a different way to repurpose that burning is the fastest and easiest thing and us humans love easy.
Take for example countries in which sheep herding is a dominant form of farming because pastures can’t be used for anything else. You can’t expect those countries to ignore local food source which would be mutton and not use wool as byproduct, and rely solely on imported goods so they can go vegan. It’s impossible combined with stupidity. Look at Mongolia. Short grass as far as eye can see. Tell them not to rely on reindeer and meat.
I highly doubt this argument about the agricultural suitability of different lands holds up under scrutiny. I’ve seen someone grow a small food forest on top of a layer of manure that was spread on an abandoned parking lot, in midwest climate conditions. We don’t need the ‘viability’ of what can be grown where, being dictated by modern industrialized monoculture agribusinesses, since those practices are part of the problem.
And again it comes down to the possible and practical part of the vegan definition. I don’t live in Mongolia, so I’ll leave it to Mongolian vegans to determine what is and isn’t feasible.
This is just basic whataboutism.
Vegans don’t see themselves as perfect. It’s all about doing the best you can, where you can
Which is fair enough and I can respect that. But I have no respect for assholes who think they are better than the rest and keep calling everyone murderer and animal abuser while they claim they can undo 100k+ years of evolution in a single life-time and hypocritically rely on modern medicine to keep them healthy.
Just because some vegans are being assholes doesn’t mean you should be an asshole to everyone else and ignore the problem.
How am I being an asshole? My position from the start was that it’s your own thing to pick and choose what you eat. Am just saying preaching to others and acting smug about it is annoying.
When every comment you posted is down voted, maybe it is time for some self reflection.
Sorry to continue this on and be the kind of “but…” person.
… But … A lot of vegans I know also try to reduce the amount of medicine they use cause sadly a lot of tablets have lactose in them. It’s genuinely one of the hardest things to deal with as a vegan, because it becomes the argument of do I better my life in spite of my ethics momentarily and it’s never an easy choice either way.
The way I see it is necessary suffering. There is no such thing as living without accidentally or implicitly causing suffering to someone, somewhere, so the logical response is harm reduction. Eating meat/cheese/eggs is not necessary. You won’t die or become ill if you stop. The calculation is not the same for medicine or food from agriculture generally.
I agree
Small incremental changes are easier to make than big ones. It is also better to have many people reducing meat than just a few full vegans.
True, but my point still stands. Most people don’t go vegan overnight.
I mean… reducing meat is how people would go vegan over longer period if time (as opposed to over night) though? Not sure where you were going with your original comment.
In my experience they often do go vegan overnight though. The key tends to be actually connecting the food on your plate with where it came from and accepting that animals are capable of suffering. Once that connection is made, animal products simply aren’t seen as food anymore and going vegan overnight is the only logical conclusion.
Some people may be further along the spectrum towards being vegan when this connection is actually made but regardless of if you are vegetarian, “only eat free range meat”, or an unapologetic meat eater, once the connection is made they are vegan.
“only eat free range meat”
these people are by definiton not vegan. Trying to be more ethical by their choices, which is commendable - but not vegan.
Yes, that is my point. Whether someone is vegetarian, “trying to be more ethical” but still eating meat, or just a meat eater that has never even considered ethics, there is nothing that says you have to go through all of those steps to becoming vegan. In my experience, regardless of how far along you are in those “steps” once you make the connection between the food on your plate and the animals that it comes from and you realize that they are suffering for you, you go vegan. That could be meat eater to vegan, “ethical” meat eater to vegan, or vegetarian to vegan. My point is that in my experience that process does happen overnight.
The word easier here is a choice. What is more comfortable is easier, but eating a plant based diet is very easy. It’s cheaper and widely available in most countries. What you mean by easier really refers to more comfortable, not really to there being less physical obstacles
It is easy once you are in, know what are the good vegan meals and how to cook them etc. Most people will have animal product for each meal - they don’t know better. To them vegans just eat salads and nuts, which is obviously not enticing. If they don’t take the easy way, they will just continue the only way they know how and change nothing.
I agree with you. I guess the difference lies in that I would call that laziness. Not knowing how to eat balanced meals (or more precisely, not looking it up), it’s not a matter of it being hard or easy. It’s a matter of simply doing it. All the information is out there and at a level anyone who can read will understand
I mean, you are not wrong. In a way easy way is always the lazy way - doesn’t mean it is wrong. It can be daunting. Some people will take the fast, but hard way. Some people will take the longer/ but easy. If you end up in same destination, it’s a win in the end.
Some people will take the fast, but hard way. Some people will take the longer/ but easy. If you end up in same destination, it’s a win in the end.
I guess you meant to say fast but easy, or longer but hard, right?
not really to there being less physical obstacles
Depends on availability. Plenty of eateries don’t have vegan options and this is especially true for locations accommodating larger groups. Furthermore, a lot of vegans need supplements (as I’ve been told), which is also subject to availability.
Lastly, it’s easier to convince a thousand people to eat less meat – especially since they usually already have the ingredients required for vegetarian food at home – than to skip meat alltogether.
Two thousand meals a week that turned vegetarian is a lot more impact than 70 meals turned vegan.
Plenty of eateries don’t have vegan options
Maybe you are thinking of processed vegan food, like a vegan nugget or hamburger. That is completely unnecessary. beans, lentils, chickpeas, seaweed, grains, rice, vegetables, nuts… those are widely available and enough for a healthy diet.
For the rest I agree, it’s easier to convince an omnivore to go vegetarian than vegan. But that has to do with their will, not with actual physical limitations.
It’s not that a lot of vegans need supplements, they’re just more aware of what the body should get, when in fact almost everyone likely needs supplements. They just don’t know it.
This is solid advice, but… you know… don’t look down on vegans maybe? They are trying to do the same thing (reduce animal suffering) but are able/willing to go above and beyond.
If your goal when choosing what to eat is “look down on vegans”, then you have a really shitty way of choosing what to eat.
Bruh,
If getting made fun of helps reduce the amount of meat that gets eaten, this seems very much like a good deal to me
Put simply, promoting veganism won’t stop people from reducing, but promoting reducetarianism will stop people from going vegan
This is either brain rot written by someone who doesn’t understand propaganda or a psy-op and I can’t tell which. So if it is a psy-op, congratulations on making an effective one.
Except it’s not? Half-measures get half-results.
Every doctor I’ve ever seen talk about diet, says that we should reduce our meat intake. They never suggest nor imply that people should go vegan as an alternative.
At least, from my limited experience.
I would argue that if someone has no intention of giving up meat, of which, there are plenty of people who are in that situation, then reduction can help improve the situation.
If someone is considering, or at least would consider going vegan, then veganism is the right choice, reduction may make the transition more difficult in the long term.
Thoughts? I’m happy to discuss. I just don’t have the time right this second to do a ton of reading/watching content about the other side of this discussion, so I’d like to know what you have to say.
reduction may make the transition more difficult in the long term.
This is the only part that isn’t obviously true. Of course, this is a question of fact to be decided by evidence, but here’s my speculation:
Given the size of the population, it’s clear that there will be some people who fall in either direction. Some people will find a gradual transition easier, some will be hindered by the possibility. I’m inclined to believe that it’d make things easier for more people than harder, but I have no basis of evidence to make that claim. It occurs to me that a general push to reduce meat consumption will also likely move the Overton window towards veganism, which would make large-scale vegan goals easier to achieve.
Generally, when society at large is as far removed from a position as it is with veganism, advocating for a half-measure will tend to help the cause rather than hurt it. Veganism requires changing the minds of the entire world, and getting people acclimated to the idea that we eat too much meat will likely help with that.
LMK if I wasn’t able to answer your question, or if you want to ask another one.
I think you’re on the right track here, I would be hard pressed to disagree.
The idea that reduction could hinder sometimes goals of becoming vegan is similar to any other habit or addiction. In some scenarios, reduction is the only option since cutting yourself off entirely can be fatal (methodone is one such example). In cases like smoking, going “cold turkey” can be significantly easier, since the idea is that you remove all of that item and all temptation to use it, from your life. Give yourself as few opportunities to fail as you can. You can’t pick up smoking again without going to get more cigarettes. That can be a fairly involved task to accomplish. If you have no cigarettes, you can’t not quit. In the same example context, reduction requires significant self control. Since you have the cigarettes, and nobody will stop you from having another. So it becomes entirely up to you to decide to reduce your intake. In that context, it’s easy to, instead of reducing your intake, you simply go back to your normal habits, causing your efforts to reduce/quit, to fail entirely.
In the context of veganism, quitting by reduction still requires nontrivial willpower. It would be easy to grab a burger or pull out some other meat product to eat wherever you feel like it, and it can actively harm any efforts to be more vegan. Going the “cold turkey” route, you’ll have a few weeks of discomfort and cravings, but as long as you stick to it, within a month, you should not have those cravings (at least, not nearly as severe), anymore.
It’s easy to mentally justify that it’s “just this once” or “I’ll do better tomorrow” when you’re deciding on a food option. However, if you go with an absolute disconnect of “if it has meat, say no” kind of thing, it would be harder to back slide into old habits.
I dunno. I’m just saying words. Everyone is different. We should respect other people’s choices, whether that’s for veganism or not. It’s not like meat eaters are going around in their off time trapping chickens in closets for fun or anything. 90% either don’t know, don’t want to know, don’t care, or don’t feel like they can do anything about the factory farms. If they were informed, they would probably disagree with what’s happening, but ultimately not feel any personal responsibility to take further action. They’re not committing those kinds of atrocities, so it’s not them doing the bad thing.
I know most vegans disagree with that mindset.
I dunno.
Anyone have some jerky?
The dissonance is real
I have stereotypical vegan friends (Somehow squeeze their veganism into conversation every time!) I have slowly tried to adjust my diet for doctor mandated health reasons for the better, but I dare not mention it, I don’t want to give them the satisfaction, one of them will try to take credit, I just know it. :P
food is a big part of every culture and it is something everyone has to deal with several times a day. That already brings in a lot of opportunities where someone’s diet is relevant to conversation. And, veganism goes beyond diet. I don’t think they necessarily do it on purpose, you probably don’t notice how often you bring up specifically the opposite of veganism.
They were right though.
And they still are.
You could always try telling them and then immediately dying as a prank. Unfortunately, it only works once…
Bold strategy
As a vegan myself I notice the opposite a lot. Veganism becomes the topic of conversation IRL more because of everyone around me asking questions like “don’t you miss bacon” and “how long have you been vegan now?” And “would you ever eat meat again”.
And when it’s not about veganism specifically they often bring up meat when talking about food they had and then instead of contributing to the conversation, since that feels disingenuous to my ethics and I’m not a fan of lying in general, I’ll tell them “sorry I’m vegan”.
Also a lot of the stereotypical vegans that end up bringing up veganism on their own all the time is mostly just due to them likely being activists and quite honestly having to deal with the worst of the worst trying to ruin their day every day. And that shit takes it’s toll, not to mention directly staring a lot of what makes them physically sick and upset right in front of them day in and day out. Constantly being reminded of what to them is genuinely horrific. That can change a person and make them very jaded and cynical in life. And in that case, tact no longer becomes an issue to them because to them it’s a matter of life and death, and they mostly see death and this becomes desperate to make a change, even if it’s a little one.
Sorry if this made me look like a stereotypical one, I’m not trying to preach. Just trying to share what it can be like on the other side.
Also they totally would take credit. We would call it “planting the seed”. Making you conscious of the choice and hope you come to your own decision on how to and when to make it. ;)
-edit
God that’s a wall of text, I’m sorry -.-
A wall of text wouldn’t have paragraphs
Become vegetarian
And then become vegan.
Step one. Stop taking medicine, as lots of pills use lactose and all the vaccines are tested using horseshoe crab blood and are tested on animals.
Alright if you want to go that way, there was a legend of a Buddhist monk who let a hungry tiger eat him, if you really want to go all out just lay on the ground and let the earth take you.
https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/definition-veganism
Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—
One step ahead of you.
Edit: You really think this is a gotcha, eh? Given that you’ve posted the same thing at least six times?
practicable
There’s the rub. One mans practicable is another mans impossible. So it just becomes people judging other people’s choices without any real understanding of their circumstances.
It’s literally baked into the quote that that’s not the idea. I really don’t see how you’ve arrived at that conclusion and I suspect you’re just trying to finagle a counterpoint.
No I don’t. Am merely pointing out everyone depends on it to a degree and that doesn’t give people right to call them names. This is why people roll their eyes whenever someone blurts out they are a vegan. Do whatever you want to do, but you are no better than the rest. Perhaps you care more or are trying more to be less dependent on animal products, but you are still dependent.
Yeah? But the key is to become less dependant like you stated, which is what veganism aims to do. It is impossible at this current time to be independnat of them, but each passing year we do become less so.
Which am completely fine with. Am just annoyed when someone comes and calls me a murderer or animal abuser when they themselves depend on the very same thing.
Nobody did that, yet you chose to comment that annoying shit take anyway.
You are as irritating as you claim those vegans are.
As Mike says, no half measures ;)
But in seriousness, going some/most of the way there is better than not at all. And most people transition over time rather over night too anyway. Every small step helps when it comes to the environment, personal health and ethics in my opinion.
Mike has clearly never had some rasmalai.
Wow, really brought out the online vegan brigade on this one.
I have nothing against vegans, just do my cooking and I’ll eat anything
Do you want me to put on a maid outfit too, huh? Lazy bastard.
And you must refer to me as president
Not sure if sarcastic…
Because, like, yeah? Obviously?
I am just looking for an excuse to put on a maid outfit.
Thanks for the laugh, you had me in the first half.
There’s a difference between eating meat and condoning animal abuse. For most vegans this is impossible to comprehend it seems. But they will happily drive cars on liquefied dinosaurs, use plastics and buy phones which were made by exploiting children and poor people. While at the same time claiming fish is not meat.
I don’t eat vegetables. Even raw carrots taste like bitter hell to me. Even with a nearly anti-vegan diet I can confidently say we have an ethical imperative to move away from animal products, with factory farming being the most fucked.
The meat industry is organized animal abuse, there is no doubt about it. It doesn’t have to be that way but by all accounts it is. If you can eat meat procured separately from these industrialized processes that is great, but that cannot be scaled to meet all current demands for meat.
I can source meat separately from industrialized processes, as can many others, if not all. The reason why they don’t has nothing to do with condoning animal abuse it’s pure convenience and price. But it’s disingenuous to lump everyone together.
As far as sustainability is concerned, neither can everyone switching to plant diet be scaled up to meet the demand. People just assume animals are taking up arable land that can be used for human food production, which is not true. Huge amounts of pastures can’t be used for anything else. More to the point animal feed is made from discard products of plant based foods, things like corn and wheat stalks. If you take animals out of the equation, something has to be done with that as well.
In the end you can down-vote all you like it doesn’t change the fact our current food production is extremely optimized. You can’t alter it easily without disturbing the balance. You want to reduce animal abuse don’t buy cheap shit. Go to farmers market. But no, people are willing to come and preach here about morals while they happily ignore all the other things they don’t want to make sacrifice on because they are too precious to them, but are happily telling the rest of us which sacrifices we need to make. If you want to get rid of something, get rid of whole “organic” movement. That growing method is extremely unsustainable and unaffordable for most people.
Also vegans don’t eat fish or any animal products.
Yup. Made a mistake.
You cannot pay for an animal to be murdered and In the same breath say you against animal abuse.
Exactly. People who believe this are believing a fairy tale.
You cannot be vaccinated and believe you are not harming animals.
I think you misunderstand what veganism is. It’s not absolute perfection. It’s reducing harm to animals as much as possible.
No vegan believes they are “not harming animals”. But it’d be hard to argue that they’re harming just as many as omnivores.
They aren’t paying for animals to be murdered, they are paying for a product at the Wallymart.
Of course I can, because I know to use a dictionary. Abuse is not the same as murder. You can call me animal murderer, I’d give you that. But not abuser. I don’t beat or molest animals. I don’t maltreat them or starve them to death. They are kept safer than in wild, away from predators and have a life of luxury with constantly abundant food and no fear, until they fulfill a purpose that is meant for them. If anything am sheltering them far better than nature is.
Unfortunately that is simply not true. If you had to take a guess, how long does a chicken live that is born into the animal agriculture industry and what does its life look like? Go watch Dominion ( https://youtu.be/LQRAfJyEsko ) and learn what modern animal agriculture looks like because I promise you it is not a life free of abuse where they are safer than they would be in the wild with plenty of food to eat. If you are paying for animal products then you are not only paying for the animal to be murdered but are also paying for the abuse that it suffered for its entire short life before that point.
Also I’d definitely argue that murder is a form of abuse. Defined as: “treat (a person or an animal) with cruelty or violence, especially regularly or repeatedly.” If you wanted to discuss semantics it would be more accurate to say that it is impossible to murder an animal since the most common definition would probably be “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another”. There is a second more loose definition though that uses the language “kill (someone) unlawfully and with premeditation”. I would argue that an animal IS a “someone” as they are an individual with their own unique perception of the world. As such I do believe that it is possible to murder an animal. That being said, it is completely irrelevant to the morality of what is happening whether we call it murder or abuse or we come up with all new words to describe what’s happening. No matter what you call it, we are creating unfathomable amounts of completely unnecessary suffering by forcefully breeding (aka raping) animals and forcing them to live unimaginably awful lives which are ended very very prematurely because money and yummy.
it’s definitely abuse, as you are harming something for your own pleasure.
No, there isn’t. But people don’t want to be confronted with this fact.
Neither do vegetarians want to face the fact most medications and almost all vaccines you take were tested on animals, if not produced by animals. So if you don’t want to be a hypocrite and don’t want to stop acting smug, I suggest stopping all medication and medicine use. I mean we don’t want to condone animal abuse.
There is a difference between not doing something that is purely some for enjoyment (eating meat, you can live perfectly fine and be healthy without) and not taking medication. Additionally, vegans want to stop exploiting animals for human benefit, so they are in favor of not doing animal testing anyways.
That’s the problem with your assumptions then. You assume people only eat meat because of joy. Not because it’s cheap and highly nutritious part of the diet. It’s significantly easier to be a soy latte sipping hipster in first world country living in temperate climate where due to good economy choice is abundant. Try moving more north where growing seasons as short or non-existent. Or living in a third world country where choice of food is not as rich.
Geography is a very strong influence on local diet. In northern places where farming is limited people breed sheep and mutton is a staple food. Go south and fruits and vegetables become more dominant. You can’t go to Mongolia and tell them not to eat meat when their entire country consists of dirt covered rock barely enough deep to grow grass.
Yeah, where I live, pork and beef are the dominant meats because pigs and cows consume parts of the plants humans don’t eat, be it corn or wheat stalks. It’s cheap way to produce more food without requiring any more land. Without animals, we’d have to burn that remainder and throw it away.
As for stopping exploitation of animals, that will never happen. It’s wishful thinking. Abuse should be abolished and punished by all means, but exploitation is here to stay. You can try and reduce your dependency on it, but never get rid of it. We are higher in the food chain and pretty much everyone, and I literally mean everyone, would rather some animal testing goes on if it means saving their ass sometime in the future. Claiming anything otherwise means being a hypocrite because at the end of the day we all care about ourselves the most.
Again you’re being factually incorrect about agriculture. The plants and plant parts that humans can’t eat are important sources of nutrients for composting and building soil fertility. And animals do have a place in agriculture, and that place is a free-living association where humans and animals mutually benefit from each other.
What would I know, being born in a family who works in agriculture, especially compared to someone who probably never held farm utensil in their hands. Ever heard of bales of hay? You think those are left on the land for composting? Haha.
I am not expecting every person on earth to stop consuming meat immediately. If some people in Mongolia have some cows and sheep on their farm, sure, that is already so much better than factory farming. Factory farming makes up about 90% percent of worldwide meat production, and that is the main thing people are talking about when discussing meat production. Factory farming is responsible for massive ecological damage due to animal waste, ie their shit and cows farting methane, on top of being extremely cruel. And then there is the overabundance of antibiotics used to keep the animals somewhat healthy (“healthy” is really a stretch here), which helps diseases build immunities to those antibiotics.
As for cost, meat is heavily subsidized (at least where I live), so we are all paying part of the cost for it through taxes. It is not as cheap as you might think when seeing it in a supermarket.
As for stopping exploitation of animals, that will never happen. It’s wishful thinking.
That’s just baseless conjecture, just because you lack the imagination to think of a world without or at the very least way less exploitation does not mean it cannot be achieved. And I’d rather have little exploitation than a lot, it’s not a binary choice between “changing nothing” and “completely removing exploitation, which is impossible, so let’s just do nothing”.
The most accepted definition of veganism goes:
“Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.”
Emphasis added. Your argument is valid, in that modern medicine, vaccines, and animal testing are all challenges vegans need to address. This is something that’s a lot harder and less clear cut than diet or not wearing certain clothing. Not every vegan agrees on what the best course of action is either, but most lean toward at least not being anti-vaccine. Self-preservation pretty clearly counts under the possible and practical part of the definition.
But that does not invalidate the very real differences and good that does come from going vegan, for ourselves, for the animals who are spared a life of hell, and for the planet.
Oh and the house you live in was built on land which was home to animals.
Give it back to them.must be tiring be you. with the sensibilities of an angry 14 year old
Yes, call me names because of lacking arguments to my comment, very mature thing to do.
All I see in this comment section are arguments to your comment.
Wouldn’t want to beat a dead horse. That’s unvegan.
There’s a lot to unpack here…
I don’t see how you can not see the correlation of keeping animals trapped and in shitty situations to inevitably kill them when they’re literally still children as not being animal abuse.
Liquified dinosaurs :')
In seriousness, veganism is about making the best changes you can. Nobody is perfect but you try to do the least damage you can do. Plus it’s a spectrum, there of course will be some vegans that don’t care/know much about how certain commodities are built on the suffering of others. Plus some “vegans” are just plant based and are just in it for personal health so they wouldn’t care about the ethics in it all and the hypocrisy you talk about.
Also extra note. Don’t look at them focusing on the suffering of animals meaning they don’t care for human suffering. They do. When those at the bottom get brought up it will bring the others above them higher too. It’s a two birds one stone kind of situation (pardon the hypocritical pun ;p)
I’ve never ever heard of a vegan say fish isn’t meat. If a vegan is eating fish, they’re not vegan (same goes for honey, but that’s a different topic). They’re a pescatarian that eats a lot of plant based foods.
Veganizing bad idioms can be hard. I’ve taken to saying, “feeding two birds with one scone,” for that one.
Sounds weird with my accent where scone is more like sconn rather than rhyming with cone haha
vegans have noble intentions but they are fighting the wrong battle: the root evil is not meat consumption per se but capitalism and the resource exploitation that it implies
The root evil is your meat consumption. If theres nothing wrong, then go to your local slaughter house and stand in line. If you dont like to do that you know what they feel. The feel the same fucking way about it as you do. And they dont get any sedation as they get during an execution. They get the first row experience to fucked up death.
Fuck your dumb ideas and go eat some fucking beans and shut the fuck up.
found the guy with stocks in Tyson
You like to pretend that you care about what the animal feels, but you clearly just want to feel good about yourself by feeling superior to others. Why otherwise would you be this rude and obnoxious for no good reason? Do you think this behavior is likely to make people think “hmm, maybe he’s right and I should just eat beans and shut the fuck up”? Of course not, you’re just looking to feel superior. You have no actual interest in convincing others about the feeling of animals facing death.
The OP is not wrong, the capitalist system of exploitation is the root of the issue, and you’re the obvious example of a misguided vegan.
I am superior, all vegans are. Nope there’s no reason to convince - you people belong in the ground not them :-).
I don’t think they’re misguided, I just think that even if we solved the capitalist exploitation driving the meat industry they would still care about animal suffering on a micro scale. I also feel like you’re making a lot of assumptions about them based on that singular focus. Your view of the issue as a whole is just as myopic as his.
I would gladly go to a local slaughterhouse but alas all I have is factory meat around me.
Slaves mined the metals used to make the device you typed that on. You cannot get the moral high ground when your (and my) entire privileged world exists due to the exploitation of everyone that doesn’t exist in it.
I wouldn’t call being forced to eat beans as my sole source of protein an improvement on society.
that sounds like a you problem given the alternative is a system that needlessly kills millions of animals every day.
It’s not needless because it literally puts food on my table. Tasty food with a high calorie density.
Damn, you need to get some meat pie.
Too much soy clogging up the brain.
Of course the root of evil is capitalism, but you have to understand that we would need to greatly reduce meat consuption to have the “ethical” way of breeding that most people expect. The reason why the animal exploitation is so bad is that it has to satisfy a demand that keeps growing. People expect to continue their eating habits and that companies should just be held accountable, change their ways and still produce the same quantities of meat/diaries/eggs.
What you’re on about. Killing animals to eat them is wrong, plain and simple, it just happens that, understandably, it is much more convenient and people don’t want to change and are not honest about it But things are changing.
I’m in no way vegan and you won’t see me complaining to people about their eating habits, but you’re just wrong here.
Killing animals to eat them is wrong, plain and simple
See, it’s these kinds of fanatical black-and-white statements that makes it hard to sympathize with vegan ideology, even as I agree with many of its tenets. Feeling sad for animals that die to be consumed is not a strong argument for it being wrong. Humans are animals just as any other, and if it is wrong inherently to kill something to sustain oneself, then we should kill off all carnivorous and insectivorous animals, so that they cannot kill and eat their prey.
Humans are not animals just like any other. We have the capacity for self-reflection and change. We are also not obligate carnivores - we have the choice to eat plant-only diets without health risks unlike a lot of animals
Hell, vegans are just religious zealots without a deity.
