Why I'm vegetarian - or vegan, or pescetarian, or a meat-eater - whatever

[xenon]

It's not a hassle though is it? You go to different shops, you meet different people, you chat to them about different things, you slowly build some kind of relationship with different people, it's interesting imo. Plus, i tend to find that we only buy why we need and waste very little, as we buy things when we need them and are limited in how much we can carry (no car either so its bus, bike or walk).

I don't have a car either. If I have to go to more than 2 shops I find it a hassle. Not because of the distance. I am TBF quite lucky with local green grocers and butchers. I just don't like shopping as an experience very much.

 

[janeb]

Was a vegetarian for 7 years between ages of 17 and 24 - put on 9 stone as pretty much just ate cheese

Started eating meat again partly as my diet was so bad and I was ill - also tempted beyond belief by a meat and potato pie at a Blackpool night match ona very cold Feb night.

When I got together with my now husband he sorted my eating out, taught me to cook properly etc and for the last 2 years or so we only eat ethically produced meat - so we eat a lot of veggie food when we're out etc, and at home to save money. I don't drink milk at all but don't avoid other dairy products - I would, but cheezly is disgusting and I still love cheese. Having said that, I do need to cut down lots and am working on it.

 

[Geri]

I eat meat because I like it and I am weak willed. I do agree with vegetarianism, and went veggie for a few years before I succumbed to the temptations of meat. I think I could do it again if I lived on my own, or had a veggie partner. I do like veggie food and eat quite a lot of it, e.g. veggie chilli, lentil bake etc.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Was a vegetarian, then a vegan, then a vegetarian again, then back to eating meat and am currently trying to find a French restaurant that serves ortolan. Hmmm.

 

[Guineveretoo]

I have been vegetarian since I was a teenager, so about 35 years (!), because I simply don't like eating meat. I don't like the idea of eating meat, and I don't like the taste or the texture of meat. For that reason, I don't like vegetarian foods that are made to imitate the texture and taste of meat, although I do eat loads of meat substitutes.

I have no problems with other people eating meat or fish, though, and have never tried to convert anyone to vegetarianism. I even used to feed my daughter meaty baby food on occasions, and to buy some meat for her when she was a toddler, because everyone nagged me to ensure she was getting enough protein and vitamins. Now I know that is rubbish, and that she would have been fine on a vegetarian diet. She chose to become vegetarian of her own accord, when she was at nursery school and discovered what happened to the animals on the farm she was visiting. She has been vegetarian ever since, although I believe she tried chicken once, out of interest, but found it too chewy and was unable to swallow it.

 

[meems]

i'm a flexitarian

if i had more willpower i'd be fully veggie because i can't really justify eating most meat/ fish to myself, what with the industry being fucked. what i eat i eat ethically (with attentive regard for the needs of my cutlery)

p.s. i don't really call myself a flexitarian because it's wanky.

 

[madzone]

I'm a vegetarian because I believe that whole meat industry is fucked up and unjustifiable. I also believe in the inherant value of life and that killing anything for my own pleasure is deeply immoral. I don't believe that there are any acceptable reasons for eating meat for most people in the UK.

Not a dig in the slightest as everyone is entitled to their own lifestyle choice etc but how do you feel about the fucked up dairy industry and that cows die to provide milk? Don't answer if you don't want to (I don't want it to get into a bunfight)

 

[soulman]

I flutuate. I was brought up a meat eater. I decided to go vegetarian when I was cooking for myself. I've since reverted to eating meat, but I feel much healthier when I eat vegetarian and fish.

 

[madzone]

I flutuate.

Too many lentils?

 

[zenie]

i'm a flexitarian

if i had more willpower i'd be fully veggie because i can't really justify eating most meat/ fish to myself, what with the industry being fucked. what i eat i eat ethically (with attentive regard for the needs of my cutlery)

I like that!

p.s. i don't really call myself a flexitarian because it's wanky.

oh

 

[Orang Utan]

I eat everything. I try for free range but that's more for quality reasons than welfare reasons. I eat foie gras and veal when I get the chance. Like the idea of locally sourced produce, but only in a vague, barely-considered woolly way. I don't eat a lot of meat cos good meat is expensive and vegetable dishes are tasty too. Of course, my entire approach to eating food is, like most people's, morally inconsistent and certainly suspect, but I can live with that

 

[Edie]

Does anyone else have problems actually getting free range meat? Roasting chickens seem quite easy, but the beef/ lamb and pork is never labelled as free range in my local supermarket?

Is lamb always free range? And beef? But not pork. I dunno. I also buy more organic veg now we have more money, unless I'm shopping at the grocer.

 

[Orang Utan]

Does anyone else have problems actually getting free range meat? Roasting chickens seem quite easy, but the beef/ lamb and pork is never labelled as free range in my local supermarket?

Is lamb always free range? And beef? But not pork. I dunno. I also buy more organic veg now we have more money, unless I'm shopping at the grocer.

You won't have any problems if you go to a butcher and then you'll even know what farm the meat is from.
I don't know of any non-free range sheep - they're rarely 100% organic though

 

[trashpony]

I'm an omnivore but I try and eat ethical meat. I only buy meat from the butcher or from Waitrose so I know where it's come from and that it's free range and organic (if possible). I also only buy organic dairy (except for cheese as it's not always possible).

I've stopped buying chicken when I'm out and about as it's usually not free range.

 

[Choc]

i'd like to say i eat healthily.
i eat plenty of wholegrain and brown rice etc.
also i eat little meat as i don't "need" it much (and disagree with the meatindustry as well).

but i also eat a lot of sweets and overeat quite often. so overall my diet is not as healthy as i pretend to myself.
also i eat a hell of a lot of cheese.

i buy organic where i can afford it.

 

[Ms T]

Does anyone else have problems actually getting free range meat? Roasting chickens seem quite easy, but the beef/ lamb and pork is never labelled as free range in my local supermarket?

Is lamb always free range? And beef? But not pork. I dunno. I also buy more organic veg now we have more money, unless I'm shopping at the grocer.

You can't intensively farm sheep, so lamb is usually an ethical choice. After chicken, pork is the meat most likely to be intensively reared, and pigs are much more intelligent than chickens.

 

[longdog]

I'm a vegetarian because I believe that whole meat industry is fucked up and unjustifiable. I also believe in the inherant value of life and that killing anything for my own pleasure is deeply immoral. I don't believe that there are any acceptable reasons for eating meat for most people in the UK.

If god hadn't meant us to eat animals he wouldn't have made them out of meat

I've been an on / off vegetarian since I was about 18 mainly for ethical reasons. At the moment I'm sort of vegie-ish. I've not had any meat this year so far and not really bothered about it. Part of the reason I've given up the meat is to get my cholesterol down. I find I eat less if I don't have meat and for some reason I don't immediately reach for the chocolate when I finish a meal.

In the past I've made a habit out of eating meat substitutes but this time I've been experimenting with vegetables I wouldn't normally eat. I have a freezer full of vegetable stews and curries which have cost me near to bugger all to make.

I have three big downfalls, bacon butties, liver and onions and Pukka steak and kidney pies from the chippy. I try not to buy cheese, not for ethical reasons more for the fact that I can eat a pound of cheese in a ten minutes

Because I like meat I've never refused a meal somebody has made me because it has meat in it, I've always thought it a bit rude to be invited to a meal and then tell your host what to cook for you.

 

[solstice]

My biggest compromise is my cat..
I am vegetarian, tried sometimes to be vegan, but then opted for few but organic products; I avoid buying wool and leather too. It has not always been easy, but I guess, after 15 years, I am getting there.

I am just not convinced about my cat..
It seems that I can't force him to be vegetarian too! I actually tried it out in my insanity, believing that some cat veggie food would do, but it clearly didn't.

I feed him with organic free range chickens dry food, which I guess it is better than other pet food..
but still, how can we decide that some animals can be killed for other to eat? why are cats and dogs privileged? (I am already thinking of a world in which all humans are vegetarian or vegan, and we are left only with our pets to feed..)

 

[The Groke]

Omnivore through laziness/indifference.

I can recognise the problems within the meat industry and when I dwell on it (which isn't often) I can see the appeal in being a vegetarian and not support said meaty industry.....but it would involve a concerted effort towards a fundamental lifestyle change and like I said, I am lazy.



I do eat "ethical" animal produce when I can, though that is more difficult here in the Middle East than it ever was in the UK - especially if one does not consider halal meat to be "ethical"........

 

[The Groke]

I say meat-eater because the only other option is omnivore - and no human is that!

om·niv·o·rous /ɒmˈnɪvərəs/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[om-niv-er-uhs] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
1. eating both animal and plant foods.
2. eating all kinds of foods indiscriminately.
3. taking in everything, as with the mind: an omnivorous reader.

Er - yes we are.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Age 31: After eating very little fish for a long time, decided to stop altogether after working at a cafe and attempting to manhandle a full-size tuna into a freezer. If I couldn't handle (so to speak) holding the thing's body, then I shouldn't eat its food.

You lost me on that one.

I'll eat pretty much anything that isn't off. I don't eat organ food anymore, because I don't want to. We used to get liver when I was a kid, but I've stopped that. I've never eaten brain, tongue, and not going to start now. No haggis, no tripe.

I've had a pig's knuckle before. It was ok, but a lot of work for little meat.

I grew up on the prairies. There was a farm implement place a few blocks away, and a chicken slaughtering place even closer. We used to go watch the chickens hanging on that conveyor belt thing. We didn't go there much, because it was kind of yuck, and it didn't smell good.

But I never stopped eating chicken. I think I always understood that things had to die in order for me, and for everything, to live. I don't know if having your throat slit as a chicken in some concrete building, is a better or worse way to die than being chased down and consumed while still living, by some predatory animal.

I got a job at Canadian Dressed Meats. It was a slaughterhouse, a big operation. It's sort of like something that Breughel would paint, in those places. You can turn your mind off to an extent, but me and the other cleanup guy would throw the hoofs and lower legs into the prebreaker, and squeegee up the foot deep blood from the kill floor just before lunch, then he'd go into the lunchroom and tuck into a roast beef sandwich. He was a farm boy. I couldn't do that. I think I had tuna.

I didn't last long on the job: maybe a week or so. The main reason was that I had really long hair, and I couldn't get the mandatory hard hat to stay on my head. It was too much hassle trying to work, while constantly adjusting your hard hat.

Also, the guys who worked there were psychotic. I didn't really like being around them. The only reason I felt safe was that my friend's dad was the vetrinarian who was on the floor at all times to make sure that standards were met.

Other than that, the pay was so good, that I probably would have stayed longer, but for the hard hat and the psychos.

I worked at a smaller operation, part slaughterhouse, and part ice making facility. I was there mostly to make ice, but you couldn't avoid the little mini kill floor they had there. Or that time there was a dead cow out in the yard. Rigor mortis had set in; its legs were sticking straight up. I poked it with a shovel to see what would happen, but cows have pretty thick hides.

I was working with my cousin, and klepto that he was, he stole this meat that was in the freezer where we used to make ice. We had a big family barbeque, but the meat tasted like the same smell of death that permeated that little kill floor. That one put me off meat for three weeks.

As for free range chickens, I think that means that they're let out in the yard to peck around. I think people have some romantic notion of chickens out there in 'home on the range' territory.

It just means the chicken yard, I think.

I'm drinking less milk these days. I noticed that it bloats me. Maybe I'm lactose intolerant. I'm not giving up ice cream, though.

As for battery chickens, or battery cows, or whatever, take a look around you at the apartments stacked up, the offices stacked, where we are corralled for our lives.We're sort of like battery chickens to 'the system', ourselves.

Why should chickens have it any better than us?

 

[moose]

Can we have a photo of you with really long hair, trying to get a hard hat to stay on?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Can we have a photo of you with really long hair, trying to get a hard hat to stay on?

Only if you have a time machine.

Just think me at 18, skinnier, better looking, and with an afro.