I’m so fed up with all this vegan wankery

Where I live, I don't know of any vegetarians or vegans, outside of the tourists. Living on a small island where everything has to be brought in by ship, means that we have to eat locally produced food, and try to minimise our reliance on imports. Everyone has at least a vege garden and chooks, and you can get a permit to free range stock. There's lots of rocky hills and gullies where crop production would not work, but is perfectly able to sustain livestock. Land suitable for crops is regularly rotated through the seasons, which is healthy for the soil and environment.

Financially, people just can't afford to eat meat substitutes and practically, it just isn't even something people would even consider. There is an abundance of fresh food available, and livestock free ranges before being killed (no abattoirs here), and again, people eat what is available, and all parts of the animal gets used.

Sustainably, the people like those here who are eating locally raised and produced, in season food, are much better for the environment than those who are eating prepackaged fake meat that is wrapped in plastic packaging and shipped around the world.

It's all very well to say that you're saving the animals by going vegan, but what about the impact environmentally that you are having by your food choices?

1More, yes most definitely. The veg I grow certainly is (well rotted horse manure). What is your point; I am a meat eater!

I became a vegetarian at nine years old. I'm 42 now and have started to add some fish to my diet, which would make me a pescatarian, I suppose. I made this decision for the sake of my health, and although I only eat fish a few times a year, I feel healthier. I had felt cold in the winter since I was a child, and after eating fish it was like somebody turned the central heating on. Inside me.

bye bye, vegetarian society badge.

In ye olden days, getting veggie food was hard work. Making veggie food was hard work. We struggled. The struggle was real. Unless you wanted anaemia, you had to plan meals in advance so you could soak beans, etc, and you had no choice but to cook real food.

There was only two types of fake meat: white spongy chunks that tasted of nothing, and brown dust mince that tasted of nothing.

hardly anyone bought it, unless they had a dinner party and was making a veggie bolognaise for meat eaters.

then, one day, everything changed. I could get veggie food in most places. I was no longer a 'hippie freak'. Then veganism went mainstream, and boy, what a self-indulgent pile of bollocks it is.

It's all our fault, this vegan nonsense. We birthed these grey-faced, sickly-looking fuckers. 'Let's care about the animals', we said. And look what's happened.

Today, it feels like there's less veggie choice. You have to be a vegan or you're considered scum. Milk, cheese, eggs: it's like raping babies. I recently wore a leather jacket to my local wholefoods store (it was vintage, and from Oxfam), and they refused to serve me.

Because of my 'dead cow' jacket. hahaha.

fake meat is very expensive, isn't it? On a par with real meat, in terms of price. In terms of nutritional value, it's rubbish. Total shite. It's often high salt, high fat and filled with curious ingredients like methyl-cellulose (wood pulp), and palm oil (no thanks).

I find it difficult to digest. Quorn gives me stomach cramps and make my asthma worse. And I am not the only one. The engineered fungus which is quorn is not 'from mushrooms'; it's a soil mould.

mmm, so tasty. wood pulp and mould.

now if I eat out, I go indian. At least the Indians still know how to cook.

fuck vegans. In the eyes. With a pork sticky rib.

AdultHumanFemale
Is your veg fertilised by animal by-products?

I love-love-love vegans (and anyone who elects to eat less meat and dairy for environmental and animal cruelty grounds) and am so grateful for their contribution to lowering global carbon emissions by choosing a plant-based diet. If they want to eat mushroom protein and soya protein shaped like well-known meat products, who am I to complain? Good for them. Hurrah for vegans! I wish I had the resolve to be one. As it is, I am grossed out by animal agriculture and the dairy industry, and shocked by the carbon emissions linked to my guilty dairy and carny pleasures, but can't seem to make the shift. So, go you, vegans!

That “joke” is made multiple times in pretty much every vegan thread.

What’s the hardest thing about being vegan?

-not telling people

I was veggie for 30 years and have been vegan for six months, but don't do fake cheese, meat etc.

Most of the time I eat what I did as a veggie, such as ratatouille and jackets, chilli etc.

Some vegan products are costly and unhealthy, but if you strip it back to some basic meals it should be simple.

I tend to stick to 'known' vegan alcoholic drinks when I'm out.

Unlike, say, field mice, breeds of animals bred for food would not be missed by the ecosystem if they became extinct.

As others have already mentioned - one of my concerns is the black and white environmental argument. I live in a hill farming area and the land is used mainly for sheep farming but also some cows. Most of the fields are very steep and rocky and aren't suitable for plant crops. If it's going to be used to feed people there isn't much else that can be grown on it other than sheep (which are also free-range - roaming the streets and people's gardens as well as the fells )

I find it difficult to believe that locally produced lamb has a bigger environmental impact than imported avocados or a heavily processed imported meat substitute. As @GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman said upthread allowing animals to graze also restores soil health which is needed if we don't want to use lots of fertilizers. It's great for people to be mindful of what they eat but being blinkered isn't helpful.

My DS is vegan and eats marg with palm oil it it. Not only does it taste worse than butter but I'm not convinced it's better for the environment with it's plastic tub and processed, imported unsustainable ingredients...

@soggypizza do you not find it hypocritical that you'll fight for endangered rhinos but pigs, they can just breed out of existence? What's the difference between them? Why is one animal's life more important? Why should one be saved but the other not?

My daughter is vegan and definitely doesn’t impose her diet on anyone else !!! Luckily she lives in a city where she doesn’t have to make any apologies!! Why are people so annoyed ? You eat what you want and leave other people alone ..simple!

Piers, so nice of you to stop by!

Veggie here. Joining the chorus of people frustrated that meat-free options are increasingly lumped in with vegan ones. By that I mean fake, unhealthy, sugar/salt-laden crap. Agree with a PP that plant-based whole food is great. Why all this disgusting Frankenstein food invading menus at the cost of veggie food? Strikes me that it caters to the 'look at my lifestyle' crew who wouldn't last five minutes on a bona fide veg-based diet.

Sounds like thinly veiled guilt to me.
Did you know that animals get tumours and cancers like us? Do you know what happens to their tumours after they’re slaughtered? It gets ground up and sold as mince meat to suckers like you!
Also did you know there’s a legal limit to the amount of pus allowed in your milk? You actually drink pus but vegans are the weird ones 😂

Because I like the taste and texture of meat but don’t want to eat animals.

Newsflash: I've yet to eat fake meat that has the taste and texture of meat. Some is perfectly delicious in its own right but the only meat it resembles is cheap sausages that are only about 20% meat, anyhow.

but can't understand why you don't see that animals raised purely for meat and dairy are endangered by a vegan diet. no I can’t see that at all you’re right! Supply and demand - they’ll gradually breed less. Best they are not bred to be ate - farming is a means to an end - food, domesticated animals are not endangered by veganism not for a long time, unless we really do get a grip on climate change - which is very unlikely!

@Monkeyplanet similarly laughed at m&S vegan "steak" few years back
www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/marks-spencer-cauliflower-steak-stop-stock-price-reaction-cost-a8153151.html%3famp

Good grief. Why do you give a rat’s ass about something that has absolutely zero impact in your life? It’s not like restaurants are stopping selling steak and replacing it with vegan food. Vegetarians, if a place is serving only vegan food ask for a lump of cheese and a dollop of sour cream. This is really not the hill to die upon.

I had a good laugh at this lady

www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/vegan-influencer-lettucetti-raw-ullenka-kash-instagram-a9118766.html%3famp

I am a meat eater but prefer legumes and veg to meat and not that big on dairy. Wouldn't cut out any whole food groups and think that that's a personal choice I should be allowed to make

I’ve lost almost 2 stone since giving up dairy, i kept this fairly quiet but the weight loss drew attention and politely declining cakes and other dairy laced treats at work also drew attention so have had to mention it. I often find the vegan options in restaurants are easier than having to check if a dish contains dairy.

I think it is just hip and fashionable. But I have no problem whatsoever with vegans, as long as they do not preach to me.

I'm vegan. I love all the choice that is available now. As do my vegan family members, one of whom have been vegan since the 70s!

Veganism makes sense ethically, for the environment, and for health.

As for fake meats and cheeses, personally I would take them or leave them, but then I have never eaten real meat. I understand it helps those transitioning, so it's not a bad thing. I do prefer whole food plant based food though.

Live and let live.

The way I see it there is no reason to eat meat or animal products when it is perfectly possible to be healthy and happy eating vegan food. There is so much great tasting vegan food available.

mycoprotein, which quorn and those Greggs delish vegan sausage rolls are made from, is an awesome product.

For some. It makes me hideously ill and disorientated.

@YellWat highly doubt it since it gives such a bad reaction to quite some number of people