To think that the world will never turn to being veggy...

[bananasinpjamas]

To think that the world will never turn to being veggy...and meat is actually quite tasty...yumm ....roast chicken....

But buying free range/freedom food meat if you can afford it is the next best thing?

Actually vegetarianism would be a far more sustainable option for feeding the worldwide population and avoiding famine.

From good basic wiki article:

"According to a 2006 United Nations initiative, the livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation worldwide, and modern practices of raising animals for food contributes on a "massive scale" to deforestation,[2] air and water pollution, land degradation, loss of topsoil, climate change,[3] the overuse of resources including oil and water, and loss of biodiversity. The initiative concluded that "the livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global."[4] In 2006 FAO estimated that meat industry contributes 18% of all emissions of greenhouse gases. This figure was revised in 2009 by two World Bank scientists and estimated at 51% minimum. [5]"

"A person existing chiefly on animal protein requires 10 times more land to provide adequate food than someone living on vegetable sources of protein."

Rearing livestock is a major contributor of greenhouse gases, incl methane.

And the argument about veggies "losing all those animals they love" is ridiculous. I couldn't care less if there were far fewer / no livestock animals. Have you visited an intensive livestock farm? The misery of those animals is a disgrace to humankind.

Not sure why you think it is important to include meat in your diet if you are eating battery meat. It is pumped full of antibiotics and water and is basically crap and can't really be considered healthy. why not splash out on some decent meat once or twice a week and eat veggie the rest of the time. You'd be much healthier and the animals would at least have had a decent life.

If you're on a budget it's much cheaper to eat veggie most of the time and eat good quality meat every now and then.

This is how our ancestors would have eaten, it is not healthy to eat meat at every meal, especially poor quality battery produced meat.

And actually if all those livestock animals ceased to exist, I doubt I would even notice it as the vast majority of them are kept inside before being shipped out as neatly shrink-wrapped joints of meat. They are pretty much invisible before being slaughtered.

HOwever, I agree in the most part with the OP. Meat is tasty, and free-range / freedom food is the next best thing to being veggie.

I eat meat probably everyday. It's not a meal without meat. Didn't know it was unhealthy to eat it so often though. Will it stop me? No

I dont mind if the world doesnt turn veggie. I just wish the blummin meat eaters would nick the veggie option in the canteen/party/wedding/training day buffet so there is nothing but cheese sandwiches left for us [bangry]

lol @ bangry

[buangry] [bugrin]

"It's not a meal without meat"

It's a miracle I'm alive, frankly.

I love meat and will continue to enjoy it. I wouldn't try and make it compulsory though and don't try and claim it makes me a superior person.

Anyway everyone knows that truly enlightened/earth lovers will subsist entirely on air and water and not eat food at all

:o

I like meat but always buy freedom food/outdoor reared stuff. Partly due to quality but also for ethical reasons. I can't stand the idea of aniimal being cooped up for the entirety of their lives, fed crap and puimped full of chemicals and water.
We eat meat maybe 2 times a week. When the free-range or freedom food meat is on offer I buy up a load and put it in the freezer and slowly work through it.
My favourite though is rabbit shot by my Dad - they live a happy life, feasting on my Nana's flower beds, then get feasted on by my family.

Spawnchorus - you obviously live in the wrong part of the country.

"Amount of grain needed to end extreme hunger - 40 million tons. Amount of grain fed to animals in the West - 540 million tons" United Nations

YANBU. I am vegan but humans are too selfish to go out of their way to change their lifestyle. Comments on this thread demonstrate spectacularly how many people miss the point.

It's not just an ethical question of whether eating animals is wrong or not, it's about how western consumerism decimates the planet and starves its poorest people in order that you might eat some lamb on Sunday. It takes 10kg of plant protein (wheat, soya) to make 1kg of animal protein. Meat farming is so inefficient, and when capitalism controls the production of it it leaves the poorest people in the world with not enough to eat. If you fed the vegetables given to the US beef herd to people you would have enough for two BILLION people.

The worst one is "oh, it tastes so good, you're missing out, when you smell bacon don't you go crazy?" I ate meat growing up, I do kind of remember what it tastes like, and it was fine but I never ever want to eat it. That bacon you crave is slices of dead animal, kept in appalling conditions and overfed so that you can eat something you don't need. And you DON'T need it. I don't really see what taste has to do with anything. You don't need food to taste good, you need nutrients. There are more important things in life than what your food tastes like...

Cling to your bacon if you must, but I couldn't live with myself knowing that I was responsible for not just the hellish lifestyle and death of that animal, but the continuing poverty of millions of people too. I have marginally more sympathy for organic farming, but it doesn't solve the problem of grain being diverted from starving people.

There really are some disgraceful statements on this thread. I am vegetarian, and while I don't expect all others to be (although ideally, of course, they would be), it's disgusting that given the choice between a vegetarian diet and eating meat from animals treated abusively, some people will choose the latter. Awful and completely unnecessary.

"I'm saddened, disgusted but not in the least surprised at some of the selfish, cruel opinions voiced on here."
Its crap like that that makes people think vegans and vegetarians are nut-jobs, when most of them are perfectly normal people.

That's not crap Winter, that's a very valid opinion, and one that I share entirely. Why people would eat meat from abused animals is beyond me. If people stopped buying it, things might change. It's not that difficult to understand, surely.

mmmmmmmmm steak [bugrin]

Spectacular x posts there [bugrin]

That, ladies and gentlemen, is why you should not start a post and then get distracted part way through so post late...

It may be your opinion it is my opinion that bandying words like disgusted, selfish and cruel about perfectly average activities like eating a sausage makes you look rather a little loooon-like.

No, it makes it look like you have concerns for animal welfare. Perhaps you don't care about the standards of living your meal once had. It makes you look silly when you throw out insults about people who simply care about animal welfare.

there is a difference between "caring about animal welfare" and ranting and raving about how disgusting and cruel other people are. If you can't see the difference I can guess which group you're in.

To state that people are disgusting and cruel to eat meat from abused animals is not ranting and raving, since it is disgusting and cruel. Calling people nutjobs and loons for objecting to that is what you did, which is insulting. It's not particularly sensible to resort to that kind of unrelated name calling to attempt to make a point.

Anyway, we will never agree, so perhaps we should leave it.

"Ranting and raving"? Seriously? That's what you call ranting and raving?

i eat meat everyday. It tastes good. I also eat veg everyday but i wouldn't want to live on a diet that just included either meat or veg.