'veggies don't eat fish' friend fall out

[mrsfuzzy]

i'm a veggie i eat dairy produce, but no fish and meat nor have i done since i was a young child, i met a new friend three months ago and she asked about becoming a veggie which she was proud to tell everyone about but she still eats fish, i said that veggies didn't eat fish and that shell fish etc are 'banned' by the veggie society. i like her but she's got a bee in her bonnet and refuses to speak to me, we didn't argue about it about it at the time, i don't understand.

I think I'm going to define myself as a carno-vegetarian from now on....

Vegans avoid using leather, conventionally made silk, wool (or at least buying new products with those in). They tend to have an increased level of awareness about animal products- you are less likely to find vegans that don't know about tallow, for example. I don't use candles, and I don't use tallow soaps such as Imperial Leather.

Vegans have their own version of the fish-thing. Perhaps this is the true separator between us and strict vegetarians.
The honey issue. Strict vegetarians eat honey, IIRC. According to the definition, vegans don't, and anyone who follows a vegan diet and lifestyle except for honey and beeswax is a beegan.

Thanks, that makes sense.

I just feel that I've earned the right to call myself vegetarian through 40 odd years of ridicule, incomprehension, point-scoring and sometimes outright hostility. I do my best to stick by my principles - free-range and by-product free wherever possible, but am not dogmatic about it, and in the last few years, yes, I have sometimes eaten fish. But I don't feel I should have to lumber myself with a new label (pescatarian) in order to fight the same battles all over again. I'm not convinced that people like me blur the lines for the purists any more than the vegetarian/lacto-vegetarian/lacto-ovo-vegetarian sub-divisions do.

Haha. Laughing at a typo I just did - vagetarian. That's a whole other thread

Lazyjaney wouldn't "I choose to consume a omnivorous diet" do?

Don't call yourself an omnivore though, because all humans are omnivores, because humanity is an omnivorous species.

That argument makes no sense..."I've earned the right to call myself a vegetarian but I eat fish". I might as well say I've earned the right to call myself an astronaut but I've never been in space.

What most people can't seem to understand is the nobody is in the slightest bit interested in what you eat. Other peoples diets are about the most boring thing in the world, and nobody is giving out medals for your socalled vegetarian/vegan/fruitarian credentials. nobody cares.
It's the inaccurate and stupid use of language that grates. You can't take a label and choose what it means. It has a meaning already. It's in the dictionary. It isn't fluid, it isn't whatever you want it to be, you either fit the label or you don't. It's not a value judgement.

@big Jessie no, we carno-vegetarians hate omnivores, they are so common

Ok, so I don't expect anyone to look back at my previous posts on this thread, but I have said that I don't know why other people would give a toss about what I eat, because I certainly don't give a toss about what they eat or what they call themselves, but I'm certainly not going to re-label myself at the behest of dictionary Nazis. There's nothing to say that 'vegetarian' can't be used with a qualification such as 'largely', 'mostly','mainly', 'except on Mondays' etc. It's just an indication of dietary preferences, that's all.

Nazi? Please.

I can sympathise with the original path-finders getting very pissed off about the modern generation being pernickety. (I refuse to call people who started following a vegan lifestyle except for honey back in the 60's "beegans" because I think it's too insulting.)

But when you start calling pedants nazis you lose my support.

Completely agree with PeppiNephrine

I spend what is, to most people, an unthinkable amount of time obsessing over avoiding contributing to the suffering of animals, such as cows, sheep, silkworms and bees. But humans are animals too, and they have at least the same capacity to suffer as cows and gorillas, if not more.

You're right, I shouldn't have said 'Nazis'. Like everyone else, my language tends to become more intemporate, the more under attack I feel. When what I think of as a reasonable post, just putting a point of view, is met with unwarranted and unpleasant invective, I think I can be forgiven for getting a bit pissed off. I stand by the rest of that post, though.

Eating fish and calling yourself a vegetarian is a contradiction in terms.

Oxford English Dictionary definition:

a person who does not eat meat or fish, and sometimes other animal products, especially for moral, religious, or health reasons

Vegetarian society definition:

The Vegetarian Society defines a vegetarian as: "Someone who lives on a diet of grains, pulses, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruits with, or without, the use of dairy products and eggs. A vegetarian does not eat any meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish* or by-products of slaughter."

It's nothing to do with anyone caring whether you eat meat or fish, it's to do with people using the incorrect terminology for their diet.

nobody does give a toss about what you eat, which bit of that are you struggling to understand? The issue is with your lack of understanding of how language works, your diet is entirely your own affair.

nobody does give a toss about what you eat, which bit of that are you struggling to understand? The issue is with your lack of understanding of how language works, your diet is entirely your own affair.

^^exactly!

Although I have many, many failings, a lack of understanding of how language works isn't one of them. Mind you, I have been able to pick up quite a few handy tips from various MN threads, on how to use language to be patronising, self-satisfied and downright unpleasant.

Know people who call them self vegetarian of all various types, fish/dairy/eggs etc. Don't particularly mind what they eat, I'd just ask them before cooking for them. This is a stupid thing to fall out about, seems petty.

If you're veggie for ethical reasons then there's no excuse.for eating dairy, the conditions of dairy animals are.far far worse than those for meat

Everything extra to vegetables is Veggies With Benefits, and if they can eat an egg i lose patience with them wailing that they cannot eat the chicken it would have become, never mind being More Veggie Than Thou by not eating fish or meat.

What's all this "veggie" business?? That's a horrible word and only nearly allowable when discussing sandwiches - although that still makes me shudder.

The word is vegetarian - why is that so difficult?

If you buy Soil Association certified organic dairy products they are at least going some way to improve welfare standards for dairy production... here

...and remember that people who are vegetarian have different reasons for doing so. For some it is not always about animal welfare - people seem to forget that and also give vegetarians a hard time about wearing leather for some strange reason

at least you've learned something. now just get a dictionary and look up vegetarian, and you'll have really got there.

Veggie is short for vegetarian. It's how language works.

Lazyjaney-I can understand that if your MN name is anything to go by - but for the rest of us