AIBU to ask ‘what would make you go vegan’?

[Bastetcat]

Tangentially inspired by another thread, I wonder if there are specific obstacles standing in the way of people choosing to go vegan, and if so what they are?

I tend to presume that if perfect, indistinguishable replicas for meat / dairy / eggs etc could be created then virtually everyone would go vegan, but I would be interested in finding out if that’s actually the case!

I’d probably be able to become vegan if a) I wasn’t with DH (committed carnivore) & b) there was a lot less reliance on fake meat type products in standard vegan foods. Burgers, pies, etc. Beanburger, yes, vegetable burger, yes, “veggie burger” no thanks! And a flat no to all quorn & soy products, including soy based milk alternatives. Luckily, I like practically all vegetables & I really like lentils.

I have been vegetarian & vegan previously. I’ve also prepared animals (rabbits) for the pot that had been shot as they were killing protected trees during winter. Literally, someone shot them & I did everything else up to serving them up.

@ThunderboltandLightning god, that’s awful - iMm so sorry.

I guess the point is a dog can kill with a bite, but they’re still generally sweet animals. Cows are fundamentally placid. My best friend growing up was the daughter of a dairy farmer and the dairy cows were basically big, clumsy dogs. I sometimes volunteer in a city farm and the two rescue cows they have there are so gentle and cuddly.

That said you do here about people being killed bt highland cows when they try to cuddle the babies, so as with any animal they should be respected.

I do find lots of vegans don’t know much about animals especially the nature of farmyard animals.

And cows are such sweet, gentle animals, basically like dogs.

No.
Nothing at all like dogs.

This indicates a woeful ignorance about cows in particular and agriculture in general.

@FET2020 sorry, I wasn’t trying to avoid that point - I think it’s a very fair one. I completely understand that allergies and dietary restrictions make it much harder / potentially impossible.

Cows are fundamentally placid.

Fuck me. A bunch of 18 month bullocks are not “fundamentally placid”.

I saw a video once of some vegan activist who had ‘saved’ a chicken. They stuffed the poor thing in a box and put blankets over it. The poor thing looked so overheated. 😅

FET2020 Choice is what makes us different. A lioness can’t pop into M&S and pick up a vegan ready meal.

There's nothing on this planet that would persuade me to go vegan or even vegetarian.

1: I eat a very limited diet because I am extremely fussy (eg no pasta, rice, foreign food, pulses, mushrooms, oats, garlic, beans+++) From what I've seen of vegan food it's totally inedible and I would likely die of starvation.

1. I enjoy eating meat

1. I have no wish to turn into a perpetual virtual signalling know-it-all worthy.

I don’t have any allergies or dietary restrictions?

I am pretty familiar with cows. Spent a big chunk of my childhood on a dairy farm, volunteer on a farm with cows now.

Maybe they are so gentle and friendly around me because they sense my veganism and treat me as friend not foe

(Yes I am being sarcastic please don’t be mad)

Erm...cos I don't want to.
I like eating meat.

I wouldn't ever touch those fake meat things.

Actual availability and not of shitty over priced fakery..

Our local supermarkets stock of fruit n veg is bagged salads, iceberg lettuce, normal tomatoes, spring onions, white onions, bananas, oranges, pears, two types of apples, yellow melons pre cut so they don’t keep, grapes and strawberries. All of them are either shitty dates or bruised to oblivion. There’s only soy or oat milk (no oatly just cheap watery shit) no dairy free yoghurts, no dairy free cheese/cream and no vegan prepacked things at all.. besides a bagged garden salad. Yes even the premade veg soups have milk. The salad tubs have meat or cheese.

Been vegan when I lived where I had more of an option, mostly raw at that.. really only had a “cooked” dinner 2/3 times a week.

Ordering online is kind of a middle ground but it’s getting enough fresh stuff to last that won’t be over ripe or off before you get to it.

You don’t get 18 month old bullocks from dairy herds. They’re shot or sold as veal calves

I don't eat red meat or pork, but there's no way I'd go vegan. Pescy at a push but nope, not vegan.

@FET2020 allergies / dietary restrictions / other health restrictions / whatever you are specially referring to. My point is, I agree that some people have physical / health reasons why they can’t go vegan.

There is so much biased news about veganism it really winds me up.

Being a vegan to me is all about living a sustainable and ethical lifestyle. In my opinion the only way this could be achieved is if they live of their own land. Obviously this would be very difficult to do as many people do not have their own land to grow their own produce, let alone how time consuming this would be. The second best alternative to this is to only eat locally sourced produce.

I really struggle to see how eating foods from the other side of the world that are often not grown in an ethical manor or over processed fake meat and diary alternatives made in a factory fit in with the vegan lifestyle.

I do not agree with battery farmed chicken etc and the poor treatment of any animal but as pp have stated U.K. farming standards are very high and I confidently buy meat from my local butcher safe in the knowledge that it has been well treated as well as buying seasonal fruit and veg where possible.

I'd much rather an animal have a life even if it's short for the meat consumption market than have no life at all which is what would happen if everyone became vegan. Can you really imagine the only place to see a cow would be in a zoo?

I think a lot of people also do not understand the eco system either as all pig, poultry muck is used as fertiliser on arable land. Next time you buy a bag of sugar consider it might not have been possible to grow the beet without pig poo!

Sorry, rant over!

I’m not convinced has OP worked on a proper farm. I bet it’s one of those daft vegan farms we’re they pretend the animals are like people.

Nothing.

I've done vegan in the past for a few months (6 or so) when I had health problems to see if it would make me feel better. It made me feel worse. I also didn't eat the fake meat stuff so it wasn't that. It did make me almost stop using dairy (only in baking recipes, not as a drink anymore). I just feel best when I eat fish everyday (and lots of veggies).

Lots of people should avoid a vegan diet such as babies, children, sick people, old people, teenage girls, pregnant women etc. All these people need an optimum diet to be healthy. The med diet is the best.

You don’t get 18 month old bullocks from dairy herds. They’re shot or sold as veal calves

You get them from beef herds.

Wanna go up against them?

@FET2020 I never said I worked on a proper farm. I spent a lot of my childhood / teenage years on my best friend’s family’s totally normal, working dairy farm in Norfolk. I now volunteer in at city farm. It’s absolutely not a working farm - it’s a social enterprise. I’m not trying to lay claim to being a farmer, I just pointed out I have spent a lot of time around cows.

Bastetcat - the social aspect is not so much my own cooking I recently served up a vegan sweet potato & butter bean chilli that went down really well , it's what others want to cook. I like food and I am happy to try different things. If something looks / smells good I am not going to reject it because it has animal in it. Plus it's rude in my culture if you refuse food that someone else has prepared for you.

@ylvamoon thank you for the clarification, I do see where you are coming from

I like food to be as minimally processed as possible - free range eggs, milk & cheese from a local farm is about as fresh & natural as you can get.
Rather than over processed fake cheese and other substitutes.