To not understand why some people dont eat meat free meals

[reducingfootprint]

I do not call myself vegetarian but i eat meat rarely for health reasons (bowel cancer is common in the family) but i am happy to prepare it as my dh eats meat but enjoys meat free meals around 4 times a week. DC also eat meat free around 4 times a week. My siblings and their partners are also part time vegetarians and pre covid we all enjoyed getting together for meat free feasts.

When DM comes over, she refuses to eat anything without meat. Butternut squash soup? Needs bacon.
Halloumi fajitas? Needs beef.
Goats cheese and onion omelette? Needs chicken.
Plowmans salad? Needs ham.

AIBU to think ffs one meal without meat wont kill you!

@confusedbymyheritage but the post you replied to wasn't even preachy vegan. It was simply someone baffled by the fact that people claim they never, ever, everrrrrr, eat meat free meal so the poster pointed out that there are commonly eaten meat free meals. That's why I commented on your reply.

Come on. Everyone normal knows that people do eat meat free meals in real life because these are simply naturally meat free and so arguing that "absolutely all me meals ave meat in it" is bs and not normal at all.

Even as a coeliac, you have some meals which are simply naturally meat free.

SadSisters

Firstly, yes I've watched it. Secondly, it does not marry up to what I have experienced within a slaughter house but I recognise that not all slaughter houses will be the same. I do not doubt that such places exist, or are even common. Similarly, the 'dairy is scary' type films do not marry up to my experience of dairy farms (and I have a lot of experience of dairy farms) but again, I don't doubt it happens.

High welfare, humane slaughter should take place within 20 miles of the animals place of origin and it should take place with small batches of animals, much less production line than the online videos.

Where we get our meat from, it's slaughtered on site. So no travelling in cramped containers, queuing to meet their end, with the smells and sounds of other animals being killed etc. I appreciate many will still find that abhorrence - that is their right. I also appreciate it is not the case with most meat production or purchase in the UK.

Once again, slaughter is never humane. There are plenty of videos available online if you wish to see. I imagine most meat eaters won't watch them, as it is cognitive dissonance that allows them to eat meat.

hibbledobble please see response directly above yours. I have seen the videos, I have been in slaughter houses.

Not necessarily @hibbledobble I've seen plenty of slaughtering and I still eat meat, as a lot of others have and do.
The point about pets and not eating them, I have a dog who I love more than any person. However, if it was a choice between starving to death and the dog then I'm afraid the dog would be going in the pot.

hibbledobble I do not have cognitive dissonance. You can be fully aware of how meat is produced and still eat it.

@hibbledobble - and destroying animal habitat to make space for crops, isn't humane either.... , as it is cognitive dissonance that allows them to eat anything!

We should start eating people so innocent animals don't suffer. Do you think it would be like wine?
"Hmm. Today we have a special offer, madam. Year 1985. Matured meat, yet still quite soft. Bit of a bozo so comes with slight hints of Jaeger and cheesy chips. Perfectly aged cut"
😂

Well, cannibals call us long pig so I’m guessing we taste like pork

@Soubriquet we are genetically quite close.
Damn. Now I wonder how we taste

I’m the poster who posted the list of common non-meat foods and I’m not vegan! (Why would I be posting about cheese toasties if I were vegan?) Nor was I the slightest bit preachy.

I have friends who have coeliac and I often have to arrange restaurant choices for a group that includes both coeliacs and vegans. I know how destructive a coeliac diet is, and how incredibly difficult it would be to be vegan and coeliac. And one of my best friends only eats meat he’s hunted and butchered himself which I respect (most of my friends who are vegan respect that).

My post was in response to pp claiming they literally never ate anything without meat in, period. Which if true would mean they’d never eaten chips or chocolate or a million other things, which is either very sad or evidence of an insanely restrictive orthorexic diet.

It’s insane that a post saying “if you literally don’t eat anything except meat does that mean you’ve never tasted chocolate” gets warped into “preachy vegan.”

Yanbu
Needing meat for ever meal is so backwards. Really annoys me that people are still like this. Many people in my family circle are this way. Think the younger generation are but more forward thinking in this respect .
I eat and enjoy meat a few times a week so I’m not vegetarian .

and destroying animal habitat to make space for crops, isn't humane either

Indeed! Good time for a reminder that livestock takes up nearly 80% of global agricultural land, yet produces less than 20% of the world’s supply of calories, meaning if the entire world switched to a vegan diet (pipe dream, I know) we could reduce the overall agricultural land use of the planet by 76% and thus vastly reduce our impact on wild animal habitats.

Sources:

ourworldindata.org/agricultural-land-by-global-diets

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/08/save-planet-meat-dairy-livestock-food-free-range-steak

I think the entire way we consume everything is completely fucked up though - food, clothes home wares etc. So much waste, so much unnecessary suffering (sweat shops, child labour, forced labour, slavery) so much destruction of the planet. Some people choose to reduce this through veganism, others through other means and some care not a jot about it. Ah to be so ignorant! Sounds like it really is bliss!

ylva Animal habitats aren't destroyed as a result of a need to grow crops for human consumption: veganism requires a much smaller amount of land per person to provide food, so this statement is absolutely false. Growing animal feed does result in destroying habitats however. If the world were to turn vegan, we could free up a lot of land for rewilding, and restoring biodiversity.

For those who have seen slaughter and still choose to eat meat: do you not find it distressing? I consider myself and empathetic person, and have seen animals taken to slaughter and being slaughtered as well, and would never eat meat.

I also agree with consume too much covid. As a result I try to buy used wherever possible, and also buy less.

I don't get it at all. DP is vegan, I'm not but of course when we're having dinner together at home we eat the same thing, so I eat vegan meals about 60-70% of the time and we go to lengths to find new exciting recipes, sometimes with meat substitutes but most times just with veg, grains, etc.

I might occasionally add the odd bit of grated cheese or an egg depending on what we're having, but I wouldn't dream of frying up some bacon or a sausage just for the sake of adding meat.

When we eat out or separately at home it's a different story, I'll have whatever I fancy and he couldn't care less.

I find the militant-anti vegans just as bizarre as the militant vegans. For people to claim 'I'd never eat any of that vegan rubbish' is absurd; as if they've never had beans on toast, or an apple, or a vegetable of any kind?

hibbledobble I wouldn't say distressing, but I am not a very sensitive person, so I can understand why someone who was more sensitive would find it distressing. I'm not passing judgement on being sensitive or not, and not saying that people who find it distressing are being too sensitive.

I do think if more people had to kill their own meat, or even watch it be killed, fewer people would eat it.

With very few exceptions (egg & beans on toast for example) I wouldn't be full if I didn't have meat with a meal.

I detest cheese to the point it makes me heave and I also don't eat pasta or grains

@Fluffybutter

I’m really not looking for people to tell me how great Quorn is , it’s processed shite and if you want to eat it that’s up to you but I still don’t understand some of the militant vegans wanting to eat something with the texture and taste of meat if they’re so against meat . Argue all you like ,makes no difference to me

You do realise that sausages, burgers, mince, chicken nuggets, etc don't fall off the animal looking like that, right? I could just as easily ask meat eaters why they don't just eat the meat straight from the animals if they apparently like meat so much.

I don't get why so many people are okay with processing a pig into a sausage but when someone dares to process vegetables into a sausage then suddenly it becomes confusing and people throw a tantrum...

I like to eat my vegetables looking the same way as they do when they have come out of the ground more or less. (probably why I don't even like soup). But I also don;t eat burgers or mince, give me a nice rump steak any time.

So much ignorance, misunderstanding and militance on this thread

I always think mock meat is similar to faux fur.

A lot of people have a problem with fur and think it's wrong. There are certainly more people who have a problem with fur than with meat.

However people are generally okay with faux fur. They understand that even though it may look similar to fur and feel similar to fur that it's not real fur and no animals died to make it. So it is accepted as being okay.

Nobody throws their toys out of their pram or feigns confusion about it. Nobody asks what the point of wearing faux fur is if real fur is wrong or tells you that if you're going to make something that looks like fur then just wear fur and be done with it.

I have a coat with faux fur on the hood. Nobody gives a shit. Nobody has ever questioned it. Yet God forbid if I dare to eat a Quorn nugget...

@Comefromaway

I like to eat my vegetables looking the same way as they do when they have come out of the ground more or less. (probably why I don't even like soup). But I also don;t eat burgers or mince, give me a nice rump steak any time.

But some people do like burgers. And it's fine to make a cow or a chicken into a burger but if someone makes vegetables into a burger then it is somehow wrong, confusing or hypocritical .

hibbledobble 😂 that's a very common argument for veganism... sad reality is that, in the UK for example, there is not enough futile land to produce the amount of crops needed to feed a vegan population. Many crpos with a high nutritional value don't grow in our climate without help... Meat on the other hand can be produced much more easily... think Welsh hill farm lamb, Scottish highland beef...
Rice for example is a stable food, yet very damaging to the environment as well as of a poor nutritional value.
Many vegan products that are available do have a high carbon footprint they are sourced in 3rd world countries. This does not sound very environment frendly or ethical to me.
I am for sustainability rather than a forced ethical reasoning. I like to buy local produce, where I can - it's better all round.