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The connection between pollution and factory farming is well known. Yet many environmentally conscious people continue to eat meat.
If you have stopped, why? If not, what's your excuse?
What's my excuse??? Well, that's not confrontational in the least bit, now is it? (am I lining up for a firing squad by responding to this?.... oh well, I am always a sucker for contentious people).
We've drastically reduced our meats consumption in the past couple of years... definitely environmentally influenced, but our reduction is also strongly influenced by nutrition and economic impulses as well. Our family of four is probably down to 5-10 lbs of ground beef a year, 2-3 slabs of bacon, 2-3 lbs of ham, 12 lbs of fish and 13 whole chickens. Oh, and maybe 3-4 lbs of sausage. Looks like a lot, but this is 12 months we're talking about.
I grew up in a meat-eating family and I like the way it tastes. I also appreciate the vitamin B-12 and heme iron that I can readily get from eating meat. I also don't believe that consuming meat has to be a black or white environmental issue (like you are quite nearly proposing it to be). I definitely have a monthly splurge or so of some sort of bacon, ham, hamburger where I can't confirm how it was sourced, but since it's economically better (and environmentally) for me to prepare our foods at home I make it a priority to find the best local, sustainable and/or humane foods product, usually via my highly regarded food co-operative or farmer's market. We also have CSA a few miles down the road that harvest their own small heard of grazing cattle. It's only sold by the quarter or half and I don't have a deep freezer, but fortunately our friends do and we informally share in their half.
I also try to maximize what meats we do buy. Since I'm spending around $20-$25 for a 4-5lb, free-range, pasture-grazing whole chicken, you can bet I'm going to get as much out of that purchase as possible. I only buy one once a month and do what I can to make it last. I separate the meat into 2 cup portions to be used in casseroles during the month. I use the bones to make an entire stockpot of chicken stock for a month's worth of soups.
Besides convenience and costs I have no explanation for those who are conscious and continue to eat (a lot) of factory farming products (non-vegetarian and vegetarian). I think eating a little is practically non-avoidable if you are in any way compromised in the wallet or with time. Most of us are. I think instead of pointing fingers and asking for "excuses" it's best to have compassion and work together for meaningful solutions.
If you have stopped, why? If not, what's your excuse?
I agree with flyingsaucermom that this is confrontational and contentious. Perhaps the moderator should just move it to the Politics & Other Controversies forum now, before the fur starts flying.
Having done a years-long deep dive into veganism and raw foods, I now describe myself as a recovering vegetarian. I'm one of the perhaps one third of the world population who experiences "Vegan Failure to Thrive." Google it if you're not familiar with the term. It seems to be tied to genetics, and blood and body type, but in any case, sticking to a strictly vegan diet can make many of us weak at best, and seriously, chronically ill at worst. Fortunately I escaped in time to avoid permanent injury. A very good friend was not so lucky.
I'm also a passionate conservationist, involved with removing invasive pests and restoring the rainforest here on the Big Island. I'm especially interested in maintenance of critical habitat for the endangered birds like the beautiful honeycreepers, which live only in the Hawaiian islands, like the gorgeous 'I'iwi. I have them chasing each other around the treetops on my property every day of the year. I feel deeply blessed.
My overall meat consumption today is low, by American standards, as my core diet is primarily brown rice and legumes, along with fresh vegetables and fruit and nuts from the farmers market. But I am absolutely not ashamed of eating the meat that I do, just as my ancestors did for the previous 2 1/2 million years or so, which clearly shaped my body's dietary needs. I tend to use meat in small portions today, similar to the way many Asian cultures do, as a flavorful ingredient in stir fry dishes that are largely vegetable, for example. I eat local free range eggs and poultry, local grass fed beef, local-catch seafood, and on occasion, a little fresh pork from Oahu. A bit of yogurt now and again, and sometimes a little cheese. I have not yet taken up eating insects, as so many world cultures do, but I am considering it, since they grow so well here.
I was a vegan zealot for two decades. And, not of the fast food french fry faction. I ate everything organic and whole. I always seemed to have enough energy, even a bit excess, like a nervous energy. And then my world began crashing in. I was getting respiratory infections constantly, lots of migraine, brain fog, early menopause. Who knows how much my problems were related to genetics, but I needed help.
I went to a naturopathic doctor. As soon as I walked into her office, she remarked, "You are vegetarian, aren't you? Vegan maybe?"
She said she could tell just by looking at my face, muscle tone, complexion, etc.
She said if I didn't start eating some animal protein soon, I would probably develop diabetes. That hit a nerve because I was already experiencing constant voracious appetite, the opposite of my tendency to eat like a bird for most of those twenty years.
So, I started eating some organic free range meats and fish. I got better very quickly. I found this website that explained what I was going through.
Any day that I do not consume enough animal protein, my symptoms return: brain fog, fatigue, headache, anxiety, etc.
I have tried to be ovo-lacto vegetarian and supplement what might be missing, to no avail. Sometimes the only thing that keeps my brain from slipping into dangerous fog is animal protein.
I am still an environmentalist zealot. I never had kids because of this. I telecommute. My possessions all fit into the back of a mini van. I compost. I garden and landscape (remove invasive pests like OpenD does) as much as I can without power tools. I shop at Goodwill and Restore. Blah, blah, blah.
And I hope as many people in the world as possible who thrive as vegans/vegetarians don't get sick like I did, but time will tell. I imagine that not having children of my own (and no longer being a pet owner) has done more for the environment than my being vegan ever could have.
Not me. I don't need an excuse. I raise it, I kill it, I cook it, and I eat it.
If you don't like meat, you are most welcome to not come to my house for dinner and you are also exceedingly welcome to keep your pointy nose off of my dinner table. Please read the proceeding with the utmost civility.
I am also, besides being a dedicated carnivore, involved in environmental issues
I believe in a well balanced diet and that includes meat. Would I like to have the time to raise my own, yes. But in the City that just isn't going to happen.
And I grew up in a partial vegetarian household - although rare - occasionally that part of my family would eat Fish. Although they would never discourage or prevent me, even as a child from eating meat.
I was a raw vegan for 8 months about 2 years ago, I lost way too much weight eating 3000+ cals a day and had vitamin/mineral deficiencies (found out through a blood sample). I now thrive on a paleolithic lifestyle that excludes grains, legumes, all dairy except hard cheeses, and refined sugar and processed foods. I eat a lot of meat in any given day (today I've already consumed 1lb of beef and have some salmon thawing out for supper). My diet is based around meat just like my ancestors before me, I consider meat a staple of my diet, my livelihood and overall well-being. I care about the environment, but when it comes to food it is a touchy subject. The world's population is growing at an alarming rate, and I believe this is the main issue.
As you can see from this chart above, beef and lamb have the largest impact. I have recently been trying to change my diet to focus on more fish (as I'm not a big chicken or pork guy). I usually consume beef 5 days a week and fish the other 2 days, but I'm looking to switch those two around, respectively. I want to go 5 days a week on seafood and then 2 days of beef, so that will help. I think little steps like this are more practical.
A true believer often engages in all or nothing thinking, i.e., the world is divided into people who eat meat and people who do not. I think that's silly; people can cut way back on the amount of meat and create an advantage both for the planet and for themselves.
When I was a child in the 1950's there was the erroneous belief that to get enough protein one should eat meat three times a day. We normally had either bacon, sausage, or ham with our eggs for breakfast, and meat for the other two meals as well. Now it is known that such a diet contains too much saturated fat and is not necessary for adequate protein intake.
I have given up the habit of having meat three times a day; for many years now I have averaged about one time a day, although I am not a fanatic about it. A lot of days chicken may be the only meat I eat. In other words, I consume only about one-third the amount of meat I did when I was a child, teenager, and young adult.
I consider anyone who would object to that reduced amount of meat I consume to be a fanatic and a zealot.
Well, I am concerned about what is healthy, so meats are staple of my diet, with fish, chicken, pork and beef consistently part of my diet in that order. I have much less than in my younger days much as Escort Rider described.
I do consider environment very important, but that could best be attained by changing an economic business financial system that looks to increase velocity via planned obsolescence and undue focus on 'demand creation' for useless products across the spectrum. But I digress.
If I recall, based upon human teeth quite a few are designed for tearing into flesh, so, one could say we should consume a certain percent of it in our diets. Perhaps some consume too much: whether culturally (think hundreds of years ago when royalty would be stricken with diseases like gout) and others not enough (see post 5); I also had a female co worker about 8 years ago who shared the same sort of physical deleterious effects of having a 'vegan' lifestyle and having to change for health purposes.
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All or nothing thinking
Just bustin' your chops.
