Is anyone here a vegan/vegetarian?

[Aflame]

 im a carnivore as i dont think i would do very well at being a veggie as  there isnt many i like ! but my freind is and she will cook meat for others so she isnt squeemish and she does eat fish i think  

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I can imagine the dairy industry is better than it used to be, I just personally disagree with taking the milk at all. Seems pretty unnatural to me.

Cows HAVE to be milked.  The udders become congested and inflamed and the cow is in a great deal of pain. If you don't milk her for a while, her udders dry up and can't give milk until she has another calf.

Just ask any breastfeeding human mother!   

That said, I don't agree with the way that animals are treated in slaughterhouses but then again, they are only run this way because of the massive population we have on this planet.    It would just be "terrible" if any of the thousands of McDonald's locations didn't have beef for hamburgers, or you couldn't go to a steakhouse and order steak, right? 

Even countries that don't eat large amounts of meat destroy resources in other ways - the Japanese for example.  They don't eat much beef or drink much milk, but they've overfished their oceans and they face incredible amounts of criticism for their whaling.  In equatorial Africa, the people use agriculture to feed themselves, but the farming attracts large wild pigs as it's an easy food source for them.  Since it's against these people's religion to touch, kill or eat pork, the lions come in from the savannah and eat both the pigs AND the people!

I don't believe that personally choosing a "edible lifestyle" is going to make the planet "healthier" - what will ultimately make it a less-harvested place is the lack of humans grabbing at resources in order to sustain themselves and build up wealth/influence/power. 

Unless you are totally going off-grid and producing all your food, clothing, drinking water, medicine, etc. for each season and NOT stockpiling it, you are still supporting someone's lining their own pockets by sucking up resources... including buying My Little Ponies!  :-p 

This article explains a LOT:  http://paleoleap.com/vegetarianism-bad-environment/

I am NOT Paleo but I do agree with their perspective on food production : gonna do it, gonna do it locally!

[Gingerbread]

I've been veggie for.... (counts on fingers and toes) 31 years now. I wouldn't eat meat when I was little, even as a baby I would chuck up anything with meat in it! Last time I ate meat I was three, think it was a chicken kiev or something. Don't miss meat at all

[fingerpaints]

I would like to, but I have too many health issues and allergies to do so. And I love bacon andchicken, I could happily give up all other mmeat though. I have big problems with low iron, im going to have to get some tests done this week due to constant unexplained bruisingwhich I believe is due to iron deficiencies. I don't like red meat and fish but force myself to eat it from time to time for health reasons.

[ponybabe]

I'm also on the pescetarian team, been so for the last 1½ years although I'd been considering it for quite a few years before I took the plunge

Don't know if I'll go vegetarian but I haven't completely ruled it out

[Vintergatan]

I've been vegetarian for just over 10 years now It's the first "adult" decision i made, mainly because I was being discouraged by my family when I was a kid (with all the, now disproved, "you need meat to grow and be healthy"). So I just told them, ok, as soon as I turn 18, I'm turning vegetarian and here we are

I'd LOVE to be vegan, but being vegetarian in Iceland is an ordeal in its own right, so maybe some day.
Also, regarding milking cows, LBS, cows don't need to be milked if you just leave them alone. Obviously the udders would dry up as is natural. Any human mother usually does not continue producing milk for years on end, but only for so long as she actively breastfeeds. I'm pretty sure that's what Shimmlight mean when she said it's unnatural.

I also have a lot to say about the effects on the environment, having a master's in environmental science and all, but this topic is not about that, so let's not go there please

So yes, there are quite a few of us on this board

[BlackCurtains]

I'm also on the pescetarian team

Same I was vegetarian for about a year but screwed myself up pretty bad (mostly my own fault) so now I make sure to eat eggs or fish once a week.

[Zapper]

My reasoning, Dad was a butcher, need I say more?

So many men in my family have been or still are butchers. When I was a kid I had two bunny rabbits and one of my uncles always threatened to kill them...

I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian since age 14, that's over 10 years and I'm still doing great
I have never liked the taste of meat and I always had the feeling I wasn't taking too well to it, either. I often felt sick after eating pork or chicken, and fish was a kind of food I couldn't even stand smelling. So it was fairly easy for me to just stop eating it on principle.

[Rosette]

I am!  I've been vegetarian for nine years now, vegan for most of that. 

[Whippycorn]

I also have a lot to say about the effects on the environment, having a master's in environmental science and all, but this topic is not about that, so let's not go there please

Ditto, as an Ecologist. But I refrained. 

[shimmlight]

I'm so glad to meet some veges and vegans 

[ladyfenrir]

I'm vegetarian, it's been just over 12 years now. I always hated the taste and texture of meat when i was younger, it was always a struggle to get me to eat meat... so yeah, one day I just decided "no more" and the rest is history.

I would love to go vegan, but it's not easy in iceland. however, being vegetarian here is super easy, if you live in one of the larger towns! it used to be horrible when i started, but now it's very easy. ^^ I've done quite a bit of travelling, and so far the best veggie food I've had is here in iceland... even the supposedly "best" veggie restaurant in england was only on the same level as my favorite one in iceland.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I also have a lot to say about the effects on the environment, having a master's in environmental science and all, but this topic is not about that, so let's not go there please

Ditto, as an Ecologist. But I refrained. 

But what if we're actually interested in knowing?  Because if I'm wrong and all the studies I have read are wrong, I would really like to know the truth so I can have proper discussions with people!    You can start a separate thread if you want so we don't de-rail this one...  Yes yes I am the weird one who will ask a million "Why's"!  :-p

[shimmlight]

I personally could talk for ages on the subject of veganism and why it's all in all better for the environment, animals and us as people, but yes I didn't want to go into that here xD but like you I'm open to discussing it elsewhere

[Whippycorn]

We were specifically asked not to discuss it in this thread, that's all. 

I'm always happy to discuss science and the environment!