03-23-2010, 06:56 PM
monica i can completely see where you're coming from, i typed most of this reply out in the 'veggies by force' thread but then thought it may be more appropriate here.
thinking about the struggle with why some people find vegetarianism hard, i find it helpful to remember that we are souls inhabiting a 2d animal in our human form and that our 2d physical shell has evolved on an omnivorous diet and many people may find meat / fish a necessity
i am a vegetarian by your definition monica. while i have toyed with a vegan diet at times, and in terms of foodstuffs eat mainly vegan meals, i do have regular dairy and on and off eat eggs (i used to be violently allergic to eggs and now go through phases where i am intollerant, at other times they cause no discomfort)
however, vegetarianism was never a choice for me - eating flesh always felt inherrently alien, and i stopped eating meat and fish as soon as i had worn my parents sufficiently down about it. so if eating meat felt so completely unnatural to me, then i can totally sympathise with others who find a vegetarian diet similarly strange.
the most appropriate path for each entity can only be found within. i can remember a conversation with one of my parents when i was very small about the differences between cannibalism and eating meat - i personally saw no difference and i can remember the confusion of the conversation well because the distinctions didn't make sense to me.
making the choice for my child to be vegetarian has taken more careful consideration. when contemplating whether or not to offer him meat i came to the realisation that 'normal' within my home was veggie, even if normal in my wider society was omniverous. therefore he already made the decision to be a veggie child before incarnating by chosing me as his mother. difficult to explain to relatives who try to get him to eat sausage rolls though...
as i've posted before, there are many, many wonderful people working in the farming and meat industries and it seems, in the uk at least, that there is a quiet revolution going on regarding food production that is putting ethical and sustainable farming high on the agenda. i know a few poineers in this field who are lightening the darkness of the meat industry who are very much enlightened souls
a dairy farmer i know is an amazing example of this. he's just started building a commercial dairy which will probably have the highest welfare standards in the world, whereby he will cut down dramatically the amount of milk he takes and will keep the calves with their mums for as long as they want. female calves will remain with the dairy herd. male calves will be reared for organic beef, leading very natural lives. contrast that with intensive dairy practices where male calves are shot at birth and female calves removed from the cow after 1 day, or less.
when i was finding out all about what he was doing last year he said 'the world consumes more beef and dairy than the world can sustain. beef and milk should be much more expensive than it is, they should be a luxury products'
instead meat and dairy have been normalised as every day sustenance. hearing a beef and dairy farmer say such things is radical, but changing food production industries can ony come from within these industries, and happily it seems to me, change is happening. rather than feel distress at such clearly enlightened individuals continuing to work in and participate in the meat industries, i would far rather celebrate those who are inspiring the industry to change for the better
thinking about the struggle with why some people find vegetarianism hard, i find it helpful to remember that we are souls inhabiting a 2d animal in our human form and that our 2d physical shell has evolved on an omnivorous diet and many people may find meat / fish a necessity
i am a vegetarian by your definition monica. while i have toyed with a vegan diet at times, and in terms of foodstuffs eat mainly vegan meals, i do have regular dairy and on and off eat eggs (i used to be violently allergic to eggs and now go through phases where i am intollerant, at other times they cause no discomfort)
however, vegetarianism was never a choice for me - eating flesh always felt inherrently alien, and i stopped eating meat and fish as soon as i had worn my parents sufficiently down about it. so if eating meat felt so completely unnatural to me, then i can totally sympathise with others who find a vegetarian diet similarly strange.
the most appropriate path for each entity can only be found within. i can remember a conversation with one of my parents when i was very small about the differences between cannibalism and eating meat - i personally saw no difference and i can remember the confusion of the conversation well because the distinctions didn't make sense to me.
making the choice for my child to be vegetarian has taken more careful consideration. when contemplating whether or not to offer him meat i came to the realisation that 'normal' within my home was veggie, even if normal in my wider society was omniverous. therefore he already made the decision to be a veggie child before incarnating by chosing me as his mother. difficult to explain to relatives who try to get him to eat sausage rolls though...
as i've posted before, there are many, many wonderful people working in the farming and meat industries and it seems, in the uk at least, that there is a quiet revolution going on regarding food production that is putting ethical and sustainable farming high on the agenda. i know a few poineers in this field who are lightening the darkness of the meat industry who are very much enlightened souls
a dairy farmer i know is an amazing example of this. he's just started building a commercial dairy which will probably have the highest welfare standards in the world, whereby he will cut down dramatically the amount of milk he takes and will keep the calves with their mums for as long as they want. female calves will remain with the dairy herd. male calves will be reared for organic beef, leading very natural lives. contrast that with intensive dairy practices where male calves are shot at birth and female calves removed from the cow after 1 day, or less.
when i was finding out all about what he was doing last year he said 'the world consumes more beef and dairy than the world can sustain. beef and milk should be much more expensive than it is, they should be a luxury products'
instead meat and dairy have been normalised as every day sustenance. hearing a beef and dairy farmer say such things is radical, but changing food production industries can ony come from within these industries, and happily it seems to me, change is happening. rather than feel distress at such clearly enlightened individuals continuing to work in and participate in the meat industries, i would far rather celebrate those who are inspiring the industry to change for the better