Would you consider?

[Hipy]

I am! I LOVE being a vegetarian! I don't push my beliefs on anyone not even my family. My husband and my youngest eat meat, my oldest and I don't!

If you want to know why it's simple, the thought of eating dead flesh really just totally grosses me out. ;-) Give me a big ole bowl of lentil soup and a whole wheat english muffin and I will do the happy dance

 

[hillsdown]

i think, vegans do not eat ANY meat whatsoever, and vegetarians will stray with chicken or fish. it may be the other way around. feel free to correct me.

Vegans claim to use no animal products. They do, of course. There are animal byproducts in sheet rock, wall paint, car tires, sidewalks, roads, glues in furniture, in transmission of electricity.... The only way to avoid animal by products would be to live in a cave and these people aren't going to do that. They ignore that the vegan diet, consisting of mostly veggies and grains, also kills animals; mice, ground nesting birds, moles, etc., are killed or displaced when a field is plowed for crop planting. But they won't wear leather. :roll:

I have a cousin that is a vegan but she just loves toasted marshmallows or marshmallows in her hot chocolate.I just chuckle to myself when I see this maybe she should do some research as to how those marshmallows are made ;-) .

 

[NamVet_Farmer44]

Would you ever consider being a vegetarian,

Would I consider being a vegetarian?...well yeah, i'd consider it on one occasion...if there was not 1 bite of meat left on this earth...then I may consider it, but....i'd probably rather just starve to death instead

 

[IluvABbeef]

No, never have and never will. I can't eat vegetables without having a nice, juicy slab of steak close by. And I hate tofu.

What the rest of the folks who posted on here who freely eat meat have to say about vegetarians, I copy that.

 

[SilverCharm]

I am a vegan but I never try to push anyone into eating or not eating anything they do not want to. In fact, hardly anyone knows I am a vegan. It is all a personal choice and I have no problem with anyone's eating habits.

Anyway, I would just like to clear this up... There are ovo-lacto-vegetarians (eggs and milk), just ovo- or just lacto- vegetarians, and then there are vegans who avoid all animal products. If the people who eat only chicken or fish call themselves 'vegetarians', they just like to have a lable... In reality, they are just picky omnivores!

While I am a vegan and do try to avoid some animal products (mostly in food), the fact is no one can. I did not become a vegan for the animals, though, only my health.

And yes, I do realize this is a cattle board! I was only curious to see if anyone else was a vegetarian/vegan.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Don't sit next to my 6 yo, especially when she anounces she wants dead chicken for lunch.
The butchering of our animals is never hidden from our kids. They know it as a way of life. My son thinks the kids in town have a terrible life because they have no idea where their food comes from.

Did you know that if every person in the USA turned to a vegan diet there would not be enough food to feed everybody? :shock:
Rather funny that these groups keep pushing it, but do not see the facts in front of them.

 

[Victoria]

I can't imagine being vegetarian. I suppose I would be if I lived in the city so I couldn't kill my own animals and animals were actually treated the way that PETA tries to make everyone believe they are treated. Really if an animal was tortured its' entire life and then hacked to death with a dull butter knife I wouldn't eat it. That's why I think educating the public to how meat animals are actually raised and slaughtered is important. Moral issues disappear once you see my spoiled cows that are killed fast.

I have known 2 vegetarians. One is my best friend. She really doesn't much like meat. She now eats it because she is married with children and doesn't want to mess up their diets but it just isn't her favourite thing. That's fine with me, I prefer meat to vegetables, personal taste is what it is.
I worked with one vegetarian that went on and on about how cruel it is to eat meat. I asked why she wore leather shoes then. I spent some time educating her on what products cows contribute too and the lives they actually lead. She was misinformed and as an embassador of the industry it was my job to explain rather than put her down.

 

[SilverCharm]

Don't sit next to my 6 yo, especially when she anounces she wants dead chicken for lunch.
The butchering of our animals is never hidden from our kids. They know it as a way of life. My son thinks the kids in town have a terrible life because they have no idea where their food comes from.

Did you know that if every person in the USA turned to a vegan diet there would not be enough food to feed everybody? :shock:
Rather funny that these groups keep pushing it, but do not see the facts in front of them.

Actually, I luv herfrds, I beg to differ. If everyone did become a vegan (which I highly doubt would ever happen), there would be more food...

Here are some statistics:

20,000 pounds of potatoes can be grown on an acre of land.

165 pounds of beef can be produced on an acre of land.

60,000,000- the number of people who could be adequately fed by grains if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%.

'If everyone went vegan, there would be more than enough food to nourish the world's entire population—more than 6.3 billion people. The WorldWatch Institute sums this up perfectly, saying, "[M]eat consumption is an inefficient use of grain—the grain is used more efficiently when consumed by humans. Continued growth in meat output is dependent on feeding grain to animals, creating competition for grain between affluent meat-eaters and the world's poor."'

"It should be no surprise, then, that food for a vegan can be produced on only 1/6 of an acre of land, while it takes 3 1/4 acres of land to produce food for a meat-eater." -Ibid

Amount of US grain fed to livestock- 70% -Ayres, E. (1998)

 

[Lammie]

Anyway, I would just like to clear this up... There are ovo-lacto-vegetarians (eggs and milk), just ovo- or just lacto- vegetarians, and then there are vegans who avoid all animal products. If the people who eat only chicken or fish call themselves 'vegetarians', they just like to have a lable... In reality, they are just picky omnivores!

.

My son's friend's mother is English and she says that where she is from they didn't think of fish as meat, so vegetarians over there eat fish but no other kinds of mean. That was what she said.

 

[Hipy]

Thanks for the facts SilverCharm............I wonder how much longer this thread will be now ;-)

 

[Dave]

SilverCharm,

Another fact that you might not realize is that 76% of "agriculture land' in the USA is suitable for grazing only. Cows turn that grass into food which humans can use. Not all meat is produced with grain.

Also that land which is capable of growing 10 tons per acre of potatoes will certainly grow a lot more that 165 pounds of beef. Land which is that productive is typically not used for grazing. However, over in the Columbia Basin where they do grow 10 tons of spuds per acre they use alfalfa as a rotational crop. The yield on those alfalfa fields generally runs 6 to 8 tons of hay per acre. This much forage regardless if it is harvested mechanically or by grazing will certainly produce much more than 165 pounds of beef.

Statistics can be used to make a case for anything but they almost never tell the complete story.

 

[3MR]

Don't sit next to my 6 yo, especially when she anounces she wants dead chicken for lunch. .

Actually I would be more concerned if she anounced she wanted live chicken for lunch. ;-)

 

[3MR]

SilverCharm,

Another fact that you might not realize is that 76% of "agriculture land' in the USA is suitable for grazing only. Cows turn that grass into food which humans can use. Not all meat is produced with grain.

Also that land which is capable of growing 10 tons per acre of potatoes will certainly grow a lot more that 165 pounds of beef. Land which is that productive is typically not used for grazing. However, over in the Columbia Basin where they do grow 10 tons of spuds per acre they use alfalfa as a rotational crop. The yield on those alfalfa fields generally runs 6 to 8 tons of hay per acre. This much forage regardless if it is harvested mechanically or by grazing will certainly produce much more than 165 pounds of beef.

Statistics can be used to make a case for anything but they almost never tell the complete story.

I was going to respond to that as well, but enough said. I think you explained it very well.

PS: Silver Charm - World hunger is not caused by lack of food in the world. The world has more than enough. Its caused by a lack of food where the hungry people are. Switching to a vegetarian lifestyle wont change that.

 

[Dave]

3MR,

That is very true. I remember just a few years ago Idaho farmers were leaving the potatoes in the fields to rot because they weren't worth the cost to harvest them. At the same time people were starving to death in Africa. The farmers offered to give away the spuds if someone would get them to the starving people. To make a long story short, the potatoes rotted in the fields.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Well said Dave.
Another thing on those potatos. Some of the farmers loaded them into trucks and shipped them to food banks and told people to help them selves and it didn't matter whether or not you needed the assitance.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Just remembered every time we butcher a beef or pig and have meat left over from before, we will take it to Meals on Wheels and FISH to be used rather then wasted.

 

[Gate Opener]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Rookie]

Ta each they own.

 

[SilverCharm]

SilverCharm,

Another fact that you might not realize is that 76% of "agriculture land' in the USA is suitable for grazing only. Cows turn that grass into food which humans can use. Not all meat is produced with grain.

Also that land which is capable of growing 10 tons per acre of potatoes will certainly grow a lot more that 165 pounds of beef. Land which is that productive is typically not used for grazing. However, over in the Columbia Basin where they do grow 10 tons of spuds per acre they use alfalfa as a rotational crop. The yield on those alfalfa fields generally runs 6 to 8 tons of hay per acre. This much forage regardless if it is harvested mechanically or by grazing will certainly produce much more than 165 pounds of beef.

Statistics can be used to make a case for anything but they almost never tell the complete story.

What you said is true (and statistics like the ones I gave are rarely reliable or accurate), but you cannot deny that most grain grown in the US is used to produce meat. Sure, a lot of meat is grassfed, but there are still many that are not. Feeding meat grain is inefficient.

I just did not agree with I luv herfrds statement, "Did you know that if every person in the USA turned to a vegan diet there would not be enouh food to feed everybody?". There would be enough food, but I doubt everyone would turn to vegan diet at the same time or that everyone (or even a majority of the people) would even want to turn to a vegan diet...


I do think there already is enough food to feed the hungry... The real problem is getting the food to them.

 

[The Bachelor]

Would you ever consider being a vegetarian, or are you a vegetarian?

The corns about gone now, but if everyday I could have sweet corn on the cob two hours after it was picked, I'd sure consider becomming one