The Vegetarian & Vegan Thread

[Olimpia]

My reasons for becoming vegetarian were:

1. Ethical: I don't want to eat something that has been tortured, electrocuted or punished during its whole life to life in a severely overcrowded shelter just for me to eat it. It's all about karma. And quality: we are what we eat.

2. Today's farming methods: I don't think it's healthy to eat chicken that due to the lack of space grows deformed and is forced to grow quickly by hormones. When I learnt about this, I took the decision to only eat free range, organic chicken - after some time, I started not liking the taste of chicken and decided to completely rule it out of my diet.

3. Health: I feel so much better when I don't eat meat.

4. Poverty, climate change and sustainable development: if humans ate all the food that is given to animals and drunk all the water they consume we could erradicate hunger and children death because of no resources, for example in Africa. Moreover, producing meat creates a huge quantity of CO2 - contributing to climate change.

It's a little pricey but Stella MCcartney doesn't use any animal products in her clothes and I believe they're all eco friendly too. I wish more people would do that. I'm glad H&M are using recycled fabrics for their new items. And they actually look great!

I was very proud of Stella and her brand. She really is one step ahead and I'm glad she has such an influence in fashion.

 

[Ashcottmanor]

^ Me too Stella is very proactive and ahead of her time. I think she's lovely! I just wish I could afford her clothes.

 

[cloudyshambles]

My reasons for becoming vegetarian were:

1. Ethical: I don't want to eat something that has been tortured, electrocuted or punished during its whole life to life in a severely overcrowded shelter just for me to eat it. It's all about karma. And quality: we are what we eat.

2. Today's farming methods: I don't think it's healthy to eat chicken that due to the lack of space grows deformed and is forced to grow quickly by hormones. When I learnt about this, I took the decision to only eat free range, organic chicken - after some time, I started not liking the taste of chicken and decided to completely rule it out of my diet.

3. Health: I feel so much better when I don't eat meat.

4. Poverty, climate change and sustainable development: if humans ate all the food that is given to animals and drunk all the water they consume we could erradicate hunger and children death because of no resources, for example in Africa. Moreover, producing meat creates a huge quantity of CO2 - contributing to climate change.

excellent post!! it sums up nicely all the good reasons to go vegetarian/vegan and i agree with every point!
if more people educated themselves about all those points and raised their awareness i'm sure there would be more vegetarians!

 

[Serenity*Now]

^ ITA!
and stated in such a co-existing, non-confrontational way to boot!

 

[shopsmuch]

My reasons for becoming vegetarian were:

4. Poverty, climate change and sustainable development: if humans ate all the food that is given to animals and drunk all the water they consume we could erradicate hunger and children death because of no resources, for example in Africa. Moreover, producing meat creates a huge quantity of CO2 - contributing to climate change.

As a vegetarian since age 8 and a vegan since age 13, I fully agree with your post, but I just wanted to say that your characterization of Africa is offensive and off-mark. There is hunger in every country, western or not. Africa isn't just a swatch of barren land with starving people everywhere, it's a huge continent 2.5 times the size of the USA and in the majority of places in most years, people eat just fine; there are plenty of resources to go around. Yes, there are many people suffering from famine in Africa at any give time, but it's famine due to natural causes (locusts, drought, etc.) and has been occurring for tens of thousands of years on the continent. It has a little to do with poor agricultural practices but not much. The only way to provide food to these areas is to continue to ship food in from other areas, which is extremely expensive and as poor a maintenance of land for agricultural practices and waste of resources as the meat and dairy industries. Basically that difficulty suggests that these areas should maintain low populations over time, not that we should continue to encourage people to live and reproduce in areas which cannot support their population numbers, which providing an endless supply of food on the tab of more wealthy countries would certainly do. It sounds cruel, but it's not smart or safe to allow a population to reproduce past the capacity of what its environment can maintain (in other words, we should ALL be able to eat local, across the world, if not, we're doing something wrong or are suffering from a temporary natural disaster).
The meat and dairy industries waste too many resources like land and water for us in the UK or USA to all be able to eat local, unfortunately, and this is where the problem of resource scarcity comes in when we talk about those industries. We are mismanaging our own resources and many, many people go without food in OUR OWN COUNTRIES because the costs of agriculture senselessly inflate the prices of land and food, leaving those with little money unable to eat. Yes, people in the western world do die of starvation!

 

[tullepen]

I agree, I see a lot of homeless people around,Appalachia has a big problem with starvation,EVERY place does,it is prevalent everywhere,not just "in Africa." What a stereotype...
Can anyone recommend a soy milk that doesn't have cane sugar? I love Silk chocolate,but it has cane sugar...
Going to travel next to month and getting a bit apprehensive about traditional,older relatives trying to force feed me fish.Going to eat a can of beans before every family meal so I don't have problems...at least you can get canned beans,fresh veggies,fruit in abundance in Eastern Europe!

 

[Lilliana]

As a vegetarian since age 8 and a vegan since age 13, I fully agree with your post, but I just wanted to say that your characterization of Africa is offensive and off-mark. There is hunger in every country, western or not. Africa isn't just a swatch of barren land with starving people everywhere, it's a huge continent 2.5 times the size of the USA and in the majority of places in most years, people eat just fine; there are plenty of resources to go around. Yes, there are many people suffering from famine in Africa at any give time, but it's famine due to natural causes (locusts, drought, etc.) and has been occurring for tens of thousands of years on the continent. It has a little to do with poor agricultural practices but not much. The only way to provide food to these areas is to continue to ship food in from other areas, which is extremely expensive and as poor a maintenance of land for agricultural practices and waste of resources as the meat and dairy industries. Basically that difficulty suggests that these areas should maintain low populations over time, not that we should continue to encourage people to live and reproduce in areas which cannot support their population numbers, which providing an endless supply of food on the tab of more wealthy countries would certainly do. It sounds cruel, but it's not smart or safe to allow a population to reproduce past the capacity of what its environment can maintain (in other words, we should ALL be able to eat local, across the world, if not, we're doing something wrong or are suffering from a temporary natural disaster).
The meat and dairy industries waste too many resources like land and water for us in the UK or USA to all be able to eat local, unfortunately, and this is where the problem of resource scarcity comes in when we talk about those industries. We are mismanaging our own resources and many, many people go without food in OUR OWN COUNTRIES because the costs of agriculture senselessly inflate the prices of land and food, leaving those with little money unable to eat. Yes, people in the western world do die of starvation!

excuse me, I don't want to be controversial, but do you have any data to support your statements?
I must admit I am vegetarian for purely ethical reasons and vegan as well as a protest to todays farming methods. I find these reasons sufficient enough.
In all honesty, humans are by nature omnivores, so reasonable amounts of meat should not be harmful for ones health. I guess dairy products are less natural. But admittedly I feel healthier as a vegan, but I think this comes from being generally more attentive to what I eat
Poverty, climate change and sustainable development are a highly complex matter. One surely does not do more harm to it as a vegan, but I doubt that it would be the solution to these problems, at least not the only one.
Famine and esp poverty in Africa is not only due to natural reasons, political reasons like civil wars and corrupt regimes as well as economical reasons - i.e. western countries dumping the markets. Yes there is a lot of well developed african countries, but comparing the problems of the worse off regions with the poor in western countries seems to be belittling, to say the least. I admit I have no idea about numbers of the death toll in western countries because of starvation, but the fact is we live in a world of superfluous nutrition. Again I am not informed about the US but in Europe there is a tight social security net - by state and private institutions. I am sure nobody has to starve in a world where many people choose deliberately to live as freegans and provide for their food this way.
As to your statement concerning local food and population numbers I find it highly troublesome. I agree in an ideal world there would be no overpopulation and only local organic food, but as to "it is not smart or safe to allow" people in certain regions to have more children, I don't find this cruel but surely unfeasible and assuming. Who are we to decide who is allowed to reproduce and who not - even if it is based on where they live -, actually this is a fundamental human right. Given those facts one should better concentrate on developing sustainable yet rewarding farming methods and increasing living standards all over the world, because this has proved to be the most effective way to cut population growth. and yes as long as one has to ship that food to people who really have no other options, one better should. I don't see how feeding people could ever be a waste of resources. it is only a waste to let it rot, like western countries do for price stability.

 

[Marjon]

My reasons for becoming vegetarian were:

1. Ethical: I don't want to eat something that has been tortured, electrocuted or punished during its whole life to life in a severely overcrowded shelter just for me to eat it. It's all about karma. And quality: we are what we eat.

2. Today's farming methods: I don't think it's healthy to eat chicken that due to the lack of space grows deformed and is forced to grow quickly by hormones. When I learnt about this, I took the decision to only eat free range, organic chicken - after some time, I started not liking the taste of chicken and decided to completely rule it out of my diet.

3. Health: I feel so much better when I don't eat meat.

4. Poverty, climate change and sustainable development: if humans ate all the food that is given to animals and drunk all the water they consume we could erradicate hunger and children death because of no resources, for example in Africa. Moreover, producing meat creates a huge quantity of CO2 - contributing to climate change.

Seriously, this is the best explanation I've ever heard. Thanks.

 

[soymilkfreak]

we're having our senior picnic tomorrow and my class president just texted me saying that she bought veggie burgers and veggie trays for few vegetarians from our class and i. I just wanted to share cause I found it sweet and thoughtful, my own friends sometimes forget/neglect the fact that I'm vegetarian, inviting me to places that specialize in serving ribs and steaks!

 

[tullepen]

That is really thoughtful! I was at a picnic the other day, everyone else was eating disgusting terry beef burgers with white buns...I brought a vegetable grain spaghetti salad with lentils,which only my friend dared to try. That's the main reason I never eat out (also it's a waste of money). My friends are all vegan or vegetarian, so I am really lucky in that they don't think what I consume is extreme.
I became vegetarian because I realized what I was eating had been killed. I find that so wrong. People will blindly eat something without consideration to HOW it got to their plates. My issue is what we consume and what we are aware of. You can choose to be limited by what you consume or not, but I don't. I feel so great about what I consume,that it is local,organic, that I can source directly where it came from. It's a shame most people choose not to be aware.

 

[tullepen]

Where my fellow vegans at?!?!

 

[Ashcottmanor]

^Really!.... I need some good recipes for dinner I don't know if anyone has tried them but Nana's No Gluten/Vegan cookies at Whole Foods are awesome. I really love the peanut butter and chocolate chip ones. But my favorite is the oatmeal raisin. They're sooo good!

 

[tullepen]

ooh they are yurmy oh yurmy indeeeeeed
I finished Amy's burgers the other day,they are so good with avocado salad and agave sweetened ketchup!

 

[Ashcottmanor]

^Wow that sounds really good!! I love Amy's burgers, her southwest one is wonderful.

 

[tullepen]

I love the All American ones! mmm

 

[cestmagique]

One super good vegan meal is barbeque chickpea sandwiches... you basically just boil chickpeas until soft, bake them for 8 minutes or so with a little bit of cayenne, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper, dress them up with a good barbeque sauce, and put them on warm burger buns with chopped pickle and chopped yellow onion. It's extremely messy but soooo good.

 

[parisia]

Anyone feel like sharing their favourite recipe?

 

[tullepen]

what kind of recipe? dinner?
I cook a yam for 6 minutes in the microwave,first poke it several times with a fork so it won't explode LOL, and I have that with a big salad with kale,arugula,lentils,tomatoes,olive oil,broccoli,kalamata olives,roasted pine nuts.

 

[EXOskeleton]

all i've been eating lately is brown rice. yesterday was half rice half lentils, today it was half rice half millet haha gotta love being poor.

recipe? i do make this bean burger recipe alot, and change the bean/grain/flavourings to what i have/feel like:
http://sweetbeetandgreenbean.net/2009/02/04/kidney-bean-and-quinoa-burgers/

 

[parisia]

I make a lot of low fat muffins plus I have the best vegan chocolate cake/brownie recipe that is really rich. Definitely not healthy but delicious when you want to treat yourself. If you cook it for under the recommended time, it turns out almost like a fudge. Plus it's cheap to make Let me know if anyone wants the recipe.

I also like to make veggie tacos quite a bit, using red kidney beans instead of meat. Pasta with vegetables mixed in it. Roasted Mediterranean vegetables. Bircher muesli is great for breakfasts or any time during the day.