All beings tremble before violence. All fear death. All love life. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do? ~Buddha
Most non vegetarians wonder what drives people to convert to vegetarians and give up their daily meat intake in order to adopt an entirely different way of lifestyle. There is no single answer to this question. Non vegetarians become vegetarians for a lot of different reasons - some even for multiple reasons. Most vegetarians claim that they became a vegetarian for one of three main reasons. The first reason , which most vegetarians claim, is that they have serious ethical problems with eating meat. Most disagree with how chickens are debeaked, forced to live in small cages, and are then slaughtered when they do not produce eggs fast enough. Most vegetarians also disagree with the crowded and stressful environments that animals are forced into; and the hormone-laden daily feed used to make them grow faster and produce more. People who become vegetarians for this purpose often draw ethical boundaries in different spots, depending on their indept personal beliefs. For instance, some
Who cares. The animals are food and clothing. Evolution isn't being vegetarian or vegan. I love how vegetarians think they know what "I" should eat. Each their own, but whether you eat meat or not, there's nothing wrong at all with either lifestyle. I will always as will most people continue being omnivore.
ReplyDeleteIt's absolutely wrong the way animals are reared and 'manufactured' to sit atop our plates! Even if you don't care for animals, I'm pretty sure you don't want to see them suffer...? I like the taste of meat too, but when it comes from a sad, bitter life that's been imprisoned in unnatural conditions, never seen the light of day, has been caught up in the sorry state of affairs that are FACTORY FARMS; then I choose to enjoy a plant-based diet. Factory farms are hell-holes. They are run by people who are motivated by MONEY. When there are 6 billion mouths to feed, there is no way an animal can be treated well. Therefore, it's up to the selfless among us to give up our share. Animals show amazing resilience to all the harm we inflict upon them, and how do we reward them? We slaughter them. Please go and visit a factory farm, then make your choice. No man can feel untouched having viewed what goes on behind those windowless walls. Again, I too like the taste of meat, but if your tongue rules your head then you're not worth engaging in a discussion with. Go and educate yourself on the perils of the meat agricultural industry. If not for the animals, then go veg for your health, and the plant/environment as a whole!
ReplyDeleteCallie, a l o a
In human poetry there are the lines,
ReplyDelete"Do not go gentle into that 'good night' ; [death]......
Rage, RAGE against the the dying of the light!" - Dylan Thomas
That was best exemplified in my memory on a family farm I was staying at as a child of maybe 5. A hog-killing happened while I was there. The hog (a pig is an immature swine, a hog is an adult) was tied down to a large skid on the back of a low trailer. I didn't see how they got him there. There were a couple of men standing nearby looking and he was realizing this was going to end badly for him. He was squealing in protest. The farmer loaded his rifle and took a relatively steady position sitting on the back of his truck, facing the hog. The squeal increased in loudness and desperation to a terrible screaming.
I retreated into the house. The gun went off, very accurately - silence. Then the men slit its throat to bleed out and began throwing boiling water heated on a nearby fire onto the body, and scraping the hair off. Hair that was coarser, but of about the same coverage, as that on the arms of the men doing the job. Then they began the butchering.
This was I suppose what people today would call "sustainable", "humane" meat production, because it wasn't the horrific conditions of a factory farm today for most of the creature's life; it had a fairly pleasant existence until THIS - terror and death.
I've been vegetarian since I was about 14. There are multiple reasons for that choice, and for continuing that choice, but this is one very influential even today, some 56+ years after the death of that one poor creature. I saw, I heard, I remember, and I will not let it be for nothing.
I no longer have any desire for meat. The smell of it cooking only makes me want fresh clean air, free of the smell of death.
BTW, I went non-dairy in the mid-80s and I am not sick or weak or dying of some deficiency. My bloodwork is all in ideal ranges. I can outwork and out-hike most people half my age. All that is from fruit, nuts and vegetables, and some grains; I don't live on supplements. The veg life is not a privation, it is a privilege.