vegetarian/vegan (Question of the week 4-15)

what are your opinions about vegetarians staying vegetarians and never going vegan? do you think it is hypocritical to just be vegetarian? i plan on becomeing vegan sometime in the near future and buy vegan things more recently but still havent taken the plunge.

 

I'm vegetarian and will probably always will be. (neither going back to meat or going towards veganism) Though I try and avoid animal products (bar my leather chair which was bought abit before i went veggie) I also don't eat gelatine and other animal products, but milk and eggs I will eat. Without milk or eggs I think i'd be quite ill..

Each person has their own choices and boundaries, some choose to stay eating meat whilst others choose to not eat meat or any other animal bi/products atall, neither is wrong as it's the person's choice, noone elses.

 

I don't see anything wrong with it. If everybody went vegetarian, or even drastically cut down on their consumption of animal products, that would make a HUGE difference. So I applaud anyone who's doing what they can, what they feel they're able to do. I don't know how long you've been vegetarian, but depending on your reasons for being veg, especially if they were ethical to begin with, you might find that over time your ethical conviction grows, that you realize you CAN live well without eggs and milk, and start to transition to strict veg or vegan. I"ve been a vegetarian for 12 years, and I'm now about 98% strict veg, going for 100%. I'm buying vegan products whenever I can. If you get there, great, if not, that's OK too, and don't take it to heart if somebody slams you for your choices. Good luck!

 

(hugging the honey jar)

I'm vegetarian. And I could never go vegan. I could go 95-98% vegan... but NOBODY is gonna talk me outta my honey! And I'm still okay with things like secondhand leather or wool & don't personally see a contradiction there, so that would prevent me from being a true vegan too. And yeah, I'm okay with that.

I think it's definitely different for everyone. A lot of people see vegetarianism as a step towards veganism. And yeah, it certainly can be. But I don't know that it MUST be. Veganism is a choice, just like vegetarianism. Not everyone is going to make the same choices, and I think that's just fine.
love,
mom

 

I think vegetarianism is a good preperation for veganism, just like I used pescaterianism for a bit to prep for cutting out all meat products. but people should make up their own minds about what they eat.

 

I don't agree that vegetarianism is a "step" on the road for vegan-ism... kind of makes vegetarians feel like they're not doing anything except on a ladder of progression towards the vegan lifestyle..

Each choice is a personal choice, hence the right choice for that person.

 

I don't think vegetarianism is hypocritical nor necessarily a step towards veganism. We are all on our own path and they do not have to lead to the same place. And that is cool.

 

I made the choice to become vegetarian mostly for health reasons. The longer I am veggie the more I think of the ethical reasons. Although I mourn for the baby cows that are taken away from their mothers too soon and I really don't like that the males are slaughtered for veal, I need to make some concessions for my family. Eating foods with cheese and eggs in them allows me to only cook one meal that I will eat and my carnivore family will eat. So that's what I do. I don't drink milk but I cook with it. I rarely eat eggs but I cook with them. I do use honey and I'm not likely to stop. I do not use products that are made by using animal bones and things like that. Things like gelatin and white sugar. Those are the choices I've made. Maybe someday when my son is grown I will switch to vegan but that's not in the cards today.

Kathi

 

strictly by definition, if you are in the veg lifestyle for animal rights/anti-animal cruelty reasons, and are only a vegetarian, then you are in fact a hypocrite.
"a person whose actions belie stated beliefs"

 

I don't think it makes you a hypocrite at all. Just by cutting out meat you are making a great difference in the world. Not everyone has the discipline to cut out every single animal product in the world. Its really hard, we have always used animal resources and we still are and trying to get away from that is not easy. I try not to buy leather but at least its a by-product. And I try not to eat dairy but firstly, its in a lot of things, and cheese helps me out a lot.
Some people think its not even worth it if you're doing it for animal rights to just be vegetarian... apparently my boyfriend was a vegetarian for a few months and stopped because he was trying to go vegan and couldn't. Well damnit I wish I knew him then =(

But no. I still think by boycotting meat from factory farms you are doing HUGE progress.

 

I don't eat meat or drink milk. It would be hard to stop eating eggs and yogurt for me. If the vegan substitutes for yogurt and cheese were not so expensive, I would easily go for those, as American cheese sucks to begin with. But the vegan yogurts/cheeses are double the price OR MORE where I am. But I tend to stay away from American cheese to begin with. But I could never leave the French cheeses (to damn amazing for words), baguettes and chocolate. After going to France (my gf is from there) and trying the bread and cheeses, going vegan is crazy to me because they are so freakin good. I Don't think you know what you are missing!

So, I guess I will always stay veggie and drink lots of soy milk. When I make more money I will go with different yogurt than I get now. But I am a poor college student and a 1.89 container of columbo is better than 3.99 vegan yogurt right now. Until I find a egg substitute, I will continue to eat eggs, because I really like omelets. The perfect vegan substitute would have to allow me to make omelets and costs around 2.50 for a dozen (good for three breakfests for me). I will never leave cheese 100%, even if I just stick with brie and other french cheeses cause they are to good, especially if I someday live in France which I hope to, and of course baguettes and other french breads.

oh, I forgot, the only time I have milk is for crepes. you need milk to make crepes. My gfs mom makes good ones and her grandma makes superb ones. sometimes you just don't mess with a good recipe.

I asked my gf about veganism and vegatrainism in France and she does not think it is as large of a culture as here in the states. Obviously with the crepes, bread and cheeses made for many years, I would doubt there are many vegans. But even with veggies, she is pretty sure it is much bigger in the states than in her country. just food for thought.

If I were to stay in France for a long period of time I would obviously maitain my veggie lifestyle as much as I could but would adapt if I were a vegan, to a dairy lifestyle again. I imagine a vegan going to a foreign country may have a pretty tough time in many ways for obvious reasons. Especially if there was a language barrier. New foods, nutrition info in different languages, ect. Not just personally either, but socially: explaining to others why you are rejecting a lot of the food they have cooked for you. If my gfs mom cooks me chicken, I don't speak her language well and she doesn't speak mine well; rather than reject her or hurt her feelings, I would probably eat it. Meals are big at my gfs house (as is the same throughot a lot of Europe. Everyone sits down (sometimes foreign in the states) and eats the meal prepared. It would be rude of me to expect them to cater to my culture while in their. Unrealistic. Just like when you are in Africa and someone offers you something. you eat/drink it out of respect. I can't expect her parents to forfeit some of the meals they tend to prepare or make a 2nd one for me. Out of curiousity, anyone experienced this?

 

"I imagine a vegan going to a foreign country may have a pretty tough time in many ways for obvious reasons. Especially if there was a language barrier. New foods, nutrition info in different languages, ect."

You learn them, thats half the fun and challenge!


"Not just personally either, but socially: explaining to others why you are rejecting a lot of the food they have cooked for you. If my gfs mom cooks me chicken, I don't speak her language well and she doesn't speak mine well; rather than reject her or hurt her feelings, I would probably eat it. Meals are big at my gfs house (as is the same throughot a lot of Europe. Everyone sits down (sometimes foreign in the states) and eats the meal prepared. It would be rude of me to expect them to cater to my culture while in their. Unrealistic. Just like when you are in Africa and someone offers you something. you eat/drink it out of respect. I can't expect her parents to forfeit some of the meals they tend to prepare or make a 2nd one for me. Out of curiousity, anyone experienced this?"

this happens even in all cultures, people prepare meals and expect you to join them and oops, you can't eat it. I don't see how being somewhere else and experiencing it is going to change what your response is. Apart from maybe using that language you have gone and specially bothered to learn in order to explain to them that thankyou very much however you don't eat meat and despite appreciating the effort that has been gone to, you are just going to sit and nibble on the bread roll. You know you might be surprised how receptive people from other countries can be towards your choices and how accomodating they can be at times too. And then in the process be introduced to some fantastic regional vegetarian dishes!

 

It depends- if you're only against the brutal killing of animals / eating rotten corpses = vegetarian.

If you are against the suffering through which the animals in mordern factory farms go and the slaughter of animals= vegan.

Personally, I think that the suffering that leads up to a death is what makes it such a terrible occurance, which is why I refuse to eat eggs and cheese. The animals are literally put through hours of hell to provide you with a few moments of comfort. I think that in certain cases, I'd see it to be morally superior to eat chicken than to eat an egg (if the chicken were free-roaming and the egg was from a caged hen) just because I really think it is unfair to put these animals through constant hell to merely reap their own fruit.

Finally- I would like to say that if I had my own group of hens on my property I would be morally OK with eating the eggs and the same with the cow (if she had enough milk left over after feeding her babies) But honestly milk disgusts me and always had and am certain that I will never drink it ever again.

 

yah but there are organic farmers. who feed their live stock grains instead of...road kill, who treat their animals better. They are not fed any growth hormones, no antibotics or animal by products. They are not pent up and killed in disgusting ways.

These eggs I have right now, are all natural vegetarian fed (diet rich in soy in fact) free range and naturally raised and all that jazz. soooo, not all farms are brutual.. just support the right ones.