mariacallas
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2004
- Messages
- 23,781
Omnivore's Dilemma is an amazing read.
I'm not the sort of person that likes to push vegetarianism-- if people are curious they'll ask about it. I've been a veg for 4 years, and I couldn't even imagine going back now. If you have any questions about vegetarianism, please feel free to PM me.
In answer to your question, unless you're buying your meat at a farmer's market, organic, certified cruelty free, chances are it has come from a factory farm. Imagine the same principles being used in high-volume agriculture being used to 'grow' animals. I'm not going to go into any huge details, but there are many many sites around that will tell you more than you would ever want to know about the horrendous conditions that most livestock have to go through. Personally, if (and that's a big if) I were to go back to eating meat, I would make friends with hunters. Wild meat is the ultimate free-range meat, and you have the added ethical bonus of knowing that the animal lead an essentially normal, likely healthy, full life.
Here's some guy's list of reasons to be a vegetarian. Unfortunately, many of his claims and numbers aren't backed up, but with a bit of research you can form your own opinions.
i know i already said this but, buy ethically harvested meat and dairy!!!
Dave said:In answer to your question, unless you're buying your meat at a farmer's market, organic, certified cruelty free, chances are it has come from a factory farm.
toa$t said:who's talking about fat content?
anyway, I am so not interested in arguing with you about this. go eat a mushroom burger, hippy.
Why do you harbour resentment against vegetarians?
i harbour no resentment against vegetarians. If you had read my posts, you would have seen that I tried not eating meat for a long time. and my girlfriend is veg. I do, however, harbour resentment towards people who say things that are simply not true.
its kind of like when an animal crosses the road when your driving you swerve so you dont hit it, it doesnt take much from you and it saves a life, isnt it your duty in such cases?
do you realize how many fatal car accidents are caused by people swerving to miss a squirrel?
Less concerned with what people choose to eat per se, Singer and Mason make a case for how people's everyday food choices affect others' lives. They describe in vivid detail how applying industrial processing principles to animal husbandry has led to cheap foods whose cost savings occur at the expense of animals raised for profit and for product. Using Wal-Mart as an example, they lay out how huge retailers wield enormous power over prices and compel those far up the chain of food production and distribution to make unhelpful decisions. They hold up for admiration a Kansas family that has turned vegan so as not to participate in this particular destructive cycle of animal and human exploitation. They also thoughtfully and critically examine the ethical pros and cons of eating meat in any form. Urban dwellers far removed from the source of the foods they eat will find Singer and Mason's descriptions of food production more disturbing and violent than the quiet, attractive, plastic-wrapped displays in the local supermarket's pristine meat case.
warehouse punk said:Saving a few brainless animals because you feel bad for them? They would rather be weak & unhealthy as opposed to eating something that had parents.