being veggie

nanokitten

I think everyone has to do what feels right.
To be honest its very difficult to make an informed choice as the manufacturing paths of our foods are so convoluted nowerdays: you can get eggs from chickens who live long and happy lives in the open or brutally raised in an overcrowded cages. You can choose to be vegan only to consume food which has been grown on land created by slash and burn. You can wear leather which comes from a single kobe beef cow, lovingly raised by a farmer on beer or choose vinyl, made from petrochemicals and releasing chlorine products into the ecosystem.
Unless you are entirely self sufficient or you are friendly with the farmer you buy your dairy and meat from, you have little or now way to truely know where things come from. There are ethical, eco and fair trade alternatives and it is great to choose these where possible. Avoid waste, be thrifty, educate yourself, there's not much more you can do.

ceridwen

Not an easy question - I have chosen not to eat meat (for all the possible reasons: ethical/my health/less land used to produce my food/cost to my budget). I used to eat fish - but not any more - considering the amount of "junk" of various descriptions thrown into the oceans by some "people" (visions of all those chemicals on the one hand and that huge area of plastic waste somewheres out there on the other hand - which then breaks down and gets into fish/gets into those who eat fish). So - unless and until "people" stop treating the seas as a rubbish dump and find ways to clean up what has been dumped there already - then I'll avoid fish too.

Soya (ie the source of much vegan food) has always got G.M. in - unless its organic (and I wouldnt care to absolutely guarantee its safety then) and of course there's the element of how its grown (I believe a lot of rainforest has been cleared:mad: to provide land for growing it). Fortunately - I dislike soya anyway.

My preference would be to be vegan rather than vegetarian - specifically because I am aware of the facts in starter post on this thread - but I feel my diet would be too restricted for words if I didnt have meat or fish (as per anyway) or soya (for above reasons) and I would be very stuck as to just what I COULD eat.

Re milk substitutes - rice milk is one thing I find possible - but only the "Rice Dream" brand (whoops - sorry for mentioning a brand name:o) - as I have found the other brands revolting. It is possible to make one's own rice milk - though I've not tried that yet.

meerkatgirl

As a rule, veggies tend to consume less dairy products than meat eaters (there was a study done recently that discovered this - will post the link when I find it!) so they are in fact doing their bit for the environment and cutting down the number of animals consumed.

However, as a couple of posters have mentioned, going vegan is really the best way to go - dairy farming isn't really great for animal welfare and it's a really wasteful industry: male chicks and calves have to be killed at birth, for instance.

I think most veggies don't know this - and have been misinformed about how healthy a vegan diet can be - but they genuinely have an interest in animal welfare and for that they should get a round of applause!

Dr_DiNg_DoNg

want2bmortgage3 wrote: »

what is the point in being veggie?

if still consuming dairy and eggs means that you are contributing to an industry where male calves are shot at birth, and male chicks are gassed or shredded at birth, then surely its a bit hypocritical?

how many veggies realise this i wonder?

i ask because im still sitting on the fence and dont know whether to avoid animal products altogether or eat them and buy only organic well looked after meat.

If somebody is a vegetarian for ethical reasons, but can not give up dairy and eggs, then that is still a huge step forward in minimising their impact on animal suffering compared to meat eaters.

tori.k

If you want to be picky a vegetarian does not consume eggs or milk, a lacto vegetarian will, Vegans dont use any animal products at all ( prada shoes are off the menu)
But as ding dong says its a step in the right direction,

juliapenguin

Has anyone read 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' by Barbara Kingsolver? It's a wonderful book about her attempts to feed her family using completely local food and she has some really interesting things to say on this topic. She's a great writer ('The Poisonwood Bible' is un-put-downable) and the book is never preachy or annoying.

Definitely worth reading, if you're interested in this side of the ethical debate about vegetarianism/veganism.

Pink.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Fire_Fox

want2bmortgage3 wrote: »

what is the point in being veggie?

if still consuming dairy and eggs means that you are contributing to an industry where male calves are shot at birth, and male chicks are gassed or shredded at birth, then surely its a bit hypocritical?

how many veggies realise this i wonder?

i ask because im still sitting on the fence and dont know whether to avoid animal products altogether or eat them and buy only organic well looked after meat.

You could start keeping and breeding your own chickens so you know exactly where the eggs come from. A cow might be more problematic! :rotfl:

It's tough to eat a balanced vegan diet so you would need to do your homework, and be very well organised such as taking food with you every time you go out for the day.

Doom_and_Gloom

tori.k wrote: »

If you want to be picky a vegetarian does not consume eggs or milk, a lacto vegetarian will, Vegans dont use any animal products at all ( prada shoes are off the menu)
But as ding dong says its a step in the right direction,

A vegetarian does consume eggs and milk usually actually as the most common form of vegetarian is that of lacto-ovo-vegetarian.

A lacto-ovo vegetarian consumes both eggs and dairy.
A lacto-vegetarian is one that will consume dairy but no eggs.
An ovo-vegetarian is one that will consume eggs but not dairy.
Vegans do not eat any animal products including honey.

Most vegetarians will not wear animal products such as leather and vegans will wear none what so ever including sheep wool. So you are not being picky but misinformed.

Fire Fox it is not as difficult as most people think it is to obtain all the needed nutrition from a vegan diet, unfortunatly a lot of poeple have your misconception about veganism. As it is I believe no matter what kind of foods you consume you should know about nutrition as I find many omnis have no idea where they get their vitamins and minerals as it is. I always wonder how they can even tell someone who is not omni that they are doing wrong when they have no idea about their own diet?

As for needing to take food with you everywhere this is also not true. At the moment I'm having to go to London every week for accupunture for pain treatment and all I take with me is water then go off to get food. There are many places that sell vegan sanwiches, there are places that do vegetarian as well as vegan food in many places as I don't always have food on me. You can take food with you if you want to if you doubt the place you are going to will cater but most places are able even if it's just a salad and jaket potato or chips (cooked on their own in vegetable oil).

Ken68

From a moneysaving point of view, eating meat is expensive. (10lb. of grain to get 1lb. of animal protein)
Tinned fish and free range eggs from a neighbour , plus skimmed milk is my option. Some cheese wherever the cheapest.
Diet for a Small Planet says it all.