So to continue my discussion of fleshotarianism… Did you know Clint Eastwood is a vegan? Oh wait, he’s not, PETA just says he is.
When I went vegetarian, I was thinking about how far I wanted to take it. Considered going vegan, but it seemed excessive, and also inconvenient. It would be impossible to eat out or use prepackaged foods while sticking to the standards set up by vegans. No meat? OK. No dairy, eggs, or honey? That’s barely doable. My personal compromise was to simply try not to have a life taken to directly feed me.
But recently, I’ve been thinking more about the limitations of a vegan diet. How far do the rules go? Consider the effects of the manufactured food industry. As a friend of mine pointed out on Facebook, it’s acceptable for canned tomatoes to contain up to 2 maggots per 500mg! So basically any foods that have been through a factory are no good, considering the various possible animals they could be contaminated with.
Even if you stick to just buying fresh produce, you could still be in trouble. Do pesticides used on plants count towards the slaughter of innocent animals? Of course, there are organic farms that use natural predators like ladybugs to kill pests, but the pests are still killed. And honey isn’t allowed in a vegan diet because the bees are unnaturally enslaved and exploited by humans to get that honey, so couldn’t the same argument be applied to the ladybugs? And speaking of bees, human-managed colonies are used to pollenize crops, so isn’t that against vegan policy as well? And what about the manure used to fertilize the crops?
If you tried to grow your own garden without using ladybugs, bees, or fertilizer, you’d have a rough time. And you could still accidentally kill bugs and worms in the ground as you work the soil. From my understanding of the vegan lifestyle, you’d need to live in the jungle off nothing but water and gathered fruits and nuts, like some Buddhist monks do in Southeast Asia.
Oh, and don’t count on vitamin supplements, either. The most common source of calcium for those pills is shellfish. (Which leads to questions about Kosher diet, but I’ll leave that to do a different post.) There is a form of algae now being harvested for calcium, but it’s definitely harder to find.
Or maybe I’m just misinterpreting? What do you think?
Dinhternet, Facebook, Food, fresh, Work
Sorry just had to comment when I saw the words ‘bees unnaturally enslaved’… really? Does PETA actually use wording like that?… er..
I dunno, the extreme (sorry for the judgement there) that you’re describing seems to be closer to Jainism that veganism.. but maybe i’ve only met low level vegans.
Honestly, I think that it’s just something you have to decide for yourself. I have a friend who has started to buy vegan shoes/bags etc because they felt that they were encouraging mistreatment of animals with their purchases. I myself tend to draw the line at animal tested products because bacon is what heaven is made of. I’ve often considered a vegetarian diet because I have a few friends, yourself included, who have taken to vegetarianism in varying degrees. I’m always curious about why people choose to go vegetarian. It seems that alot have moved to a vegetarian diet because of animal mistreatment/abuse and I think that line of thinking often demands the examination that you’re thinking of right now. Often it’s from people who used to enjoy a burger w/that person who want to know what changed, what was the straw. I mean, as you say, is the life of a bee less than that of a cow? Does exploitation count? Do plants have feelings? heh It can go to an insane extreme pretty damn fast.
I’m just kinda rambling. I have a feeling this comment should have just been ‘Enslaved Bees! LOL!’ but i do find the change to be interesting, so thought i’d ramble.
I’m not directly quoting, but I have seen the terms tossed around when I was researching the differences.
I think plants have feelings… they say if you talk to a flower it blooms prettier!!
I thought about the poop organic farmers use to fertilize their crops too. That is so not vegan. And slightly yucky.
I mean if vegans must follow the plan so strictly, they’d probably end up eating dirt and rocks… but what about the microorganisms??? They’re living things too!
Yeah, others have brought up the plant perspective. But if I give up plants and animals, I don’t know what I have left.
Honestly whenever i think about this i always get a little Lion King, because i think that fits what I believe would be the best idea. It’s the circle of life… i think the question is one of stewardship for the animals/plants/world as a whole. I dunno if i’m wrong in feeling this, but it seems like alot of the arguments for veganism go past that balance or respect for nature and what it gives us. Are they making up the imbalance? Why are animals allowed to kill each other but we can’t if we get hungry. Animals kill other animals, why aren’t vegans stopping Lions and Tigers? or (as we saw in Futurama) teaching a Lion to eat Tofu. I can see an argument for abuse of the natural world around us when we overfish/destroy habitat. But consuming meat protein makes sense to me.
I think we overconsume a ton, but why isn’t cultivation blamed then as well? We domesticated entire species of corn/wheat/grain and enslave them to do our culinary bidding as well. We’ve destroyed whole ecosystems or at least drastically, to non-recognition, to feed ourselves plant matter. Injustice i say!
I dunno, just my ranty 2cents haha
not that i’m calling you out on being veggie Dinh, whatever floats your boat, ya know? It’s just a discussion on the reasons why people may choose to be veggie and where they feel the line is yah?