I want serious opinons about meat and vegan or vegetarians????!
Answers: I have never ever considered being a vegan or vegatarian but after what i saw on the internet the other day about the recalled beef and the raw footage of the abuse of the cows my family and i are considering becoming vegetarians... what do u think??? will u continue to eat meat if u are meat people or will u switch to vegan or vegetarians... i can tell u right now we have no meat in our freezer and i am reading up on vegan meals... but please i want all honest and open opinons on this... thank u so much
If you want to be a vegetarian, do your research and make your choice carefully and correctly. Vegetarian diets are just fine, as long as you make sure to eat right.
However, don't let one isolated incident be the decision maker for a whole lifestyle change. The footage of the abused cows was HORRIBLE, I agree....but that is the extreme exception to the norm.
That particular meat plant specialized in processing old, tough, worn out *dairy* cows into low-quality, pre-cooked beef products. They supplied school lunch programs, fast food restaurants, and similar places that buy cheap, pre-cooked, crappy meat.
The cows you saw in that footage were quite literally one step above being made into PET FOOD. By the time a dairy cow stops producing good milk, her meat is old and tough and hardly fit to eat. By law, the "downers" (cows that cannot walk- the ones you saw being dragged and pushed by forklift) are SUPPOSED to be sent off to the dog-food plant. That particular segment of the beef industry is already a low-profit margin industry, and unfortunately profit & greed led that particular company to use cruel & unsanitary methods to maximize "production".
Unless you routinely buy pre-cooked, cheap hamburger patties, or you eat school lunch food, fast food, or government-issued food.....the meat you are buying in your grocery store did NOT come from that kind of place.
Raw beef & other meat products you find in the grocery store came from animals specifically raised to be eaten (not dairy cows, laying hens, or breeding animals). Care must be taken to feed, raise, house, transport and slaughter these animals with a minimum of stress & injury. Bruised meat is cheap meat; it cannot be sold to grocery stores and nice restaurants for a premium price. Any animal that was knocked down or injured at any time during transport & handling is automatically refused from any "higher-end" meat processing plant, and must be sold at a cheaper price to the pet food plant.
Like it or not, profit is the driving motive in the meat industry. Profits can't be made on animals who are bruised or injured, so care is taken to ensure high-quality meat animals are handled without injury.
If you spend a little more and buy organic, kosher, free range or high-end meat products (Angus steaks, prime cuts of beef)....OR if you find a small, local butcher shop in your area, you can rest assured you are NOT going to end up eating meat that was handled in a manner like you saw on the Internet.
Buy meat in it's least-processed form whenever possible. Some small town butchers offer locally-raised meats that they process themselves, or offer game meats that were locally hunted. For lunch meats, go to a GOOD deli and get slices of WHOLE turkey breast, beef roast, or ham (don't get the processed, injection-molded stuff). Avoid Wal-Mart and Target for meat, buy from a butcher or a grocery store that makes fresh cuts and fresh grounds of meat.
Pack your kids' lunches instead of letting them eat school lunch, don't buy pre-cooked, frozen meat products (including chicken nuggets, etc) and for God's sake stay away from the fast food hamburgers :).
Going all the way vegetarian/vegan is a personal choice....if you feel the very act of killing animals for food is cruel (no matter how "humanely" it's done) you may want to look into it. But if it's JUST this video making you concerned, going full veg. is not necessary unless you want to.
vegetarianism is very healthy, if you do it right, veganism does have more trouble because of difficulty getting enough protein, however realize that it is a huge life change and I doubt you are committed enough just because of a beef scare, how about you start just eating no more beef and lightening up on how much meat you eat overall, say to eating meat at just one meal a day, and than take it from there??
The key to being a meat eater after something like this is responsibility. I eat meat, largely because I like it, but I know where it comes from. At my house, we buy our meat from a local butcher. We can see the pastures where the cows are raised and we know the slaughter house is clean because we've been there. It is attached to the shop. I tend not to eat restaurant meat because I cannot know the origins. I know there are many vegans who think it is unethical to kill animals. They are entitled to their opinion, but I do not share it.
I agree with Michael W. Being a vegan is pretty hard, almost a religion-like lifestyle, & a lot of hard work. Plus you have to eat all kinds of weird expensive things.
Isolated slaughter houses' and just because of the publicity...
Illegal people are not the normal...
LIKE YOU AND THE OTHERS ..would like
But I will say it is very sad the thousands of slaughter houses
provide the best methods to humanely dispatch a hundreds of tons of meat daily to feed nations around the world
AND one sick company brings out the worst of the extremists...