How can a vegan proclaim that they are in fact a vegan?!
Example: A vegetarian man sells hay to farmers whose cattle are going to be slaughtered. You are a flexitarian by lifestyle because you are choosing to support the meat industry.
Answers: when they work in industries that counteract with their beliefs? it seems to me that you are a vean by diet but a flexitarian by lifestyle.
Example: A vegetarian man sells hay to farmers whose cattle are going to be slaughtered. You are a flexitarian by lifestyle because you are choosing to support the meat industry.
I have been wondering the same thing myself recently. I was under the impression that if vegan or veggi for animal welfare reasons then surely the last thing you would do is get a job in any industry that is animal product related
Kimberly
I dont think anyone is trying to find fault with anyone really. Its natural to be curious about something you dont know enough about to understand & what better way to find out than to ask questions to the very people who can answer them best.
Me, I both raise meat & eat organically, live on a small island where we all try to live as green a lifestyle as possible, run a guest house that excells in catering for vegan/veggie's & do my best to stay away from things that are man made.
Im far from perfect, like anyone else I have faults, but then i do not proclaim to be anything else.
stand up for who are and simply tell people, no i am not eating mean, i am a vegan and be proud of who you are .
I believe the same thing,,, It depends on how indepth you want to take it i guess.
It's definitely a tough one! My boyfriend is vegan, but is the general merchandise manager at a local grocery store, which includes him having to order baby foods that contain meat. He has been at odds with it for some time, but has been unable to find another job! It really, really bothers him, but the $$ is necessary too.
I think we all support meat industries in lots of ways, some not even so little. I mean, to take it to an extreme, to support any business (for instance, gasoline) that also supports the slaughter of animals could be construed as flexitarian. To shop at a grocery store that sells meat, to patronize a movie theatre that sells hot dogs....the list goes on and on.
Not that my answer is helpful at all. Sorry. But I get it!
Everyone has to find their own system of values, and people who integrate their values over all areas of their lives will probably be happier. Unfortuanately, you can't always make every situation as clean as you would like. I work for a law firm that mostly helps out workers getting shafted by their employers--but the nature of the business means that one time out of a hundred, we are forced by circumstance to go after the little guy. If we refused to go after him, it would make it difficult to work for the 99% who we help. So everyone has to make choices--having absoulte unbreakable rules of conduct sounds nice, but sometimes you have to break an egg to make an omlette. (Bad example, you don't eat omlettes.)
I guess that what I am saying is that if a farmer can live in a way that makes the smallest possible impact on the enviroment, is vegetarian himself, and is able to make a living but has to supplement this by indirectly supporting the meat industry, then he may want to look for a better way to make a living, but shouldn't feel too guilty about doing it in the first place. One of the biggest problems I have with vegetarians is the way they try to say another guy isn't a real vegetarian! Be happy that you are doing all you can, and seek out ways to do better. But don't feel bad that you have to indirectly support a small evil so you can do a lot of good. Eventually you may figure a way where you can live without supporting the meat industry, but why beat your self up over it if you can't? You are already doing a lot about the problem, which is sigificantly more than the average person is doing. Perfection is something to strive for, not something to expect, in this less-than-perfect world.
It is not about being prefect! - and it is not about finding wholes in someone else way of thinking. it is trying your best!
A vegan lifestyle is a step in the direction of trying your best to limit cruelty to animals. - If thats your goal, then you should atleast try.
Tell me, what is your goal? and how are you tring your best to achieve. - I am asking so then i can find fault with you too, as you are trying to with me!
I'm a vegan whom works in a restaurant as a grill cook (hamburgers steaks and chicken). As this may seem hypocritical or contradictory, all the money I earn in this profession I use to fund my way through a college education where I study dietetics (nutrition). Therefore, the job that I have now, may not be 100% vegan, I have it in order to insure that my career will be one which pertains to telling people to adopt vegetarian/vegan lifestyles.
It's a very fortunate person who can pick and choose where they work so that their job and employers are not in conflict with any of their ethics. I've had numerous jobs over the last 40 years and haven't found that magical job.
People are driven by the need to put a roof over their family's heads, put food on their family's table and pay the bills. In order to do this vegans, like anyone else, sell their time and their skills. Being a purist or absolutist and refusing to work in any job that might in any way support the meat industry would mean unemployment for most people. It would be psychotic, not vegan.
Being a vegan is about minimising your contribution to animal suffering and exploitation, not about being any sort of martyr.
Your hypothetical example is pretty useless; can you think of a real situation that better illustrates your point?
Thanks for reminding all of us who already know that it is almost impossible to be completely vegan. However, if your vegetarian in your example knew that the cattle he was feeding were to be slaughtered, I imagine he would think twice.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to be totally vegan because of the high impact the meat industry has in our world. You would have to remove yourself from society in order to be a "total vegan" However, most vegan, such as myself, are trying the best to our ability to abstain from using animal products and supporting any kind of animal cruelty.
Well, think about it.
70% of Americans do not support the war in Iraq, yet 49% of our taxes are funding the war over there regardless.
So I don't exactly have a job right now but I was a librarian for a while which doesn't deal with killing animals.....I don't think....but yeah our taxes go into supporting vivisection. I hate it.
I'm not a vegan, but I really don't understand your logic. When you live in a world where some things don't coincide with your beliefs, you're bound to be involved in things that you don't believe in at some point, but that doesn't mean that your beliefs are invalid or insincere. For example, Martin Luther King probably complied with racist laws at some point, but that didn't make him any less of a civil rights activist. If people didn't stand up for their beliefs because there was a chance that something they did at some point in time would not coincide with them, then we would never really accomplish any change at all. And why are you so angry about this anyway? It seems like a silly thing to be so angry about. There are a lot worse things in the world than people being vegan.
You are speaking about two different ideas. Which is it, vegan or vegetarian? I can't speak for vegans, but I can speak as a vegetarian. I don't eat animals that is all that is required of the definition. As for flexitarian, I don't know what that is. I know that there are vegetarians who don't eat animals and meat-eaters that do eat animals. Can you tell me what flexitarian means so that it doesn't fit into either of those categories? I thought that was a mythical creature that lives in the land of V&V. Hmmmm.
Troll.
Flexi-troll, I noticed you now have 4 votes on all of your answers since you created this ID.
But back to the question.
A. The person you are referring to isn't a vegan.
B. Vegetarianism is a diet, not a lifestyle.
A vegan can't claim to be vegan if their work is against vegan beliefs. Maybe if you give us an actual example of what you're talking about, who it is and where you heard it we might be able to help with your mind-numbing dilemma. As is, your question and your example are talking about 2 different things.
You are doing an EXCELLENT job of bringing vegetarians and vegans together as a group though!