Challenge for vegetarians from a meat lover?!
Answers:
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
I don't want to eat meat, nor do I need to eat meat. That's reason enough for me to be a vegetarian.
I think the only way you'll ever be convinced of MY reason (I don't eat meat because I don't want an animal to suffer and die for me) is if you really bond with an animal (say, a dog), then see as I do that other animals (like cows and pigs) are not really unlike the animal you bonded with. I have less of a problem with people (and me too on rare occasion...uh oh...thumbs down from SOMEONE probably) eating chicken or fish because these are less aware, less intelligent, less sentient creatures, but then I won't eat chicken that's lived a horrible life in a factory farm.
I think a lot of vegetarians make a mistake when they try to proselytize. Finding "religion" is a personal, individual thing, and I would never try and force you to see the light of vegetarianism, at least from an ethical, moral standpoint. People become vegetarians for health reasons also, as you know, but the info is out there for you explore about that.
Anyway, meat tastes really good and is good for you. But non-meat foods can be tasty and healthy too, and I opt for them.
You probably won't care about sparing
the lives of 100 animals a year but if your
smart you'll care about your health
1 you will be 80 percent less likly to get diobeties
2 Be 40 percent less likly to get cancer in general 54 percent less likly to get prostate cancer if your a guy and 88 percent less likly to get colon cancer. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in America
3 be ten percent lighter in weight and 33 percent Less likly to be obeese wich causes lots of health problems
4 be less likly to get arthritis
5 be Less likly to get achne
6have better body odor
7 be less likly to get food poisoning
8 live ten years longer
9 avoid drugs pumped into animals on factory farms to promote abnormal growth
10 have cholesterall 42 points less
11 meat takes 18 hours to go through your body
12 be 50 percent less likly to get heart disease the leading cause of death in America
none of theese are made up they're science prooven statistics
if your a good person you'd care that animals are taken from their mother at birth and put in cages so tiny they can't move and are beaten and tormented abd filled with antibiotics that make them grow fatter causing extreeme leg and lung problems abd that they're shipped off to a slaughter house where they'll get skinned alive
Enviorment
1 the food fed to animals in factorys could feed 800 million starving people
2 they take 87 percent of Americas agriculteral land to feed them
3 95 percent of oats,80 percent of grain and 80 percent of corn are used
4 meat production is the LEADING cause of global warming wich is the leading threat to earth
5 160 million acres if rain forest were knocked down killind 1.5 million animals
6 it costs 35 dollars to produce one pound of pork
7 it takes 5.5. Acres for one pound of beef
All of this is true statustically prooven you can continue living an ignorant life style of contributing to this and die of cancer or heart disease and promote global warming
Or you could go veg for your health,animal rights and enviorment
A vegitarian for two years
Challenge accepted Ulrina!
1) World hunger has NOTHING to do with people eating meat! There already is enough food for everyone. The problem is getting it to them, and corrupt governments. I thought you would know this Ulrina.
2) Yes i believe it is fair for something to die for my food. Its nature.
3) ALL farming causes pollution. But I guess its ok for produce farming to cause pollution so you can buy all your vegan foods at the local mega mart. Most people in the world don't have that luxury.
It was nice debating with you.
Dilara?????? Wow you bought stock in the vegan propaganda web sites haven't you! Everything you said is either False or WAY over exaggerated. Maybe you should try thinking for yourself!
And Veggie Tart, I don't know where to even start with you. Humans ARE omnivores! If you can't understand that I feel sorry for you!
Only one reason is required - it's their choice. One can eat or decide not to eat whatever he or she chooses. And despite the fact that I am not a vegetarian, I will actively support such rights of those who choose to be.
Just a bit of advice, though. If you are going to criticize those with opinions for having no proof for their opinions, you might want to bring your own proof to the table for yours. And by the way, it is possible that veg*ns, among others, are correct and that animal foods can be detrimental to health. Not likely, but possible nonetheless.
Because I don't want to. Why do I need any other justification? If I choose not to eat peas, to lie on my side rather than my back at night, or to stick pencils up my nose on alternate Tuesdays, do I need to be able to provide good reasons for this when prompted? (*)
Nonetheless. I don't eat meat simply because I find the concept of eating dead flesh revolting. Add to this the fact that there's sufficient dietary variety and choice in the modern world to mean that the eating of meat is no longer essential, why wouldn't I be vegetarian?
I know this isn't exactly what you asked though; you asked for reasons why people "should" be vegetarians. I think people should be vegetarians if it makes them happy, and eat meat if that makes them happy. There's nothing worse than the "denial" diet for producing miserable whiny buggers, whether that's veggies who go to salivating pieces at the prospect of a bacon butty, or carnivores who are happy to eat meat so long as it's nicely pre-packaged and unrecognisable as animal parts so that they don't have to think too much about all that messy stuff.
Why should / shouldn't you eat meat? Because that's what makes you happy. Do I win the challenge? (-:
As an aside, do you eat meat for any other reason than "you like it"?
(* - well, ok, maybe the pencils)
--
EDIT: Ulrina > your first point is bogus I'm afraid. A vegetarian diet requires *considerably* more farmland than breeding livestock for an equivalent omnivorous diet. If we all went vegetarian overnight and the cows etc all magically disappeared, we wouldn't have lots more fields to go at, we'd have a massive massive shortage of arable farmland. Give it a month and half of us would have resorted to cannibalism, which would at least solve the overpopulation problem. (-:
Well, this is clearly an obnoxious question aimed at vegetarians/vegans you believe to be preachy.
I never tell people they shouldn't eat meat, though I will tell people who eat an excessive amount that they should cut back and expand their horizons to include vegetables and such.
I recognize that humans are omnivorous by nature, and IF (big if) the species could get it together to be responsible and sustainable, it wouldn't have a ridiculous environmental impact.
The way you phrase your question allows a very simple answer. I don't want to.
It's not that I didn't like the taste of it when I did eat it, and I would be lying if I said I never craved it, especially when I smell something that I used to love. However, when I DID eat meat, if I thought about what I was eating, I'd feel gross. It literally sickened me to think about the fact that my taco was made of something very similar to the sweet creatures I enjoyed playing with at the dairy barn, and the same thing applied to any other meat item I might have been eating.
Doesn't it make sense for me to just not eat it, if it makes me ill to think about it? Why should YOU be so on the offense towards someone like me?
Challenge accepted!
1) Thousands of people in the world die from starvation every year, but still massive proportions of the worlds crops are being fed to farm animals being raised for meat. If everyone switched to a plant based diet, there would be more than enough food for everyone. This is not a lie, even the UN has urged people to do this.
2) Is it really fair that something has to die for us to eat? No matter how ambivalent people are to animal suffering, doesn't it make sense to go for the veggie version of "meat" rather than animal meat if it means less animals will be killed?
3) Raising animals for meat IS contributing to global warming. People in the future will look back and wonder why we caused all this damage to the earth just because people wanted to eat meat rather than making the simple switch to veggie meat. Methane IS harming the planet. The less people eat meat, the less strong the meat industry will be and therefore the less damage of this kind will be caused.
There, I'm done.
It was a pleasure debating with you.
X
Its bad for the environment, its bad for your health and you're funding the torture and death of billions of animals.
http://www.rense.com/general26/truth.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/025957_meat_c…
http://greenlivingworks.com/save-energy-…
http://www.exploreveg.org/issues/dairy.h…
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19352009/Some-…
Edit: frankthetank - Hitler wasnt a vegetarian, he ate meat.
My main reason is ethical. I know this is an opinion, and I do not expect everyone to conform to it.
I do not believe that we should kill animals for food. Yes, I recognize that animals are still killed while plowing fields and such, but I would rather minimize the damage even if I cannot completely eliminate it.
To me, animals are sentient creatures. Anyone who has a dog, cat, bird, etc, knows that animals have personalities, likes and dislikes, can be tense, angry, or happy- they're individual beings. If a rat sees another rat in pain and wriggling, it will wriggle in parallel (TIME). I think that obviously suggests consciousness/awareness. I don't think they are *as* aware as humans, or have the same emotions as us, but ending a sentient life so we can eat its body just doesn't seem right to me.
Another reason- which omnivores will probably think is pretty stupid) is just that it's a piece of dead animal. I really don't find meat any more appealing than you would find roadkill. It's almost like I've stopped viewing it as food and started viewing it as a dead animal.
If you're a dairy farmer, can I ask you some things? I'm not trying to be rude, nosy, or offensive, but I'm curious.
-Once a cow gives birth, does she just keep giving milk for however long you milk her? Or does it only last for a couple months or years?
-What do you do with the cows once milk production declines? If you send them to slaughter, how old are they usually?
-What do you do with the calves?
Believe me, I know there are some great dairy/egg farms out there. Occassionally I have some milk/ice cream from my friend's family's farm, where they don't kill the cows and treat them like pets, and my cousin keeps hens as pets. Most of my diet is vegan simply because it's too much of a pain to drive 3 hours to get some milk or eggs.
vegetarian, mostly vegan
1. Environmental destruction.
2. Poor health
3. Funding torture and death of animals
4. Contributing to western waste and world poverty
Edit: Actually, factory farming is the #2 cause of greenhouse gas emissions. You can speculate about what would happen if there were a lot fewer humans all day. Unless you're planning on killing them, it seems obvious that we should adopt more reasonable habits. This is all aside from the deforestation, killing of predator animals to protect livestock, and millions of tons of pollution that seeps into the groundwater and oceans from factory farms.
Vegetarians live longer than omnivores. The American Dietetic Association actually RECOMMENDS vegetarianism as a preventative of heart disease, diabetes, and high cholesterol- TOP killers of people in the west.
The vast majority of milk, meat,and other animal products comes from factory farms. When you purchase animal products, or products containing them, you can rest assured they are from industries whose practices you say "make you sick". In addition, you're making a welfarist argument- presupposing that humans USING SENTIENT CREATURES AS THINGS is acceptable if they don't suffer "too much", and, more importantly, that it's possible for a society to consider the interests of property above their owners right to use them as they wish, when history shows us this is never the case.
If you don't understand a philosophy that opposes KILLING CONSIOUSLY-SENTIENT CREATURES, then nothing I say will make much sense to you.
EDIT: PLEASE don't tell me you just asserted that eating meat is necessary for our survival. Please.
How is one method of reducing greenhouse gas more "logical" than another? Factory farms are the number two emittor of greenhouse gases, FACT. What could possibly be illogical about refusing to contribute to that industry? VEGANISM "can be done by everyone in everyday life". You're not making much sense.
It's up to ME to choose where my animal products come from, you say?
No, actually, it's up to ME to refuse to participate in any use of sentient creatures as things.
some people dont eat meat because of animals diseases or e coli. my friend doesnt because someone she knew almost died choking on a piece of meat. and some people dont just because they dont like the taste of meat. or because of all the fat thats left over, like the white fatty stripes in bacon
ALEX SAID IT :D
1. Environmental destruction.
2. Poor health
3. Funding torture and death of animals
4. Contributing to western waste and world poverty
added-
animals are my friends, and i don't eat my friends. :D
I don't know why you bother asking the question. People have given you lots of good reasons and you clearly have no interest in listening to them.
because i feel like it
i don't have any noble reasons about saving the planet or innocent little animals
i just don't want to eat meat
I can give you a good enough reason if others are not enough for you; because I don't want to.
Good challenge, it's always good to question things :)
Because animal products are unnecessary for my survival, so I choose not to eat them.
1. Because I don't want to.
Uh... I think that's the only one I need. ;)
i don't feel comfortable killing animals for my food.
Reported for being a rant and not a question. :)
I don't see why I have to prove myself to you
Our bodies were not designed to eat meat. Our hands, bodies, jaws, teeth, and digestive systems approximate those of herbivores, not carnivores. Every reputable health organization in the world recognizes the benefits of reducing or eliminating animal products, and links consumption of animal foods to many preventable diseases. The meat, dairy, and egg industries have been lying to you all these years to SELL THEIR PRODUCTS!! Duh!
You have fallen victim to the protein myth. In developed nations, diseases of protein deficiency are practically nonexistent. If you eat a balanced diet, it is all but impossible NOT to get enough protein.
Dairy: Our bodies were not designed to consume the milk of another creature, nor consume milk beyond infancy. Mammals produce milk for their young. If you wouldn't drink another woman's breast milk (assuming she offered) or the milk of, say, a horse, cat, dog, rhinoceros, etc., why are you drinking cows' milk? Plus, excess protein in milk causes humans to lose calcium.
I don't like the idea that if we weren't feeding grains to animals people are going to eat, there would be no starvation. I know that famines are a matter of distribution and not lack of resources, and even if everyone in the developed world went vegan gradually, it wouldn't help because corrupt governments would still deny their citizens food. But feeding grains to animals and then feeding the animals to people is still terribly inefficient. And the animals do produce an awful lot of waste that pollutes waterways--the EPA determined that it caused more pollution than other industrial sources combined.
I don't think it's emotional or absurd to suggest that animals suffer terribly in the production of animal foods. Nor do I think it's silly to say that if you wouldn't eat your pet cat, why are you eating a cow? If you are going to eat animal foods, you must be able to face the fact that you are buying into a horribly flawed and cruel system and that someone must die for your taste buds--often a lot of someones. In fact, it is carnists who have the absurd "but it tastes so good" arguments.
hitler was a vegetarian and look how it worked out for him
