how are vegetarians supposed to survive winter?!
put it this way, what did people do in pioneer times? did they migrate like the birds?
vegetarian only. no dairy or livestock. physiologically speaking, humans shouldn't eat animal products. so keep this in mind through this hypothetical situation.
I'm wondering all of this because all winter I have been unable to get non-moldy and already rotting plant products from the grocery store, and its been pissing me off. Like seriously, the **** is already rotten IN the store. And I refuse to eat all the prepackaged, chemical-laden, cancer-causing garbage.
why is it so damn difficult to eat healthy any freakin' way... you almost have to just move to the equator to do it.
Answers:
They can them i.e. seal them in jars. My father grew veggies, mom canned them and we ate them all winter.
This is where the fanatic vegans that believe its wrong to eat meat and believe that humans are herbivores sound ignorant. Man for millions of years lived off the land. The local land. There was no worldwide shipping. They had to eat what the land in their local region (walking distance) provided. Meat was a must. Period.
Today people can be vegetarians thanks to worldwide shipping, money, and grocery stores.
You can pickle your vegetables after they have been harvested, my grandmother grows all her veggies and pickles them for the winter time and they are delicious. Her pickled beets are my favorite.
Also, grains can be refined into flour to make bread and other pastries.
Or you can just use a greenhouse, but I suppose you said rural so...
Vegetarian
I would think that people preserved and stored food in pioneer times. Have you ever heard of a root cellar? This is a place that was used in pioneer times to store food through the winter. Many food were dried, made into preserves or pickled to be stored. Preserving food was important for survival through winter.
It's called "greenhouses". They can retain heat and moisture so that certain kinds of cold-weather plants (like lettuces and root veggies) would be able to grow during winter.
I have survived 25 winters as a vegetarian and i enjoy perfect health.
Meat will go rancid a lot faster than a vegetable will rot.
They STORE it.
Oh, and uh...
http://www.humeseeds.com/falwint.htm
dried beans veg, fruit, rice and wheat which you've sensibly stored at harvest time...
There are many vegetables that can be stored for winter. I grow my own foods and keep winter squashes, turnips, carrots, onions, potatoes (sweet and white) in cold storage for winter as well as apples. I also freeze many summer veggies, tomatoes, summer squashes, beans, zucchini, peppers strawberries, blueberries and pears. In addition, I make my own jams with strawberries and rhubarb, blueberries, plums and apricots from my tree's. We have three honey bee hives which supply us with more than 40 pounds of honey. My son's tap our Maple tree's for syrup and we make wine from our grapevines and mulberry tree's. We have two giant Butternut tree's (white walnuts) and 7 egg laying hens. All of this is grown on 1 acre of land. I love a self subsistant life.
In an area with severe winters vegetarians in this situation would not survive. Yes, you can set up a fancy green house today, but not back in those days. And their is only so much that you could can.
Let's say someone has chickens, cows, and sheep. You've got eggs, milk, meat and wool right there. Obviously you have to feed them but they can be put to graze on pasture that is inadiquite for crops. Then their manure can be used to fertilize the soil and increase the crop yield.
If the same person was to only grow vegatables they would not get nearly the same amount of food.
In a situation during a cold, snowy winter a person who raises crops and livestock will be alot more sucesful than someone just growing crops.
Maybe you should start preserving your own food. I make my own pickles and preserves. I don't do much canning because I can get canned whole foods at my regular grocery store. Some stuff I wouldn't touch, but canning my own tomatoes would be a waste of time and money for me (it's cheaper to get the kind from the canned food aisle at the store).
But yeah, a lot of people starved during the winter. This happened even to people who ate meat and dairy. When the winter is bad enough, you kill your cow rather than using it for milk (the grain is more valuable to you), and it's tough to find game.
Chemicals have nothing to do with fresh, canned or frozen. It has to do with how the produce is grown. Frozen produce is often fresher as it's processed the same day it's picked where "fresh" produce has been picked before it's completely ripe because it then gets shipped/trucked to wherever it's going.
People who grow their own food would either freeze a supply, can it, or dry it. Also they used root cellars to keep some produce for a long period of time. There are also plenty of areas where you can grow crops year 'round (like Florida and parts of California, Texas, Honduras, Mexico, etc) and fresh produce is picked there and shipped to other parts of the country.
You can even buy organic frozen vegetables in most grocery stores or shop at a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. I've never had a problem with produce in winter, especially if I'm eating with the season (eating what's in season right now.)