How does wasting food help animals?!

How does wasting food help animals?

The other evening a bunch of us went to a movie. A friend of a friend joined us, Sara.

Sara is a vegan. I learned this within about 3 minutes of meeting her, as she was critiquing our shoe choices. Most of us did not know if our shoes had leather or not, but assumed they did and none of us really cared.

Well after the movie we decided to go to the same burger joint we normally go to after the movies. Sara objected, saying we should go to a vegan restaurant that was across town. Being most of us didn’t want to go across town and all of us would have rather lose Sara she was voted down.

Unfortunately she choose to join us anyway. She commented on each of our dinner choices, telling us how poor defenseless animals died, etc. She even commented on the friend who had brought her, a regular vegetarian, when she ordered a grilled cheese. (I understand vegans don’t drink milk, but it is a stretch to say the cow died to give the milk.)

3 days ago
Sara was the last to order. She ordered a garden salad. When the salad arrived it had a few pieces of swiss cheese on it. Just like the menu said it would. Sara was irate and insisted on a new salad. Several people suggested that she simply pick the cheese off and eat the salad instead. We also pointed out that it was on the menu that way and she did not order it hold the cheese. She claimed the salad was contaminated and she need a fresh one made, without the cheese. Eventually Sara got her way and the salad was thrown in the trash.

How was any cow benefited by the wasting of the food?

And isn’t one of the reasons behind vegetarianism and veganism that meat production is inefficient, in that it takes more plant manner to feed people if it is converted into meat first. (Not the outrageous numbers often posted here, but it does take more.) Doesn’t wasting food defeat that purpose?

3 days ago
Yeah, we have told Jen our views of Sara. Jen agrees Sara "can be annoying at times." (Bit of an understatement) But Jen feels bad for Sara cause Jen is her only friend (big surprise there) and Jen kinda looks up to Sara b/c she is vegan. Jen plans to become of vegan someday.

I do realize not all vegans are like this.

But V&P how does throwing away the food advance any of the goals of vegans?

If I went veggie it would not save 90-100 animials per year. Maybe one cow a every two decades, 7 or 8 chickens and a few fish per year. I don't eat much meat. And tunas are big fish I can't be eating that many per year.

3 days ago
Yes, ineffiecient food production. IF I ever go veggie, that would be my primary reason. It takes about 3 lbs of grain to make one lb of chicken and about 10 lbs of grain to make one lb of beef. You can feed more people if you eat the grain instead of converting it to meat.

In response to one of the other answers: what on earth sounds made up about this story?

I've been a vegetarian since I was 11, that is, 18 years. I've been a vegan also for a number of years, but I've since gone back for reasons I have no need to explain. If you eat cheese or meat and you haven't in a long time, it could make you queezy. That doesn't happen from "contamination" for 90% of people I know. I believe the contamination fear is basically a form of OCD or paranoia. Many such people seem to be concerned with so-called "cleansing." Whatever benefit Sara's tirade had, it pales in comparison to the harm she did her cause by alienating her potential friends. I stopped preaching about meat sometime in my teens. Since then, I believe that I'm responsible for several converts, simply by leading through quiet example. In fact, not wanting to talk about my vegetarianism often makes people more interested in asking about it. While many vegans feel passionately about their cause, they often do more harm than good. When we seek to criticize others, how aware are we of the difference between truly righteous indignation, and the need of the human ego to put OTHERS in their place? (I do not use the word ego in any spiritual sense) It's easier to feel better about yourself when you belittle others.

I pose a few questions to Sara, and some of the vegans who have responded here. How much are you really making a difference? Does a vegan who drives an old Subaru with a shot catalytic converter really help the environment more than a part time carnivore driving a vehicle with newer emissions controls (even an SUV)? Is it better to eat locally made cheese, or to buy vegan (yes vegan) cheese shipped from half way across the country? Is organic agriculture more energy efficient than conventional farming? Are you sure about that one? I'm not. Is pleather better for the environment than leather? (my guess is they are both pretty bad) I don't believe I know the answers to any of these except the Subaru.

I don't even wanna THINK about freegans.