Save a cow, share vegetarian recipes please!

[IATIA]

Grass.

Yeah, but that just gives me the munchies.

[Silver]

I meant grass grass, like the cows eat.

[IATIA]

Of course I knew what you meant.

However:

There are two main problems with a grass diet. The first is that human stomachs have difficulty digesting raw leaves and grasses. Animals such as cows, on the other hand, have a specialized stomach with four chambers to aid in the digestion of grass (a process called rumination).

Aside from the digestion issues, a second problem with grass as a food source is the mastication. Your dentist would not be pleased; grass contains a lot of silica, an abrasive which quickly wears down teeth. Grazing animals have teeth that are adapted to continually grow, replacing the worn tooth surfaces quickly.

[robvalue]

Probably only veggies / sympathisers should read the below. Brutal honesty that may inflame. I'm not trying to get into a debate about it, just my observations. It's something I've long ago had to simply accept so I don't judge people for not being veggie/vegan at all. No one needs to defend themselves on my account.

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I actually find there are a lot of similarities between the attitudes towards meat/dairy/eggs and religion. These are the two areas where otherwise intelligent and rational people can suddenly lose their shit and resort to fallacy laden rationalization that are no better than what I heard in middle school.

I feel there is a very similar kind of indoctrination and cognitive dissidence going on. "Meat and animals are not the same thing." Everyone knows it's not true, but most people act like it is, because they've been conditioned that way. It even goes as far as someone having a pet of the same kind of animal that they then eat later that day. Before the age of reason people have generally been given a taste for it, and have had their parents' dissidence passed on. Familiar? How many (non veggie) parents would hold off until their child can understand, explain exactly what meat is and ask if they want it? Have a guess what the answer would be!

Like I said, this is not an attack, it's an observation. No one needs defend themselves You are my friends and I love you, so I hope you respect my honest display of ideas, it's not something I'd even bother saying to most people.

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[Silver]

Veg*n diet is more a fad thing than a health thing.

Meat eaters are perfectly healthy, after all.

Veg*n diets are irrationally about wanting to not kill animals.

Guess what, you not eating meat will not stop the rest of us from eating meat.

People in general are more about the fad of what others are doing and thinking is healthy rather than actually researching the subject themselves. People are dumb-fuck retarded.

[IATIA]

"Meat and animals are not the same thing."

(way out of context, just following up)

There was an episode of 'Friends' that is relevent;

[robvalue]

Veg*n diet is more a fad thing than a health thing.

Meat eaters are perfectly healthy, after all.

Veg*n diets are irrationally about wanting to not kill animals.

Guess what, you not eating meat will not stop the rest of us from eating meat.

People in general are more about the fad of what others are doing and thinking is healthy rather than actually researching the subject themselves. People are dumb-fuck retarded.

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Yup, that's about the size of it. You probably would believe the things that I've heard come out of adults' mouths on this subject, then! It's like I can actually see the mental regression and the playground defensive mentality come out in them.

They also completely ignore what I say and state the same objections next time.

There are some fairly recent halfway decent arguments that have emerged based on actual data rather than emotions, but in general I think people have latched onto these as if that's why they did it all along. No, it's not.

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IATIA:

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Yes I love that clip, as it makes my point very well! "Happy farmyard animals" for kids isn't far from "Noah's flood for kids".

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[robvalue]

There is one scenario where I would theoretically eat eggs, and that's if I had saved some hens from a battery farm (there are many programs that you can adopt them through) and I was giving them the best life I could as a pet. In that case, the eggs would literally go to waste otherwise for no reason so I'd consider it ethically sound. But when the primary reason for having an animal is profit, then I always draw the line.

Ironically I probably still wouldn't eat them as I find them kind of repulsive since I found out what they are actually are. Sorry hens!

[Pyrrho]

I'm not a vegetarian. I'm just a person who feels really bad for the animals. I'd like to be a vegetarian, but I need to find meals I can enjoy.

If you really feel bad for the animals, here's some food for thought:
Agriculture to produce wheat, rice and pulses requires clear-felling native vegetation. That act alone results in the deaths of thousands of Australian animals and plants per hectare.

There's far more to it than "nobody had to kill a cow for me to have this salad." I'm certainly not going to say that the article is justification for an omnivorous diet (which is what you're evolved for) but it is, as I said earlier, food for thought.

There have been several articles people have written to debunk the claims in that article.  Just do a search for that guy's name with the words "vegetarian cattle" (not in quotes) to find several such articles.

Of course, all food production does involve killing things and it does all involve bad things for the environment.  That does not mean that they are all equal in these respects.  As robvalue put it:

It's virtually impossible not to cause harm of some kind through what we do and what we eat. All we can do (if we're so inclined) is to try and minimise it based on what we think is most important.

I dislike the attitude I've heard from some people that since you can't be 100% harm free you may as well not give a fuck at all.

[Pyrrho]

Veg*n diet is more a fad thing than a health thing.  

That is a funny thing to say, given that studies show that vegetarians live longer than omnivores, and vegans live longer than non-vegan vegetarians.  A simple search online will find lots of articles on this.

Meat eaters are perfectly healthy, after all.

They certainly can be.  But on average, they die younger.

Veg*n diets are irrationally about wanting to not kill animals.

Is it irrational to want to live a longer, healthier life?  Is it irrational to dislike causing unnecessary pain and suffering?

Of course, a vegan can be irrational.  Not eating meat does not make a fool into a genius.

Guess what, you not eating meat will not stop the rest of us from eating meat.

Who said it would?

People in general are more about the fad of what others are doing and thinking is healthy rather than actually researching the subject themselves.  People are dumb-fuck retarded.

You might want to do some more research, but I do agree that many people are stupid.