Wednesday, July 8

VEGETARIAN?


Fifth of July the day after 4th of July, also known as
Independence Day - we celebrated having a barbecue, listened to patriotic music and songs, some good ones, some rather faded ... and gobbled down tons of meat.
Question - could you do without it, would you be able to eat only vegetables and perhaps dairy products, and then once in a while a couple of eggs mixed into your food? Could you do it?
I know I could, and often I follow this kind of diet in long stretches, feels just fine...
You see, if you are even only slightly concerned about food distribution around the globe, and perhaps world hunger, then you will know about the fact that it takes about ten times more acreage to produce one unit of animal protein compared to growing - let's say beans, or other crops of that nature.
So, all your non-smokers, and diligent which-hunters, could you imagine to be a vegetarian?

Tell ME!!!


11 comments:

The Rambling Taoist said...

It CAN be done. I've been a vegetarian for nearly 25 years. I don't miss meat at all. In fact, I can't ever imagine eating meat again. If more people became vegetarian, it would go a long way toward helping to mitigate climate change.

Cinderella said...

reading you after a long time !
And you cut your hair ??? Looks like you also put on weight !!

How you been ?

Cym said...

Easily, been vegetarian for most of my life, but have recently added fish and turkey to my diet, though I could easily live without it. What I would have a hard time giving up though would be bread and cheese, that would be a challenge.

Also I think climate and geography has a strong influence on nutritional requirements. Colder climate people need more fat in their diets, than do milder climate dwellers, which is probably easiest to get from animal products. And for people like the Inuit (Eskimo) it would be impossible to be a vegetarian, unless all their food was shipped in from far away, which would basically destroy their traditional way of life. But eskimo hunt and fish all their meat, they don't factory farm it using massive amounts of acreage, water and grain. I'm pretty much opposed to factory farmed animals, and am of the school of thought that if you can't hunt or fish the animal yourself, you have no business eating meat in the first place.

Anonymous said...

I have no problem not eating meat, and I don't call myself a vegetarian. Weird! :D

Let's just say I don't have the need to eat meat (however, I do need a smoke!).

I do find North Americans eat a lot of meat... this is still nothing compared to Argentinians!

Seraphine said...

i don't eat meat. after a while, it becomes second nature. you stop thinking abot it.
except when you order foods at a restaurant (is there meat in the soup? no. what's the base? chicken.) and sometimes you meet stupid people who suggest "you can pick the meat off the pizza."

gfid said...

i was a vegetarian till i went to live in the Yukon.... very short growing season there. so then the diet was high in things like wild salmon, moose and caribou. for me the issue is more about respect, which means not wasting whatever kind of food is available to you. to live on chicken breasts because they're low fat and trendy, but refuse to eat the rest of the critter seems somehow obscene to me. people have no idea how much waste is produced in the growing and processing of their food, unless they have to deal with it themselves. and many folks have never seen the process from start to finish, so the whole concept of how much is wasted is beyond their comprehension.

Gary said...

Well, I agree with all the rant... and was a vegetarian for 15 years. Now I like the advice from Michael Pollan

Eat food.
Mostly plants.
Not too much.

I do like a nice barbequed salmon with a fine glass of wine, some crusty bread and grilled asparagus. A little hazelnut gelato goes down well too.

An old doctor once told me that, "It's not what people eat that makes most of us sick...it's what's eating us."

Anonymous said...

I'm not a vegan, but I don't eat a lot of meat and I don't miss it. I don't make a fuss if I go somewhere and it is served ... but I don't go out of my way to buy it in.

Seraphine said...

smokers and meat eaters are so retro! LOL
frugal is the new paradigm.

lindsaylobe said...

We owe a debt to Vegetarians but as has been commented upon it also depends upon a particular country and the local production methods as to any environmental damage. Grass fed beef relies on naturally occurring pastureland -free from chemicals or grain. Kangaroos meat is becoming popular(they have reached plague numbers over here ) since it has very little fat and the animals biology is such it only needs 30% of the water and grazing land in comparison to cattle.

If you’re an avid coffee drinker you may not realize how much deforestation occurs as a consequence of coffee’s rise in popularity. Rain Forest culling and bio diversity loss is occurring at an alarming rate to make way continually for new coffee plantations.

Best wishes

Seraphine said...

lindsay don't say that. i *love* my coffee.