Are you a veggiesaurus?

I'm curious how many members are vegetarians and specifically how many participants in this book discussion are vegetarians.

Results (total votes = 8):

Yes	1 / 12.5%
No	7 / 87.5%

Sounds like an interesting book. I hope it sparks some interesting discussions on vegetarianism. I did a lot of reading on animal rights and ethical issues involing animals last year during one of my philosophy courses. It really changed my perspectives on the subject and I wrote my final essay on animal rights. I haven't eaten meat since.

Cheryl

Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
-Douglas Adams

I usually say that I'm an omnivore. I don't eat a lot of meat, but I think it's natural to eat it. It was brought up in the discussion on the Introduction that we are so removed from our meat...we usually see it all impersonal & wrapped in plastic.

In Asia, you see it in slabs of animal, hanging in an outdoor market.

Once, while in Korea, I had my quintessential 'yes, I am an omnivore' moment. I was out to lunch with a businessman student, and he asked me if I liked sashimi. Yes. He orders, and out comes this beautifully arrayed full fish, its scales removed, its underside flesh splayed out to the sides, all of it perfectly scored in bite-sized chunks.

I took my chopsticks in one hand, a leaf of lettuce in another, and took a piece of the flesh...

...and the fish moved.

That was it, I thought to myself. Today I become a Buddhist. Then I thought about it -- would I be willing, if I were starving, to kill and skin a deer? Whack a fish on the head to kill it. Slaughter my own pig?

I thought to myself, am I a vegetarian, or an omnivore who takes full responsibility for my place in the food chain?

I'm an omnivore. I made my decision (and not lightly), and ate that fish.

And yes, it was weird.

"All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds."

Loricat's Book Nook
Celebrating the Absurd

I stopped eating animal meat for about three years, but I wasn't very good at it. I gradually started reintegrating certain animals back into my diet. Today, I stick mostly to fish and fowl. I will occasionally eat small amounts of beef, pork or wild game, but my stomach isn't fully re-adapted to my old carnivore diet, so only a little mammal or I'll get ill. I could go back to full carnivore pretty easily, but I have no intention of doing so. I feel like I've attained a fairly healthy medium between full vegetarianism and my old, typically American diet. I still do a lot of fine-tuning -- and "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is likely to contribute to that.

I'm not a veggiesaurus, although I do find myself moving in that direction as of late.

It turns out, I can have no meat at a meal (or two), enjoy it, and still live!

Even ::gasp:: a whole day without meat!

Who knew?

Anyway, I am beginning to think that perhaps subsisting on plant matter, but enjoying the weekend pot roast, morning eggs, or occasional fish, is a pretty good balance.

Edited by: Photuris at: 10/24/06 1:24 am

I was a vegan for a year and a lacto-ovo for a year before that. It all ended when I started woring in Restaurants (Veggie burgers were not yet on the menu back then) and being around burgers and steaks did me in. I just love the taste.

I am thinking lately of going veggie again. I just felt MUCH better when I was not eating any kind of meat, fish or poultry.

This book is helping me on that train of thought.

Mr. P.

Mr. P's place. I warned you!!!

Mr. P's Bookshelf.

The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.

The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart...Scorsese's "Mean Streets"

I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper

This book is definitely making me more conscious of the food I am eating.

I'm still definitely an omnivore...which does not mean that I need/eat/cook meat at every meal. Or even every day.

"All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds."

Loricat's Book Nook
Celebrating the Absurd

Unless you have some kind of specific moral or philosophical concern, I don't know that I'd recommend going veggie (or going veggie again, as it looks like a lot of us would be). There are other ways to take control of your own diet, ways that are easier to manage and less likely to lead to some sort of personal health disaster. Simply setting a ceiling on the amount of beef you're willing to eat in a week would help a lot of people. And there are ways to keep from backsliding. Only eat beef on Saturday's, say. Or only eat beef when you yourself are willing to cook it.

The really insidious stuff, as I see it, are all of the things that are in our food that we don't really know about. And the best way to address that problem, so far as I can tell, is just to cook from scratch as often as you can. The simpler and more whole the ingrediants you use, the more control you have over what's in the final product.

Not that I live up to that ideal, by any means. But it's one of my long term goals. Unfortunately, it's beginning to look like meeting that goal is going to require changing more than just by outlook and grocery shopping habits.

Unfortunately, it's beginning to look like meeting that goal is going to require changing more than just by outlook and grocery shopping habits.

Mad, what do you mean? What else do you want to change?

"All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds."

Loricat's Book Nook
Celebrating the Absurd

I don't eat beef very often..... once every couple of weeks. I don't really like chicken. I love lamb and fish though. I lived in Wyoming for a while and when people heard I didn't eat beef, they would actually ask me what I DID eat then! As if they couldn't figure out what else was LEFT to eat!