Give me a nibble! (Vegetarianism)

Member Name: MorganaDQ

Product:	Vegetarianism
Date:	14/04/01 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I can't do this today

Disadvantages: Not this one either

When is a vegetarian not a vegetarian? When the vegetarian eats meat, that's when. So now I've confused you haven't I? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. You see, I've read a couple of opinions in this category through my CoF and I really did try to avoid writing in it, but the pull was just that little too strong.

Why the riddle then? Well, the simple answer is because I'm one of those 'vegetarians'. I gradually stopped eating meat from around the age of seven or eight. It was a very slow process, which annoyed my parents no end. I can actually remember when we would holiday in Jersey, eat in our favourite little restaurant that was tucked away in the back streets... nine times out of ten I would order lamb chops. The thought now turns my stomach, and it's not on moral grounds. Nope. I simply hate meat.

Hang on though, I said I do eat meat. Well yes I do. Sometimes. And this is where so many of my friends and family have such a problem. I can't stomach meat from a carcass, yet put me in the kitchen with a tin of corned beef and I can appear with a pie which, given the chance, I would eat all to myself in minutes. I crave pepperoni more than chocolate sometimes (sorry Jill). I can devour a sausage roll at five feet. Okay maybe not, but you get my drift.

Yes, I'm one of those people that not only do the carnivores among us not understand me, neither do the vegetarians. Life would be so much easier if I could go one way or the other, but I can't. What surprises other people even more is, because I'm the one who cooks the vast majority of our meals, hubby has to eat vegetarian too. I always thought he'd go insane not getting his regular intake of meat, but he didn't. The weird thing is, he now prefers most of the vegetarian alternatives. Having said that, if we visit my folks and they put a steak in front of him, he would never turn up his nose ;)

So now
you can rest easy. I'm not someone who's gonna try to convert you, I simply decided I wanted my little say in all this, as someone who doesn't feel she has a choice over being vegetarian (you realise I'm using this term loosely as I can think of no other term that would fit, other than just plain odd). I actually loathe that anyone thinks they have a right to tell me what I should or shouldn't be eating. If someone tries to tell a vegetarian they should be eating meat, they get hysterical, yet turn the tables and they're more than happy to preach at the carnivores. Okay, so I'm generalising here, but it's more true than some people may think (apologies to those who don't do this, I know there are many out there who don't).

So, where do I stand on the issues mentioned in the garb with the heading? Seeing as I'm kinda stuck in the middle, I'm gonna be sitting on the fence, right? Well, sort of, I suppose, but not quite. Give me a chance and let me explain.

I believe every man, woman and child has a right to eat meat. I don't mean "Only if you're prepared to kill it yourself", I mean literally, that every person has the right to eat meat. I'm prepared for the backlash from this from the true vegetarians, but hear me out. If a wild animal isn't condemned for eating meat, if we as human beings are not condemned for producing tins of meat for our cats and dogs, then why should we be condemned for producing meat for ourselves? It makes no sense to me.

I can almost hear the cheers from the meat eaters and the screams from the vegetarians already. Apparently we are the superior race on earth (although looking around I find that impossible to believe, but that's for a different category altogether). According to some of my vegetarian friends we have a conscience, we are able to make decisions based on moral grounds, and therefore we should all feel guilty f
or breeding animals for our own consumption. Well, no. That doesn't quite cut it for me, and here's why.

How many of you have considered what would happen if we didn't eat meat of any kind? We'd still have cows for our milk, chickens for our eggs, and so on. But then the cries would be heard, "But this isn't right. It's morally wrong to keep animals in order to extract from them all possible means of sustenance we can. We have no right to rule over any other animal like this." So, based on these morals we have no milk or eggs either. The herds of cattle serve no purpose any more, so no-one is willing to home them. We see zoos full of endangered species. Just how long would it take to find a cow in that zoo? Okay, so this is an extreme case I'm presenting, but is it really all that difficult to imagine? It certainly isn't for me.

We hear about wild animals becoming endangered species so often, and at the end of the day whether we like it or not, those animals we'd be refusing to harvest for our own gains would become wild. The other alternative, of course, is that we find ourselves a few decades down the line being overrun with cattle. I'd be very surprised if the cry wasn't heard to cull them because they were becoming too numerous. At which point, what's worse? Harvesting them for meat and by-products, or culling them for nothing but control? Think about it.

Now okay, so I'm all for us to continue eating meat as we have been. Now comes a trickier bit. I really do believe that the conditions under which some of these animals are kept are appalling. I've read the reports about chickens being kept in cages in which they can hardly even move their heads. Their claws are removed so they can't damage another bird. The fact that they're kept in these cages 24/7 means their feet become deformed anyway. These birds literally have no life, and are p
ut through nothing but immense suffering from day one. It's wrong. Thankfully it's also becoming less and less prevalent, or so we're told. I used chickens simply as an example, the first one which came to mind, no doubt there are others you could think of.

There needs to be strict guidelines for the rearing of such animals, their transportation, and their slaughter. I may be in favour of us as a race having the right to eat these animals, but I also recognise the fact that we need to treat them with respect. In some countries dogs are used as meat. Look at your beloved pet dog and tell me you'd be happy for them to be kept or transported in the same conditions that pigs are, for example. It doesn't bear thinking about does it?

So am I actually on the fence in this one? Well I think I probably am. I know, I'm wimping out yet again but I can't help that.

What I do believe in is freedom of choice for each individual. If you don't want to eat meat, don't eat it. If you do, do. What we choose to put into our own bodies is just that, our own choice. Whether eating meat over a long period of time poisons our bodies or not, it's still our choice to do that, the same as we have the right to decide to drink alcohol, put extra salt on our food, whatever.

When I think of all the things we're told are bad for us, it makes me wonder just what we'd be living off if we all lived by the scientists conclusions over our food. We'd all turn into a clone of Michael Jackson, with our masks over our faces, our little oxygen tents, and even then we'd be told oxygen is bad for us too.

Go ahead and eat your rare steak with the blood oozing out as you cut into it. Alternatively, dig into your Quorn korma knowing full well that what you're eating is a plant. Put into your mouths whatever you choose to, and don't ever forget that just as your choice is yours, mine is m
ine.

Oh yes, and enjoy your meal ;)

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