What if Vegans are Actually Right?

[laklak]

Ate vegetarian tonight. falafel in pita and cous cous salad. Almost vegan except for the feta cheese in the cous cous. 'Twas some tasty shit and no lie.

[JimC]

You'll be wearing beads and a caftan next, Lak...

[rainbow]

Cows don't eat grass from fields. They stand in buildings and eat stuff that are delivered to them.

Fields don't only use rain water. Fields use irrigation. Water is being sprinkled onto the fields nearly 24/7 for months.

Then the thing is that a cow must eat a lot of grass to produce a little bit of meat. If instead of growing grass for cows, you would instead grow plants for direct animal consumption, you would need a lot less land and a lot less irrigation water to produce the same amount of calories. (vegetables compared to meat).

We in Africa have lots of land and no money for irrigation systems.

... so a First World problem?

[pErvinalia]

Cows don't "stand in buildings" in Australia, Africa, South America and probably a lot of North America.

[rainbow]

Cows don't "stand in buildings" in Australia, Africa, South America and probably a lot of North America.

In India they live in the streets and eat rubbish, which they convert into a useful heating and cooking fuel.
...and milk.

[NineBerry]

If you think that you can get the meat for a big mac for 5 USD and a liter milk for 80 cents from cows that roam free, you are delusional.

[pErvinalia]

We do it here (albeit the milk price is driving some dairy farmers out of business).

Edit, NB's post that I was responding to seems to have disappeared.

Edit, crapatalk seems to have gone spazzy.

[rainbow]

If you think that you can get the meat for a big mac for 5 USD and a liter milk for 80 cents from cows that roam free, you are delusional.

5 USD will feed a family in Africa.
MacMissionary is quite popular.

[Brian Peacock]

I think there's a compelling argument to net even countenance veganism: putting the animal welfare argument aside how are the CEO's of mega food corps like Kraft or Nestle going to get their annual bonuses, because if fewer people eating processed meat products (and let's face it, all meat products are processed) then the share price will fall, prices will rise, the stock market with slide, and our entire way of life will be threatened(?)

This thread should be re-titled "Why Vegans Are Actually Wrong".

[JimC]

Brian Peacock wrote:

...and let's face it, all meat products are processed...

Only if you count killing and dismembering as "processing"...

We always buy free-range meat (of any animal)...

(the exception, of course, being bacon, but as an orthodox Ratzian, I get a pass on that one...)

[laklak]

Bacon grows on bacon trees. But be careful, there are fake bacon trees that are quite dangerous. You could be hambushed.

[Brian Peacock]

Brian Peacock wrote:

...and let's face it, all meat products are processed...

Only if you count killing and dismembering as "processing"...

I do.

[Brian Peacock]

I'm interested in what might be at the root (!) of some of the anxiety about vegan food choices expressed here recently?

[NineBerry]

Does washing a tomatoe count as food processing?

[JimC]

Brian Peacock wrote:

...and let's face it, all meat products are processed...

Only if you count killing and dismembering as "processing"...

I do.

OK, to avoid that I guess I'll have to start gnawing on live animals...

But seriously, to me, processed meat products would typically involve mincing at the very least, but also perhaps smoking, and the addition of a wide variety of preservatives and other chemicals. With the exception of bacon, and the odd piece of salami, when I eat meat the key thing is that has been ethically sourced, which means free-range, humanely killed, organic if possible...