Guest guest Posted December 14, 2001 Report Share Posted December 14, 2001 Hello Friends, I was new to the SF-BA four months back. Had been looking for some Veg*n contact and finally attended the 8th Dec. Dinner of SFVS. It was a pleasant feeling. Here are some thoughts that I would like to communicate with the rest. Being a Vegetarian life-long, I have always been interested in finding out why people brought-up to be not Veg*ns decide at some point of time to be one. From what I gathered at the dinner, two major resons to become vegns: (a) Not to cause directly or indirectly suffering of animals (rational and emotional reasons) (b) For health reasons Though I was brought-up to be a vegn, at several stages in my life I had a chance to eat meat - but denied it. When I analyze my decissions, they were purely on emotional grounds. Well, probably we can chat more in the future. I have a few points for you to think about: 1. Why Veg*ns associate names of meat dishes with vegetarian dishes and put lots of efforts to imitate meat?? Eating is both a psychological and a physiological act. Then how can some one eat, say: a " soy sausage " that looks, smells, tastes and gives a feeling like a " meat sausage " ? In fact, I have the same uncomfortable feeling going to a normal restaurant to find that they hardly have a vegn dish (most of the times I create my own menu), as also when I go to a vegn restaurant to find in the menu vegn PORK. Once my colleague, who knows how meat tastes and feels, could not rule out that the vegetarian dish I ordered may be a meat-dish, though the Chef swore it to be vegn. I had to give-up eating that lunch... 2. A more serious question that has been lingering in my mind was: What would I do when I have no other choice than to kill an animal or die of hunger? My answer so far was always not to kill the animal... More light stuff in the next mail Cheers Murthy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 15, 2001 Report Share Posted December 15, 2001 Hi Murthy! Welcome to our little veg*n community! I want to thank you for bringing these topics up! In my 6 or so years of being a veg*n, I've come across these issues plenty of times, and I just wanted to share my thoughts with you . . . Just recently, a meat-consuming friend of mine accused me (and vegans in general) of being hypocrites because some of us choose to eat fake " meat " dishes (like texturized soy protein seasoned in the same fashion that animal flesh is). However, I hardly call this hypocritical -- I've been known to eat plenty of these dishes (like the garlic beef & rice @ Golden Era - YUMMY!), and I see nothing wrong with it. Most vegans choose this lifestyle for the reasons you stated -- concern for animals and personal/environmental health. We didn't just wake up one day and think " meat tastes bad -- I'm never eating that again! " As long as no animals are being killed for this dish, and it does not pose the health threats found in real meat dishes, I see no problem with it. If someone doesn't eat them because they don't like the taste, it's their preference. Personally, I like many soy-based " meat " dishes, but, then, others just look or smell too much like the real thing and threaten to make me sick just looking at 'em. Plus, this also gives people who are used to consuming animal flesh an extra incentive to go veg. The most common reason people give for choosing to eat meat is " it tastes good. " So, if we can simulate these tastes without harming the animals or ourselves, no more excuses. Another thing you mentioned was the " if you had to kill an animal or die of hunger, what would you do? " argument. This is a favourite of my anti-vegan family, actually, so I have to deal with it quite a bit. I can honestly say that, if I were stuck on a deserted island with nothing edible but the little creatures living on it with me, I don't know what I would do. No one knows what they'll do until they're actually in that situation. People have even resorted to cannibalism when faced with the threat of starvation, and I'll bet that, if you asked them what they would've done before it actually happened, that wouldn't even have occured to them. Realistically, the odds of any vegan becoming stuck in that situation is pretty slim -- we're lucky enough to be in a situation where we have the option to choose a veg*n lifestyle, and we're taking full advantage of that. - Carla Brauer karrotqueen " You must be the change you want to see in the world. " (Gandhi) .... so, what are you waiting for? caft.org | vegan.org | tree-sit.org | idausa.org | envirolink.org | sfvs.org | animalliberation.net | indymedia.org | earthfirst.org | kpfa.org | projectcensored.org | ran.org | infoshop.org | primatefreedom.com | bankofamericakills.com | furkills.org - msgsfb Thursday, December 13, 2001 7:02 PM think about it Hello Friends, I was new to the SF-BA four months back. Had been looking for some Veg*n contact and finally attended the 8th Dec. Dinner of SFVS. It was a pleasant feeling. Here are some thoughts that I would like to communicate with the rest. Being a Vegetarian life-long, I have always been interested in finding out why people brought-up to be not Veg*ns decide at some point of time to be one. From what I gathered at the dinner, two major resons to become vegns: (a) Not to cause directly or indirectly suffering of animals (rational and emotional reasons) (b) For health reasons Though I was brought-up to be a vegn, at several stages in my life I had a chance to eat meat - but denied it. When I analyze my decissions, they were purely on emotional grounds. Well, probably we can chat more in the future. I have a few points for you to think about: 1. Why Veg*ns associate names of meat dishes with vegetarian dishes and put lots of efforts to imitate meat?? Eating is both a psychological and a physiological act. Then how can some one eat, say: a " soy sausage " that looks, smells, tastes and gives a feeling like a " meat sausage " ? In fact, I have the same uncomfortable feeling going to a normal restaurant to find that they hardly have a vegn dish (most of the times I create my own menu), as also when I go to a vegn restaurant to find in the menu vegn PORK. Once my colleague, who knows how meat tastes and feels, could not rule out that the vegetarian dish I ordered may be a meat-dish, though the Chef swore it to be vegn. I had to give-up eating that lunch... 2. A more serious question that has been lingering in my mind was: What would I do when I have no other choice than to kill an animal or die of hunger? My answer so far was always not to kill the animal... More light stuff in the next mail Cheers Murthy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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