What's your excuse for eating meat?

[RRypien37]

The spirituality thing was a joke since a lot of vegetarians like to put hemselves on a pedestal of being a more spiritual being than someone who "savagely" eats meat.

Think about this though, would you eat meat that.. Was grown in a lab, looks indistinguishable from the real thing, has the same texture as the real thing, and tastes just as good. Because that's been done as of 2012. It's just the issue of becoming a plausible concept for the mainstream to have access too. Mass production of it will eventually be a reality.

Hunger won't be an issue in the 22nd century. Unless of course corrupt politics keep it the way it is.

So you basically admitted your prediction will not come to fruition with the next sentence...

[grandmaster]

I'll eat what I want and you can take your self righteous idiotic preaching elsewhere you annoying peta clown

[deadendpath]

That's weird. I didn't know I need an excuse for eating meat. But, to answer your question.. I enjoy eating meat, the way it tastes, the way it smells, it's delicious. Nothing comes close.

[The Bookie]

Without giving too much away about the plot, I recently read Michael Faber's novel Under the Skin (last years Scarlett Johansen movie was loosely based upon it) and it deals with a lot of these questions verrrrry interestingly. I can't recommend it enough, easily the best fiction writing I've read in the last two or three years.

Anyhow I don't eat a ton of meat but my reasoning is similar to ManUtd, after ~8 years or so being veggie I started suffering from a loss of energy and prone to getting sick more often; reintroducing meat to my diet seems to have had a positive effect there. We try to eat 'ethical meats' (free range, grass fed, no hormones etc etc) as often as possible, not just for morals but because there's a tangible difference in taste/quality.

[LuckyLuciano]

coz..bacon

[nuckin_futz]

I'll eat what I want and you can take your self righteous idiotic preaching elsewhere you annoying peta clown

Sorry couldn't resist

https://youtu.be/ZEj79LX71Tw

[The Arrogant Worms]

Carrot Juice is Murder

https://youtu.be/gUcR-_uqcmk

Listen up brothers and sisters,
come hear my desperate tale.
I speak of our friends of nature,
trapped in the dirt like a jail.

Vegetables live in oppression,
served on our tables each night.
This killing of veggies is madness,
I say we take up the fight.

Salads are only for murderers,
coleslaw's a fascist regime.
Don't think that they don't have feelings,
just cause a radish can't scream.

Chorus:
I've heard the screams of the vegetables (scream, scream, scream)
Watching their skins being peeled (having their insides revealed)
Grated and steamed with no mercy (burning off calories)
How do you think that feels (bet it hurts really bad)
Carrot juice constitutes murder (and that's a real crime)
Greenhouses prisons for slaves (let my vegetables go)
It's time to stop all this gardening (it's dirty as hell)
Let's call a spade a spade (is a spade is a spade is a spade)

I saw a man eating celery,
so I beat him black and blue.
If he ever touches a sprout again,
I'll bite him clean in two.

I'm a political prisoner,
trapped in a windowless cage.
Cause I stopped the slaughter of turnips
by killing five men in a rage

I told the judge when he sentenced me,
This is my finest hour,
I'd kill those farmers again
just to save one more cauliflower

Chorus

How low as people do we dare to stoop,
Making young broccolis bleed in the soup?
Untie your beans, uncage your tomatoes
Let potted plants free, don't mash that potato!

I've heard the screams of the vegetables (scream, scream, scream)
Watching their skins being peeled (fates in the stirfry are sealed)
Grated and steamed with no mercy (you fat gormet slob)
How do you think that feels? (leave them out in the field)
Carrot juice constitutes murder (V8's genocide)
Greenhouses prisons for slaves (yes, your composts are graves)
It's time to stop all this gardening (take up macrame)
Let's call a spade a spade (is a spade, is a spade, is a spade, is a spade...

[Dr.Strangelove]

[hsedin33]

To the OP

I was a vegetarian for 15 years. There are a few reasons why I started eating meat again.

1) Protein. I started working out at the gym and was not able to get 175 grams of complete protein a day on just dairy, beans, and quinoa etc. It was making me sick with how much dairy I had to eat to make this mark.

2) Humans eat meat, we have the teeth for it and the enzymes to digest it. The alternative to the current method we have now is for everyone to run out into the forest and kill their own animals (imagine 7 billion people running out into the forest killing every animal they see for food, there would be no animals left on the planet after a week).

3) I only really eat meat that was raised humanly. As a result, I don't actually eat that much meat, just because its uncommon.

[TLindenIsGod]

If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding.

[aGENT]

90% of the meat and eggs I eat come from free range and local sources.

The large scale meat industry is truly inhumane and disgusting, with a few major companies running show.

It's a dirty game and no one is willing to clean it.

Same. As often as possible I buy local, organic, free range. We also don't eat meat for every meal like a lot of people do. I'd say about 1/2 our meals have no meat and we simply enjoy higher quality meat that wasn't raised in a cage surrounded by feces when we do eat it.

As for the OP (or the belligerent folks with the "frack you, I like meat!" attitude), your asking the wrong question. It doesn't matter if people eat meat. What does matter is how those animals are treated, what kind of quality is your meat, how often you need to eat it and what kinds of meat are you eating.

Stopping eating meat is frankly, silly. As is condemning people from doing so. Doing it properly with the animals treatment, the quality and types of meat your ingesting and the environment in mind is what people should be educating themselves about.

[Canada Hockey Place]

I eat meat. I feel bad about it. But I guess self gratification trumps ethical responsibility. It's like I know how driving everywhere is bad but I don't carpool or take transit even though I know I should. Or knowing flying will increase my carbon footprint but I still go on vacations. I have no excuse and I know I should change my habits.

Having said that, I don't think the environmental angle is convincing since it probably has to do more with overpopulation than choice of diet. Population control and humans learning do do things in moderation would solve more problems than everybody on the planet going meatless IMO.

additional point - I could totally be vegetarian if I lived in India.

[Hunter_74]

now that we have gotten the most obvious responses out of the way, if anyone with a brain wishes to respond, i would love to read it

Humans have been eating meat for hundreds of thousands of years. We are omnivores and meat is part of our diet. Sure, I agree the mistreatment of livestock is immoral and wrong, but unfortunately that is the cost of civilization. Corporations sacrifice our health for money efficient ways to produce food and cut costs. In this day and age there is SOOO much corruption. Look up the production of HFCS and Fructose on youtube, (Sugar: The Bitter Truth). Livestock aren't the only ones being mistreated. To conclude, meat contains many nutrients that are difficult to obtain from other sources, and quite frankly, I am allowed to chose what I want to eat and what i don't want to eat.

Sorry I might be all over the board there, its finals week.

[Rick Grimes]

See that blood?

Vegan tears.

[vancouvercanucks2010]

Good news everyone, you don't have to eat meat! I made enough Gazpatcho for all! It's Tomato soup,served ICE COLD!

[Pears]

Because steak. And bacon. Can't forget about bacon.

[vancouvercanucks2010]

Because steak. And bacon. Can't forget about bacon.

But but bu...how about tamato soup served ice cold?

[WilliesStache14]

have to laugh at how you ask everyone why they still eat it. They give you their VALID ANSWERS, and you reply with "well that's obvious" and proceed to attempt to belittle their intelligence just because their answer doesn't please you.

That said, I do the same thing when I argue with people who drink alcohol or smoke (the belittling their intellect... obviously not the "that's obvious" part)). So, the hypocritical part of me sees the irony in mocking you for doing it.

As for the question at hand. It is as simple as taste for me first. Meat is far more appealing to the taste buds and my stomach than any vegetable or fruit is.

Also, for me, who has only a few teeth left, its actually easier to eat than most vegetables unless you boil them. Far easier to chew ham or chicken than a carrot or a potato for me.

I am aware of how animals are treated. It sucks. But, theres a LOT of "it sucks" things in the world that we blindly ignore daily on top of that. Our reliance on oil is worse for the world than our mistreatment of the animals we are eventually going to kill for food. Nothing I can do about that either.

At the end of the day, they are animals. They would be killed and eaten by other animals in the wild. Their deaths would be far more brutal and surely frightening than the way its done by humans.

lol +1

can we lock this stupid hipster vegetarian thread now? cause he just got destroyed here

[NexusRift]

I just plain like meat. No excuse required, thank you.

[Baer.]

That's like asking why a fish swims for a bird flies. It's just nature to eat meat. You don't ask a lion why it eats meat and you don't ask a horse why it eats hay. It just does.