vegetarian? vegan?
Out of context: Reply #122
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- hhsix0
I must share: I have been vegi for 7 years and I feel a lot better now than when I ate meat - it is a myth that you become pale and tired. I also fall ill a LOT less than those around me and I put this down to my vegi diet.
Meat was never supposed to be consumed on the scale that it is now, by the human species .. any doctor will tell you that the acid in our stomach is just not up to disgesting meat on an every day basis. We are designed as a species to eat meat out of neccesity and therefore rarely.
Someone mentioned the environmental impact of eating meat, and this is so so true - people do not realise the stats behind animals raised for human consumption - both in terms of the carbon footprint and the effectiveness of land to graze the intense numbers needed to fit the gluttonous demand of our species. The BBC just did a study and the researcher, (much to his own disliking) concluded:
"...transport is a tiny component of agriculture’s worldwide contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. No, the main culprit is out there in the fields, chewing her cud. It turns out that livestock – predominantly cattle – are responsible for an astonishing proportion of global warming gases - 18 per cent of the total, to be precise. That’s right, almost a fifth of all emissions which is more greenhouse gas emissions than all the transport on earth – planes, trains, cars, skidoos the lot."
So we see, a study by the UN states that animals bred for our consuption contribute more greenhouse gas emissions than the might of all the worlds cars and transport combined. You CANNOT claim to be an environmentalist and eat meat - the two just do not go hand in hand whatsoever.
The reason I became vegi was mainly, though, to do with the philosophy and deeper meaning behind our own actions and their effect. It is a lifestyle choice that has a contributes a massive ripple, and I feel that I am in great company ~ as history has shown that a disproportionate amount of great minds have supported vegetarianism. Just some key figures include:
>> Plato and Pythagoras:
Vegetarians were actually called Pythagoreans up until the 1800's. Pythagoras did not eat meat and also disallowed his students from eating meat. He was an avid supporter on philosophical grounds.>> Einstein:
"Although I have been prevented by outward circumstances from observing a strictly vegetarian diet, I have long been an adherent to the cause in principle. Besides agreeing with the aims of vegetarianism for aesthetic and moral reasons, it is my view that a vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.">> Leonardo da Vinci:
"...creator of the Mona Lisa, was such a fervent vegetarian that he would buy caged birds from poultry vendors and set them free."What we see is an ideal growing faster than any religious sect or belief system: "in 1945 it is estimated that there were about 100,000 vegetarians in the UK. The figure today is approaching 4,000,000, an increase of 4,000 per cent."
It's easy to mock vegetarians, as it is easy to mock anyone who makes choices that question your own mainstream generic view on living... but what have you done to make difference? I make a difference each and every day... and it's a great feeling.