On a different topic: one thing I will have to pay attention to is that anemia is fairly common in my family. I personally don't seem to be affected, but both my mother and my brother are (my mum much more so than my brother). So I should probably pay a bit of attention at iron intake, just in case...
Well, we'll see — for now, things should be pretty safe, I'm not even giving up entirely on red meat.
edited 26th Feb '12 11:47:36 PM by Carciofus
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.It's hard to do pescetarian diet in some parts of the USA. I'm in Pittsburgh at the moment, and I refuse to eat seafood here, it'd have to be frozen for at least two days, and that doesn't really fly with me when it comes to fish or shellfish (I'm not a big lobster guy, so the tanked lobsters don't do much for me).
Of course, I'm spoiled, I live a minute from the beach by car usually. I usually walk to the beach, but I've only timed it by car, so don't go thinking I'm THAT lazy.
Charlie Tunoku is a lover and a fighter.As for me, the attempt is mostly due to health and ecological reasons, with a bit of concern for animal welfare as an afterthought.
But as I said, I am not even trying to go fully vegetarian — ideally, what I'd want to reach is a state in which I eat meat only in special occasions (big celebrations and the like), and only when it is of very high quality, but not as a staple food and certainly not in the form of hotdogs and other dubious stuff.
edited 27th Feb '12 2:00:59 AM by Carciofus
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.@ Carciofus: The reason I say that is that I think it's not a good thing for people to be totally OK with eating meat, but not OK with actually seeing animals die. If the thought of watching hundreds of cows being shot in the head and hauled off to be dismembered upsets you, then why are you OK with letting it happen for your steak?
Basically, I dislike the idea of people wanting to enjoy the benefits of that death, but not willing to have the burden on their conscience. It's like 'I'm OK with them suffering, as long as it doesn't intrude on my comfortable state of mind'.
Be not afraid...I've hunted and cleaned deer and shown the steps of how to slaughter and butcher a hog. I agree that one shouldn't do something they can't stand to see.
I think one should be conditioned to it, though, rather than to just stop eating one of the major food groups. Death happens, and we should learn to accept that and appreciate it.
edited 27th Feb '12 3:25:02 AM by Exelixi
Mura: -flips the bird to veterinary science with one hand and Euclidean geometry with the other-![]()
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But there are plenty of things I am quite OK with from an intellectual point of view, but which I would probably find distasteful to witness in first person — for example, brain surgery would probably make me more than a little squeamish, but I obviously have nothing against it in principle.
Analogously, I think that one's decision on whether to eat meat or not should be based on reasoning, not on one's emotional reactions at the sight of a dying animal or of a butchered carcass.*
Just my two cents, of course...
edited 27th Feb '12 3:27:47 AM by Carciofus
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.All right. But all that "jabber jabber jabbe" is some sort of rational argument about animal personhood, animal rights and so on, is this correct?*
It is certainly possible to discuss about the morality of meat eating; but I fail to see what this discussion has to do with one's purely instinctive reactions at the sight of a butchered beast...
edited 27th Feb '12 3:46:51 AM by Carciofus
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.@Carciofus: Well, I agree that you should base decisions like that on reason as well as emotion. But I don't think you should hide from negative emotions either, or hide from the responsibility for lives that have been taken for your sake.
It's a weird disconnect we have as a society, sort of related to What Measure Is a Non-Cute?. My sister will quite happily eat chickens bought from the supermarket, but when we killed a rooster of ours (a rooster, I might add, that had lived a very good life as things go) she refused to. Equally, she is fine with eating beef, but won't eat kangaroo because "the poor kangaroos". We put a great deal of importance on the death of dogs and cats, for example, and yet pigs are just as intelligent and just as capable of pain. But they aren't animals we've been conditioned to think of as 'counting'.
Be not afraid...

Shot to the centre of the forehead, usually. It's supposed to be instantaneous.
Unless it's poultry. I think the method of killing them is a bit less humane.
It's my belief that everybody who eats meat should go to a slaughterhouse at least once. If you want to eat it, you should face up to the realities of obtaining it.
Be not afraid...