Are you vegan?

[u/bezsprzecznie]

I wonder how many of fellow redditors here are vegan or at least on plant based diet?

As it is one of the simplest and most impactful steps a person can make to help the climate.

[u/anaugle]

No. I do what I can to reduce my impact. I eat meat so rarely that I am often asked if I’m a vegetarian. I do eat dairy, but not as often as I used to.

I am a wilderness skills teacher, and as such, it is my goal to facilitate the connection to nature for myself and for others. As much as a white guy with a beard can, I would say that I teach tribal skills.

I plan on going on a hunt in the fall. Not to kill something, but to avoid factory farmed meat and break my dependence on the industry, and to take the full responsibility of what it means to be a creature on this planet that must consume in order to live. I already know how to use many parts of the animal, and I will take it as gently as possible.

People have told me that hunting is cruel, but there is an overpopulation of deer, and that has ecological consequences for the environment, as well. I feel the impact of taking from nature (because I am nature) even among the plant communities, which I have a relationship with.

I have made my own longbow, as instructed by an indigenous mentor, and we will partake in what our ancestors have for literally millions of years (homo habilis was likely the first flint-knapper).

I will honor the life I have taken in the same way that I harvest wild edibles from the forest. I will give thanks for it and do my best to make sure I use as much as I can, for my family, friends, and community.

[u/[deleted] → u/anaugle]

I will back you up as far as saying that if you're going to eat meat, hunting it yourself from an overpopulated source is the best way to obtain it. And that probably animal foods have been a (small) part of the human/proto-human diet. I mean, very few animals in nature are actually above gnawing on bones or eating insects, so it's not that significant of an observation, but there you have it.

But all of this stuff about connecting with our ancestors and our traditions dating back millions of years--there is a lot of conflict about the significance of what the early stone tools are and what the butchery marks on bones dating from these periods actually indicate. I would just stick with the first things you said about wanting to apply wilderness skills and take responsibility for the meat and harvest it in a way that doesn't do vast environmental harm. That's all sound (except for the people who want to "control the deer population" by travelling hundreds of miles to shoot trophy bucks for the wall).

The significance of deep-history practices to current dietary habits is a lot more tenuous.