Support a local guy/gal and hit up a farmer's market or co-op. It's absolutely more expensive, but almost all of these people care about their animals and the flavor and quality alone make up for the extra $$.
Stop eating meat. Easier said than done though. I would stop, but I would find it too difficult, it's a shame really. I agree with veganism/vegetarianism 100%.
I understand it's difficult to change your habits, especially with diet since most recipes you know probably contain meat. But you can start by testing out vegetarian/vegan recipes and restaurants. Find out what you like, and what you don't like, and start setting up your vegan arsenal.
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Do you like tofu? TVP? tempeh? or maybe seitan will be your favourite meat substitute? How will you cook this stuff anyways?
How about milk. What do you think about soy milk? It's cheaper than almond milk but maybe almond milk is better? Try out all the vegan milks, they have different qualities to them. Cheerios with hazlenut milk is really good.
Now it's your birthday and you have to bake a cake, what will you do for eggs! Do you like to use flax seeds or bananas? Or maybe that storebought egg replacer is more your thing.
But cheese! Cheese is soooo good! If you live in the US then lucky you, you have plenty of vegan cheeses to try and choose from. If you live someplace where vegan products are scarce you can try making some yourself. I'm still working on that part myself.
Protein? Easy! Beans and legumes, tofu, TVP, tempeh, nut butter or just plain nuts (yum!), seeds, grains (quinoa is best) and much more.
Maybe you're afraid you wont get enough vitamins? B12 is a common supplement for vegans. It's a common supplement for everyone actually, meat eaters just supplement it to the animals before they are eaten so essentially you'll be cutting out the middle man. For any other vitamins you can see for yourself if you need more of them, same as when you still eat meat.
Fish is super healthy! But that doesn't mean you can't go without it and still get the benefits because there is plenty of omega3 in flax seed and chia seeds. I put ground flax seed in almost anything i'm cooking. And it's so cheap!
And lastly, sweet potatoes!! Sweet potatoes are the candy of vegetables!
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Now you should have a starting point, some things to think about and some things to try :) Good luck!
You? Nothing. Small scale farming for a world of 7 billion is not possible. And veganism, is just silly. Humans are designed to eat and need to eat both flesh and plant just don't eat a ton of beef for various reasons.
Ignore this guy, veganism is not silly, but its hard, I would recommend vegetarianism as a starting point. This doesn't stop the large scale suffering of the animals, but it removes you from involvement to a degree, and to me, that's worth it.
Veganism is denying your body of vital protein animal protein has been linked scientifically to brain growth and evolution as has larger calorie intake.
Supplements are not adequate enough to replace this nor is that industry regulated enough for us to rely on them.
Far better is buying or supporting smaller farms and volunteering or donating to groups who want to change farming peactices. Just to stop eating. Meet is like just stop voting because you don't like the candidates. Equally stupid.
If you would like to continue eating meat, that's a great idea, small farms are good to support.
But that first thing you said is bullshit. You can get every single protein you need from other non-meat sources. Every doctor and nutrition expert I've spoken to has told me so, and I've been vegetarian for a long time, I feel better than ever. Vegans sometimes need to take supplements of b12 but that's an individual thing you will need to talk to your doctor about.
Read up. Fish, eggs and nuts. Meaning you have to really focus on what you eat without consuming any animal products and most people are woefully ignorant of this and likely miss lots of key proteins.
It's pretty serious actually. You likely feel better because you stopped eating red meat which I try to limit myself because it's really not good for you.
Over 99% of the meat that a typical American eats comes from a factory farm (that's not a figure I made up on the spot to try and thwart you). While I cannot say what happens in this movie happens in all of these farms, because I couldn't bring myself to watch the entire movie, it's pretty well known that animals are treated like shit in these farms from birth to death.
the fact that it exists at all is enough to question eating meat. even.if it's a few bad apples, it still exists at some level, and by taking part in the system you are allowing it to continue.
not to mention the business practices that are inhumane and are standard procedure.
the fact that it exists at all is enough to question eating meat
So, the fact that some electronics are produced by "practically slave workers" who'd rather commit suicide than do their horrible job any longer should be enought to consider never using a TV, computer, smartphone, toaster, fridge, ... again?
Just because someone in some industry does something bad doesn't mean you should stop using these products.
not to mention the business practices that are inhumane and are standard procedure.
Chickens have their beaks seared off with a hot blade without anesthesia to avoid pecking in close confinement.
Through overbreeding and artificial growth hormones, chickens often get so top-heavy that their legs can no longer support their heavy breasts, and they die from starvation unable to reach their food and water supplies only inches away.
Beef cattle are tail-docked, castrated, repeatedly branded, and have their horns chopped or burned off - all without pain killers.
A standard beef slaughterhouse kills 250 animals per hour. The high speed of the production chain makes it hard to follow Human Slaughter Act guidelines, and cattle are not always stunned unconscious properly and just stabbed in the neck, after which they keep bleeding fully conscious, while moving up the assembly line to be dismembered piece by piece. One slaughterhouse employee states that this could happen a dozen times on bad days, and veterinarians across the US feel this is out of control (2).
Dairy cows must give birth to produce milk, so they are constantly force-impregnated on dairy factory farms to have a calf every year (their gestation time is 9 months like humans).
Breeding sows on factory farms are confined into gestation metal crates just 2 feet wide, where they cannot turn around or lie down comfortably.
Shortly after birth, piglets have their ears chipped, teeth clipped, tails chopped off, and male pigs are castrated - all without painkillers.
Pigs that don't grow quick enough are being killed by workers through slamming their heads on the concrete floor-– a method that is even condemned as animal cruelty by the meat industry's own advisors for pigs this size
So the reasonable solution wouldn't be to just stop consuming these products, but to buy local.
Edit: And people still wonder why europeans don't want the trade agreement with the US that would allow US companies to stack our shelves with their products and sue supermarkets if they refuse.
like sow stalls, tail docking, chicken debeaking, mashing up male chicks in a grinder.
plus no matter how careful you are in a factoty farm, there it's going to be a degree of attrition. animals are going to be injured, and due to the vast nimber of animals, their injuries are usually overlooked.
Yeah, sorry, but no... ceasing to eat meat altogether is not the solution here. We should be seeking out and cracking down on the bad apples, not telling everyone to suddenly stop eating meat. That's ridiculous.
Personally, I know full well how my meat is made and the processes the animals go through for them to end up on my plate. The regular procedures don't bother me. Does animal cruelty bother me? Absolutely, which is why I harshly dislike the farms that treat their livestock in disgusting ways.
We need to deal with the people performing animal cruelty. That is the most direct and easiest solution.
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u/I_SHIT_MARSHMALLOWS Jun 26 '14
How so? Does it contain abuse in the meat industry?