Why are you not vegan?

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Just feel like pointing out that Soya products use a huge amount of chemicals which are causing illness in workers in south america and destroying the soil. For this I try to avoid soya wherever possible.

If I drink milk it is usually coconut milk or rice milk.

I am, although it hasn't been very long. Going vegan was one of those things that seemed big and intimidating as long as I just thought about it. In practice though, it's been relatively easy (I say relatively because I do have to fix a bit more of my food then I did as a vegetarian and I don't particularly enjoy cooking).

My main reason for going vegan is simply because I could, with little effort. I don't think there's any disagreement that current farming practices(even more "humane" ones) harm both farm animals and humans, as well as the environment. I can choose to minimize my harm and so I have.

Along with chemicals,soy(a) makes your hormones go up to unhealthy heights.Yikes.

6) Because I don't want to ever be thought of as one of those PETA-warrior Nazi Vegans who belittles and/or insults anyone who doesn't live up to their standards. (BTW, not all Vegans are like this.) Besides, even doing Meatless Monday is helpful, and I don't think we should be name-calling or discouraging anyone for their efforts.

I'm not Vegan because:

1. Evidence for its efficacy is largely composed of faith-based testimonials.
2. I like eating meat.
3. Nearly every Vegan I've met has been condescending, smarmy, and easily provoked into irrationality.
4. I like eating meat.
5. No Vegan-style meal has ever tasted good to me.
6. BACON!
7. A stomach full of fruits and veggies leaves me feeling hungry
8. Meat is my favorite food.
9. It takes no cunning to stalk a blade of grass; it takes no intelligence to kill and eat it.
10. When all else fails, there is Spam.

You're right, every cause seems to have this kind of hardcore supporters who alienate potential interest with a holier then you attitude and insults. It's weird as I've never heard of anyone being convinced by such methods Just good old human nature at its best I guess

Wait, veganism is already irrational, how can you provoke something into what already is?

Ahh ... but the Vegans I refered to can behave calmly and rationally until provoked. All it takes is insisting that the show evidence to back up their claims, followed by a counter-claim that their beliefs are otherwise no better than religious doctrine, and - POOF - instant meltdown!

Four reasons I am not a vegan:

1. I like the taste of animal products specially when combined with a variety of other products. A grilled beef with salad is tons of times better than a salad for me. Fish, chicken, duck, lamb, other sea creatures, insects. They all can bring flavors that I like. Milk has so many applications and derivatives it is a fundamental ingredient in many dishes. And who can forget pizza? Cheese is a great invention, specially when combined with ham and pineapples and bread. Or in a Cheeseburger, yum. And Jelly! Jelly is such an awesome thing. I actually live in a country where you can actually get real Jelly, the natural kind not processed in a factory nor colorized, the one that really reminds you where it comes from, and it is very tasty.

Oh sure, you may not like their taste and if you don't, then it is all right that you won't eat them, but don't expect people to stop eating them altogether just because you don't like their taste.

2. Factoring meat and animal products completely out of your diet is not healthy. Humans are omnivores. Claims that it is healthier to quit on protein seem to rely completely on pseudoscience and appear to be the product of denial.

3. Saying that torturing and eating plants is morally superior to torturing and eating animals is faux, arbitrary morality.

4. Cooking is part of our human culture (aka art) and that includes all food that contains animal products. I do value the variety of human culture over any animal.

PS: Comparing farms to the holocaust is extremely insulting to mankind and specifically to the Jews that were tortured and died in actual concentration camps.

Just because you want the Bee shortage to be caused by pesticides it does not mean that you should preemptively attack any claim that it is actually caused by a disease. The way to do it is through evidence. It is still not clear at all what causes the collapse disorder and biasing out towards the pesticide theory just to push an anti-pesticide agenda is not going to be helpful at finding the actual cause. At this point, the disease theory actually seems to at least have some validity they [b]did]/b] find a virus and fungus present in all the colonies that were studied, even though they still think more testing is needed, but that already makes the disease theory more probable than the pesticides one.

Yes, and I have low thyroid issues and soy is one of the worst foods there is when one has that condition. The thyroid issues may be what have caused my lifetime of low energy and chronic depression.

I'm not sure because I haven't read or heard much about this yet, but I have read some hints that when I was a wee baby lack of sufficient thyroid hormones may have had something to do with not triggering certain key brain developments, in other words, my low thyroid might have had something to do with my neurological condition that puts me on the autistic spectrum with my social and sensory issues.

Re: this thread's topic, the previous poster Vexcalibur gave many good reasons for being an omnivore. Yes I know about trophic levels and environmental sustainability. Eating too much meat isn't good, but not eating any meat is also not good in my opinion. It is very insulting to compare farms to the Holocaust, and it is arbitrary to declare that killing and eating plants is any more moral than killing and eating animals. I know animals have a nervous system and plants don't. That does not mean that plants don't suffer in their own way.

I subscribe to the view that all of us, animals, vegetables and minerals, are manifestations of the same energy that is in an eternal dance. Sure I'll eat the cow today, but in a few years that cow's descendants or relatives will be eating the grass growing from my grave. More importantly, I respect and thank the cow for providing me with the energy it accumulated. To me, this eliminates the middleman of saying grace and thanking God for the cow. I thank the cow directly, which to me means the same thing as thanking God for the cow since I see it and me and everything else as manifestations of divine consciousness. Of course I could be wrong!

Actually I am vegan

I'm a pollotarian...
but people usually do not know what that means so I dont really tell anybody...they dont really notice...

I agree with you. We still need to look at other contributing factors. I maybe went in a bit heavy. I have seen studies which prove than pesticides are playing an absolutely massive role here and even learnt that a researcher came to the same conclusion but was later silenced the media, as he was doing research for Monsanto.

My hope is that the pesticides / herbicides aspect is covered in detail in the documentry.

I have several reasons. I am a vegetarian... I am a vegetarian who has a shameless love for cheese. I have tried the vegan diet and did well with it, despite the lost love of my cheese... but I have children. I also have a low budget for food. It is difficult for me to find food to prepare within my budget that supplies the proper nutrition not just for myself but for growing children who did not like the taste of a large portion of the foods I prepared. I do not always have the time or the money to really get into creative cooking to find the correct balance of tasty and well rounded nutrition. Nor do I have the money or time to prepare multiple sets of meals for different members of my family. So to sum it up, I like cheese, I am poor, not overly creative with food, and unable/unwilling to better budget my time.

I agree but... making a difference between animals and plants is a kind of specisim, isn't it ? You'd better choose the other alternative (not being disgusted to eat everything which comes from living being, including eggs, fruits, cat / rabbit / lizard / human meat).

Let each draw their own lines in the sand, they are all personal and basically arbitrary.

Things eat things, ecosystems are a delicate and ever swaying shift in these balances as energy is changed from one form to another by organisms consuming each other, that my friends is life and death and the whole damned game
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I say go the lovely vegans they are not all high and mighty and judgmental, many are intelligent, sensitive individuals and quite accepting of peoples right to choose, however they may get frustrated from time to time by the hostility of those who feel uncomfortable by the vegan rejection of something they still embrace - this is common in many areas of life.

Back when I was involved in the CND there was an old airforce chap in my group, he served in WWII bombing Germany, flying as crew in Lancasters, he was one of the first kiwi's in J-Force to see ground zero in Hiroshima or Nagasaki I cannot recall which. He was still an active member in the RSA [Returned Services Association]. One day prior to a group meeting he was distracted and upset, I liked the guy a lot and asked him what was up [a rare case of empathy on my part which just shows how obvious his upset was]. His reply was that the guys at the RSA had been on his case and abusing him as a commie etc for taking a stand against nuclear weapons. I asked why he persisted in mixing with them, his reply was that they had a common bond, they had shared in different ways the same terrible experience with the exception of what he saw in Japan.
He excused them their ignorant and agressive hostility to his CND activities on the premise that they had invested so much of themselves in something so terrible that in order to make peace with them selves and get on with their lives they had had to justify it and to some extent make war good, this nessecitated being hostile to 'pinko peaceniks', they pressumed guilt about and hostility towards what they had done on his part.
He was a very wise man, a caring and intelligent individual who turned me onto something I have seen a lot of in life.

Read back over this thread, there has been way more superciliousness and open hostility on the part of the omnivores than on the part of any of the vegetarians or vegans - get over it folks we choose what we choose, if for ethical or environmental reasons this makes lots of sense and makes you uncomfortable then that is your sh#t not ours.

peace j