Why are you not vegan?

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Yes factory farming of animals is terrible for the environment. But so is the way we grow, harvest, process, package and transport crops. I get my meat from the same state I live. Most of the produce that's available where I live is shipped in from out-of-state, out-of-country, even out-of-hemisphere. I love oranges, but for about 5 months of the year, Ii can't eat them because I refuse to buy oranges shipped to the US from New Zealand. The whole locavore thing is great, but what if you live where you cannot get another locally grown produce to sustain a healthy vegan diet? Areas in developed countries that have problems with food availability--called food deserts--is more common than most people know, and people who live in large metro areas cannot expect the local farmers market to feed them and their millions of neighbors. Shipping food has a massive environmental impact, regardless if it's meat or tofu that's being shipped. We need to address ALL factors of the problem with our food supply and its environmental impact, not cherry pick the ones we want to be the most evil.

Anyhow, I have a broad spectrum allergy to vegetable protein. Soy and corn are the worst. There's no way I can go vegan without depriving myself of the protein my body needs.

Add to that I need to be a low carb, high protein diet for my PCOS and insulin resistance. Most grains make my insulin levels impossible to manage. I can tolerate small amount of quinoa, oats and wheat. But I can't tolerant enough grains to get enough calories. So I need meat just to get enough calories.

Lastly, food is cultural. We need to address environmental issues with our food supply that is respectful to food's role in human culture. I do not think many vegans are very respectful to cultural significance of food. This is why veganism often doesn't go over so well in a New York deli, or a Chicago pizzeria, or a Louisiana seafood shack. If you don't respect the culture, you don't respect the people. And if you don't respect the people, they have no reason to listen to anything you say.

I also do not think eating meat is a moral issue. It's a biological one. And we have evolved as omnivores. Our bodies and brains were shaped by eating highly digestible protein that comes from meat. That you can make an argument for not eating meat is because your ancestors ate meat for thousands of generations, enabling us to develop brains capable of such higher critical thought. Gotta love that irony! Also, do you like the way a woman's or man's torso looks? Thank meat consumption. If we were herbivores, we'd be more like gorillas--squat and pot-bellied, so to accommodate a larger GI track to digest harder-to-digest vegetable matter. We just don't have the gut for a totally herbivore diet, frankly, and this is why humans are more likely to have GI trouble relating to the consumption of non-meat foods than to meats. Yeah we need fiber, but compared to our herbivore primate relatives like chimps or gibbons, we actually need comparatively little fiber.

I do advocate more more environmentally responsible meat (and crop) production, and an overall reduction in meat consumption, but I do not think eliminating meat is either a sound or healthy option for the greater population.

Because, while I am a vegetarian, I do enjoy shooting animals and watching them die horribly in the forest.

http://au.todaytonight.yahoo.com/articl ... widespread

Because I have great problems eating variously.
I would love to be a vegan, and I have tried twice, but I sickened.
I'm a vegetarian though.

Plus we are gluten, nut and seed free due to anaphalaxis in our house hold.

Looks like we have some e-fist pumping going on. Sorry for anything I said to contribute to that, but my viewpoint is firm. I don't recall making radical judgmental observations of anyone who states he/she is a vegan, so I'm at a loss for further comment.

Charles

I would be miserable as a vegan, as I only like a few vegetables and fruits. Not to mention going out to eat would be difficult as most places don't have a vegan option. Basically being a vegan would be equivalent to me being an anorexic, as I would rarely eat. >.<

I think I am protecting the environment by eating meat. I am saving plants by not eating em & by eating cows I am saving the oxygen producing grass from being eaten & I'm stopping the cows from releasing C02.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmK0bZl4ILM[/youtube]

I'm vegetarian and have been for four years. But milk is so tasty, plus it doesn't kill the animal.
Anything that involves death is not cool in my books.