No, I don’t have any regrets about eating animals.

[Coopscraft]

They already make some out of paper products that decompose quickly. I actually went to a restaurant that had them and the straw started falling apart in my drink I got another drink and just drank from the glass.

Paper seems like a bad idea. Have you ever driven past a pulp mill!

 

[Peepsi]

I grew up thinking that all the recycling was used and recycled like it's supposed to be and then as I grew older I learned how corrupted the complete system is. It's frustrating. We try to minimize the plastic that we use in our house and all of our food scraps go to the flock.

THIS. I was horrified to learn that the USA was sending all of its recycling to China (until recent events happened). Why should they do our dirty work? I faithfully sort all my recyclables. I always thought they were all recycled, right here in the States. But no. This makes no sense to me! We should have recycling factories throughout the USA (that had to adhere to strict, clean standards). There simply isn't enough room on earth for all the trash we produce. Recycling was supposed to cure that. :/

Oh, and about the dogs... my mom knew a priest who was from the Philippines. They eat dog there. The priest said the Black-furred dogs are the tastiest ones! (No, I could not eat someone's intelligent pet dog. Don't worry, I'm not coming for your pets! But if it was a feral dog or one bred for meat, that's a different story.)

 

[ChocolateMouse]

.

Please note that Veg*n is a common terminology for vegetarians and vegans cause typing out vegetarians and vegans 30+ times is exhausting. I presumed that because you said you generally avoid eating meat you fall into the category.

The point is the sanctimonious attitude isn't welcome and is utter nonsense and garbage and often misinformed. For example, you, uh, might wanna check your facts on beef numbers. Mainstream beef is substantially less than 500 gallons (granted much more than avocados). And it completely ignores the fact that avocados are grown in a low water area that promotes crime and poverty for whole swaths of underprivileged native people whereas beef production tends to provide a higher take of the profits to their farmers because of it's luxury status and can be grown on non-crop-arable land.
So you can say "Avocados are better, plants are better"... But they often aren't a good option for a LOT of people and for many poverty-stricken farmers beef is much more reliable. Much like I doubt that being carless is a good option for you. Even though being carless is better. After-all, a quarter of the worlds emissions are from cars. But I can't expect you to have no car and lose your income for it just to save on emissions, that would be horrible of me.

Other people might still be eating meat, but doing other things to change their lives, but the majority of the types of threads the OP are talking about aren't interested in that. They don't care that their avocado comes from impoverished regions of south/central america, that their bananas feed a totalitarian system in south america, that their agave syrup kills bats natural habitat in mexico... The sorts the OP are talking about don't care that the people they're talking to are usually already raising their own food, and eating locally, or hunting sustainably or drying laundry outdoors, or running solar panels, etc. countless other positive changes. They DO care that someone ate their OWN bird on their OWN property and that's a Big Bad. And that sort of the problem.

The problem isn't with doing something to try to be better. The problem is with considering your way the objectively best way and then, additionally, expecting other people to do the same. And this is a common problem for small farmers dealing with veg*ns, and it's a problem on this forum even in the meat birds section.

 

[blackandtan]

Haven't seen many (or any) vegetarian opinions here, so perhaps I should add mine.
Someone was talking about the system earlier... where our entire society is based off non renewable resources and the consumption of living things. This is a fact, sadly.

I don't particularly mind the fact that meat eaters kill animals in order to eat them or use their skins. It makes sense to eat meat. I enjoy meat still, on the extremely rare occasion that I may try a family member's dish in a restaurant for example. What bothers me is the abuse and environmental damage the factory farming industry generates. Sows crammed in crates where they can't turn around, forced to have piglets over and over. Several hens in one battery cage that need their beaks cut off so they won't kill each other out of stress and aggression. Cows standing in their own filth, forced to eat corn instead of grass on barren lots. The animal waste is toxic and pollutes waterways, cows produce a large chuck of methane in the atmosphere, land is cleared in order to create fields to grow animal feed. Instead of using arable land to grow plants for humans, we use it to grow food for animals. Most of the food animals heat is converted to heat energy - and as you move up a trophic level more food is needed to sustain an animal. This means growing animals is a lot less efficient, land and water wise.

Though as a single individual I can't do much to remedy this, choosing not to eat meat helps make my contribution to the destruction of the planet just a little smaller, and I can rest easy knowing that I'm not contributing to the suffering of animals in factory farms. In fact, the reason I raise chickens is so I don't have to buy eggs produced by hens in tiny cages. So it isn't a meat problem for me (and many other vegetarians), it's more of an ethical/environmental problem. If I were ever in the position to raise my own meat, on healthy land in a sustainable manner, I'd be happy to eat it.

But even worse than clearing fields and burning forests to feed cattle is clearing fields and burning forests to make BIOFUELS!!??!! Talk about wasteful! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pro-oil, but at least it’s already there....there are few things that we humans do to wreck the earth than to destroy land to grow crops to make gasoline....there are people starving who could be fed on those fields instead of putting them in someone’s gas tank. What about just DRIVING LESS!!!
End of rant.
I guess this has devolved into the rants and opinions thread lol

 

[ChocolateMouse]

But we already produce enough food to feed the planet too. Like the food needed to feed the whole planet already is grown each year, just much of it is lost to waste. And some biofuels - much like cattle - can sequester carbon.

Like I said - a heck of a mess.

 

[blackandtan]

But maybe I shouldn’t rant at all about waste, since I’m from Canada and we send our garbage, mislabeled as “recycling “, to foreign countries, where it sits in port for YEARS till they get so peed off that they send it back with a nasty letter!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

USAs goes that way too. It's rather terrible.

 

[Fluffnut]

They already make some out of paper products that decompose quickly. I actually went to a restaurant that had them and the straw started falling apart in my drink I got another drink and just drank from the glass.

They sell these bio-degradable ones in Target that feel just like plastic. If you're near one,
they work very nicely

 

[archeryrob]

This is funny stuff, I didn't bother to read the entire thing, but I find it interesting that people raise chickens that can't be touched and buy chickens in the store. I used to be part of a FB group Maryland chickens or something. Girls were literally attacking people that killed chickens. Some lady lost her mind because she gave away roosters that were causing trouble and they guy killed and eat them.

I posted something along the lines of why would you think people want to pasture raise your problematic rooster? You're getting rid of them because they are a problem. No one else wants them except to put under the knife. Whoo, I got burnt from both ends on that one. I left the group and started another one "Marland Chickens, meat and layers", for people that actually consider chickens possible food. Or at least you can talk about killing and processing and still like them walking through the yard also.

It seems the Crazy horse people mind set has moved over into chicken raising also.

 

[FortCluck]

This is funny stuff, I didn't bother to read the entire thing, but I find it interesting that people raise chickens that can't be touched and buy chickens in the store. I used to be part of a FB group Maryland chickens or something. Girls were literally attacking people that killed chickens. Some lady lost her mind because she gave away roosters that were causing trouble and they guy killed and eat them.

I posted something along the lines of why would you think people want to pasture raise your problematic rooster? You're getting rid of them because they are a problem. No one else wants them except to put under the knife. Whoo, I got burnt from both ends on that one. I left the group and started another one "Marland Chickens, meat and layers", for people that actually consider chickens possible food. Or at least you can talk about killing and processing and still like them walking through the yard also.

It seems the Crazy horse people mind set has moved over into chicken raising also.

When I bought my hatching eggs last week, the person that I was buying them from started crying when I told her that I'm doing meat chickens. I honestly wanted to leave the eggs and go home. I have my own fertile eggs I can hatch and I don't get judged for raising meat chickens from my family. I actually get praise from them because they have full bellies all day every day.