Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > General > General Chat > I am now a vegetarian. Woo!

[Tabris]

Wow, I can see there is a few bits of misinformation and lack of knowledge about vegetarism in this thread.

I am not a vegetarian pr. definition as I eat game and wild fish. But I do not eat any kind of industrial meat, nor do I eat milk or egg (or products that contain those things) that aren't organic. This because I do not think it's wrong to slay and eat animals, as that is how nature works. But I do believe the meat industry is disgusting, to put it gently, and therefore will have as little as possible do with it.

[Breine]

I really like meat, but I've many times thought of becoming a vegetarian.. or at least cutting back on the meat. I think the latter is something I'll probably end up doing at some point in the near future.

Also, organic food ftw.

[Rantzien]

Originally Posted by Miriel ^

If it were made readily available, I would buy 100% free range/grass fed products. I try very hard to get organic and free range meat products whenever I can. And I try not to support fast food chains/restaurants where I know they're not using meat products that were treated humanely before they were prepared for human consumption.

Cause even though I love eating meat and I would never give it up, I dislike the conditions at a lot of meat producing factories. I fully support a more humane and ethical treatment of animals. Just cause we have to kill 'em to eat 'em doesn't mean that it has to be done cruelly.

Meat is so so lovely. I couldn't do without it, I just couldn't.

This I agree with.

[I'm my own MILF]

As for my position now:

I like meat. I eat meat because I like it, not because I need it or 'need' it. I accept that living beings die for nothing more than my enjoyment, because I know a vegetarian diet can be a complete diet. Putting aside for the moment the issue of how they are treated when alive, I cannot abdicate facing the fact that living beings, some of them very intelligent (Pigs for instance), are dying for my pleasure.

So I am okay eating meat. I accept that there is blood on my hands. But I try to get meat from farms which treat animals well, too. I don't give a flying frack about organic or any other paranoid hippy dogma/bull marketing strategy like that, but I do look out for free-range stuff, as I believe that does actually matter and make a difference. I'm not deluded into thinking that everything marked free range actually is free range - there's still plenty of bull marketing there - but I believe there is a difference between killing an animal food (Although that is still an ethical issue, it is at least biologically sound to eat meat*) versus torturing an animal (Which I abhor); ideally free range animals have not been tortured.

* Still, I don't feel comfortable using any argument which essentially boils down to "It's natural". Poisonous snakes are natural. Rape and murder are natural. Cancer is natural. The mere fact that something is natural is not justification for it, so I'm never sure how solid the ground I am on here is.

[Bahamut2000X]

Originally Posted by Leeza ^

Originally Posted by Bahamut2000X ^

What's with this humane talk? Their not human ergo they can't be treated humanely. It can be ethical or moral, but not humane when a human isn't involved.

Am I the only one bothered by the misuse of the word Humane in this context? >.>

Humane from dictionary.com

1. characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, esp. for the suffering or distressed: humane treatment of horses.

Really?

I got mine from the Webster's Dictionary website. It's a bit different of a definition on there it seems.

[Pureghetto]

Originally Posted by Bahamut2000X ^

I don't get vegetarians, in the end they eat plants which are alive. Regardless your hurting a living thing, so might as well taste the more delicious ones.

I seriously entertain this line of thought, and thus have no moral qualms about eating anything.

From a nutritional standpoint, eating more vegetables is good for you.

[Kentarou]

The difference between eating a plant and an animal, to me, is that one is sentient, and one is not.

[Pureghetto]

Originally Posted by Kentarou ^

The difference between eating a plant and an animal, to me, is that one is sentient, and one is not. :p

I have an excellent example to show what I mean.

In my left hand I have a gerbil. In my right hand I have a potted plant.

If I set fire to the gerbil, what will be your reaction?

What if I set fire to the plant? What if I set fire to a tree? Rip a sapling off the ground? Cover a plant in darkness?

Why is it morally neutral to mistreat plants? Cognitive Dissonance? I think so.