(like chili) and a actual serving (usually) chicken or turkey 1-2 x weekly.

I gave up fast food some time ago, so, while I eat eggs and considerable dairy, my meat consumption is down at least 90%.

The issue that I need is a vegan cook that understands nutrition and issues like body size. I really would not want to deal with ideologues.

of veganism for me. I’m always surprised by the amount of hostility that the simple act of avoiding meat generates here.

When you think of the animal cruelty, harm to the planet and the fact that choosing only plants is even healthier....there really is no reasonable excuse so I think folks react strongly since logic isn’t on their side. I was thinking it like smoking, that with more education more will stop eating animals. There are still smokers but lots more ex smokers (including myself 20 years ago). I just don’t think the shift will happen fast enough to save the planet.

Same here (Except I began in my birth month, May)

I'd been toying around with low meat consumption since about 1978. But it wasn't until 1988 that I gave up meat & dairy for good. I eat raw foods, beans, nuts, grains. I love fruit & veggie smoothies and I do my fair share of baking, and I love any kind of greens, Kale Bok Choi, veggies in general. I haven't eaten a candy bar, potato chips or drank a soda or anything like it in 30 years. I also extend my veganism to the clothing/make-up/hair care products I purchase/use as well. I have another friend who considers herself vegan, but she wears leather goods. Uh no I tell her, she's not a vegan

The oddest thing about being a vegan is that when I began, I lost several friendships over it and a potential love interest, and to this day I still never got explanations from so-called friends/acquaintances as to WHY. There are still those who think I'm nuts for being a vegan ...

Oh well ....Their LOSS .. HA!

at 18. I didn’t lose any friends, in fact most of them tried veganism at one time or another, though none of them stuck with it. I guess I’m just more stubborn.

My wife and kids (stepkids, more accurately) aren’t vegan, but they eat quite a bit of what I prepare, and they all use almond milk because they have some level of lactose intolerance.

My FIL tried my vegan ribs once and kept telling the kids “He’s some kind of food genius! This is amazing!”

I have one son, he and his wife are both vegan and will remain childless.

There is annoyance at the recurring "holier than thou" posts BY vegetarians.

Much better for my health.. I missed all that other but I chose health.

Now it turns out it's better for our Planet.. and there's still lots of healthy food to eat.

I know that dairy farms are problematic also. So I would - and could - cut down on dairy also. There are many alternatives these days.

As human beings we can recalibrate.

The latest report should freak out everyone.

..I am a reluctant vampire.. the bloodier the better. I do give a silent thanks to the animal that sacrificed itself. I wish they could produce meat from non living things tho..

If you look at the poorest countries, they're semi-vegan. It's the richest countries that eat the most animal products. But we're supposed to ignore all that and pretend that veganism is what's expensive.

At least, there is karma. Those who seek to save the animals end up also saving themselves. And those who couldn't care less about hurting innocent beings end up getting heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's.

-he was a baseball manager). Much better for the Planet. I will also admit it was not till recently that I learned all protein is plant based. A good movie to watch regarding our diets is "What the Health"on Netflix. It speaks to our corporate diet, a push for curing disease and not preventing and much more. Worth the time.

I ask do you love your meat more than you love your kids. It really is that serious.

Truly, giving up animal and animal products is the single biggest thing most of us can do to save the planet. I’m nearly 60 and have no kids....but gave up meat 10 years ago and all animal products 5 years ago when I learned about the cruelty, impact on our planet and as a side benefit the health benefits.

You can do it, the stakes are that high 😉

appears many here on DU do... I am constantly amazed at the open hostility that meat eaters display here and elsewhere... it is proven, it is science, it is REAL... animal agriculture is very large part of climate change and we must do something!


at least I hope meat eaters are walking instead of driving, planting trees, reducing consumption elsewhere, etc...


yes, the stakes are that high!

"Do you love meat more than your kids?" What the fuck is that shit?

the results are in... have been for decades.... climate change is real.... climate change is seriously affected by animal agriculture….

I have been trying to educate people for decades about the effects of animal agriculture on the environment... trying in a very polite, nice way (just cut consumption a little at a time)... the hostility has always come from the meat eaters who refuse to accept that they are part of the problem

we are all part of the problem and we make our choices... I am constantly trying to be better and accept my responsibility


we can cut down on meat consumption, we can consume locally, as much as possible, we can drive less, we can plant trees, we can support politicians who understand the dire nature of climate change and vote accordingly, etc....


silly to be hostile towards me it will not make me do any different, I will continue to try to encourage action in myself and others to help the planet, help the environment, to help our communities, our Children.


just a very, very few articles and information about climate change, what is causing it, what we can do about it and how it affects us and our children....

90% drop in meat intake needed to avoid crippling Earth's ability to sustain projected population
https://gulfnews.com/culture/environment/stop-eating-meat-to-halt-climate-change-study-1.2288646


Global Warming May Harm Children for Life
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609629/global-warming-may-harm-children-for-life/



more than 88 percent of the existing global burden of disease due to climate change occurs in children
https://www.ecowatch.com/how-climate-change-impacts-children-1881782625.html

Climate change is already having a devastating impact on the world’s children
https://www.uncclearn.org/sites/default/files/inventory/unicef203.pdf

Climate change poses threats to human health, safety, and security, and children are at particularly high risk. The effects of climate change on child health include:
Physical and psychological sequelae of weather disasters (e.g. hurricanes, flooding, wildfires)
Increased heat stress
Decreased air quality
Altered vector-borne disease patterns
Food, water, and nutrient insecurity
https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/climate-change/Pages/Climate-Change-and-Childrens-Health.aspx

but my pets are carnivores. What do I do about that

My dog refuses any treats that aren't meat based.

Big problem for me.

But I have cats (all rescues) and cats are obligate carnivores. I roll with it, because what else can I do? It's not the cats' fault, nor mine, since we rescued them of the streets and spayed/neutered them so they won't produce more of the fuzzy little meat eaters.

convert them to vegetarianism, and it wouldn’t work, but someday science may develop a nonmeat alternative that they would actually eat, like, and provide for their physiological needs. This likely will not happen in our lifetimes so we need to continue to feed them meat-based dog and cat food.

For now I live in a large city with more vegan restaurants than I could dream of. However living in a small or even a medium town can sure limit your options. As long as you don’t eat out every night, I say you are doing your part to save the planet 😉👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Mostly just in soups out or if I’m at someone’s house but I do eat a little fish now and then. I’m cutting back more.

Forgoing one child saves 60 times more CO2 per year than switching to a plant-based diet. A couple who remain child-free save, on average, over two childs'-worth of CO2, or the equivalent of 120 people going vegan. My choice is clear. I prefer to do things that will actually make a difference. I will eat what I want, thanks.

The implication of the poll title is that meat-eating is a choice that is strongly discouraged by good environmentalists. In other words, the poll itself is an attempt at social engineering.

No fucking way.

This topic is one that always gets my goat.
And then roasts it on a spit over a low fire and carves it for dinner.

USALiberal, you and others should take note of that simple reality. It'll be too late for everyone to act on it, of course.

For those it's not but are unwilling to take that giant step, maybe have only one child. And of course raising him or her veggie/vegan would help offset the additional global burden.

"the poll itself is an attempt at social engineering..."

Quite the creative allegation. Although I realize in the here and now, providing objective evidence to support a premise is simply too inconvenient.

But I still have a carnivorous dog.

However, he has volunteered to be on a prey diet of squirrels and rabbits if I just let him off the leash, thereby avoiding factory farming.

It's possible to walk and chew gum at the same time.

I just said I wouldn't.

We still eat some. But ways less than we used to. We catch and eat lots of our own fish. I hunt and kill 2-3 deer a year which is the most humane and healthy meat possible.

And we pay extra to eat locally small farmed chicken and pork.

It is almost impossible to find local beef in Florida so we eat less beef.

All this because we like good food. The environment is an additional benefit.

We should sell environmental eating as better eating. Because it truly is.

When people ask me why I became a vegetarian I give all three reasons.

I've been vegetarian for over 8 years and have never been tempted to go back to eating meat. Its because I have all three reasons, although the fate of the planet weighs the most heavily on me.

We eat 1-2 meat free meals a week because it is good eating.

The meat we eat is either what we kill, or hopefully raised locally and humanely treated. Not always, but we try. Because the quality is better. We do not stress about it.

But I am upper middle class. And eating like we do is expensive.

I just spent 2 weeks in Europe. Vegetables are cheap and high quality and meat is local and expensive. Don’t know how, but we need to find a way to do that here.

from the market.

The nearest market for really good produce is nearly an hour away, such a shame. I do have hope that our chain supermarkets will move farther that direction as younger generations become more of their market. There are still plenty of people here in the south who cook veggies into mush, a carryover from the days of no refrigeration, working long hours to just get by, and...relatively little meat.

... even though there was a time in my childhood we didn't have one, and times in my young adulthood I didn't have one. We're fortunate to live in a place we don't need air conditioning, much heat, or the typical automobile commute to work.

I'm vegetarian most days of the week, my wife is vegetarian all of the time, but we'd be silly to brag about it because we don't expect the same of our dogs.

I do tend to have a low opinion, however of people who do not spay or neuter their dogs and cats (all our dogs misfits from the animal shelter) and people who do not practice birth control themselves. There's no shortage of dogs, cats, or people on this planet.

Once upon a time my parents and my wife's parents thought it their religious duty to have many children, so they did and were celebrated for it in church, but there came a point they had more children than they could comfortably support and then they became advocates of sex education and birth control. (I knew all about sex and birth control years before it started to interest me...)

We and our siblings never thought it would be a good idea to have a station wagon full of kids. Statistically if everyone had the same number of kids we and our siblings do the human population of earth would be shrinking.

People survived for eons without air conditioning.

That said, if we used solar power like we should we would need limited fossil fuels.

Living an environmental friendly lifestyle does not, and cannot mean suffering, which living without AC means here.

However a lot of them are going straight to solar power for electrification, which is pretty cool.

I have. It sucks and is not a winning strategy.

We can live in an environmental world and still be comfortable.

You can get used to a lot of sacrifices if you need to or want to.

are not negotiable in this age, so why argue as if they were?

The fact is that many millions of Americans now live where they once did not -- because of AC. We don't accept people dying from extreme temperatures the way we once did, climate change means far more would do just that than they once did, and giving up AC is not an option.

No, it affects the whole planet, regardless of where you live.

Who contributed the most to global warming? Was it developed countries or the third world?

So are we really in a position to say there are some sacrifices we won't even think about?

The old are not able to cope with the heat as well as younger healthier people. Yeah the human race would survive without AC, but life expectancy would decrease.

They also survived without making petulant, irrelevant responses on the internet designed only to make themselves and their own selfishness appear clever.

Oh dear. The irony.

doesn't make it optimal or the right choice.

Quality and length of life matters.

I'd give it up happily.

Just don't take away my red lipstick and I'll be alright.

The times you need ac are usually the times the sun is shining most. Solar has come a long way recently. But it is expensive. Trump cut solar subsidies which really hurt solar affordability.

from inside the house to outside. No additional heat is generated than what is absorbed in energy from the panel. Its conservation of energy. A solar panel is no worse for global warming than a dark area of ground. Now I don't know about what resources it takes to make the panel - that is a different question I don't know the answer to. Someday I hope to set up a solar panel array.

and I take the bus to work now.

that will have more effect than quitting "meat" whatever that means. livestock are probably the best tool we have to actually do something about CO2. look into it.

http://www.soilcarboncowboys.com/

how am I supposed to operate my company if I give up all those?


Giving up AC is not much of a problem in Wyoming, it only gets hot about 2 months a year.

It's a lot easier than lots of other things, as well, especially these days with veggie burgers, vegan butter and cheese, and plant milks. It's a little difficult at first while you figure out what to eat, but help is available online. Once you learn a few recipes, it only gets easier over time. Anyone can go vegan, and they'll save money and improve their health in the process. Most people, on the other hand, are not in a position to be able to give up their car or go without air conditioning without losing their job.

why bother at all? tell you what, I will use my cows to heal and preserve open landscapes, put carbon back into the soil, all while producing natural, tasty, healthy protein from the sun and the plants they eat directly and you can go ahead and ride your virtue pony to the store and purchase lots of well traveled and packaged processed crap to help prop up your fantasy of making one whit of difference while eating that garbage.

I'm an omnivore...

Who cares if a few cow farts warm up the world a couple of degrees? Who cares if pig shit lagoons get washed away in floods and contaminate hundreds of acres of land and a city's water supply? I admire Don Jr, and I want to kill as many animals as possible!

Three reasons I choose to be vegan:

1) ever hear a truck full of pigs on their way to slaughter? Sounds like terrified children. I don’t have to contribute to that.

2) it significantly reduces the ecological footprint necessary for me to eat (the focus, I think, of the op).

3) it’s healthier.

emissions.

Or which you will, while we have a choice.

I was veggie for many years, then wasn’t, and now am again. And I’m reducing my CO2 footprint in lots of other ways too, and helping others do the same without harassing them.

Mostly.

Because it’s more effective than being disregarded and closing doors.

About 10 years ago we started raising dairy goats as well. Still have a small herd of Angus cows. We don't do it the mass produced way with hormones and regular antibiotic use and feedlots a foot deep in manure. After reading a lot about environmental impacts my wife and I have given up the steak 3 nights a week lifestyle in favor of switching over to Boer meat goats. Well its still more impact than you vegans. But goats are browsers whose environmental impact is far less than cattle on several levels. We do also keep a lot of bees so I hope that also offsets some of the environmental pressures of meat production. Oh and we also live in humid southern Illinois in a 150 year old farmhouse with no AC. I guess what I mean by that is we all make choices and impact the environment in different ways, it isn't black and white about just eating meat or not.

Last edited Wed Oct 10, 2018, 05:26 AM - Edit history (1)

since I was about 9yrs old. I would like to go all the way and become a vegan, I'm working on it.

My children and grandchildren are also vegetarians.

we are eating less meat. no factory farm stuff.

Not hard at all, and my non-veg family love it.

because my whole family is anti-mushroom.

Myself, I could live on the things.

can't make bean stroganoff either.

Even if you avoid meat and fish, if you buy milk, cheese, or eggs at your grocery store, you are supporting the factory-farm industry with your hard-earned dollars. Don't be fooled by the feel-good words and pictures on the package. It all comes from the factory farm industry that tortures animals and is destroying our environment.

sadly the new amish chicken tastes like chicken of yore. god i hate plastic wrap.

I remember the first time I read, long ago, that a recommended meat portion was about the volume of a pack of cards. What?! Like that's going to happen! Turned out that's a very enjoyable amount, with every bite enjoyed and leaving us feeling satisfied, and a typical supermarket steak will produce 4 nice, thick portions, 2 meals for us.

The biggest shift, though, was to deliberately building dinner menus around, and shifting culinary attention to what were once "side" dishes. I first got this idea from a foodie forum poster who put an end to throwing away unused vegetables this way. When planning dinner, out come the veggies, (in my case planning something as a main and often a second something), then into the freezer for a meat to go with.

Let's face it, we are all living through what has become inevitable and unavoidable societal change to more sustainable levels of meat consumption. And my thanks to those who help by not eating it at all and pushing supermarkets to better produce sections.

Our DIL no longer eats beef or pork, though still eats chicken and fish, and with her and what with someone at every sizable potluck now not eating meat, I've deliberately grown a little repertoire of vegan mains for the latter. I've even served a couple for dinner, though I've never used that word around my husband and won't be.

And so it goes.

Smoking meat is one of the few true pleasures I have. And it’s so damn tasty.

No, I’ll not be giving up meat.

Not going organic, but less meat.

I so do love a good steak, ribs, etc.

It's just healthier for us and the planet.

Although I would love fake meat as long as it tastes good. They’re already working on that by replicating real meat in the lab. It’s like cloning protein, not the cow.

They are honest-to-god good; even my meat-eating acquaintances say so. (I don't work for them!)

Where can I get them? I live in Santa Fe, NM

Most stores that stock them keep them in the meat section.

Albertsons has some of the frozen “ground beef” style products. Note that those will not hold together in a patty.

Thanks!

That's where I get mine. Some restaurants now serve them, too, as their veggie burger.

You can put your zip code into their website to check who carries them: https://beyondmeat.com/products/view/beyond-burger

I have bacon for breakfast, for lunch I eat cow, for dinner I eat more cow , covered in Bacon sauce, for snacks it's bacon and cow meat. When I wake up in the middle of the night, I eat more meat and bacon.

I have chickens (only for their eggs) and I gather their manure for my garden.

I only buy chicken that is organic free range so I know the chickens lived a humane life and know I'm not putting hormones, antiobiotics, glyphosate and toxins into my body. It's the fkn factory farms that are the problem. OMG! If you ever visited one of these horrible chicken farms you would never eat chicken that is not free range again - and real free range, not coped-up chickens that get to see the sun for only 15 minutes a day.

Same as grass fed beef. I live in a ranching community in the high desert of NM. Cows that get to roam and eat grasses are so different then factory farming cows. I will not touch meat that is not grass fed, and luckily out here in the high desert of NM, I can buy beef from ranchers I know.

I think it's good to support the people who are making a effort to raise animals humanely even if it costs more money. Eat less meat, but higher quality meat. Only eat meat of animals allowed to forage on the land.

small production of meat and products is not the problem... I do not eat meat but I raise a few chickens, turkeys and would like a few pigs and goats... I understand that people eat meat and help to provide some healthy food for those people (mostly family)

Well, nit much anyway.

I am willing to do so. However, I think other measures we could and should implement would have more impact and be less economically and culturally disruptive.

A question back at ya..... would you be willing to accept nuclear power in order to expedite eliminating fossil fuels for electricity production?

I believe the meat consumption in this country contributes to cancer and reducing meat or eliminating from our diets will cut medical and insurance costs.

Considering how terrified so many people are of heart disease and Alzheimer's, I'm surprised that everyone isn't vegan already.

complete bullshit.

I’m a vegan, have been forever, and I would never make such a ridiculous claim. No reputable researcher would ever say anything that over-the-top.

This first cow asks the second “So, what do you think of this whole Mad Cow Disease situation?”

The second cow says “What do I care — I’m a tractor!”

Make the question more clear please. Almost everyone is "willing to consider" something. I just gave in to the possibility of considering it and scheduled it for 9pm tonight. Done.

Ask a question like "Will you give up meat to reduce greenhouse gases causing climate change?"

That's a real question, not some mealy-mouthed, kinda-sorta question.

Yes, we should cut back on consumption. There are too many people on the earth to continue eating meat in the same proportion we have been.

I also think we can find better ways to produce the meat. I'd like to see some comparisons between the factory farms here in the US and the way production is done in other parts of the world where they generally are better at considering the environment.

It took awhile to convince my husband that I wasn't causing malnourishment in myself. Now he has cut back, too.

There are so many genuinely tasty and nutritious meat alternatives now, that such a move wouldn’t be that difficult.

long ago that eating fish is rationalized because they eat each other.

But, ugh, so leathery. I'll stick with fish.

Because ever since my son moved back home, we eat vegan all week. Then on the weekends, we might grill chicken or fish. Sometimes, we eat just vegan then too.

Never gonna go fully veg, but I've cut the meat in my diet by about 70% over the past few years.

There is only one way to reverse it. Sorry folks, it’s called population reduction.

You have to reduce the amount of human carbon footprints.

Realize one thing...the greater the population and the larger the depletion of resources...the leaner the population will have to be on the other side of the collapse.