Vegetarians! Why aren't you vegan?

[fredfelt]

I don't really drink milk any more but it seems you can get milk that's from higher welfare animals. Miss BP drinks this and swears it tastes better for it as well.

http://www.riverforddairy.co.uk/content/frequently-asked-questions

 

[Funky_monks]

I'm not that keen on cows milk so have never looked into it. You can probably still get an old breed that hasn't been messed about with. For a price.

I looked into getting some Cornish Black weaners recently. The bloke wanted £70 each

Christ! I have never bought 'breed' pigs - our 'random half-breed' (usually old spot x ) were 15 - 20 quid (2007-2010).

However, I did pay £160 ea for my Wilts horn shearling ewes.

Edited to add: I wonder if he always gets that? Id buy a gilt or two if he does

 

[madzone]

Christ! I have never bought 'breed' pigs - our 'random half-breed' (usually old spot x ) were 15 - 20 quid (2007-2010).

However, I did pay £160 ea for my Wilts horn shearling ewes.

Edited to add: I wonder if he always gets that? Id buy a gilt or two if he does

I don't think he does because he got really arsey with me when I questioned his prices. He got into a right tizz and kept emailing me getting ruder and ruder. I pointed out it wasn't exactly good business practice to be hassling the public and he backed down. He kept banging on about how we'd never tasted pork like it. I beg to differ anyway - our best pork ever was a Tamworth sow x with Landrace. All the Tamworth taste and the Landrace leanness, bloody delicious. We're going to try for some more Cornish Blacks somewhere else but if that fails we'll just get whatever we can. We've never raised a bad tasting pig yet

 

[kittyP]

I have been veggie for stints before but its not so much my urge for meat that takes over, its my urge for cooking and cooking for others that stops me.
I try my hardest to only buy free-range (admittedly I don't always fully check the ingredients in everything) meat and dairy but its soooo difficult to get free-range pork or chicken parts (not just a whole chicken) in supermarkets, that I can actually afford.
I try to stick by the idea that if I cant afford it then I wont buy it but when I am working hard and tired and need some meat, cant afford M&S etc and even the big Tesco only has non-free range beef then WTF?

Also, I hate Soya Milk, I don't much like normal milk either but need a little for tea and cooking.
Also isn't the effect from soya farming possibly very damaging on the worlds ecology now the demand is so high?

Oh and well done Pootle. Your doing better than I could.

 

[mr steev]

Also isn't the effect from soya farming possibly very damaging on the worlds ecology now the demand is so high?

The vast majority of soya is for animal feed, ie meat

 

[kittyP]

The vast majority of soya is for animal feed, ie meat

This may be so but with the amount of people using it as a substitute for dairy and meat rising as well, it cant be doing the situation much good?

 

[fredfelt]

This may be so but with the amount of people using it as a substitute for dairy and meat rising as well, it cant be doing the situation much good?

It's far more efficient to consume soya directly than to consume it through cows milk. So as a substitute for diary it's a winner. Also if you look on the labels of the big brands of soya milk they claim to not use soya grown in former rain forests.

 

[fredfelt]

I try to stick by the idea that if I cant afford it then I wont buy it but when I am working hard and tired and need some meat, cant afford M&S etc and even the big Tesco only has non-free range beef then WTF?

Do you enjoy eating the meat you buy when you know it's probably factory farmed and of low welfare?

I do know where you are coming from though. I have a thing with Parmesan cheese. You can get hard cheese without calf rennet in it but the taste is not anything like the real stuff. Sometimes I'll eat it when out for a meal - although it tastes lush very soon I stop enjoying it because I think how it's made.

 

[ernestolynch]

Do you enjoy eating the meat you buy when you know it's probably factory farmed and of low welfare?

Yes.

 

[kittyP]

It's far more efficient to consume soya directly than to consume it through cows milk. So as a substitute for diary it's a winner. Also if you look on the labels of the big brands of soya milk they claim to not use soya grown in former rain forests.

Thank you for that.
I wasn'[t claiming other wise I was just wondering what the deal was.

 

[fredfelt]

Yes.

Then clearly a thread about vegetarians or vegans is of no interest to you - so why post?

 

[kittyP]

Do you enjoy eating the meat you buy when you know it's probably factory farmed and of low welfare?

I do know where you are coming from though. I have a thing with Parmesan cheese. You can get hard cheese without calf rennet in it but the taste is not anything like the real stuff. Sometimes I'll eat it when out for a meal - although it tastes lush very soon I stop enjoying it because I think how it's made.

Most of the time, no, I don't enjoy it and that's why I usually don't buy it but if I am tired, stressed and skint enough to buy it, then I can sometimes block it out.
I know that's not good and I am not proud of it but I also think I do what I can when I can.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

I only buy organic dairy. I've assumed that the animal welfare standards are better. To what extent is this the case?

 

[Funky_monks]

I don't think he does because he got really arsey with me when I questioned his prices. He got into a right tizz and kept emailing me getting ruder and ruder. I pointed out it wasn't exactly good business practice to be hassling the public and he backed down. He kept banging on about how we'd never tasted pork like it. I beg to differ anyway - our best pork ever was a Tamworth sow x with Landrace. All the Tamworth taste and the Landrace leanness, bloody delicious. We're going to try for some more Cornish Blacks somewhere else but if that fails we'll just get whatever we can. We've never raised a bad tasting pig yet

Sounds to me like he got £70 for some once off some idiot or other and now thinks that he can get it out of everyone. I like a 'rare breed x commercial' pig too, cause no matter how people bang on about wanting lots of fat, they don't actually realise how much fat is on, say and OSB or an old spot. I had something with Tamworth in it once I think it was a pure long white x old spot Tamworth cross. Was lush, and much longer than I usually manage to grow em.

 

[mrs quoad]

[derail]

I'm srsly considering turning veggie. Artichoke is away, she's the house veggie, I've eaten far too much meat for the last 2 days, I feel incredibly rough. Full-on meat sweats, yuuuuurg.

[/derail]

 

[Herbsman.]

[derail]

I'm srsly considering turning veggie. Artichoke is away, she's the house veggie, I've eaten far too much meat for the last 2 days, I feel incredibly rough. Full-on meat sweats, yuuuuurg.

[/derail]

You won't last.

What will happen is that you'll give up meat, and because you'll have made a sudden change to your diet that you haven't given your body time to get used to, you'll moan that you're always hungry or you don't have enough energy. Then you'll decide that you 'need' meat, and you'll go back to it.

Alternatively, you'll give up meat but you'll moan that you're putting on weight because you'll replace your meaty sources of protein with fattier cheesy protein sources. You'll decide that vegetarianism makes you fat and that it's not good for you.

 

[Treehugger76]

You won't last.

What will happen is that you'll give up meat, and because you'll have made a sudden change to your diet that you haven't given your body time to get used to, you'll moan that you're always hungry or you don't have enough energy. Then you'll decide that you 'need' meat, and you'll go back to it.

Alternatively, you'll give up meat but you'll moan that you're putting on weight because you'll replace your meaty sources of protein with fattier cheesy protein sources. You'll decide that vegetarianism makes you fat and that it's not good for you.

not if you plan your meals properly - and any thoughts of 'i don't feel full unless I eat meat' is bullshit excuses to eat rubbish then go back to eating meat cause its easier than thinking about what you need to do to feed yourself properly

and yes, obviously eating a large amount of cheese is going to make you fat hence why vegetarians with a largely cheese based diets are generally fat

a balanced vegan diet won't leave you fat or feeling hungry, you just need to read up on it and make sure you know what you're doing

 

[frogwoman]

i've got interested in this sort of stuff again having done a lot of stuff related to helping some of our furry friends recently. Can anyone give me any pointers? At the moment I'm trying to cut down on how much meat I eat rather than cut it out of my diet altogether.

 

[ymu]

Anyone seen this? Seems like the appropriate thread for it.

This will not be an easy column to write. I am about to put down 1,200 words in support of a book that starts by attacking me and often returns to this sport. But it has persuaded me that I was wrong. More to the point, it has opened my eyes to some fascinating complexities in what seemed to be a black and white case.

In the Guardian in 2002 I discussed the sharp rise in the number of the world's livestock, and the connection between their consumption of grain and human malnutrition. After reviewing the figures, I concluded that veganism "is the only ethical response to what is arguably the world's most urgent social justice issue". I still believe that the diversion of ever wider tracts of arable land from feeding people to feeding livestock is iniquitous and grotesque. So does the book I'm about to discuss. I no longer believe that the only ethical response is to stop eating meat.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/06/meat-production-veganism-deforestation

 

[frogwoman]

wow, that's really interesting ymu

 

[ymu]

Innit.

You have to respect the guy for his reaction to the evidence, even if you don't agree with him. (And I do realise that people are vegetarian/vegan for reasons other than saving the planet.)

 

[frogwoman]

fair play to him for changing his view

 

[Cid]

Vegan beer

'Scuse bump, but was just sampling Ampleforth Abbey's trappist style dubbel when I noticed a vegan label on the back. It's pretty new (last year in fact), but a very good stab at a belgian style ale. Felt the need to spread this information, and this seems as good a place as any.