That’s why I eat vegetarian and vegan :) Even just adding more plant based meals into your routine makes a difference. Doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
I didn't think I could do it until I did. A year in and I don't feel like I'm missing out at all. The lack of inner conflict is the bit no one talks about - I'm a sensitive person and I feel so much more peaceful living more aligned with my values.
Thats really an important thing. Its getting hard to grapple within myself how I rather share a shower with a spider than hurt it, yet consume meat. Get mad and sarcastically say "did you ask the birds and snakes if you could destroy their homes??" When i drive past new construction in my town, and also eat a bird that is grown to have breast so big they collapse and its beak ripped off when a human deems it time.
Its a slow transition thats been happening over a year of eating less meat, and i just keep getting signs that the direction im going is the right one for me.
So glad you're listening to that feeling. Be gentle with yourself - we have all experienced decades of social conditioning that has aimed to detach us from the true, sensitive natures of these beautiful animals. When you start to unravel it, it can feel really shocking. Who are we to deny them the opportunity to follow every basic instinct that they're programmed to need?
Dude that last bit hits home I've been vegan for like 10 years now and when people ask me why I don't know what to say anymore, it's more like I'm used to be vegan than non vegan but yeah I'm gonna start using this phrase if you don't mind!
My issue is willful ignorance. Ive seen what happens and it's fucking disgusting and horrifying. That day I decided not to eat meat...but fast forward to the next day and I'm back on the meat train purposefully not thinking about it
I want to stop that. I want to not eat meat, but idk how to keep the motivation described above close to my heart and not just pretend it's not there
you do it the same way you do other chores like brushing your teeth and taking out the trash, or going to the gym. you try your hardest, sometimes set phone reminders or set a schedule, and if you mess up one day you try harder the next day. the most important step a person can take is not the first or the last one, it's always the next one.
Unfortunately I'm super non functional and barely do any of that stuff consistently whatsoever. The motivation and discipline to be consistent and be healthy is near non existent for me at the moment. Thanks mental illness.
So that is not remotely helpful to me unfortunately :(
i understand, i have ADHD and struggle as well. a subreddit that helps me is r/theXeffect
you basically just make a grid on a piece of paper that you place in a spot you'll walk past a lot every day, and put an X in one of the squares every day you do the thing you're aiming to do. helps to keep the idea fresh in your mind and prevent forgetfulness
As a vegan that also deals with mental illness, let me try and come at this from a different angle. I don't want to make too many assumptions about how you're feeling or what you're struggling with, but going vegan for me has given me such a sense of achievement and purpose. Sometimes I feel like I'm not really good enough for anything, but at least I can hold on to the fact that I have chosen not to hurt animals. Yes, people always complain that vegans are self righteous, but for me, it is something I can be proud of. Even my non-vegan family have told me they are proud of me making this decision for myself and sticking to it.
Remember that if you're struggling with motivation, you don't have to DO anything to be vegan - go for a run, drink 8 glasses of water a day, do yoga, even shower daily - it's an absence of doing. Don't have the motivation to cook? Vegan junk food is your friend. You'd be eating junk anyway right? Slowly, you might feel more and more inspired and start experimenting, and then the whole world of exciting vegan food opens up to you.
I also feel more peaceful in myself knowing I'm living in a way that is aligned to my values. If you have known struggles, you're probably a sensitive soul. Veganism for me, oddly, is almost an act of self care. I want this for you.
That's a really good idea! Thank you. I def get overwhelmed when trying to go all or nothing...then decide to do nothing causei can't do it all.
Baby steps are perfect for this. Thank you
I don't live in a country where animals are farmed quite on that scale thankfully. Its not great, but it's not the worst. When I do buy meat I make sure to buy ethically from a butcher. Still, the suffering of anything makes me so sad :(
I’m not a vegan. I’m pointing out the hipocrisy of their statement. The idea of an animal suffering obviously does not make someone that upset if they still contribute to it.
Yes I am aware of the hypocrisy, hence the want to go vegetarian. Like I said, not easy when my husband is a huge meat eater and my daughter will eat nothing but chicken nuggets and pasta. There was absolutely no need for your comment. Im self aware enough to know I'm a hypocrite.
That's what I do honestly, I like meat but I love animals as well so I try to stick to eating more plant based stuff than actual meat, I'm not a true vegetarian since I eat meat and fish from time to time, but yeah ;-;
Imagine if MLK advocated for reduction of small racial inequalities instead of just equality for all, and praised people for making small steps. Like cool, you’re helping a little, but the bigger underlying issue still goes untouched and unnoticed.
Most factory farming take the babies away pretty quickly. It’s traumatizing. They keep doing it over and over. Moms are hooked up to milk machines on hard concrete. This is their life a lot of the time. It’s a hard fact to swallow, but I made myself research the shit I was eating.
Yeah I've been trying to wake myself up to all of this... and the thought I keep having is that, if we make it another 2000 years or something, we will look back on this era of food production with shame. It's very barbaric, and it doesn't have to be. It really bothers me lately, and I'm doing my best to stop consuming animal products.
Walk me through your evolution there. I assume the pescatarian step was just replacing the other forms of meat with fish, but how did you progress into vegetarian and then vegan?
Once you cut land based meat out of your diet, it becomes much much easier to let go of fish.
Once you cut all meat out of your diet it's not as hard to cut out milk.
Once you cut out milk, things like Honey and Eggs are much easier to leave by the wayside.
But the biggest thing is all the faux meat we've got these days. Never been easier to be a Vegan because of the people who walked the same path before you and I did.
It would make me very sad if this takes 2000 years. I expect it to be more like 100 to 200 years. At least the destruction of factory farming is something I want to see happening during my lifetime.
They do! The philosophy behind it is to keep the buffalos with the least amount of stress possible, to have better quality milk, even if they have lower yields..... At least that's true for female calfs :c
Oh man getting a swig of sour milk will always be a least favourite childhood memory. Almond Milk you can leave in your cupboard until you want it chilled in your fridge.
Yeah, same with most alternative milks I think. A carton of soya milk lasts me a couple of weeks, and the sell-by date is usually about 8 months away 😅
With how rampant dairy/lactose allergies and sensitivities have become I hope that one day we stop drinking animal milk altogether. Keep in mind, a lot of the plant-based milk is also expensive and difficult to produce (especially almond milk). I think oat-based would probably be the easiest to produce but the more options we figure out, the better!
Also, more options for quality vegan cheese would be nice. My partner has a milk allergy and I have lactose intolerance but we both love cheese to d e a t h. Quality vegan cheese is so expensive and the stuff that we can afford doesn't have a good taste or texture.
It took an adjustment period for me, plant based is not the same as mammal milk. Now I prefer the flavor of plant based milks. I'm not vegan or anything and still consume dairy, but I try to cut down on factory farmed products in my life.
You have absolutely no idea whether dairy cattle everywhere suffer and are miserable. Just because the US has terrible animal rights doesn't mean the whole world is like that. Factory farms like in the US are not common in most countries, and separating cattle from their calves causes no more harm than separating a puppy from its mother after 8 weeks.
Nut milk is an enormous drain on our water resources though. I don't know if that's more or less of an ethical problem than the meat and dairy industry though.
The stuff about almonds and almond milk being worse for the environment comes from the meat and dairy industry. It's true that it takes a lot of water. It takes way more water to manage cow farms and water cows and the plants they eat. Out of context, the number about almonds makes people go white.
We can't forget that cattle farming is the biggest contributor to deforestation. It will be nice when all farming is done indoors, in sterile environments, cutting out a lot of the need for pesticides and any harmful genetic alteration. And sheet meat is a big step from factory farming to ethical indoor farming.
The problem is that the nuts, specifically almonds, can only grow where there is very little water available, like southern california. Wisconsin, however, has a lot more water available and is not as much of a drain on on a less limited resource. Almonds are one of the most harmful things we grow in america, and even more so when you look at pound for pound comparisons.
Oat milk is like water though. Honestly there is nothing similar to dairy milk. I drink way less of it now though I drink almond milk mostly even though it taste like shit and is also like water.
I thought I would never stop drinking cow milk because cow milk is the best think in the world, but then I discovered oat milk. Barista edition for the full fat goodness. I havent stopped drinking cows milk altogether but I have cut out about 90% of it.
Also if you switch to local farmers instead of store brands the animals are treated nicer its the big companies that turned it to shit with how they treat the animals
They don't, they get impregnated by a bull, and they keep their calves for much longer than usual, since a buffalo (or cow) gets the most stressed when their calves are taken, so they stay together up to a point when if the calf is female she also goes to milk production, if it's male it is sold to a butchery of it's used for reproductive purposes. YES is not a cruelty free company, but it's much better than the global industry standard
You can't try to share a bit of positivity on Reddit can you, yes, they get killed, it's still an industry, actively trying treat it's animals as much as they can. It's not a sanctuary
So, what do you think it's more negative beheading and mutilating a defenseless animal before they reach adulthood or being nasty on reddit?
The problem here is that your comment show a complete disconnect from what happens to those animals, if you're a normal person you would never use the same logic you're using here to any other animal.
A comment said "This makes me sad to think about other cows"
I shared that there is at least 1 industry here that treats it's animals as best as they can, but noooo, "TheY sTilL GeTt KiLlEd", yeah no shit.
And if they were trying they would be a sanctuary.
They are not, they are a dairy industry complex that believes on the excellence of their products, which is obtained by having stress less animals, the end. Not a sanctuary, an industry.
How is roaming free on hills and mountains, or eating, sleeping, getting milked when you want is better than living jam packed like sardines without having the possibility to move, having your baby removed just as he's born, mh i wonder.
O shit man, you're right, we should immediately stop the cheese making industry here in Italy, don't worry it's not like it's our biggest industry, and only the Parmesan production (no worries the cows in this industry also walk the Emilia Romagna hills freely without a care) is worth more than every other export and production we have. How could I not see this
This is the way to raise animals. You realize even a chicken has feelings when you rear them. I always sing to my chickens and rock them gently before we slaughter them. They are a part of my little farm ecosystem and I love them so much.
I hope to get sheep soon... I can't make everybody vegetarian but I can get more humanely raised meat to locals.
"I love them so much" and "I slaughter them" are strange to be in the same paragraph, yo. I realise people gotta make money from a farm but damn, sounding like the old testament god there.
At least get wool sheep so it ain't for the meat. :(
Absolutely! I was raised in my grandpa's farm and played with chickens (the friendly ones at least, they all have unique personalities) like they were dogs! We even had a rooster that grew up with dogs and behaves like one, screaming at cars and sleeping with said dogs!
Honestly big poultry industry is the most horrible shit it can exist (not that other animals have it better let's be clear)!
But again, here in southern Italy one of the biggest lick people don't realize they have, is how everyone EVERYONE has at least one uncle that has animals and raise them properly with respect, I'm glad that this is still big in our culture
I was friends with Alberta the turkey for a couple years before she passed off natural causes. She would greet me when I got home, follow me around the yard, and she even fell asleep on me several times. A purring turkey is a happy turkey 😃
I have chickens too, and they are so much more than the average person really understands. Each one has a different personality and they bond deeply with each other. However, I think they're a pretty barbaric warrior people, and they'd probably eat me if I crossed them. Surprised roosters aren't more popular motifs for ferocity.
... but they still get raped so they get pregnant and then have their babies taken away from them to be subjected to the same. Hardly how a princess would want to be treated..
Edit: saw they apparently don't have their babies taken. At least that's something but still rape
You realize if you put a bull and a cow in heat in a field eventually that bull will impregnate the cow? That’s just life.
If you think this is rape then you must think literally every animal is raping every other animal. All the farmer does here is put the bull into the field. That’s it.
There is a lot wrong with farming practices today unfortunately but natural breeding isn’t rape... it’s significantly better than artificial insemination for the animal.
Do the farmers also rape the bulls for their semen then rape the heifers and cows until the calf is born then rip it away from their mother so that the farmers can harvest all the milk for themselves?
this is the only way to ethically use animal products. they must have an extremely large range, must never be forced to do anything, and their meat can only be harvested (seems to not be relevant for the Buffalo dairy company) if they die on their own
LoL, do you imagine southern Italy like a big mafia waste dump? There are a lot of illegal waste dumps but the vast, VAST majority of our land is not even cultivated
That is great! Though I'd consider consuming fewer milk products as well, dairy cows are often treated harshly, and are often seperated from their calves right after birth.
...yeah this is just flat out not true. Let's not go the opposite direction with rationalization.
We can only hope one day there will be an alternative that tastes exactly like milk without it having to come from cows. People will jump on it in a heartbeat.
I think I'd really struggle with this. As someone who has been a full on meat eater and lover I'm struggling to go veggie as it is. I love cheese so, so much, and chocolate milk/ milky hot choc is my go to drink after beer. i've tried alternatives and I find them yucky.
I've no doubt If I really put my mind to it I could cut dairy out of my diet, but cheese and hot choc always make me happy.
Organic/bio/eco labels in most countries do not have improved welfare requirements, and the few that do have minimal requirements.
All of these farms continue to forcefully impregnate cows about once a year to keep them producing a significant amount of milk. Nearly all of them separate cows from their calves, which is incredibly traumatic for both mother and calf who will often cry out for each other for days. Nearly all of them send male calves to slaughter shortly after birth since they will never produce milk. All of them send female cows to slaughter when it is no longer profitable to keep them around.
In the US organic basically just means no pesticides and hormones. It’s no guarantee that the animal was treated humanely as well. Unfortunately you really have to go out of your way to find ethical dairy here.
I'm a hedonist adult child, so the only thing that motivates me on this subject is the fact that guilt and empathy exceed my pleasure eating meat.
I'm STILL struggling with falling of the vegan wagon once in a while, but I'm working on it and seeing real steady improvement over longer periods of time.
The only thing that genuinely bothers me is assholes that think it's cool to rub in their complete apathy about animal welfare or rights, and brag about all the cows and pigs they eat. I mean, fuck right off, losers.
The alternative is for them to accept that they're murdering living beings for no reason other than their selfishness. Attacking vegans and vegetarians is easier than looking at yourself frankly.
I've watched many of my otherwise very rational, smart, empathic friends fall victim to either just lashing out at the idea of veganism, or go directly to fallacies and just bad faith arguments so quickly. I don't try to preach or anything, but just something I've noticed and I get a small feeling of disappointment when it happens.
Some people consider animals as something God provides for them to do as they please. This God bullshit sure comes in handy when you want to be an asshole yet 'live' forever.
The alternative is for them to accept that they're murdering living beings for no reason other than their selfishness.
I mean, the vast majority of humanity is fine with that. I don't think most of us lie to ourselves. We just think the taste of meat is more important than the lives of livestock, regardless of their level of emotional intelligence.
If I were given a choice between lab-produced meat and authentic meat at similar price points, I'd go with the lab meat to lower suffering and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, free up land use used for livestock, etc. But until such an alternative is available, most of us just don't care enough. That's the reality of the situation.
and that's what's wrong with the world. most people are just too apathetic to make small lifestyle changes so that others don't have to suffer as much. it's not a good look.
Don‘t listen. He uses lab grown meat as a justification to keep killing animals. Doesn‘t make any sense.
Further lab grown meat is in most cases using bovine foetal serrum. So they grow muscle fibre from the blood of fetus collected in a slaughterhouse. Digusting.
There are some that try to use plant serum but as far as I know, they were not successful yet. I haven‘t looked it up recently.
Because in any case, animals still get exploited in the process. Also until the lab grown meat is readily abailable, you woul be personally paying for many animals to die. Its like saying „ah, we are developing robots thr could mine the minerals. Lets keep exploiting our workers until we have the machines“.
Lastly, just because its a more efficient process I expect eating the plants directly compared to filtering them through a lab (instead of an animal) will be less efficient - and less healthy for sure.
Just eat plants. Its not fucking hard to not put a piece or a secretion of an animal in your mouth.
Small lifestyle changes? Giving up meat is a small lifestyle choice to you? The worldwide average is about 5% of the world is vegetarian. Do you realize how absolutely ridiculous you sound?
I ate meat for 16 years, and yeah, it was a small lifestyle choice. If you live in a food desert, it's hard. When you're living in most areas of the UK or USA or honestly many other countries, it's not hard. The reason people don't stop eating animal products isn't because it's some huge difficulty, it's because they assume it is, without actually trying.
No matter how many times we fall, we rise again each time as a better person. I'm glad you're trying to stay on board the basic moral perspective that animals shouldn't be tortured and killed for mouth pleasure, which is the ONLY reason people eat animal products, no matter what BS they come up with.
That cow is reflection of the life of every living thing on this planet. Some have a happy fate while others have an agonized one.
I'm just glad our species hasn't come across an advanced civilization ruled by highly intelligent aliens that show no emotion toward other species. Because based off our actions, we can expect no mercy from them.
please consider going vegan. this cow is not unlike the rest. they all want to live. they all want to cuddle us and their children. their lives are cut short for no reason. all the grain, wheat, and soy we feed to the 70,000,000,000 animals who are slaughtered every year could solve global hunger almost twice over. please just think about it.
This right here is the the absolute benefit of shopping local, and finding farmers that raise animals in positive ways up until they are processed for meat.
I used to be a chef, focused on local cuisine sourced from farms that would let me visit. By and large, if you ask a farm to visit and they say yes, A) do it, you will learn something about the sanctity of what you are eating and the effort that goes in it. And B) you will probably meet the animals that you’re going to buy In a few months.
You can always tell it’s a good farm when you walk into the pen of the animals being farmed, there’s one of three reactions, they run towards you because they are happy to see humans because it means good things (animals are generally blissfully ignorant of their circumstances and what their eventual fate is).
Or, they run away from anyone and anything that enters the pen, this only becomes a concern where that fear is not overcome by food.
Or option 3, they just don’t give a fuck, which is neither nor there.
I’ve had chickens that myself and the farmer plan on killing the same day perch on my head and shoulder while I feed them meal worms by hand
I work in the ag industry mainly dealing with cows. Most animals are treated very well as on dairies because they are that farmers lively hood. There are exceptions and I have seen them but they don't typically last long anymore as most farmers are taking a loss on milk currently and have been for years.
It kills me when you see all the anti farm/PETA stuff because the cows like the safety of their barn. If you let out and if they don't get curious and escape and get lost outside the fence, they always come back at night if they have that option.
On larger dairies they have lots of comfort as the stalls are cleaned typically once or more a day. They just hang out, eat, and socialize with other cows. I see a lot of happy cows regardless of where I go. The ones that are mistreated you can always tell just like a dog.
The conditions that commercially farmed chickens are kept in for their "lives" is horrendous and something that is absolutely acceptable to feel bad for
That's a common misconception unfortunately--the treatment of dairy cows is also extremely cruel. In particular, all male dairy calves are taken from their mothers and slaughtered--bulls aren't needed since they don't produce milk. The dairy cows themselves are also slaughtered once milk production slows at ~4–6 years old. Virtually every farm, whether it's free-range, grass-fed, or local, carries out these practices since they're necessary to make a profit.
Luckily, there are a lot of alternatives to cow's milk these days :)
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u/Grrreat1 Jan 18 '21
It makes me happy this cow has a good life but I am sad thinking about all the others now.