A personal debate...

[osodecanela]

I spent nearly 8 years a vegetarian.

My grandfather, may he rest in peace, was a butcher, as were most of his brothers. Meat was a staple in my family of origin and while there were times I can say I honestly enjoyed it, there were also times that the concept of it bothered me. I went off to college in 1972, sometime around the time Diet for a Small Planet was written. It was what prompted me to take the step and become a vegetarian. The whole concept of the right sharing of the world's resources, plus the ecological and financial cost of producing animal-based proteins, particularly red meat, was (and remains) particularly troubling to me. Every year we feed enough protein in the form of grain to our livestock in this country, that were it fed to human beings, it would make up the entire world protein debt. The way we produce animal-based protein in this country is not ecologically sustainable.

Eliminating red meat back then really wasn't much of a problem, other than dealing with my grandfather's angst. While at university, the cafeteria did a decent job of providing veggies that were surprisingly well prepared, plus there was a salad bar available at both lunch and dinner.

To be frank, I really don't miss red meat if I haven't had any for a while; if I'm really jonesing for a hamburger, there's always Boca products, which surprising to many of the meat eaters I know (Rose sweetheart, this means you!), I actually like. Giving up poultry is a bit more of a sacrifice; eliminating fish even more of a struggle.

So from 1972 to the middle of 1980 I was a vegetarian, only giving it up when I got into my residency, at which time cooking and balancing of vegetable-based proteins became too time-consuming. I have flirted with it again several times since my marriage, going back to it for a few months at a time, but A) I really don't have that much time to cook on a daily basis and B) my husband really doesn't care for vegetables. It's hard enough to get fruit into him, let alone green growing things. Broccoli and asparagus he likes, but how many times a week can you serve that? Most of the time, he will sooner eat a piece of bread than a piece of fruit. Of late, with the bounty of the season, I've been hitting the greengrocer at least twice a week with an assortment of both fruit and vegetables in the house. At least a couple of times a week he's turned to me to say, "I ate a peach today." My response is usually to pat him on the head and say, "good puppy." A melon or a pineapple will go bad long before it would ever dawn on him to cut into either of them. Baked goods however, are a whole other story and have a very limited shelf life if he's in the vicinity.

So currently, I am cutting back. Clearly less meat, particularly red meats. I am struggling to eat lower on the food chain, while trying not to increase my intake of simple carbs. This means more vegetables and not huge amounts of grains.

So we'll see where things go over the summer.

Comments

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

As someone who - with a few very specific exceptions* - doesn't LIKE the taste and/or texture of Dead Animal Body ... I find people obsessed with it to be a little creepy. You know, the people who don't think it's a meal unless there's lots of meat in it. Of course, they find me utterly incomprehensible, I suppose in part because to many people the idea of a large hairy cigar-smoking motorcycle ridin' man in no way fits their stereotype of someone who does not eat Dead Animal Body.

(And in case anyone reading this wonders - I use the term Dead Animal Body after many, many cases where after saying I am a vegetarian, I was offered poultry or fish. DAB covers all the bases in a way someone has to be determined to miss the point to not understand what I won't eat because of it.)

*Crisp fried bacon, french onion soup, chicken noodle soup and a few other things made with chicken broth.

[osodecanela.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I am at times amazed by some folks lack of comprehension. I do remember the number of times when I said I was vegetarian, and I was then offered poultry or fish (most often the latter).

My first intake of meat when I started eating meat again was not pleasant. I was horridly nauseated that night and my gut was not happy with me. I was in Puerto Rico, in my then guise as regional trustee for the American Medical Student Association. The chapter VP for the Univ. of PR invited me to his parents home for dinner and in my honor, his parents (unaware I was a vegetarian) had had a pig dispatched that afternoon for the meal. I found myself with a plate of pork before me, so fresh it had been walking around on its own that morning. As the guest of honor in their home, I had no graceful way to decline eating it.

Truthfully, it had been superbly prepared for me. I was just not prepared for it, Further, if there is anything that bother's me more than the wasting of natural resources to fattened that animal for slaughter, it's the wasting of that animal's flesh. I say grace silently before all meals. I give thanks for the sustenance, and have respect for the things before me to eat. I felt that to not eat at that point would have not only have been disrespectful of my host, but of the animal that was before me.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Indeed. My parents liked venison and my dad hunted most of his life and the deer or elk was always butchered and eaten; one of the things that truly infuriated my father - and I saw him come home from hunting a few times in as much of a state as I ever saw him - were people who'd kill an animal, take the "trophy" and leave the rest to rot.

[osodecanela.livejournal.com]

And that would/does infuriate me as well. There are fewer things I find more disgusting and disheartening than people who hunt for solely sport.

I have no quarrel with people who hunt for subsistence. I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it myself, but for someone who does to put food on the table, it's survival. However, to kill for the thrill of it, that's not just dishonorable, it's immoral.

[paterson-si.livejournal.com]

I never really liked red meat.... okay, some beef in all its forms. LOL