Ask HN: Have you gone vegan or vegetarian?

I don't know, have you tried the Chao cheeses? They were pretty close for me. Daiya isn't too bad either. After 1.5 years of veganism I have to say though that I don't crave cheese or meat at all anymore and just try the faux meats/cheeses out of curiosity...

I've been on a very slow path to veganism for years.

I gave up beef a few years after college for green reasons, as managing my personal carbon footprint as best as possible made sense to me. Because of this I would (and still do) make exceptions if I knew the source of the beef was local/sustainable. I found that after a while of abstaining from beef I lost an appetite for it and can't really digest anymore and I have very little interest in beef.

I started to eliminate eggs and dairy for allergy/IBS reasons. I've found that the less of both I eat, the better I feel in general, but I know that everyone's mileage varies. For me, eggs turned out to be a bigger culprit than I imagined in some of my worst food issues. Of the two, I'm more likely to cheat with dairy than eggs these days.

I live a few blocks from a major industrial pork slaughterhouse. I can live in ignorance most of the year, but there are a few points in the year where the output at the facility gets its heaviest (the big one being the holiday months of late October through mid January), or they do something illegal/wrong, and their smell ekes over to my part of the neighborhood. Walking into a BBQ place in my neighborhood to meet friends one day during the holiday period, I had the nausea inducing moment of realizing how much the smells inside and out were deeply entwined and more similar than their difference (which at that point seemed merely hints of charcoal versus hints of feces). From there I realized I couldn't criticize the facility in my neighborhood and continue to eat pork, and definitely could not stomach the thought of pork that day.

I find it interesting that without pork, chicken lost most of its interest. I still eat seafood somewhat regularly, but that's about the last of it for me.

I'm not very strict, still, and see it as my job, not a restaurant server's to manage it. If I order something that isn't quite right, that's my mistake, and mostly I eat it and enjoy it anyway. The green reasons on the one side are full of intentional exceptions for local/sustainable food. On the other side the allergy issues and growing inability to digest certain meats comfortably are "spell slot management" issues. I know there are consequences and I try to be careful and know my limits, but those are, for the most part, my own problems to deal with.

I took to heart the "Vegan Club" idea that you don't talk about being vegetarian/vegan unless asked a direct question. I like it to be more of a private concern. I find small joys in those moments when someone I've had lunch with for several days in a row gets that surprised realization I've only really ordered vegetarian/vegan and finally thinks to ask.

I haven't tried Chao, I'll have to see if I can find them. I have tried the Daiya cheeses and they're ok if you're using them for a sauce or something or melting them on a pizza.

But grabbing a block of the Daiya cheddar and comparing it to proper cheddar, Daiya just doesn't compare.

edit: i dont mean any of this to be combative or insulting, figured i would throw this in at the top in case someone doesnt make it to the end thinking i am trying to attack their ideology, just trying to get feedback on an argument i read long ago

what do you think about the argument that by removing yourself from the market of meat entirely, you do nothing to promote better lives for livestock.

By abstaining from meat, you do nothing to push the meat industry towards more sustainable and compassionate treatment of animals. You, being someone who is conscious of these abuses are in a position to push for change, but instead you remove yourself from the market entirely.

Ultimately, isnt refusing to vote with your wallet worse than voting for compassionate and sustainable production of livestock?

Wouldnt eating lab grown meat do more to end the suffering of these animals than not eating meat at all? since it would push an entire industry toward your preference of eating only that which was produced to your standards.

would the entire population of vegetarians and vegans combined buying only the most sustainable and compassionately raised meats be enough to effect the processes of major producers? Would this be a greater good than not eating meat at all? of course, this likely doesnt effect the decision on a personal level, but at scale does veganism help or hurt the progress towards more sustainably and compassionately raised livestock? (though of course if that scale were to include everyone, it would be no longer an issue i suppose)

of course this moreso assumes your overall goal is to reduce the suffering of these animals, or the suffering of all things as much as you possibly can- if your goal is to instead reduce the amount of suffering you directly cause, then this argument is meaningless.

I'm honestly asking this, as its the only argument that i have found that sounds reasonable against becoming vegan, im not really trying to start a debate, i dont really have more to say than this, but its an argument that stuck with me the first time i read it and i very rarely have a chance to have a level headed discussion about such a topic (reddit isnt really the place for level headed discussion, and i am not aware of a nutrition or dietary equivalent to hackernews)

> We (people) enslave entire species, remove their body parts without anaesthesia, cage them in cells so small they can't move, force them to have babies over and over and then kidnap their children and eat them, grind them up, or enslave them as well. It's horrible, and I think that anyone who knows what is done and argues, but meat is yummy, is a sociopath.

I produce my own meat, on my own property. Not in cages, no forced babies (chickens lay anyway), no enslavement (the arrangement is closer to me being their slave), and no 'body part removal.'

So many of your arguments are made up for non-commercial meat sources.

Also, do you not see how your language is just an attack on meat-eaters? You say you're just "telling us the reason," but you're not, you're making an attack.