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Ask HN: Have you gone vegan or vegetarian?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you gone vegan or vegetarian?

#51

Post by ralala »

throwaway7767 wrote: post #45
ohstopitu wrote: post #13

I did go vegetarian (been vegetarian for ~15 yrs now). Back during the birdflu scare (2008-09), my parents decided to stop eating meat (chicken - which was the only meat I used to eat). I was ~12-13 yrs old. Overtime, I wanted to switch back but for some reason or another (saw some videos on Youtube about how chickens are treated and killed didn't sit right with me), never did. We cut meat immediately. While I didn't…

> Just as an FYI: Don't watch those videos if you like stuff like leather for example...I love the feeling of leather seats, but I'm looking for synthetic leather in my next car. Genuinely curious: are animals slaughtered specifically for their leather? I always assumed that cattle raised for food would supply more than enough. If that's the case, buying leather in the current situation should not cause any extra suf…

It does because of the market. Leather increases the return of a single animal. So meat can be sold cheaper, which again increases the demand. (Lower price -> higher demand)

Re: Ask HN: Have you gone vegan or vegetarian?

#52

Post by mod »

matty22 wrote: post #37
Arizhel wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>and that I'd also rather be alive than dead, so others shouldn't suffer that fate just because I had to satisfy my taste buds) If everyone did this, then raising of animals for food would stop. That wouldn't keep any animals from being killed for food; instead, it would mean those animals never existed in the first place , and never got to have any life at all. Now, I don't know whether that's better or worse: is it…

This is crazy talk. I am not vegan. But the life of an animal bred for human consumption is not "somewhat unhappy". It's closer to "absolutely depressing" or "shockingly inhumane". Change the word animal to human in your question: Is it better for a human to never exist or for it to be born and then at the age of 6 we murder it? The obvious answer to that is that it's much better that that human never exist. Again, I…

This is also crazy talk.

There is a HUGE area between "bred for human consumption" and "shockingly inhumane" chicken farms, for example.

My chickens are out in a pasture right now enjoying the sunshine, hunting bugs, and they do that every day until they die. The taking of their life, if it's on my terms and not a predator's, is very quick. The length of their life is cut short, but the quality of the life they lived is not harmed. In fact, it's likely improved via watertight shelter and readily available food & water.

When I hatch, I often get to save the life of a chick who would have died in his shell. I also get to correct things like splayed legs that would follow a chicken through its whole life (or leave it dead).

So there's more to the world than your extreme version of things.

The lifespan of my laying hens is quite a bit longer than it would be for one in the wild. If we compare chickens to their wild genetic ancestor, anyway--there is no such thing as a wild chicken.

I'll leave the philosophical questions to other folks, I'm just presenting a contrary example to your rigid set of rules.

Re: Ask HN: Have you gone vegan or vegetarian?

#53

Post by gotrythis »

mod wrote: post #50
gotrythis wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm telling you the reason that I went vegan at 16. And those were the main reasons. Though at the time, I called it grody, but I'm not sure of the correct spelling. Animals start to decompose at the moment of death. The meat at the supermarket has been dead for how long? Days, weeks? It is in the process of rotting, just not visibly so. Much of it is actually spoiled, but I've read 70% of meat in supermarkets is tre…

> 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, n…

You are part of a tiny percentage of people, so that doesn't really mean much compared to the billions of animals who are part of factory farming.

But, I applaud you for doing it yourself and think everyone should eat meat the way you do, if they must eat meat in the first place.

The "positive" stuff at the beginning were the unexpected side-effects. The attacks are answering the question that this thread is about. Why did I become vegan? That's exactly what I was thinking as a teenager, and continue to think 30 years later.

Is it an attack to say, "Take a look at the results of your actions. This is what you're a part of. This is the suffering you cause."?

Calling someone a sociopath might be an attack. lol. That comes from being attacked for being a vegan hundreds of times, just for not eating what everyone else was, when I didn't bring it up at all. When I explain why, I get, "but meat tastes good" (Subtext is, "so it's fine for animals and the planet to suffer because of factory farming, because meat is yummy"). Oh, well, that's fine then.

Re: Ask HN: Have you gone vegan or vegetarian?

#54

Post by fader »

I slowly transitioned over several years. I first stopped eating pork, then started doing a meatless day once per week, then twice per week.

There were a lot of factors involved in moving over fully, but the precipitating event was joining a farm share for the summer. I got a huge box of vegetables every week and it just didn't make sense to keep buying meat on top of that.

I had serious (and strange!) meat cravings about 6 weeks in, but those stopped after a week. I tried a few meat dishes after the summer ended but they didn't taste good to me any more. And I noticed after a couple of months that I felt physically better than I could ever remember. So it was easy to not go back.

Re: Ask HN: Have you gone vegan or vegetarian?

#55

Post by ssijak »

inieves wrote: post #12

I did it within minutes. Watch the film on YouTube: "Earthlings" Try to watch it in a full sitting. You probably wont be able to, but try. Then walk to a mirror and look yourself in the face, and ask if you and this world are really real, that is, do your own version of a reality check. Then you will see your proverbial red pill and blue pill. Dont do it because you think you might lose a few pounds and impress some…

You do realise that more living beings are killed while farming plants (pesticides, rodents killed mechanically and with poisons, etc) than by raising organic meat? Never understood this argument exactly. If something is large people usually have more compassion for it, probably because we see their faces and we can not see face of a mosquito or fly or a bug dying.

Re: Ask HN: Have you gone vegan or vegetarian?

#56

Post by matty22 »

mod wrote: post #52
matty22 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is crazy talk. I am not vegan. But the life of an animal bred for human consumption is not "somewhat unhappy". It's closer to "absolutely depressing" or "shockingly inhumane". Change the word animal to human in your question: Is it better for a human to never exist or for it to be born and then at the age of 6 we murder it? The obvious answer to that is that it's much better that that human never exist. Again, I…

This is also crazy talk. There is a HUGE area between "bred for human consumption" and "shockingly inhumane" chicken farms, for example. My chickens are out in a pasture right now enjoying the sunshine, hunting bugs, and they do that every day until they die. The taking of their life, if it's on my terms and not a predator's, is very quick. The length of their life is cut short, but the quality of the life they lived…

Fair enough, but you have to understand that your chicken operation is the exception and not the rule, right?

Factory-farmed chickens do not get to go outside, enjoy the sunshine, and eat bugs. They live in cramped chicken houses devoid of light, fresh air, or anything remotely resembling your beautiful sounding farm.

The vast, vast majority of chicken purchased in a grocery store lives out their life in that second situation, not in a place like your farm.

Re: Ask HN: Have you gone vegan or vegetarian?

#57

Post by ohstopitu »

throwaway7767 wrote: post #45
ohstopitu wrote: post #13

I did go vegetarian (been vegetarian for ~15 yrs now). Back during the birdflu scare (2008-09), my parents decided to stop eating meat (chicken - which was the only meat I used to eat). I was ~12-13 yrs old. Overtime, I wanted to switch back but for some reason or another (saw some videos on Youtube about how chickens are treated and killed didn't sit right with me), never did. We cut meat immediately. While I didn't…

> Just as an FYI: Don't watch those videos if you like stuff like leather for example...I love the feeling of leather seats, but I'm looking for synthetic leather in my next car. Genuinely curious: are animals slaughtered specifically for their leather? I always assumed that cattle raised for food would supply more than enough. If that's the case, buying leather in the current situation should not cause any extra suf…

Some animals are raised just for their leather while the meat from them is an additional source of income (especially if you consider luxury cars - one that finally got me was the fact that Lexus does not like leather from animals that were raised in farms that had barbed wire....because it damages the skin and hence the leather. I felt that that animals were raised and looked upon as numbers and use instead of them being organisms with feelings for example).

Re: Ask HN: Have you gone vegan or vegetarian?

#58

Post by Arizhel »

matty22 wrote: post #37
Arizhel wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>and that I'd also rather be alive than dead, so others shouldn't suffer that fate just because I had to satisfy my taste buds) If everyone did this, then raising of animals for food would stop. That wouldn't keep any animals from being killed for food; instead, it would mean those animals never existed in the first place , and never got to have any life at all. Now, I don't know whether that's better or worse: is it…

This is crazy talk. I am not vegan. But the life of an animal bred for human consumption is not "somewhat unhappy". It's closer to "absolutely depressing" or "shockingly inhumane". Change the word animal to human in your question: Is it better for a human to never exist or for it to be born and then at the age of 6 we murder it? The obvious answer to that is that it's much better that that human never exist. Again, I…

>But the life of an animal bred for human consumption is not "somewhat unhappy". It's closer to "absolutely depressing" or "shockingly inhumane".

I've seen plenty of pastures with lazy, grass-munching cows to believe this is universally true. Sure, the life of many factory-farmed animals isn't great at all (particularly thinking of Tyson chickens here), but this isn't universally true. Livestock in many other parts of the world does not live this way. There's more to the world than America, you know.

>Is it better for a human to never exist or for it to be born and then at the age of 6 we murder it? The obvious answer to that is that it's much better that that human never exist.

That isn't obvious at all. What if that child has a nice, happy, carefree existence until it hits the age of 6? Who are you to say that life isn't worth living?

Re: Ask HN: Have you gone vegan or vegetarian?

#59

Post by Arizhel »

eagerNewb wrote: post #10

Went Vegan about 8 months ago. Cut of meat and dairy products immediately. Feeling great. Been loosing weight - some people might want that, not me, skinny as it is. I was always a bad eater, so I guess removing meat and dairy came natural to me. What I can suggest is stop thinking of food as tasty. I'll eat dirt if it gives me the right vitamins and proteins, don't care how food tastes as long as it gives my body wh…

>What I can suggest is stop thinking of food as tasty. I'll eat dirt if it gives me the right vitamins and proteins, don't care how food tastes

Wow, this really sounds like a ringing endorsement for veganism! I'll bet a lot of people will try it out immediately after reading this!

Re: Ask HN: Have you gone vegan or vegetarian?

#60

Post by gotrythis »

gotrythis wrote: post #53
mod wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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, n…

You are part of a tiny percentage of people, so that doesn't really mean much compared to the billions of animals who are part of factory farming. But, I applaud you for doing it yourself and think everyone should eat meat the way you do, if they must eat meat in the first place. The "positive" stuff at the beginning were the unexpected side-effects. The attacks are answering the question that this thread is about. W…

I've never actually called someone a sociopath when they said that meat tastes good as justification for eating it. But now that I think about it, justifying killing for pleasure (of eating) seems like a pretty good definition.
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