Why Are Vegetarians Annoying? (An Exploration of a Cultural Rift) Part 1

M50sFor20sF: I have a problem. And its name is meat. Let's get this out of the way, there's definitely some conflict going on between the vegetarians, vegans of the world, and the rest of the world.

I'm gonna start with the fact that vegetarians are....right.

Yes, animals raised for food do not have nice lives and even if they did they would still be killed in the prime of their lives so that I could have a tasty snack.

Yes, the amount of food eaten by animals who will later be eaten is massive. And so as more people eat meat, more land has to be put under cultivation.

Yes, livestock contribute massively to climate change and are a primary reason for deforestation.

And, yes, most people don't need to eat meat to be healthy.

And there are reasons both ways, like more than a billion people make at least some of their living from livestock. You don't wanna take all of those peoples' livelihoods away all at once.

But as the global population grows as the global economy grows, it is very difficult to argue that vegetarianism is not a good thing. Basically, the important thing here is vegetarianism allows more people to have more food with less impact.

It's good. And so, when someone tells me that I should be a vegetarian or asks me how do I justify eating meat, I have no recourse but to say that they are right and that I am wrong, but that I will continue eating meat because I'm the kind of person who has a hard time controlling myself, and it's hard enough not to eat a half a bag of Oreos for breakfast.

Now my personal willpower aside, there's a fundamental conflict going on here. I live in a society where eating meat is normal and being a vegetarian is not. But there's a difference between acting in accordance with society's expectations, which will very rarely get you criticised and is definitely the easy thing to do, and actually living in a way that is best for the future and for people and for all of the organisms on the planet.

Aura: I don't care how vegan we get, we're just not build to eat grass. So the land would still be cultivated and forests will still be deforested no matter how you turn it. Then all those vegetables and stuffs need to be cooked and treated for pests, it's not exactly environmentally friendly. Um, without livestock, how do you expect such grand scale farming to be fertilized? Oh right, artificial fertilizer. So um, those supplements needed to have complete nutrition from plant matter alone, where will those come from if you drastically cut down livestock?

Yeah see as far as I can tell, the regions where the population is suffering from hunger, those regions are kind of dry and barren. It's going to be hard as hell to farm. And they don't have much drinking water as is, how will they get all these fabulous fruits and veggies? Ship them in? Boats and planes aren't exactly environmentally friendly either. Those tough, to humans not edible grasses growing there happen to be food for the goats the humans eat.

Everyone vegetarian seems like a very simple solution for people who have a well stocked supermarket down the street. If you feel good doing that, fantastic. But lets not pretend you're saving the world because you don't eat meat, and let's not pretend you're ruining the world because you do.

The problems we face are much more complex than that.

M50sFor20sF: First of all I am an omnivore, (I know you are aware of this, I state this for the the readers sake.)

Second, Natural fertilization can be accomplished through composting of the waste plant material.

You are correct that the dryer portions of the planet would not provide arable land for providing a strict vegetarian diet.

Thirdly, As far as nutrition is concern, Can you name one nutrient that cannot be provided in a vegetarian diet?

Aura: There's 5 essential fatty acids only found in meat and fish (and things like milk and eggs).
Vit B-12
Creatine

Yeah you can take supplements. Those come from animal products though.

And yes, plant compost works fantastic on small scale. Not so much the scale needed to feed a planet.

Captain Canada: I love these posts,makes my head spin
Some people assume that by not eating a full carcass of whatever meat in their lifetime will save the world,hardly
The more meat available the cheaper it becomes for the consumer,fighting starvation is a huge problem within our lifetime and within the hundreds of past generations
it's easier to collect manure in a stable of cows than them running wild in the fields,bovines shiting in the fields their manure will never reach city folks vegetable garden,so yeah go buy some fertilizer to fed your veggies ,danm those fertilizing chemicals must taste better than those hormone injected animals.

M50sFor20sF: To Aura: I did some research on B-12 and I stand corrected. B-12 can only be derived from animal products and the consequences of not having B-12 in your diet is devastating. Plant composting on a large scale I believe is possible.

M50sFor20sF: to Captain Canada: You might be interested in a Ted Talks video by Allan Savory ( YouTube ) He talks about using free range cattle to green the worlds deserts.

Captain Canada: M50 sorry but I never ever bother checking YouTube for info regarding knowledge or educational purposes,just me
Let me just separate facts to wishfull thinking,I was born and raised in a beef farm I might not know everything about cattle but know enough I guess
A steer is the biggest beef producer if castrated it will from calf to a 1000lbs animal ready for slaughtering in about 14 months given that it will have about 30 gallons of fresh clean water about 20 lbs of dry alfalfa daily and all the green grass it can eat that animal will give you all the bullshiit that you wish for.
I will not even waste much time on the wishfull part of the desert free range crap
1) Since its a desert,where is the water for the animals ?
2) if you need to transport water you need water tank trucks burning fuel for some hours that's pollution
3) If desert how does cattle graze?
4) grass grows slowly it could be 5 months given nice fertile soil before a set of hoofs stomps on it