[WisJim]

I actually like Boca burgers better than a lot of commercial hamburgeres, much commercial beef tastes like s**t to me (literally), probably because it really tastes like that due to lack of cleanliness or care during processing. I like my Boca burgers with some fried onions, and am trying to figure out a veggie burger recipe that tastes as good.

[oilfreeandhappy]

VEG for almost 20 years, and I'd never go back. There were noticeable improvements in my health when I went VEG at about 30 years old, including a loss of about 30 pounds. I've easily maintained health and fitness ever since. Exercise has always been a given.

Go ahead and eat that fat and cholesterol, and I'll stay with my low-fat, high nutrient VEG diet.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zoidberg', 'S')ince when did we become so disassociated with the rest of life on earth that eating meat is somehow distasteful? We're designed to have some meat in our diet, and life eats other life on Earth. Its ok, morally, to eat animals, and to raise them so we can harvest their flesh. I personally wouldn't want to work in a slaughterhouse, but I dont think we shouldn't have them.

Maybe that strikes you as callous, and it is I suppose, but welcome to reality baby!

Top of the food chain! BOOYAH!

It wasn't that long ago those damned sabre tooth tigers were eating our babies. If you ask me vegans and their dietary brothers suffer from a sort of human exceptionalism that would disappear pretty quickly when food got short, and hunger compels you to kill that chicken with your bare hands and cook it.

[BlisteredWhippet]

I'm reading "Trees and Shrubs of [My geographic location]" and I'm struck by all the edible berries and leaves the original white explorers observed being eaten by the local communities. Food is literally all over the place, if you know what you're doing.

[zoidberg]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zoidberg', 'S')ince when did we become so disassociated with the rest of life on earth that eating meat is somehow distasteful? We're designed to have some meat in our diet, and life eats other life on Earth. Its ok, morally, to eat animals, and to raise them so we can harvest their flesh. I personally wouldn't want to work in a slaughterhouse, but I dont think we shouldn't have them.

Maybe that strikes you as callous, and it is I suppose, but welcome to reality baby!

Top of the food chain! BOOYAH!

It wasn't that long ago those damned sabre tooth tigers were eating our babies. If you ask me vegans and their dietary brothers suffer from a sort of human exceptionalism that would disappear pretty quickly when food got short, and hunger compels you to kill that chicken with your bare hands and cook it.

[BrownDog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'W')asn't Hitler a vegetarian? This is the kind of irony that hurts my head

[manu]

Maybe you should go to a slaughterhouse and see how horrible it is. You could go see Fast Food Nation and see the exploitation of animals and also people. Or read the Jungle by ?, about the slaughterhouses at the turn of the century and how the Polish immigrants were exploited in Chicago. Cow killing is really bad karma. Save yourself and give up eating cow.

[skyemoor]

This is a very informative thread, so please continue to share your collective knowledge. I realize this is a delicate subject for many (on both sides of the fence), which has caused a minor squabble, but that seems over, so the continued renewed respect for the opinions of others is appreciated.

We tend to be meat-lite, especially red meat, but do keep a significant amount of fish in our diet. The children get organic milk from a local dairy, we obtain local eggs from an organic farmer, we grind local wheat to make bread/etc, we have a 20x80 organic garden enriched with green manure and sheep manure. We currently sell our lambs at market, though we may start a partial shift to dairy goats. Approximately 80-85% of our diet consists of grains/legumes/vegetables/nuts/fruits. I'm planting an experimental plot of spring wheat this year, though due to clay soils have held off from planting flax.

Switching over to a healthier diet allowed me to shed 35 pounds and feel better than almost anytime in my life. If someone wants to try to transition over to a healthier diet, I would recommend the South Beach diet as a starting point.

[manu]

In an agrarian culture the cow and the bull are very important. The bull or ox is used to plow the fields and the cow gives its milk. Also the manure is very important for compost. It (manure)is antiseptic and can be used to purify a place. It can also be used for cooking if there isnt enough wood. There are other uses I wont go into here, but that is why in India the cow was never killed. Now, unfortunately they are killing the bull and cow even in India. If you kill the cow then the mother has to watch her son go off to war and be killed.

[EnergySpin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('manu', 'M')aybe you should go to a slaughterhouse and see how horrible it is. You could go see Fast Food Nation and see the exploitation of animals and also people. Or read the Jungle by ?, about the slaughterhouses at the turn of the century and how the Polish immigrants were exploited in Chicago. Cow killing is really bad karma. Save yourself and give up eating cow.

[EnergySpin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '
')Chickens are very cuddly, but I still eat them.

[Laughs_Last]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'J')ewish author Isaac Bashevis Singer, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978 and who was himself a vegetarian wrote in The Letter Writer: "In relation to [animals], all people are Nazis; for the animals, it is an eternal Treblinka."

[oilfreeandhappy]

[quote="manu"]MayOr read the Jungle by ?, about the slaughterhouses at the turn of the century and how the Polish immigrants were exploited in Chicago.quote]
Upton Sinclair was the author of "The Jungle".
http://www.answers.com/topic/upton-sinclair

[Ludi]

It's true, pstarr. Humane killing does not distress other animals who observe it. My chickens have observed their fellows being killed and apparently not experienced any negative opinion, though it is hard to tell. There was no apparent distress. But our commercial commodification of animals does not allow for individual care of the animals through life and death.

[EnergySpin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'I')t's true, pstarr. Humane killing does not distress other animals who observe it. My chickens have observed their fellows being killed and apparently not experienced any negative opinion, though it is hard to tell. There was no apparent distress. But our commercial commodification of animals does not allow for individual care of the animals through life and death.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zoidberg', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zoidberg', 'S')ince when did we become so disassociated with the rest of life on earth that eating meat is somehow distasteful? We're designed to have some meat in our diet, and life eats other life on Earth. Its ok, morally, to eat animals, and to raise them so we can harvest their flesh. I personally wouldn't want to work in a slaughterhouse, but I dont think we shouldn't have them.

Maybe that strikes you as callous, and it is I suppose, but welcome to reality baby!

Top of the food chain! BOOYAH!

It wasn't that long ago those damned sabre tooth tigers were eating our babies. If you ask me vegans and their dietary brothers suffer from a sort of human exceptionalism that would disappear pretty quickly when food got short, and hunger compels you to kill that chicken with your bare hands and cook it.

[zoidberg]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'I') was particularly reacting to your comment about "not wanting to work in a slaughter house, but that we should have them". That's like saying I know the conditions are utterly inhumane in a prison, but as long as I don't have to work there...what I don't see, won't hurt me.