Vegetarianism / was Fw: Few words Introduction

[Guest guest]

Hello again, Subrahmanyam.

 

Thanks for posting. Your request for us all to think about the animals is most

appropriate

on any vegetarian group!

 

SOME THOUGHTS: It seems to me that often we lose track of the main reason to be

vegetarian - because killing animals or being complicit in their suffering is

wrong (eg

George Bernard Shaw and others). And although in the old days, people who were

vegetarian consumed eggs and dairy because the animals were not suffering in

order to

produce these foods, these days there is much cruelty (in the west, at any rate)

in the egg

and dairy farm business. This is not acceptable to most thinking and caring

people. Since

1944, there has come to be a name for those vegetarians who refuse not only

animal flesh

but also eggs, dairy or (in most cases) honey AND avoid other animal products

(as much

as is possible) in their daily living. We vegans, however, are few and far

between in the

West. Look at this quote from Wikipedia:

 

" A 2002 Time/CNN poll found that 4% of American adults consider themselves

vegetarians, and 5% of self-described vegetarians consider themselves vegans,

which

implies that 0.2% of American adults are vegans. A 2006 poll conducted by Harris

Interactive in the US listed specific foods and asked respondents to indicate

which items

they never eat, rather than asking respondents to self-identify. The survey

found that of

the 1,000 adults polled, 1.4% never eat meat, poultry, fish, seafood, dairy

products, or

eggs and were therefore essentially vegan in their eating habits. The survey

also found

that about 1.4% of men and 1.3% of women have vegan diets. "

 

(Full article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan )

 

People, however, do still become vegetarian (in its various forms) for many

reasons, health

being one of those. And of course many members here are either still working

towards

becoming vegetarian or are non-vegetarians who are here for other reasons. We

respect

that on Vegetarian Slimming, although some of us (hey, I'm one of those!) do

hope that

they will someday see things the way we do.

 

Again, thanks for your suggestion. We should all think a little more -

vegetarians and

vegans included - to what more we can do to alleviate the suffering of non-human

animals. As an added note, it is good for the planet too - but that's a

different discourse.

 

Love and hugs,

 

Pat