OT - vegetarians!

[tikki]

Vegetarian/vegan for about 20 years!!! i'm still a bit lapsed though as i ate meat during my pregnancy and had to continue to do so afterwards; losing a litre of blood in a haemorage (sp) made me anemic.Now i still very very occasionally may eat meat.

my reasons are mainly environmental; i don't believe we should farm introduced species it's very damaging for the land and ethical.

[johT]

im wondering if there are many vegetarians raising vegetarian children?
I mainly haven't raised mine as vegetarian as dh and dskids aren't - thought it would be too difficult I was worried about them missing out dietwise ~ but am more confident now(and a better cook!), bree has hardly any meat at 17 months, and eats quite well

[Peach_Bums_Mum]

my mums neighbour is a bit of a hippy and is total vego (she was a clothie too but only liked terry flats and fluffies covers, modern cloth was to yuppie for her, lol) but she said she gives her son a bit of meat cause she worried about him diet wise too.

[KristyMum]

i don't believe we should farm introduced species it's very damaging for the land and ethical

what about farming native species? (genuine q)

[Peach_Bums_Mum]

kangaroo & emu farming... hmmm... good Q

[tikki]

I think farming native species would be far more viable alternative to the current culling. I'd prefer a more organic, free range, no chemical approach to any farming though.

Good Q Kristy!!!

[WB]

I only eat meat when my body tells me I NEED to. Eating meat just because I WANT to or beacuse it tastes good (which to me it doesn't), isn't a good enough reason to kill a baby animal in the most inhuman way imaginable. They have them lined up in slaughter houses so they know what's comming and them pin them down and stun them with stun guns to paralize them beofre slitting their throats

I preffer to eat oraginc meat when I NEED to, which occasionaly I become aneamic and iron pills have terrible side effects for me.

As for the children, they are mainly vegos too, but I know when they NEED meat because their bodies crave it and they will ask which is usually only once a month or so.

I also save $50 a week on groceries and have lower cholesterol than I did when I ate meat and I find it eaier to loose the pregnancy weight (although it's coming off slower this time )
When I get very tired all the time, even with sufficiant sleep, I know I need meat so will burn some minced meat or a steak and eat it reminding myself I HAVE to eat it.

Aiden has only had meat once (MIL gave it to him ) I feel as long as he is breastfed he doesn't need it.

[KristyMum]

kangaroo & emu farming... hmmm... good Q

oh, I mean it happens already, just wondered what you think of it in light of what you said

[Anastasia]

Me, for 3 and a half years. I would have gone vego sooner but I was a really junk food oriented, meat loving teenager. I thought tofu and felafel were for weird hippies PMSL. I haven't knowingly had meat in that time. Kira has not had any land animal meat but I have tried to give her fish on occasion because I worry about DHA, but she hates the taste of fish.

I am vego for ethical reasons first and foremost, the health and environmental reasons are a bonus for me (and an added incentive if I need it, which I don't LOL). My partner is not vegetarian.

[Fimail]

The two of us - me for about 10 years later this year, and Jon for about 8.

For me, originally because I didn't like the environmental damage, because it takes lot more land to produce meat than the same amount of protein from vegetarian sources. Jon because he could only stand to eat meat if he was pretending it wasn't an animal and he could no longer manage to do that.

However I eat fish from time to time, and have fed Jarrah some chicken and fish, and Jon fed him a hotdog . When we were in the village in PNG everyone gave us meat all the time because we were guests of honour. It was mostly awful chicken, tinned meat, frankfurts etc, but occasionally it was freshly caught fish, village chicken and they even killed a pig for Jon's birthday. It felt more inappropriate to reject his food than to eat it, even though it was frequently awful food, just because people didn't have much meat on a day to day basis and had made sacrifices to offer it to us.

When we left we gave the families that adopted us a pig which they killed and shared between them - it was seen as a very appropriate thing to do and they were very happy with it.

When I was pregnant however I stumbled onto the fact that in the village it was a cultural taboo to eat large fish and shellfish when pregnant - which I also wanted to avoid. So I told everyone that it was part of our culture to avoid those foods too!

As a result of all of this we still are vego but are much more relaxed about it and will eat meat occasionally (for instance at parties / the footy where there is no much veg food on offer).

Fiona