Well, now that I have your attention…
Here’s why. I was talking with Joe the other day about Agedashi Tofu, which I love, and he pointed out it was usually made with bonito, some sort of fish product. I ordered some this evening sans bonito, and some vegetable tempura udon besides. Of course, the udon broth also had bonito (as do many miso soups). Having basically been told that much of my favorite japanese food was not merely not vegan but not vegetarianism, I started thinking about why I’m vegan.
The environmental reason is all well and good. But I don’t kid myself to think that I’m making a huge impact by lowering my own ecological foot print. In fact, by living smaller on the land, I’m increasing the delicacy of the situation to a trivial degree. If everyone were to follow my example into veganism (just pretend), and some sudden food production crisis arrived, we wouldn’t have as much waste to trim to preserve our collective diet. This also brings up the point that no one I know has really gone vegetarian, let alone vegan, in my wake except
If I were to drop it, I’d probably drop it all, at least, as an identity. I’m not sure how much I’d change my diet. I don’t really like most meat. Or at least, I didn’t the last time I really had any. Fish, being cold blooded, aquatic, and not the brightest critters, trigger neither my environmental concerns nor my compassion to any great degree, and I’ve had them in tasty ways in the distant past. Maybe I’d eat just like I do now, but have pizza sometimes, or lassi, or japanese food, and shut the fuck up about being vegan.
Maybe. *shrug* I’ll probably take a few months to ponder it before making any hasty moves.
You know, I completely forgot all of that had bonito in it. -shrugs- I’m not anywhere near a strict vegetarian though I should have remembered the time we went to Japanese.
Overall, I usually say if it feels right to your heart, go for it. Then again, I make very many seemingly impulsive life style choices based on that method, so I’m not really selling that argument well. Thinking it over for the next few months is probably a good thing.
Good luck with whatever path you choose.
Clearly, you have been affected by living in Chicago over the summer. You’d never have come to such desperate straits with the cultural and culinary reinforcement of California. You’ll have to watch yourself for dreams of lutefisk now that you’re back in proto-Scandanavian Minnesota. I recommend regular somatic cleansings by watching Logan’s Run, Soylent Green, or Attack of the Killer Tomatos when you feel yourself beginning to slip.
nice buildup!
I’m not personally much for red meat, and have toyed with going vegetarian several times over the years. I couldn’t go vegan. I’d be excommunicated from Wisconsin. It’s the cheese, man, the cheese! *g* I’ve always come to the conclusion that I’d miss too many foods. Japanese in particular. I decided that occassional forays into red meat aren’t going to hurt me or the world that much in the long run.
For a while, I was semi-vegetarian. Fish or fish related products fairly often, chicken off and on, and other meats only a couple times a month. Hmm. Maybe I’ll head back to that sort of diet. It seems to work for me.
Not sure if that helps you, but those are my thoughts on the issue!
It’s always kind of weird giving up some identifying feature of yourself. But sometimes you realize something you used to do for yourself, or used to find joyful, you’re only doing for some imaginary image that you’ve been locked into. Then you have to decide how much you get out of the image thing. 😀
The prions are probably less of a risk then the mercury, but fish is at least free range.
Also, if you’re eating the fish with the mercury, they’re probably at the top of the food chain, and therefore less desirable to eat from an ecological perspective. Not that this has ever stopped me. Them carnivorous mercury fish is delicious!
Laura comments that “If he wants to eat meat he should be eating poultry” (She is thinking about safety, health and digestive ability) Laura and I agree that while eating a pound of chicken kills more animals then eating a pound of beef, cows are cute, while chickens are mean fuckers.
Two other thoughts
1) It may be easier to convince others to switch to vegetarianism then to veganism.
2) However, depending on how long you’ve been vegan, you may find it difficult to suddenly start digesting milk.
My suggestion? You just tell everyone that you’re a vegetarian who is lactose intolerant.
Personally, I would encourage people to eat cows, since my perception is that chickens are kept the worst of any animals. Of course, I’m of the opinion that they are all slave species that were bred to die, but I’m a cold hearted bastard. (This is not to say that Stevie should eat cow, given a complete lack of digestive ability for red meat).
Not all fish is free range. Many are farm grown and kept in pretty bad conditions.. not that fish give a fuck. I’m definitely of the opinion that fish are barely above vegetables in intelligence. (Whereas cows are geniuses, of course).
Also, it’s not like “free range” means much, having very little in the way of standards behind the label.
When we talked about this, Laura asked me if I felt any health effects or had any health worries related to my shift to “veggie at home, meat when eating out”. In particular, apparently other guys are worried about muscle mass.
I explained that muscle mass wasn’t a particular concern of mine (it’s actually gone up since reducing my meat intake, though that is largely a product of more (i.e. some) excercise).
I did explain that my main concern would be the different ratios of amino acids in plants versus animals, and particular niche amino acids (in particular those that are neurotransmitter precursors). Luckily, an amino acid that is closely related to dopamine is found in large quantities in cheese.
ALso, I decided to give you my saffron rice and beans recipe, which incidentally is both vegan and delicious.
I’ve decided I’m going to post it to wiki cookbooks, and then post a link to that on your blog.
My first contribution to wikibooks
I went from being vegan to vegetarian to pescatarian to pollo-pescatarian over the course of 18 months or so in 1999-2000. Now I mostly don’t eat any mammals, but will do so very occasionally out of whim or politeness. Honestly I didn’t have much trouble from a digestive standpoint, but perhaps I have guts of steel? I remember friends witnessing me eating ice cream for the first time being completely agog at the sight.
My practical reason for giving up veganism was that I was going to study abroad in the Netherlands and staying with a host family, so I figured I’d starve in that country if I didn’t eat dairy. Also, I was starting to feel as if veganism was putting limits on how much I could enjoy communing with other people over food. I remember folks in college wanting to go get ice cream at DQ and I’d have to get one of those wretched Mr. Frosty things, or people going out to brunch and the only option for me was gummy oatmeal.
Though I love animals, I came to the conclusion that I don’t really object to eating them/taking their eggs and milk as long as they are treated humanely. For that reason, I try to eat mostly free range, organic, grain fed, anti-biotic-free, etc. animal products. The reason I avoid mammals is more ecological than anything– as far as I gather, raising beef requires a lot more resources than chickens. It would be interesting to find out the ecological impacts of raising a chicken breast vs. a fake chicken substitute.
It’s funny to read this post, since the friend I was just visiting in Minneapolis is a vegetarian. I usually eat vegetarian when we’re together (for one thing he’s a good cook) but one day after I’d been there for a week I just blurted out: “I’m sorry but if I don’t have some dead cow I’m going to go crazy.” He laughed, and we took roast beef with us to the Farm so I could make sandwiches….
Recently he’s relaxed his regimen. We were eating out and he ordered chicken. I commented on it and he sighed. “I’m not as strict as I used to be.” (This was a huge statement coming from someone who scrutinizes every aspect of his life in order to reduce his impact on the biosphere.) “But I finally decided I was just going to listen to my body. Most of the time I don’t eat meat. But when I crave it I’ve decided it’s because there must be something I’m not getting, and I want to listen to my body.”
That seemed sensible to me. It’s a pragmatic, rather than idealogical, approach — but what’s more pragmatic than eating?
This friend of yours sounds like an interesting individual, and from what you said, he lives not far from me. =) Perhaps you could point him to my lj or something 😉
Idealism mixed with pragmatism certainly has a place to my mind.
Perhaps you could point him to my lj or something 😉
I would, except he’s the one I wrote about who just got the job in Germany — he’ll be moving in a month!