What are your reasons for not going vegan?

Torturing and eating baby animals is actually quite natural.

 

I think we should Kill all carnivores and omnivores on the whole planet so herbivores can live happily ever after.

 

What that cheetah was showing was sociopathic behavior and I really advise authorities to put that cheetah in cheetah jail as soon as possible.

 

I think a fine would be more appropriate he was just playing with his food.

 

Not Vegan (only vegetarian without cheese restrictions), but IMO you can’t really compare the two because we don’t treat animals as moral agents.

 

I've skimmed through this thread and my own personal response is that yes I agree that a heavy meat based diet isn't good for the planet and that yes factory farms are not good. Speaking for myself I have cut down on my meat consumption but still eat meat and likely will have some meat tonight.

The problem I see with your argument is that you're making an absolutist argument primarily looking to shame people. As many of us should know shame doesn't always work and in fact can often end up alienating the very people you will try to reach. While you're passionate about that as that you bothered to even start this thread shows most people don't share your passion and your posts remind me of other passionate posts such as anti-abortion (Why are you for killing babies?) or any other controversial subjects.

For that matter you're making an extremist argument meant to shame people by making them feel callous or ignorant. That is an argument that can very easily turned back on you. I don't know if you're an American but given that you're posting here on this site I think it's a pretty fair guess you at least live in an industrialized country. As someone living in an industrialized country do you think about how much resources you are using? Do you think about how much resources have gone to heat your house and provide the electricity that allows you to post here? How those activities are generating greenhouse gasses warming the planet. While as a Vegan you might not be eating meat but consider how much resources have gone to grow the plants including water, fertilizer and energy spent to harvest, and transport those to your. Let's not forget the damage done by clearing land for agriculture, how monocultures are destroying bio diversity and leading to soil erosion. For that matter consider the house you live in, the roads you drive (or bike on) and the resources used to build those along with how urbanization is also destroying the environment. Think all of the animals that lived where the fields that were cleared to grow the crops you eat and the in the city that you live in how their environments have been wiped out. Put it simply your existence as a modern human living in an industrialized society is already causing suffering. Do you understand that suffering or simply don't care as long as you live in comfort?

This is the problem with shame is how far are you willing to go to address that or do you draw what is a pretty arbitrary line and say that well I'm not eating these animals so I feel enough self-righteousness to try to shame those who are..

Putting all that aside I will answer your question straight forwardly. I'm not a vegan because yes I still enjoy the taste of meat. Further while we can survive without animal protein in general the human body does better with some amount of animal protein and fat. Human evolutionary was driven by greater access to protein and fat that allowed our brains to develop beyond our pre-homonid ancestors. Even now for human development having sufficient and high quality protein is essential for childhood development. Another factor is cultural. As someone who had been a vegetarian for awhile it was actually more expensive to eat decently but also deal with members of my family and even a former girlfriend who still ate meat. Now that was 20 years ago when I was poor graduate student and now we have much better choices for meat alternatives. That said it's still not cheap to take up a purely plant based diet and get the same amount of nutrients. For example Impossible Burgers are more expensive than regular ground beef and faux chicken is more expensive than most regular chicken.

So yes I agree we as a society and individuals should eat less meat for a variety of reasons I don't think we will ever go completely vegan as a society and certainly not anytime soon. I especially don't think shaming people will make that any faster.

 

Interesting. I thought the vegan perspective was that we are very similar to animals and therefore their lives have great value. This seems to imply the opposite. Because we have the means and morals to save animal lives we should...even if they don't/can't. Almost like a parent child relationship ?

 

OP's goals would be better served by explaining the benefits of veganism, health reasons, reduced risk of cancer/diabetes, how much better you've felt physically & psychologically to start, then from there hit the moral stuff; instead of just browbeating everyone by polling "so exactly which type of POS are you, a) or b), to be making different choices than me?!"

Assuming that turning people on to veganism is actually the goal here. Sometimes (not necessarily OP, hopefully) it's more about ego, creating an identity for yourself, shaming others to make yourself feel superior...

 

Forgot to answer the question (lack of self discipline).

 

To all you Pescatarians in here thinking about going vegan:

 

Here are a few good reasons not to go Vegan:

1. Soy proteins contain phytoestrogens, and an abundance in the diet can lead to hormone disruptions and imbalances.
2. Higher risk of anemia
3. B12 deficiency (pernicious anemia) - You can supplement sure, but for many people supplementation is not enough, especially those with certain enzyme deficiencies that lead to absorption problems.
4. Problems with zinc absorption - no specific cause has been confirmed, but this is linked to most plant based diets
5. Increased dependency on carbohydrates for caloric needs
6. Legume proteins aren't good for your digestive system - legumes are used often in a vegan diet to supply the protein component, they are loaded with lectins and phytates, both of which increase the permeability of your intestines → this alone may be good or bad depending on the context, but overall leads to increased inflammation, which is bad.

A vegan diet isn't by definition, bad, or good. It is what it is. It has plenty of benefits and plenty of downsides. Furthermore, it's extremely hard to find quality, naturally-grown, truly-organic produce all the way around. It's also extremely tiresome for someone to consume enough calories to feed their demand if said person weighs more than 175lbs.

For me specifically, I work out 1hr-1.5hr a day with at least 45 mins of that vigorous aerobic activity. I need at least 3000-3500 calories a day just to break even. Mathematically, it doesn't make sense to stuff my face with a vegan diet.

Also, I enjoy meat. My body feels genuinely better when I have eaten a quality animal protein.

I am sorry your views on the subject are so narrow minded that you can't consider an opposing viewpoint. Also, I'll leave you with this:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7176641/

@jacoby

 

Good luck trying to stop people from going to Popeyes

I do order cole slaw . That counts

 

i like the food i eat already

too expensive

 

They put chicken fat in their cole slaw.

 

Lulz. Popeyes must be using that egg free vegan mayo nowadays. All the gentrification around their old spots, made them up their game apparently.

 

I’ve heard that the cows and other animals cause a lot of pollution because of their burps and what not.