i’m sure with the influx of people we have enough of a community for this to be a thread, or at least people who are interested in veganism and vegetarianism and incorporating aspects of the diet/lifestyle into their current life. so yeah, pop off! share your struggles, experiences, good times, recipes, all that kind of stuff
Been vegetarian all my life.
I consider veganism to be the most ethical ideology with the current factory farm infrastructure, but I don’t agree with it’s extreme principles in a world with ethical farming practices. I would continue being a vegetarian if we could do things ethically - free range, and without exploitation.
I haven’t had any struggle at all in my country- it’s awesome. I’ve always been surprised with the dismissiveness and outright hostility towards vegan peeps in the western part of the world, it makes me sympathise a lot. Over in my country, Vegetarianism is completely normal and people are very respectful of vegetarian and vegan lifestyles - part of it is due to these lifestyles originate due to religion here.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’m curious to hear more about what you mean by “ethical farming practices” in the context of “without exploitation”. Or maybe more generally how you define “exploitation”?
To me, exploitation is exerting control over others to gain something or benefit in some way. Which would include things like taking milk from an animal who put in work of pregnancy (and motherhood) to produce it for her child. And often involves killing her child to free up the milk as a resource to be taken.
In this way, animal agriculture seems rooted in exploitation and we’re just left to decide in what ways we want to be a part of that.
I agree wholeheartedly with your definition of exploitation. Which is why I wish for best practices:
Free range, proper food and shelter, and generally ensuring best quality of life in any way possible, and treated with dignity in exchange for the milk.
Leave the cows and bulls to their own devices in the fields, so that that pregnancy can happen naturally
Jersey cattle and other farm cows produce huge amounts of milk, and the calf is only killed out of greed to maximise profits
Don’t inject cows with hormones for the sole purpose of driving up milk production
Don’t kill the cows for meat
Basically, I would like it if cows were treated like pets with whom you exchange food in exchange for their stuff, than goods-production-biomachines.
This is of course an expensive endeavour and the feasiblity as a business model on a large scale in every circumstance is debatable - but it is very much possible. For example, we have a farm nearby where they treat the cows with dignity, and manage to be profitable. The milk they sell is more expensive than the normal one, but it is worth the moral relief.