my first thread: join me in abstaining from pork?

[Tiltyred]

I can't quite get to vegetarianism, but I'm pretty much down to chicken, although every time I eat it, a baby chicken being debeaked flashes before my eyes. Whatever the logic, it just doesn't feel good to me anymore to eat too much animal flesh, and I'm afraid of fish because of the mercury. I realized after I agreed to this thread that I haven't eaten any pork since I saw a movie about how pigs are treated in commercial pig farms a couple of months ago, so this would just be actually making a formal commitment to something I'm already on the road with. I don't have convenient access to humanely treated animals, so I've pretty much just stopped eating them. A little bit of chicken one meal a day is all the animal product I eat anymore.

Aphrodite, good for you for speaking your conscience. If nothing else, 'm sure your arteries will thank you.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Tiltyred

I can't quite get to vegetarianism, but I'm pretty much down to chicken, although every time I eat it, a baby chicken being debeaked flashes before my eyes. Whatever the logic, it just doesn't feel good to me anymore to eat too much animal flesh, and I'm afraid of fish because of the mercury.

Eat farm-raised freshwater fish (such as tilapia or catfish), and mercury won't enter into the picture.

[OneWithSoul]

Originally Posted by Sytpg

If I stop eating pork will I help stop animal cruelty? No.

If we were so inclined, we could easily trace the manufacturing/preparation of most of our capitalist society's goods/products and find that, somewhere along the line, someone did something morally reprovable.

Exactly. If this isn't personal than it's a lost cuase. If you rightfully don't believe in the killing of animals, then I respect you for not eating it. But if you stop eating it, just know that just as many pigs are going to be killed and eaten around the world.

[Tiltyred]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Eat farm-raised freshwater fish (such as tilapia or catfish), and mercury won't enter into the picture.

I love catfish!
But I've seen pictures (damn these pictures! sometimes I wish I didn't know) of fish farms where the water is really dirty and the fish are overcrowded in there, too, so I wonder how healthy the fish can be.
But that's a good point, there's no need to worry about mercury in farmed fish. I'd forgotten that.

[Kangirl]

I buy as much meat as I can from local farmers whose animals are free range and slaughtered locally/humanely. I don't have a problem with eating meat, plus it's fucking yummy.

What goes on in certain systems, though, is pretty gross, from a moral standpoint.

EDIT: I so want to try catfish! I saw some footage of them being caught (some dudes were just feeling around on the bottom of a lake and hauling these fish out of their hidey holes) somewhere in the US South and they were huge.

[aphrodite-gone-awry]

Originally Posted by Tiltyred

I can't quite get to vegetarianism, but I'm pretty much down to chicken, although every time I eat it, a baby chicken being debeaked flashes before my eyes. Whatever the logic, it just doesn't feel good to me anymore to eat too much animal flesh, and I'm afraid of fish because of the mercury. I realized after I agreed to this thread that I haven't eaten any pork since I saw a movie about how pigs are treated in commercial pig farms a couple of months ago, so this would just be actually making a formal commitment to something I'm already on the road with. I don't have convenient access to humanely treated animals, so I've pretty much just stopped eating them. A little bit of chicken one meal a day is all the animal product I eat anymore.

Aphrodite, good for you for speaking your conscience. If nothing else, 'm sure your arteries will thank you.

thanks so much for your support, tiltyred. i just wanted to raise awareness and give those who have been undecisive about this issue, a nudge. but people LOVE their meat!! not taking your meat away, Type C Peeps!! haha.

Originally Posted by Kangirl

EDIT: I so want to try catfish! I saw some footage of them being caught (some dudes were just feeling around on the bottom of a lake and hauling these fish out of their hidey holes) somewhere in the US South and they were huge.

i had thought farm raised fish might be the way to go too, but then i thought about, and researched a little bit, the fish food they fed them, and i believe it is just other 'trash' fish that could also have mercury and other contamination. that's why many won't buy farmed fish, preferring wild harvested fish.

but then there is overfishing of our oceans, which, for me, is almost a bigger issue. i avoid fish in costco because i believe people eat way more fish than our oceans can sustain. look at cod. it was overfished. now they are doing the same thing with tilapia. then it will be something else.

you also have to watch out for those BIG fish. especially down south where there are a lot of refineries (i'm from texas) and tons of pollution in texas waters, and all along the gulf coast. but even lakes in the north are notorious for the bigger fish having toxic levels of contaminates because they simply have lived longer and have stored more bad things in their flesh........

just a little info i've picked up along the way. why i mainly eat venison now. it lives freely and is plentiful around here. virtually organic grass, etc. then it's killed quickly in the wild with one shot, and very lean meat. but if you have a local farm and know what feed they feed their livestock, that's pretty good too i think.

i didn't fix that bacon this morning. i didn't have the heart.

[MacGuffin]

Catfish is okay, but there are better tasting fish out there.

Most people fry it.

[Tiltyred]

Catfish dipped in corn meal with salt and pepper and fried quickly over high heat so it crisps, cook it just till it's opaque and no longer ... ye gods, it's good. Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, mild and sweet-tasting. A little squeeze of lemon and some cole slaw and I'm a happy girl.

I throw tilapia in a pan and pour green salsa over it, put the lid on, and let it cook for 10 minutes. Goes great over rice.

[d@v3]

I don't really eat bacon or ham or any of that often but it DOES taste good! I'm a hunter as well, and I don't see myself not eating meat any time soon! You kill the animal (preferrably in the most humane way possible so it doesn't suffer) and then you cook it and eat it. It's a fact of life.

We wouldn't be here if the cavemen decided long ago that "ohh I think I'll only eat greens." Why? Because if a pregnant women doesn't eat a balanced meal which includes meat, their baby will be nutrient deficient. Thus, vegetarian mothers usually take nutrient suppliments. From a scientific perspective, our teeth are shaped so that we can be omnivorous (eating greens and meat).

[Morgan Le Fay]

Originally Posted by Sytpg

If I stop eating pork will I help stop animal cruelty? No.

If we were so inclined, we could easily trace the manufacturing/preparation of most of our capitalist society's goods/products and find that, somewhere along the line, someone did something morally reprovable.

That's a weak argument. Consumer demand does change farming practice. Aside from legislation, it's the only thing that will. Look at the organic movement, or the fur industry.

And since when did a lack of conscience in others excuse morally reprehensible behaviour in oneself? Assuming you believe animal cruelty is morally reprehensible.

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing". ~Edmund Burke