Posts by hostileholly

I slice it into thin strips and pan-fry it in a little canola oil with some soy sauce as seasoning. I use tempeh in tempeh reuben sandwiches.... so good. I use rye bread, tempeh, tomato, sauerkraut, and a sauce made by mixing ketchup, relish, and vegenaise.

Perhaps this is off-topic, but doesn't Egg Beaters use eggs from factory farm chickens?

I'm sorry! Maybe she'll still be willing to cook vegetarian meals with you and go out to eat at veggie places. I know it's not the same, but hopefully she'll still eat vegetarian foods with you. Or perhaps you could try to find other vegetarians in your area. It looks like you won't be able to change her mind (although hopefully she will choose to go back to being a vegetarian!)

I like Simply Fiber cereal. It has no sugar and 14 grams of fiber for a 100 calorie serving. It's pretty bland-tasting though. With non-dairy milk and some cinnamon sprinkled on it, it's not too bad.

I just ordered a Matt and Nat bag from their website (it was on sale), and I love it! People think it's real leather (which is good and bad, I guess).

I find the "hidden" egg topic interesting. I'm a vegan right now, but if I decide to eat eggs again at some point, I would want to enjoy them hard-boiled or fried... my favorite breakfast used to be a fried egg on a piece of toast. I find it is very easy to bake vegan when I want cookies or muffins or whatever. Avoiding the non-vegan baked goods that people bring to school/work has made me healthier, too. 

Then again, I avoid eggs due to moral reasons, not because the thought of eating eggs grosses me out (not a lot, anyway). No matter what the carton says about how humanely the chickens are raised, I wouldn't trust that unless I actually could visit the farm. All egg companies, regardless of whether they are cage-free, organic, etc, exist to sell eggs, not to give chickens happy lives. I don't want to contribute to the death the male chicks, or to the slaughter of female chickens when their productivity declines. 

Interesting question... after eating a vegan diet for 7 months, I've though about going back to eating fish now and then.

I think if a person feels happiest and healthiest eating a mostly plant-based diet and having fish occasionally, they should be able to do so regardless of what other people will call them. However, the fact that I would no longer be able to refer to myself as a vegan does factor somewhat into my decision. 

Original Post by zebulancherry:
 And even though you may not be eating those animals - someone is. Someone out there is still eating whatever chicken or cow you supposobly "saved". The farms will still raise the same numbers of animals, the slaughter houses will still kill the same number of animals, and people will still consume the same number.

But if all the vegetarians in the world started eating meat today, more animals would be artificially inseminated to meet that demand, meaning a larger number of animals would suffer in captivity for their entire life. Saving animals from being born into a life of misery is still making a difference, in my opinion.

I don't think the cow, pig, and chicken populations would get out of hand if we stopped eating them. Some of the animals we kill have been genetically modified such that it's impossible for them to breed. For example, most turkeys have been modified to have such large breasts that they can barely walk, let alone get close enough to another turkey to mate. But I think that's a mute point anyway. I don't believe that the population will go completely vegan, or even get close, within my lifetime. The price of meat may initially go down, but if demand does not increase, the price will eventually skyrocket. People who can afford it will probably continue to buy it. Part of the reason meat is so cheap now is that water is subsidized by taxpayers. Also, consumers pay for the "hidden" costs associated with meat, like nitrates being added to the water supply and other environmental factors. As long as there is a demand for meat, no matter how small, there will be factory farms and small, family-run farms. There will just be less animals as a whole.  I think it's ridiculous to imagine a world where farm animals are just roaming the streets because we no longer want to eat them. It's basically impossible for these animals to live on their own as we've bred them specifically for food. Most, if not all, of the animals we use for food products today were never found in the wild. 

 As for the statistics, I'm not sure where the saving 95 animals a year one came from. I definitely don't believe every statistic I hear, but I know as a vegan I'm doing some good, even if it only equates to 10 animals a year, or whatever. Here's another interesting statistic: On average America uses nearly half of all water, 70% of grain produced, and a third of all fossil fuel products found naturally in its borders to produce meat products every year. 

 For me, being vegan is easy. I'm very lucky to have access to and be able to afford tofurky products and Purely Decadent soy ice cream and what not. Before I was vegan, I ate mostly vegetarian and thought being vegan was impossible, yet here I am. I wish more people would embrace a similar lifestyle, yet who am I to judge what other people choose to eat? I think it's sad that consumers buy into the "humanely raised" labels when nobody can know how the animals' lives truly were without raising the animals themselves, or visiting the same farm that supplied them with the products. "Humanely raised" foods, like eggs, are better than non-humanely raised, but that might not be saying much. Maybe each bird gets 144 square inches of cage space rather than the 100 square inches they would get in a regular factory farm. 

I definitely think it's possible to raise animals 100% humanely for dairy and egg products,  and some smaller farms may even do this. But the truth is a HUGE majority of farms in the United States are not run this way. It's simply not profitable.

 I don't want to come off to others as arrogant that I'm vegan, and I try not to preach. It's just really easy to eat animal products and not think or not care about where they came from. Even if people choose to eat animal products, I think it's better that they know the facts, and maybe decide to decrease their consumption, than to just continue eating them blindly.  But ultimately, I think it's a personal choice. It angers and confuses me so much to see how our society treats farm animals, but that's certainly not the only injustice in the world. If a person lives a good life, truly cares about human rights and the environment, knows how terrible factory farming is, but wants to enjoy a piece of cheesecake now and then, who am I to stop them?