Monday, June 23, 2008
Upon telling anyone that I've stopped eating meat, they think that I am insane for making the radical change. It may be true, to an extent. But over the last couple of years, my life and how it is spent has changed dramatically and it will continue to as I build my new life and family.My first date with D was at the Woodland Park Zoo. He had asked me what I wanted to do, and going there had been on my mind for months. He used to work there and the aquarium, and he gave me the grand personal tour of both places. In fact, he answered a lot of the questions I had about animals and shared with me a lot of his knowledge.
Ever since then, Animal Planet has been constantly been on my TV. We watched in marathon all the David Attenborough DVDs - Life in Cold Blood, Planet Earth, etc... And the more I learned, the more my love for animals grew. Wherever we traveled, we visited the zoo and/or aquarium of the area. In fact, some of our trips are based solely on visiting them... like our trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I couldn't pick a favorite, but that is definitely near the top of the list.
I hadn't known how much my affection to animals had grown until one fateful night when I saw a raccoon on the road in Sammamish, taking its last breaths as a car had just struck it. I stopped my car in the middle of rush hour traffic to have D pick him up to take him to the vet. When we parked the car to check his state, D knew that there was nothing we could do for him. He walked to the bush and let him die in peace there. I cried. For 5 hours straight. Over a raccoon. Now, I have to hold back tears whenever I see roadkill... worse when it's a raccoon.
It didn't really come too much of a surprise when looking into a cow's eyes on its way to a slaughter house tipped both me and D over the edge. If we had to kill it, we would starve to death instead... T is right in the fact that there are places that treat their animals humanely and the options are wonderful here in Seattle, but they still die because of me. And I can't deal with that any longer. Sometimes I find myself craving meat, but I know it's just my body asking for certain nutrients and tastes.
I know this change in lifestyle (don't worry, I won't ask anyone to change their eating habits) won't make a dent in the state of the world and planet today, but every little helps the bigger picture eventually.
With all the meatless alternatives available, I don't see why it can't be done by anyone who wanted to try. I figure this is like the "going green" campaign that the world is going on about these days. Eventually, the world will get it.
Yea, but the meatless alternatives are also tasteless :) I'm all for more vegetables, but vegetable products made to taste like meat are more frankenfoods to me.
I could say that you'll probably never replace some of the nutrients you get from meat but I don't think it would prevent you from living a long, healthy life.
If it causes you this much pain, than it makes sense to cut it out, though it sounds like you're going vegetarian, not vegan - so animals will still be dying for you? I would hate to feel guilty every time I ate a piece of meat, though I could argue that the conscienceness level of an animal regarding death is probably not much different from a plant. Cows are especially dumb animals. It is hard to believe they have any sense of anything around them.
Death is a natural part of life. If someone wanted to eat me or use my parts after I die, more power to them. I certainly don't need to take up space one the living is over.
The big question is, will you raise your child to be a vegetarian. I'd suggest you do a little bit of research on how the lack of meat affects young kids...
I'd have to agree that some meatless alternatives are REALLY tasteless and in fact even not even close to what they're attempting to be, but there are some products that are fantastic... like last night, we had Veggie Patch meatballs and pasta. The meatballs had the taste and texture of the real thing. At least to me, it did. :)
The plan is vegetarian, not vegan. I think going vegan would be too difficult. I love cheese too much, but still have to be careful about which dairy farms the cheese and milk come from. Because of some of the farms' treatments of animals, it's just as bad as eating meat.
As far as raising the baby, she'll get her chance to choose, like with religion. If we go to McD's and she wants to try a Big Mac, we won't stop her. But the current plan is to keep her pediatrician informed of what we're feeding her, to ensure she receives the correct amount of nutrients.
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