Dabbling in Vegetarianism (& other alt-food fun!)

[Swatopluk]

What can I tell them to make them back off?

Become the leader of a powerful cult with direct access to all influential media. Then you can threaten them with public ostracism.

[Opsa]

Yeah! And then I'll punch 'em an' hit 'em and that'll learn them! 

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

One challenge I'm not sure I'm completely ready to undertake, but would like to, is to completely swear off factory-farmed meat for regular meals.

Strictly speaking, you would have to farm it yourself to be 100% sure...
--
In reality the question is one of flexibility, that is, either you choose a strict restriction or not, and considering that we live and work with carnivorous beings, we choose to be flexible because a strict diet becomes an imposition on those around us.

They way I rationalize this is by choosing what I buy for myself carefully. Unless you want to impose on those around you what they buy or eat around you, you'll be forced to eat some factory farmed products. My peace of mind is that they're not getting my money, but that might be the only comfort we can get from the compromise. 

No-one really needs to defend how or what they eat, except maybe someone like Hannibal the Cannibal.

Cannibalism is an ecologically sound strategy, albeit not so healthy unless you screen for prions.

[Opsa]

Does Chianti kill prions? 

[Swatopluk]

Does Chianti kill prions? 

Not by itself. Turning it into vinegar and treating the prions with the boiling product may be ore effective.

[Opsa]

That must have been what Hannibal was talking about. But what about the fava beans?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Does Chianti kill prions? 

Pity, Baby Marsala sounded really tasty.

[Aggie]

What can I tell them to make them back off?

Become the leader of a powerful cult with direct access to all influential media.

Ronald McDonald?  

Seriously, though... have you tried smiling sweetly and saying "More meat for you..."?  

A lot of people who like meat really like meat, so for them it can be hard to understand why someone doesn't want to eat it. It's like someone saying they didn't like chocolate.

Still, what are they trying to achieve by giving you a hard time? To shame you into eating meat?

I think for some people, meat-eating is a social convention.  Now that we're more widely informed about the realities of meat production, there must be a fair number of people who have some level of discomfort with how meat is produced. If everyone's doing it, it must be OK; however, meeting someone who goes without meat quite happily kind of pulls back the curtain on that convention. If it was impossible to do without eating meat, we'd be justified in eating it, but vegetarians are proof that it's quite possible to not consume meat. It might push up a bit of internal conflict in some people that wish they could go vegetarian but haven't made the effort. This is their problem, not yours.

One challenge I'm not sure I'm completely ready to undertake, but would like to, is to completely swear off factory-farmed meat for regular meals.

Strictly speaking, you would have to farm it yourself to be 100% sure...

I meet my meat... I trust that the farmer friends aren't using their chicken coop and pigpen as a front for an underground feeding bunker. The animals are happy and doing their thing all day long.  The chickens get let out to go pick bugs during the day, and the pigs are gorging on veggies and fruit. I might be able to barter something for meat; I barter for my veggies and eggs.

Getting out to the farm isn't really an option in the city, most of the time.  It's a big part of why I moved back home; we live in a fertile, sunny valley and the town is surrounded in all directions by orchards and farms.

[Opsa]

Sounds like where I live, Aggie.

I might have suspected that my decision not to eat meat may cause some internal conflict in meat eaters. I will admit that it is partly a quiet protest against meat production, but I do not mean to make people so uncomfortable that they feel they must poke back in defense. I guess I have to accept that they will. It's only human.

[Aggie]

Yeah, if they weren't poking back about that they'd be poking back about something else.  There's a base instinct to feel most comfortable when all the people around you share the same practices and opinions as yourself. However, even if that's a base human instinct, I feel that being human is about having the ability to transcend our base instincts and opening ourselves up to the varieties of possibilities and experiences that exist.  We can't do it all ourselves, but we can learn from others who live life differently than we do.

Of course there is no us and them, but them they do not think the same! 

[Opsa]

  RUMBLE! 

The nicest experience is what we attempt here: to learn from each other without necessarily agreeing all the time.

[pieces o nine]

I might have suspected that my decision not to eat meat may cause some internal conflict in meat eaters. I will admit that it is partly a quiet protest against meat production, but I do not mean to make people so uncomfortable that they feel they must poke back in defense. I guess I have to accept that they will. It's only human.

I have to admit that when I met my first vegetarian co-worker, I was surprised. I didn't really have a problem with it, I understood the concept, and I   wasn't consuming much meat; I had just never met one of ... them ... before. (In my own defense, I was in my very early 20's and still had a carp-load of Imposed, Unquestioned Axioms of Normalcy to shed.)

So I made a childish crack about her lunch one day and she cracked right back. No more and no less, and she didn't hold it against me, but clearly she had met *my* ilk before and was prepared. My consciousness was raised in 2-point-6 seconds!

By my 30's I was greeting Spring by switching to a veggie-salad diet for ~3 months, and what I had once sent around came back around for me -- primarily from people with farming or ranching backgrounds who took personal umbrage and thought histrionic insults were an appropriate way to express disapproval of non-compliance.

But that first vegetarian co-worker had a great sense of humor to pair with strong personal convictions. She made fantastic dishes for potlucks, and when asked for the recipe (especially for desserts!) she always smiled angelically and began, "Start with a thin layer of bacon grease..."  Maybe something like that would work around your questioners who are ignorant rather than stupid?

[Opsa]

Good idea, PoN. Maybe I could say it's just a temporary whim I've been on since 1975.

I was once offered a piece of meaty pizza which I politely refused, saying I was vegetarian. The woman offering made a sneery face, which I took to read "Oh... one of those people   ." I later found out that her family runs an Angus beef farm around here. I had inadvertently snubbed her way of life. Sometimes you just don't know when you've slapped someone.

[Aggie]

She made fantastic dishes for potlucks, and when asked for the recipe (especially for desserts!) she always smiled angelically and began, "Start with a thin layer of bacon grease..." 

Ummm.... some of my desserts start like that. 
Shmaltz works in a pinch. 

[Opsa]

...a pinch of schmaltz?