A char-broiled grass-fed beef burger is incomparable in taste and sustenance for me, when I want one, which is about once a month, maybe --- preferably grilled outdoors. If I want to reground my connection, and do some heavy lifting, its beef or carnitas all the way. Summer, I eat more fish. I am not a big "meatie", though I really like it, when I like it. I also drink a lot of milk, and soy/whey protein drinks. Mooooo.:-)
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <awoelflebater@...> wrote: ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <authfriend@...> wrote: Just what I was thinking. There are so many reasons these days to reduce, if not eliminate, one's consumption of meat that don't have anything to do with how one feels physically (or, for that matter, because one thinks it's "spiritual" not to eat meat, ethical considerations aside). The "happy omnivore" excuse for eating meat is mostly an anachronism. It may have made sense waaaaaay back when before factory livestock operations, before feeding livestock required a disproportionate share of agricultural land and water. How many people can a hamburger feed, versus the 16 times as much grain it takes to make that hamburger? Not to mention what we know now about the unhealthiness of a high-meat diet. Back in the "happy omnivore" days, what "nature intended" was for meat to be an occasional, even rare, treat, not the mainstay of the diet. Granted--Bhairitu will confirm this--some people don't do that well on a strictly vegetarian diet, and they shouldn't be made to feel guilty for eating just enough meat to keep their physiology in good shape, especially if they can stick to chicken and fish. (A TM teacher of my acquaintance told me that Maharishi once said to someone who asked about eating meat: If you really have to, "best to eat small animals.") And of course if you can afford it, buy free-range meat--it's better for you and, obviously, for the animals it comes from. But to puff oneself up and feel superior because one has rejected vegetarianism is the shallowest of egotistical nonsense. Thanks for this incisive post. You have said a lot here and most of it encompasses my feelings about this subject. I do eat small creatures because I feel sometimes I need to eat meat - things like fish and birds. Fish I would have a hard time cutting out of my diet but for the rest of the meat, I could leave it alone. For me it was not primarily about feeling better or not physically. Eating less meat was and is about contributing as little as possible to the meat industry and its inhumane practices and standards and to try, in some small way, to lessen the suffering of other living creatures by not causing them to be held captive and force fed all sorts of bad stuff in order for me to later ingest them. It is my very miniscule attempt to try and cause a little less suffering by my fellow, living creatures here on this planet.
