are you a vegetarian?
Not a vegetarian, from UK. It's always been something I've considered though. As soon as lab grown meat becomes a reasonably priced and popular thing, I'll probably hop over to that.
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We were looking into that and I don't think synthetic meats will be the thing until there a breakthrough in material/tech. The closest thing we find is the company called "Impossible Foods". It is the closest thing to meat, the company has over $183 M going into their startup.
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Ah yeah, probably^^ I'm sure it'll be here eventually though. I think there's a big drive for it, anti-gmo paranoia people aside. :P
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Not a vegetarian, but I make sure to only eat meat from sources I know about, and end up eating meat maybe at max once or twice a week. It's weird how people seem to think a meal is not a meal unless it has some meat in it, or if you're going to a restaurant "what's the point of going out if you're just going to eat vegetables?" etc.
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Female, and I'm a vegetarian. I'm from a region, which I'd prefer not to disclose, that mainly doesn't know what it means.
Good luck with your research.
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EU, male.
But regarding the question of being vegetarian or vegan: I'm not quite sure. I have a rare desease which basicly means that I cannot eat too many proteins per day or it would poison me. That means that I cannot eat meat, fish, milk, egg, pasta, bread, and so on. I mostly live of fruits, vegetables and special low-protein diet products (such as low-protein pasta and low-protein bread). But there is no suitable meat substitution for me. Sounds like I'm vegan or at least vegetarian? Well, I can eat spread cheese or liver sausage on my bread since it's just a little bit. I also like gummy bears, which is strictly speaking not vegan.
As I said, I'm still not sure if I'm vegan, vegetarian or none of the above :D
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EU, female and vegan for a year now ^_^
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Not a vegetarian. EU (Latvia).
For the discussion part of this thread - Im kind of conflicted with all that vegetarian thing.. I am against cruelness against animals, but .. not eating meat simply doesnt affect it. Its profitable for industries to grow animals in unsanitary and cruel envorinments.. And in the end this either falls down to being something for your health or just something to make you feel good about yourself. (this is definitely not meant as an insult, dont get me wrong, I just fail to see an actual impact it leaves).
As for myself - I do go hunting myself and I buy meat and dairy products mostly from neighboring farms that I know dont use chemicals for everything and have their animals grown in acceptable environments. I totally agree with trying to avoid buying meat, eggs, dairy in malls. Most animals and poultry are force grown, fed and grown on heated floors and they are under such stress, the meat and products they make are just bad. Plain bad. (And maaaaaan, Id bet most of people hating on meat havent even eaten real meat.. Only those chemical pumped "substitutes" you mostly get in malls. And it tastes different.. much much different)
But there are bunch of ways of getting healthy and "moral" food (eg as I explained I do)
Also, I do have partly education in agricultural engineering as my degree was kind of sub-degree of agriculture. Ive seen this shit in real life. (not just talking out of thin air here). Also - yeah, I think best for your body would be healthy mix of everything. People just like to go to extremes.. Up to the person what they do to their bodies I suppose.. Just dont try to press it on others ^^ I definitely dont trow meat into face of everyone who states they are vegetarians :D
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Oh there's a huuge impact! See here for instance.
There are now far more vegan options due to the rising demand. Just because you don't see the actual impact, doesn't mean there's none! :)
Same applies to voting, one person might not change much but if everyone thinks that way, nothing will ever change.
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If such a trend continues, we might get somewhere in a long time. But I doubt even that. America isnt the center of the world. And I doubt everyone there has their lives so good that they find a time to worry about animals and replan their life.
Outside US people have it even harder most places. They dont have the privilage to go out of their routines to change their food and their philosophy. A lot of people survive their lives. They just trow some sausages on pan and fastly swallow those to have some energy to go back to their jobs. Not everyone works in office. Not everyone has availability of healthy vegetables or alternatives to meat, fish, dairy.
The quality of life has to go up for people to start to evaluate what they eat. And we are a long way from that.
Again - Im no against vegans ;) Just ...logic....
Its like electrical vehicles. An awesome concept, technology for today to lower consumption of fuel and lower emissions. People cant afford it, they dont have the time to think about emissions and whats good or bad for the dolphins. They need something to get to job. Streets are seeng more and more of these cars. But its still a long way ahead. Quality of life has to go up for people to start buying new cars or electric vehicles.
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The US was only an example. Those impacts can be seen worldwide. Again, just because you haven't noticed it yet doesn't mean it's not happening. Most times it's not about not being able to but simply not wanting to because it's convenient as it is and quite frankly, I don't think many people even think about what or who they are actually eating because all of it is just conveniently packaged on shelves at supermarkets. Maybe the US was the worst example to give, now that I think of it, considering how much fast food they (as a nation) consume. Ironically enough, foods like rice, pasta, potatos, and vegetables are some of the cheapest foods available - though obviously it's more convenient to just go out and buy fast food than to cook at home.
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What you said would be a bit better wording then i used. Its convinient this way. But i think my argument still stands - life has to become better for people to worry about such stuff. Actually have to agree about "not wanting instead of not being able to argument". Ive seen many people who have been vegans before turn back to slowly eating meat eventually to come back to not even caring about where you get this meat simply thanks to lack of time to allocate for stuff like that.
I am blessed I can afford to pay more for quality food. But i drive around a lot. Many people couldnt care less, they scrape pennies and anythings good. Call it what you want. But this will happen for a long time..
Its awesome something happens, im not arguing against that. Im merely stating that its still a far and hard road. Hopefully im mistaken and something will happen and change (regarding mass production of products) in the near future.. What else can we do than to wait and see.
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Well, I won't get into why people choose to be vegans. As you know (since you have some education in agricultural engineering) the demand for meats have been sharply increased in the past decade worldwide. Yet, we still used old ways to obtain meat (farm raising) which take a lot of resources to sustain the industry. As part of engineer research project (for school), we teamed up with business major students to see if it would be better (logically/cost relate) to either improve our current farming system or totally replace it with something else. I saw the meat processing process myself but I am trying to be objective as much possible :)
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This wouldnt be the place nor the time to discusse anything related to human nature and/or actions, anyhow :D
And what was the result ? Did you came to conclusion which would be better ?
Anyway, agriculture or not - at industrial size farming (or anything for that matter) the quantities are so huge it seems that stopping that process or changing it to something else would cost a lot in a short run... Which i doubt is of interest to big corporations..
For example - some big car manifacturers doesnt even stop the manifacturing line if theres no buyers. They keep on pumping out the cars, later strip them for parts or let them go through another time because its more cost effective to keep running the line then to stop it and continue when needed. I feel its not much different for the big corp in farming and meat processing. More cost effective just to pump out more and more then to try to rework the system. But youve got to clear me up on that ;)
Also.. Definitelt the key to everything is demand. We want a lot for less money. Quality doesnt go into that equation. It does for some, but then theres also money... So thats besides the point...
As long as people continue to overpopulate, they will need to eat. And sadly these corps we do have problem with will probably pump out this meat anyway.
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the business people want to go replacing route because of it cool, edgy and whatever. For us engineers, we split into 2 ideas, I supported the idea of replacing. I think it is better for us in the long term, less space, better for the environment, and etc. But then there an R&D, fewer consumers, low profit, and etc. Another idea is improving, which is the most logically speaking due to improved in computer and robotic technologies. Therefore, it will be easier to persuade castle industries and also higher yield in return profit. You already know the downside of this route.
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Male from EU - and I'm not a vegetarian.
Sometimes I jokingly call myself an "indirect vegetarian": cow eats grass, I eat cow.
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UK, male, vegetarian since I was born 🙂
I keep telling myself I should go vegan, but going without eggs and dairy would be a struggle 😏
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Would you consider eating plant-based dairy or egg if there available?
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They'd probably have to get a lot better than they are currently for me to switch. I've tried milk alternatives (almond, coconut) and didn't like them...
Not a big fan of soya based food either 😄
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I was the same and what really convinced me was for one, how cruel the dairy industry really is, and secondly, videos of happy cows jumping through fields simply because they can. I know that might not work for everyone, just thought I'd share anyway because I once was the same, convinced I could never ever ditch cheese.
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EU, male, non-vegetarian.
Actually following pretty much the eating pattern mentioned near the start of the thread by Leeuw96.
Mostly because while I appreciate meat & fish, you can get some really good flavors with veggies too. That, and eating too much meat just makes me very, very lazy.
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If you could say which region are you from would be nice to (NA, EU, LATAM, and etc)
Thank You
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