Vegetarianism

A vote for sensibility

June 21, 2007

In a rare turn of events I'm actually going to recommend that people goto PETA's GoVeg.com website and vote in their poll. One of the contestants in their sexiest vegetarian celebrity poll is Carrie Underwood. Unlike many of the blogger-vegetarians who try to convince others at every turn that they have some great reason that everyone should convert to their views Underwood has a more reasonable approach. This is what she recently said:

"People think it's such a hard thing," she said, "but it's really not. It's just about substitution. I don't go preaching to people that 'Oh, you don't need to be eating meat' because I don't like people preaching to me, so I'm not gonna preach to them. Everybody else can eat whatever they feel like eating if that makes them happy, but there's several lines of food. I'm not gonna go through them all but it is a process, and I love my Whole Foods and I love my Wild Oats. I'm good with the things that I eat."

Undoubtedly she'll be kicked out of the vegetarian movement by an angry vegan who knows best. While we're on the topic of PETA and other hypocritical groups it is time to take a look at those who suggest vegetarianism is environmentally more sound than a traditional diet. The reality is that a balanced locally produced diet is far more environmentally sound than pumping carbon-dioxide into the air to move lettuce, rice and other foods around the globe.

Oxymoron

March 28, 2007

It never ceases to amaze that there are people who are vegetarian because they feel or at least in part because they feel animals are treated poorly in our modern food chain. The closer one looks the more frequently it is uncovered that these people are cat owners. Not cat owners on the big ranch who let the critters loose on the natural fauna of the farm, but cat lovers in suburbia or the urban core who are responsible and keep their pets indoors and take great care of them.

Here's the rub. Cats are obligate carnivores. This means they must eat meat protein. Dogs can get away with more grain or carbohydrates in their diets but Cats don't get anything from them. And the ultimate irony that whether one feeds human grade food or pet food the animal protein comes from the very same supply chain, the very same slaughter houses, the very same farms.

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