Eating meat...

[Bekki659]

Yes, this dilemma is mine. It's literally tearing me apart from the inside; its that bad of a conflict to me.

Background:
I've been a vegetarian for a long time. Strict. Nothing with gelatin in it, nothing made with chicken broth or beef broth. That's very limiting.

Recently, I've gone through some pretty life changing events in the past year. One of them is meeting my boyfriend, who has been the first person to convince me that I actually have a good chance of getting married and having kids.
Now, I don't want to raise my kids as vegetarians for the following reasons:
1) I am Scotch-Irish. That's a big part of who I am, and it hardly allows for vegetarianism. I want my kids to experience meat pies, stew, ect.
2) I dont want them to feel like outsiders on my boyfriends side of the family. MY family is very liberal when it comes to cooking. Me and my mom make a point of it to eat food from all over the world, and experience many things... but his family is very traditional. They do a lot of fried chicken and fried stuff in general... they are the typical down home cookin, christian family.
2) I want my kids to experience fine meats. I want them to be able to eat my dad's amazing steaks, and I want to make them the recipes that my grandmother brought back from Panama when they moved to the states.

I personally miss the variety of things that you can do with meat. I used to make fantastic dishes with meat as the centerpiece.

The dilemma:

I don't know if I can do it. Well I KNOW I can do it, but not with a clear conscience. I don't so much have a problem with eating meat... I asked my boyfriend and his family (who I actually have incredible amounts of respect and adoration for) how the Bible dealt with the issue, and I find that comforting.

Its more the way that meat is made these days. I cannot STAND the way slaughter is carried out... it makes me cry to think about it, in addition that I already cry over the thought of eating meat again.

Where you guys come in:
How do justify eating meat? Do you have guilt? Is it different now than what the bible was talking about so many years ago simply because of the new-age mass slaughter process? Does it not matter?

I think... I might go to a local "cruelty free" farmer and buy some chicken. I dont think I would be able to eat beef with a clear conscience yet... what do you guys think of that choice?

I know that it is up to me in the end, but I feel like you guys always bring up such good points and are such an educated bunch of people... it would be nice to have some outside views.

[Intrepidman]

I hope this gives you some comfort about slaughterhouses:

Design...

In the latter half of the 20th century, the layout and design of most US slaughterhouses has been significantly influenced by the work of Dr. Temple Grandin.[7] It was her fascination with patterns and flow that first led her to redesign the layout of cattle holding pens.

Grandin's primary objective was to reduce the stress and suffering of animals being led to slaughter. In particular she applied an intuitive understanding of animal psychology to design pens and corrals which funnel a herd of animals arriving at a slaughterhouse into a single file ready for slaughter. Her corrals employ long sweeping curves so that each animal is prevented from seeing what lies ahead and just concentrates on the hind quarters of the animal in front of it. This design also attempts to override the animal's instinct to reverse direction.

Grandin now claims to have designed over 54% of the slaughterhouses in the United States as well as many other slaughterhouses around the world.

I think the "stress" of the animal as it is led to slaughter is somewhat irrelevant given the end result... but that's just me. I tend to focus on the "killing" bit. Worrying that an animals suffers, but not worrying that it dies... I really don't know what to make of it. But like I stated earlier, I only feel empathetic towards mammals, so it's rather arbitrary on my part. Not something one can presume to impose on others... like so many other things often discussed on forums of this nature.

i lean toward peicetarainism myself. its a taste/texture thing for me.

[Panko]

I actually have some ethical problems with vegetarians, but that`s probably an (irrational) story for another day.

We are meat-eaters. We have digestive systems designed for fat and flesh intake, and our dietary needs and nutritional requirements as functional beings rely on meat proteins. Not eating meat requires that substitutes be found to maintain the necessary dietary balance to survive and be healthy.

If you accept the biblical version of things, animals are here, placed by God, for us to care for and eat. They have nervous systems, as we`re all well aware, so God clearly wants them to feel pain before they die. They don`t have souls, though, also according to God, so the purpose of this is completely unclear.

From an evolutionary standpoint, the animals are all in competition with each other (including us) and as such, have the ability to feel pain in order to realize when they are in danger and fight or flight accordingly.

In both cases, however, there is no clear immorality in the eating or farming of animals.

This is not entirely true. Although meat is definitely apart of the human diet, we have evolved over time as omnivore/hunters/gatherers. Our digestive tract resembles that of a gorilla, which thrive primarily on vegetation, with the integration of meat in the diet occasionally. In the times of hunters/gatherers humans had to survive primarily off of vegetation because hunting was difficult and mostly unsuccessful. Our bodies our designed to eat mostly vegetables, with a small amount of meat integrated when it is available. Once animals were domesticated, our diets drastically changed, but our bodies did not.

[Antinous]

Eat what you like, it is your body. You should be Ok so long as you have the right variety of vitamins and mineral and proteins. Many vegetarian foods are wholesome and delicious. Too much meat is not good for anyone as there is a reduction of fibre in the gut, and can lead to intestinal problems. :flan: