Veganuary WTF???

axisus

Apparently some corners of society are trying to push the idea of 'going vegan' in January. That in itself is repulsive enough to me, but also the word 'Veganuary' has been foisted on the world as well. Not sure whether to facepalm or vomit over that word. 

I have decided to neither smoke, drink nor do any drugs for the whole of January*, but I draw the line at eating rabbit food.

How many stupid words do we have to put up with as month replacements? Stoptober, Movember, Decembeard, Veganuary .... In celebration of my recent thread I am putting forward 'Februhairy' a month where women don't shave their armpits or pubes in recognition of foot injuries suffered by Camels. We all need to think about Camel toes more often.

As an aside - if the whole world went permanently vegan overnight, surely we'd end up having to cull millions of animals anyway to stop them from overrunning the planet?




*Note: I don't actually smoke, drink or do drugs so it should be pretty easy.

Moss

You really are grumpy at the moment

  

57Deluxe

Vaginuary is not to be sniffed at though...

Nitefly

Happy New Year! 

octatonic

Moss said:

You really are grumpy at the moment

  

This came to mind with me too.
Can someone post that picture of Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud?

A lot of vegan food is pretty hearty actually.
It can come loaded with salt oil and sugar, which can be problematic in themselves.

Moss

octatonic said:

Moss said:

You really are grumpy at the moment

  

This came to mind with me too.
Can someone post that picture of Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud?

A lot of vegan food is pretty hearty actually.
It can come loaded with salt oil and sugar, which can be problematic in themselves.

fftc

Portmanteau words are the new black, obviously.

I don't buy into any of this bandwagon stuff, but it would be great for our grandchildren if we cut back on our meat consumption. Especially beef!

bluechargeboy

fftc said:

Portmanteau words are the new black, obviously.

I don't buy into any of this bandwagon stuff, but it would be great for our grandchildren if we cut back on our meat consumption. Especially beef!

Portmanteauary.

Ravenous

axisus said:

I have decided to neither smoke, drink nor do any drugs for the whole of January*, but I draw the line at eating rabbit food.

Don't knock it.  Food made from rabbits is quite delicious once you get the fluffy bits off.

Grunfeld

axisus said:

Apparently some corners of society are trying to push the idea of 'going vegan' in January. That in itself is repulsive enough to me... I draw the line at eating rabbit food.

But why?  There's nothing wrong with the food itself, is there?
I get that "Vegan" is a more than just a plant-based diet and you might not want the political and philosophical baggage that goes with being Vegan.
But trying a plant-based diet for a month ain't gonna do any harm at all.  Quite tasty in fact.

Ravenous

axisus said:

Stoptober, Movember, Decembeard, Veganuary

What about music-themed ones?

Rocktober?

Fenderary?

Schectember?

(Sorry.)

Chalky

Hyenas can rip apart a young living antelope in agony and that is 'natural' and therefore acceptable.

But it is 'unnatural' and unacceptable to humanely and painlessly kill a sheep.

Its an illogical philosophy based solely on 'man = bad'.  It is strange the way animal rights activists stress that
a) man is an animal - we have no rights or priority over other species of animals
b) man is not an animal - what animals do is natural, what man does is unnatural.

Logic is not their strong point...

fretmeister

Grunfeld said:

axisus said:

Apparently some corners of society are trying to push the idea of 'going vegan' in January. That in itself is repulsive enough to me... I draw the line at eating rabbit food.

But why?  There's nothing wrong with the food itself, is there?
I get that "Vegan" is a more than just a plant-based diet and you might not want the political and philosophical baggage that goes with being Vegan.
But trying a plant-based diet for a month ain't gonna do any harm at all.  Quite tasty in fact.

This.

I love meat, but I love veg too. Good food is good food.


The OP could just decide to not join in.

Philly_Q

I don't have any objection in principle to veganism or "Veganuary", although this is the first I've heard of it.

I just don't understand what they're "allowed" to eat which provides enough calories to survive on....

Sporky

Chalky said:

Logic is not their strong point...

Says the chap making a classic straw-man fallacy.

Grunfeld

Chalky said:

Hyenas can rip apart a young living antelope in agony and that is 'natural' and therefore acceptable.

But it is 'unnatural' and unacceptable to humanely and painlessly kill a sheep.

Its an illogical philosophy based solely on 'man = bad'.  It is strange the way animal rights activists stress that
a) man is an animal - we have no rights or priority over other species of animals
b) man is not an animal - what animals do is natural, what man does is unnatural.

Logic is not their strong point...

I agree with @Sporky - there's something of a straw man fallacy going on here.  I'll come to that in a bit...
But I think it's worth saying that it’s not really about logic for most people.
E.g. It’s not logical that many humans are irrationally prejudiced against eating certain species; certain organs of many species; and eating our own species.  There’s no logic to it — just tradition and habit. 

The argument you give for the animal rights activist isn’t one that gets used much.  It’s because naturalism is a poor defence of a position.  Not only that but it doesn’t follow from “man is an animal” that you can talk of “rights or priority” which is a different category.  I.e. it’s hard to derive ethics from a simple fact.  Basically, that doesn’t get used as an argument much either.
A stronger argument would be based on cruelty and the principles of sentience.  Can animals suffer?  Is it right to make them suffer? 
And from there you can build an argument for animal rights. 
Personally I think stronger arguments are derived from the perspective of duties and obligation rather than rights.  The gist being that animals are owed a duty of care in a similar way that we owe a duty of care to vulnerable humans such as children, and adults with reduced mental capacity (e.g. dementia or mental impairment).  We have a duty not to let these humans suffer and there is no clear demarcation line between humans and other animals. 

octatonic

Chalky said:

Hyenas can rip apart a young living antelope in agony and that is 'natural' and therefore acceptable.

But it is 'unnatural' and unacceptable to humanely and painlessly kill a sheep.

Its an illogical philosophy based solely on 'man = bad'.  It is strange the way animal rights activists stress that
a) man is an animal - we have no rights or priority over other species of animals
b) man is not an animal - what animals do is natural, what man does is unnatural.

Logic is not their strong point...

Not every vegan thinks like this and, as Sporky says, this is a strawman argument.
Another argument is that we as conscious, sentient people have a choice and can decide to do as little harm as possible.

It isn't possible to do no harm at all (all medicine is tested on animals and the vegan society recommends you do not avoid taking medicine).
Eschewing animal products is seen by some vegans as a more ethical choice- it isn't necessarily about being natural, it is about making a choice to reduce harm as much as possible.

To quote the Vegan Society- veganism is 'the principle of the emancipation of animals from exploitation by man'.

FTW I'm not a vegan, nor even vegetarian. I have greatly reduced the amount of meat I consume in the last couple of years- it is an occasional thing now (as in once or twice a month), rather than daily. I did it for health reasons, primarily.

Richardj

I have my own personal struggle with this.  I enjoy eating meat, but at the same time feel uncomfortable with the knowledge that commercially produced meat is dealt with in an awful way at best. There is also the issue of waste with what isn't used.

Philly_Q

axisus said:

As an aside - if the whole world went permanently vegan overnight, surely we'd end up having to cull millions of animals anyway to stop them from overrunning the planet?

I've often wondered about this question (admittedly without thinking about it too hard...)

I know it sounds harsh, but do domesticated farm animals like cows, sheep and pigs really serve any purpose other than for human consumption?  If we'd all been vegans throughout history, there wouldn't be great herds of wild cattle and feral sheep majestically roaming the plains, they'd probably have ended up virtually extinct. 

Although I guess from a present-day perspective, their natural predators have already been largely wiped out, so maybe they'd actually thrive and overrun the fields of vegan-friendly food. 

I do realise this is being a bit flippant and simplistic....

ThePrettyDamned

I went vegetarian and tried vegan but I got quite fat - vegan food can be healthy, but tastes mostly quite bland (after a while anyway) and I didn't exercise enough. 

Now I eat meat, but in smaller quantities. I'm big on fish too. Love veggies - but I don't want to give up dairy. 

Giving up meat was really easy - I did it for environmental reasons and because of the possible effects of heavy antibiotic use. I was a student, and it was too expensive. But giving up dairy and fish made it really hard to get a quality, balanced diet without adding coconut oil to everything. 

At the time, it was said to be healthy - but it's mostly saturated fat and, despite some vitamins and minerals, it's still not particularly good for you. Now it's relegated to stir fry only. Like anything, it's worth reading around and making a decision over - not all vegans are mad hippies. 

I would not object to a global price increase of meat if the quality of life of the animal went up with it. You don't need meat everyday anyway. 

Sporky

I was vegan for about a month at uni - I'd gone veggie and wanted to see if vegan was doable and enjoyable. It was both, but it seemed a lot more effort than veggie and I didn't feel any great reason to be vegan.