Hats off to you if you manage it, I just couldn't - I love me meat too much! Especially beef, ooooooohhh and pork. Yep porks gotta be my fav, especially one of those hog roasts............mmmmmmmm............

I'd enjoy it more if I had a nice kitchen - this one needs gutting (still haven't got round to it ). But even that aside, I was taking 3 hours or so to make those dishes... I can't be doing that everyday

I might get a blender/juicer and give raw veg a try.. might make things easier

I was a vegetarian for 5 years in my early 20's and woke up one day craving duck confit, I know it was the end of that. ( My nephew didn't believe me when I told him last summer, he couldn't understand why someone who was a veggie could enjoy pork trotters)
Nowadays, I make sure that the meat I buy is organic and locally sourced as far as possible so it is down to the butchers or the farmers' market every week. Same with fish, it's off to the fishmonger to see what the tide brought in.
And as quality meat is expensive, it is not in the menu every day.



One of my best friend is a veggie, and one of our pet hate when we go out for a meal is that most of the time the options ate limited and unimaginative ( I really feel bad when she has to endure another pasta dish )

I also have a problem with vegetarians whose diet seem to mainly consist of rice/pasta and does not include pulses/seeds/nuts and a wide variety of fruit and veg. These are the worst dinner party guest as I always try to make sure their food is as interesting as the meat eaters.

Why do I still eat meet, well, for the same reason I still eat fruit and veg, nuts etc, because I am an omnivore, there all part of my diet and because I like to.

I don't feel guilty about eating meet or wearing leather, after all, as has been pointed out already, if nobody ate meet or used byproducts from the process, then the many breeds of cattle, pigs and sheep, would disappear, as lets face it, not many people are going to be able to keep a heard of belgion blues or oxford sandy and blacks as pets. Though, the latter is on my wishlist if I ever have the space.

As a bit of a side note.

When I was at college we worked with livestock, these were not pets like the lizards and rabbits, they were bred and raised to be slaughtered. I never had a problem with this, as the animals were well cared for, and non of our cattle were given any kind of growth hormones/steroids either. If an animal wasn't healthy, it wasn't allowed to leave the farm end of, even if it only had a limp, it didn't go until it was 100%.

I've got great respect for anyone who has the self disaplin to become vegie, as I really couldn't.

I love meat and couldnt not eat it. i tried once but after 2 months i found myself salivating down the meat isle in the supermarket, not good.

i source all my meat from the local butcher who sells his own reared stock. also all my veg is local grown.

i used to live up the road from the abbatoir and from a young age saw how the animals were slaughtered. at first it was scarey but after talking to the slaughtermen i began to realise that these were food animals bred for that reason, they were not pets.

we had a few that used to escape and come running up the road but for some reason they would always run straight into the butchers shop!

i wouldnt eat supermarket meat as this used to be slaughtered and packed within hours whilst it was still warm, and its pumped with water to increase the weight.
meat should be hung for 2-3 weeks for it to tenderise and to bring out the flavour.

I agree with you, I became a veggie at the age of 3 when I first made the connection between meat on my plate and animals, the idea of eating dead flesh and cruelty to animals appalled me then and still does now, but its my choice.I play bowls and we have to sit down for tea with the teams we play against afterwards, the home team provides sandwiches and cakes and as I don't eat meat I often can't eat the sandwiches, I'm used to it it doesn't bother me, but I get pretty peed off being questioned about it all the time people ask me what to you eat, I always say do I look like I have a problem finding some thing to eat, I'm overweight, so its obvious I don't have a problem eating!I just get very bored trying to explain to people how its possible to enjoy your food without eating meat, I never question meat eaters, so I don't understand their problem asking me to explain why I don't want to eat meat, I'm actually very restrained in my answers maybe I should really tell them what I think but that would involve talking to them and I don't really want to waste my time.I'm happy with my choice and I'm also a great cook and love trying new recipes thankfully I can think outside the box and don't think my meal is incomplete without dead flesh on my plate.

Very much agree with this and Spot's post. I get fed up having to explain my eating choices to meat eaters also, especially because I eat fish and seafood. Yes of course that doesn't make me a proper veggie, but if I say ''I don't eat meat'', or ''I'm a pescatarian'' all I get is questions about why I choose to eat fish and ''what the hell is that, is that some made up word?'' etc etc. It's only recently that I have started to do it and initially it was salmon only because of the health recommendations by my dietician (long story), but then I started travelling lots and experimenting with different types of fish and I discovered a love for it that I can't explain - Mahi Mahi barbequed within seconds from being caught, on the beach with with a cold beer from an ice bucket and a side of 'slaw in Barbados is a very happy memory for me.

Ethically I still feel bad about it and actually wish I could stop but I really adore fish and seafood.

In the dinosaur world there were herbivores and carnivores so why is it so odd that there are the same in the human world?

At the end of the day I really couldn't care less what anybody else wants to eat, thats up to them, it just bores me rigid having to explain my own personal choice, its not like I can say anything original, and its not like I ever get asked any original questions, I feel sorry for my team mates as well, we play in fixed teams and I can see their eyes clouding over when I get asked why I don't eat meat again or what do you eat, I've even had people saying so you don't eat Sunday dinner then?, well yes I do always have its one of my favourite meals , some people just can't understand it at all, yesterday I made Sunday dinner, we had mashed pots, mashed swede, mashed parsnip, roast pots, peas and broad beans, stuffing, and a quorn fillet, we don't always have a quorn fillet though we both love fresh veg and we enjoy our dinners what is so hard to understand? Still its nearly the oudoor bowls season and we have a different arrangement there we have a buffett so we can go and choose what we want, and no one notices I'm not eating meat so I don't have to answer stupid questions about it.

I don't eat meat and haven't for four years. I haven't eaten fish for 3 years too =] The only thing I miss is fish, meat substitutes are really good, but fish substitutes are non-existant.
That said, I would have a much better and more varied diet if I was an omnivore, I mostly exist on junk =/
For me, it's mostly from the cruelty angle that I'm veggie, but since I have been vegetarian I've found out a lot of positive impacts it has so I don't think I'll be eating meat again any time soon.

Just a bit of food for thought - how would you feel about meat grown invitro? Research is being done in this area. Obviously animals would still have to be kept but not actually be slaughtered for it - so would that make a difference to those that eat meat and those that dont?