it is interesting too that of the vegies we eat, we eat mostly the embro of those vegies

I once spent time in the Rocky Mountains. Didn't plan it very well. Ran out of food and supplies quickly. Nothing but ice and snow. Felt sorry for the critters. Got real hungry. I ate anything that ran slower than me. Felt sorry for the critters, but I had to eat. Went hunting with my dad and my uncle. Had plenty of food. Shot things for fun and didn't even eat it. I hated myself and my relatives for it. Food is relative. Food sources are relative. If you can control your resources, you can live with it. If you can't control it, you eat it. Simple.

I personally think that animals are treated very poorly, but I'm not going to sacrifice my health to boycott meat, especially since meat will still be sold whether I eat it or not. A lot of vegetarians end up like frail twigs, and I'm already underweight. I need red meat to keep me from getting more-so.

I know it's possible to be healthy on a vegetarian or vegan diet, but it's not easy, and I just don't like vegetables all that much. Also, dairy cows are treated much more kindly than beef cows, so I understand being vegan even less than being vegetarian.

I would like to get to the point where i only eat meat that has been treated humanely, hopefully organically and free range, as much as possible. it is a goal of mine, but one i realize will be hard to live up to.

As I get more settled in my life, I hope to work towards this more and more.

Jilly, I'm with you 100% right now. Which is ironic. I tended to fight pretty adamantly against vegetarianism before. Hehe.

But all it took for me was watching Supersize Me, and seeing the interview with the dude who wrote Fast Food Nation (I have the book, gonna read it).

It's just hard. I don't make the money to buy all organic, and we don't have the supply in upstate NY as we did in the city! I buy a lot from the restaurant I work at though, we are very picky as a corporation on where we buy our seafood. I highly respect that.

I think the problem is most Americans eat way too much meat. In many cultures the amount of meat is quite small and/or quite infrequently. You can get your supply of protein much cheaper and using less resources from plant based proteins - see Frances Moore Lappee's (not sure of the spelling) Diet for a Small Planet which was a revolutionary book when it first appeared. Until recently animals were not raised in these factory situations where the treatment is inhumane; families raised a few animals for slaughter and people hunted. Here in MI I know a lot of folks wo still get their deer or two during season and that is their meat for the year. Yes organic, free range is expensive but if it becomes and occasional thing it is affordable.

Niki, I did read Diet for a New America when i was in college, and I was horrified at our treatment of meat animals. I realize much of this is still going on - they just hide it better from the media.

Talking about this is certainly a reminder for me to make a better attempt to eat humanely raised food. I would love to raise my own meat - chickens are very affordable, for example. But I am squeamish about killing and dressing. I realize this all makes me a hypocrite - I am not walking the talk.

Cetan, i agree that in the US we eat meat in large slabs, which is not how most of the world handles their protein intake. It's also eating very high on the food chain, unnecessarily.

I do agree that we can probably all do better in eating in both a more socially responsible way as well as a more healthy way. We get trained by our culture to eat a certain way and it becomes "normal". It is challenging to think outside of those boundaries and change what you eat. Especially when society makes that change a financial hardship.

In our society, fast food french fries are cheap. Healthy vegetables are expensive. That is a shame.

Still, we can make it a goal to improve, and work diligently towards that goal.

It's interesting - in looking at the goals and priorities I developed for myself for 2011, none of them have to do with eating. Eve though one of my life priorities is to "be healthy". I included my yoga practice in my goals - but not my eating habits. I think this is a great discussion that will have me look into adding a goal involving the specific foods I eat.

Thank you all so much.

I am still not making an effort to eat free range meat. I honestly keep forgetting. It's hard enough for me to eat healthy in the first place since I am so lazy about food (i am happy to just eat tortillas with butter).

I wonder how long it will take me to actually transition to purely organic food. It might be a while. I want to be there, though.

in reality ...there is ***nothing truly organic...and we were made to be meat eaters also...anything with eyes front is a meat eater and needs that...eyes on the side ..are meant to be eaten...a very controversial subject becuz meat eaters are passionate about meat and the opposite side of that coin are equally as passionate.