Ups and Downs

[rinue]

I come very close to being vegan. (Close because I'm not silly about it -- my issue is economic consumption, not gastronomic, and if somebody serves me a meal they worked hard on, I'm not about to be an asshole.) It has nothing to do with morals and very little to do with health -- it's simply an issue of land use efficiency. I cannot justify raising livestock from an environmental standpoint.

This started out with my stance against cows. I dislike them. I contend that they *must* be secretly plotting some kind of evil, because no creature could be that stupid. Moreover, I dislike ranchers. No, I'm not going to expound on that right now, because that's not the point of this entry -- I'm just setting up the background.

When I stopped eating cows and cow products about a year ago, I was nearly disowned by my parents. They are *not* ranchers; as far as I know, they have no stake in the cattle industry. (Actually, Fidelity Investments owns some cattle runs for tax purposes, but that isn't particularly relevant here.) They are also very liberal and accepting people: they are worried when my hair is a non-crayola color, they're thrilled when I bring girlfriends home, and they have never given me trouble about my fairly visible tattoo. My sister is dating a drug dealer, and he's one of their favorite people. They have never had problems with significant others spending the night.

But this no cow thing. Not okay. Never mind that I don't live with them -- they were distressed beyond words. They almost arranged an intercession. The most vocal against it was Arielle, my sister. She almost took it as a personal affront.

Guess who arrived in town today. Guess who is now vegan and keeps lecturing me (and anyone within hearing range) on why it is a good idea for health reasons.

I'm very glad to see her.

Sorry to end so soon, but I'm exhausted -- I'm running on two and a half weeks of stressful dreams.

Comments

[deche.livejournal.com]

You see, Romie, the thing is this. Just yesterday, as I was meandering down the road, I stumbled upon a cow by the road (now this of course struck me as odd, but i did not question it). Instead, I continued on my way because I wanted to get to the bank before it was too dark. However, as I passed the cow, it spoke to me. Please don't misunderstand when I say this, I don't mean that it mooed and I understood its mooing. It actually said hello, or at least, telepathically projected the word to me (Cows are very psychic believe it or not). After I returned the greeting and we exchanged names (hers is difficult for me to romanize, and as a side note it was "mooed" or at least what we call mooing in engllish) we had the following conversation.

Cow: I am actually waiting here to take a survey. Are you over 18?
Me: Yes, I am, but I'm not really interested in answering a survey.
Cow: It won't take long, believe me. A few minutes at most.
Me: Well all right.
Cow: This survey is to document how the public feels about Cow related products. Do you drink milk?
Me: Yes. Usually with cookies.
Cow: Great. What about cheese?
Me: Yes. I love it.
Cow: Any favorites? That's not part of the survey. I'm just curious
Me: Well, yes, I like Cheddar and Harvardi especially.

[more questions that are quite unimportant]

Cow: Well thank you for answering the questions!
Me: Oh no problem. You know, I have a friend Romie and she won't eat any cow products
Cow: Really? How sad. After we cows practically sacrifice our bodies and our livelihood to feed mankind, a lot of it is just wasted because some people refuse consume it.
Me: Yes, I told her that. It's almost sacriligious in a way.
Cow: Wait. You said her name is Romie?
Me: Yes Romie Stott
Cow: *a loud moo/gasp* I've heard of her. The cows call her the Evil One
Me: Strange. I think I know her as that too.
Cow: She really is evil
Me: Yes I agree. I have to be going now. It was nice talking to you.
Cow: Ok, well thank you for answering the questions!

So as you can see, in the cow community and to some of us humans as well, you're evil and not them ^_~

[tommx.livejournal.com]

Steve Martin actually once tried to blow the roof off of the cow conspiracy with an essay called "Cows in Trouble". It is found in his book "Cruel Shoes".

Obviously, his warnings were not heeded.

[ailei.livejournal.com]

You know, from everything you've always said about your parents, that *is* a highly bizarre stance for them to take. My parents, for all I'd like to toss them out the nearest skyscraper most of the time, are amazingly tolerant of alot of things you wouldn't think 73 year olds with 4th grade rural educations would be tolerant of. Like paganism--they've never tried to convert my kids behind my back. They support me and understand that 'it's just what I believe is true'. And when I go on my vegetarian sprees (which tend to end violently with pregnancy, oddly enough) they'll eat anything I cook. I still use *alot* of tofu, tempeh, that sort of thing, and they love it.

Anyway, I agree about the cow thing. I'm not quite ready to give up my cheese, but they are a *huge* strain on the environment and on socio-economic resources, and for only a dubious return at best.

[rinue.livejournal.com]

I actually understand where they were coming from. I belong to a family of foodies, and we strongly believe that eating well prepared meals is one of the greatest luxuries known to man. They were afraid that, for example, this meant I was going to stop eating everything but salad, or that I would go to a world class French restauraunt and refuse to order anything.

They calmed down quite a bit when they realized that, as stated, I'm not silly about it. It's more of a tendency than a hardline stance.