Not happy with this

This is not something new, I started to read about it a few years ago, but it's something that is becoming more and more usual: people are eating meat again after years of vegetarianism because of the 'happy meat'. I still want to write a post about that, but I need more time. So I will just post today a piece of two articles of the website Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach.

"(...) She was a vegetarian for 10 years but now she has gone back to eating meat. Deacon is a “conscientious omnivore” who illustrates the problem with the “happy” meat approach that has overtaken the animal movement. (...)" (Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach - Feb/07)

"The writer, Tessa Williams, proclaims that after 25 years as a vegetarian, she is now eating meat again. (...) This is where the happy meat/animal products movement is leading. And it is certainly not confined to Britain. (...)" (Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach - Feb/09)

This is something I can't understand. This is a step back for all these years of vegetarianism and animal rights fights.

What do you think about it?

Para os amigos brasileiros: Esta é uma discussão que gera opiniões bem diversas e gostaria de saber o que vocês pensam também. Sintam-se à vontade para postar em português.

All about... dialogs

I know I have written in some of my posts here that we, vegetarian and vegan people, have to listen to some things that are quite unbelievable. Living in Dublin made me forget how it is hard sometimes to go out to eat or just to have a “simple” conversation about what I do eat or not. At least, people here know what is the meaning of the word vegan*.

So, today I will post some of these strange dialogs, conversations or just questions I have listened for many years:

- I'm vegetarian.
- Ah, don't you eat meat?
- Yes, that's it.
- But fish and chicken you do, don't you?
- Oh, yes, they're vegetable now, didn't you know? (well, most of the times I don't answer like that, but sometimes it happens)

- Hi, I'd like to know if this lasagna has meat in it.
- No, just ham and cheese.

- Try this (some kind of snack that's very common in Brazil)!
- No, thanks, there's egg (or cheese, or meat) in it.
- Ah, come on, it's just a little bit, you won't feel the taste!

- Hi, does this chocolate has milk in it?
- I don't know, why?
- I'm allergic. (this is the best technique used to prevent people lie to us)
- How much allergic?
- Whaaaat?

- Hello, does your pasta has eggs in it? (In Brazil most of the pasta is made with eggs)
- Of course, there's no pasta without eggs, lady! It's necessary to make it “stick together”.

- So you're vegetarian. Do you just eat lettuce?
(this can be the end of the conversation or the beginning of a long one)

- But the animals exist for this, it is natural to eat them.
(no conversation)

- But I don't understand, you don't eat meat, right? But why do you eat soy?
(This one I'm still thinking about what the person really wanted to tell me)

- I understand that to eat meat is bad, that it's not good to kill an animal. But what's the problem with the milk? The cow has it anyway.
- What do you think about somebody taking milk off your mother breast for months to feed another animal?
(this happened just once. Nobody knows how to be nice all the time!)

Well, for sure I have more but I can't remember now and there are some that just make sense in Portuguese because of the words.

* I remembered about this post yesterday because I saw a big article about veganism in one of the biggest newspapers here in Dublin. And the headline was something like “how veganism can make the world better”.