• BeMoreCareful@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    20 hours ago

    I think I’m like ninety something percent there. I’ve not been a meat fan for years, and generally prefer veggies anyway. I’ve recently given up cheese, which was really about the only dairy left. I’ve also been on a let’s try to avoid ultra processed foods.

    My only real hang up is food people give me, or restaurants.

    I’m not sure I can wear the vegan badge. I am interested in advice or good resources for your basic bastard daily diet staples, or any gotchas to look out for.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.worldEnglish
      101·
      16 hours ago

      You don’t need to self identify as vegan or call yourself vegan. You’re already doing more than most people, and that’s great.

    • Zorcron@piefed.zipEnglish
      3·
      17 hours ago

      I think if someone gives you the food, there’s no problem with eating it, especially if you let them know that you prefer food vegan food. I think it’s just more practical than potentially wasting food that has already been purchased and prepared.

      The incentive (money) to continue producing meat has already been given to the industry, so unless you can give the food to someone who would already be eating meat, the waste is pointless.

      Restaurants can definitely be difficult, though I feel like most places I go have vegetarian options if not completely vegan, but I live in a large, fairly progressive city.

    • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      19 hours ago

      basic bastard daily diet staples

      Well, legumes. 😅

      Some of my classics:

      • Cook noodles and red lentils in one pot. Strain the water. Add a can of tomatoes. Boom, pseudo-bolognese.
      • White beans are great in salads and such. You can get them pre-cooked in a jar. Just wash the glibber off, add a bit of salt, pop them into the microwave if you’re feeling fancy, and then throw them on top of your salad.
      • If you can find TVP in the shops, that’s also really versatile and hardly processed. Particularly bigger chunks of it are nice, because they’re chewy and you can sear them like meat for that extra flavor.
        • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
          4·
          18 hours ago

          In the shops where I can get it, they have it in a separate aisle for vegan and gluten-free foods.

          Could also be nearby to tofu, so potentially in the Asian food section (even though TVP isn’t an Asian invention).

        • 🏴حمید پیام عباسی🏴@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
          4·
          13 hours ago

          Where I live it is with the dry and bulk goods in the markets packaged as “carne de soya”

          In the Walmart I sometimes go to it is in the Mexican section lol

          TVP is extremely shelf stable so it is common to eat here even for non vegans.

  • Human@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    277·
    23 hours ago

    Im not a vegan but I imagine avoiding animal products is a herculean task. For instance, how do vegans account for things like bone meal, blood meal, feather meal, fish meal and even manure. Which are commonly used to fertilize crops?

    This is why I couldnt be vegan, cause I would over-consider everything I consume - it is impossible to be truly moral in this hell world. You have my respect for trying though.

    • Soulcreator@programming.devEnglish
      522·
      22 hours ago

      Respectfully, the problem with that line of thinking is it’s effectively based on a strawman. Veganism is not about perfectionism, nor is it about living like some monk in the woods who does not harm a single blade of grass. Veganism is about not viewing animals as commodities and reducing as much harm is reasonably possible.

      The problem with modern supply chains is that you can’t know every detail about the goods you are purchasing, so vegans make decisions based on what they know, it’s common for vegans to accidentally purchase a product with animal products. So you just go oops and try better next time. It’s not really as complicated as you are making out to be in your head.

      But to directly answer your question how do you avoid food that have been grown with things like feather meal and manure? The answer is simple but a lot of people aren’t going to like it. You avoid buying organic, and if possible you support local farmers which grow in a way which aligns with your values. And if you can, start a garden and grow some of your own food.

      • Human@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        18·
        22 hours ago

        So it is more harm reduction than systematic change? Completely reasonable.

        I didnt mean to imply this is somehow not enough - Im just a ponderer and wanted to know if there was some general consensus on the issue because the whole endeavor appears impossible in the modern world (we have little power over where our food comes from or how it is produced), something the meme seemed to allude to.

        Thanks for your insight.

        • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
          9·
          19 hours ago

          Yeah, harm reduction with a side of “it’s often easier to go for the systematic change”.

          For example, one of the possible moral stances is that it’s fine to “employ” animals for their animal products, so long as the relationship is beneficial for both sides and we take utmost care that the animal actually wants to be in that relationship.

          But even people with that moral stance generally end up not eating animal products after all, because well, as you say, it is practically impossible to know what happens in the supply chain. They’d have to keep backyard chickens or such to actually know the supply chain, which is a lot of effort for eggs.

          • Ach@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            11 hours ago

            What if it’s a cow that like does something shitty? Like it murders a kid on purpose and then even gets a trial with full due process. Is it cool to eat just that one?

            I’m just kidding, haha. I fully support your diet. I tried it myself for one year experimentally when I was still competing in Muay Thai. It was pretty cool but my metabolism is way too fast to afford it.

            • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
              1·
              9 hours ago

              Yeah, good bit of trolling. 😅 That’s exactly why I mention it, because folks often cannot conceptualize giving up a particular food and just assume you have to take on every possible conflict to be able to still eat it as often as morally possible.

              It was pretty cool but my metabolism is way too fast to afford it.

              I mean, a vegan diet shouldn’t need to be expensive, as legumes are the cheapest form of protein.

              Of course, if you were eating lots of veggies along with the vegan diet, that can be pricy.
              And there’s lots of replicas of non-vegan foods, which are highly marketed and expensive as balls.

              But yeah, beans, lentils, peas, peanuts etc. are super cheap and keep you satiated for a few hours.

              • Ach@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                9 hours ago

                It was more access and versatility of fats, as well as overall caloric intake. To note too, I’m a pretty unique case in this and not a good example anatomically/physiological relative to the norm. I walk around at about 125 naturally, and I’m 5’9. I fought at flyweight (125) pounds, so even though in day to day life I’m a very small guy, I was hillariously considered monstously huge in my weight class.

                I’m 37 now, and I still have an insanely high metabolism and look the same. The issue I ran into in a nutshell is this was back in 2009ish, so access to a lot of alternative fats and proteins was considerably less, and with my freakish metabolism it was at the time extremely expensive.

                I was also only twenty so there is a very fair to real chance I was also just a fucking idiot.

    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.netEnglish
      7·
      6 hours ago

      It works pretty much the same way that all of our values do. From the big bundle of things we care about, we derive a bunch of heuristics that help us to make decisions in life, and this greatly simplifies our choices. For instance, I value being considered authentic and trustworthy, so in general, I follow the rule of “do not lie”.

      However, these heuristics inevitably fail when confronted with the complexity of the real world, so we end up having to adjust on the fly, sometimes prioritising one value over another; I might find myself in a situation where my general policy of honesty is in tension with my policy of “don’t be an asshole”, and I may decide that in this instance, lying feels morally acceptable (or even necessary).

      In the context of veganism, an example of this kind of negotiation might be if a vegan mistakenly buys something containing animal products. If sustainability is a significant component of their veganism, then they might prefer to eat the food rather than waste it. Someone else might choose differently, depending on their underlying values. Sometimes even the same person with the same values might choose differently, depending on their circumstances (someone who is ill and exhausted might be more likely to eat something non-vegan, for example)

      I agree that “it’s impossible to be truly moral in this hell world”, but I imagine you still try to live by your moral values? If you were to picture yourself saying the most vicious things you could possibly muster to a dear friend in a deliberate attempt to hurt them, that probably feels bad to imagine, right? And yet, it’s inevitable that we will, at some point, do or say something to hurt the people we care about, despite our best efforts to avoid that. We can never be perfect, in anything we do. What matters is the intention, combined with a genuine effort to live by our values.

      For me, the most important part of living in a moral manner is regularly reflecting on whether my actions are aligning with my values. I tried to go vegetarian a year or so back, but unfortunately, my life is too hectic for that to be a viable option for me right now — I already struggle with building healthy eating habits, and adding additional restrictions on top of that led to me failing in my basic duty to my own wellbeing. I had to step back and re-evaluate my priorities, which led to me deciding that whilst going fully veggie is still a long term goal, for now, I’m just going to focus on reducing the amount of meat products I eat.

      I feel a bit uncomfortable to have to make that compromise, but that’s sort of the point, I reckon. Having to walk the tightrope between values that are in tension with each other is our opportunity to show our moral mettle. It’s ultimately a personal choice, so there aren’t really any right or wrong answers (because we’re the ones grading our own tests, so to speak). We’ve just got to be mindful about it, and try not to beat ourselves up so much that we end up making it harder to make choices that feel right.

    • Rekorse@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      20 hours ago

      Being vegan just means you are constantly working on causing less harm in whatever way you can. Its a slow learning process and it changes over time. I’ve been vegan for 3 or 4 years now and I still have shoes with leather in them because I can’t afford to replace them until they wear out. Probably 50% of my meals are from Taco Bell.

      We all just try to do our best with what we have.

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      433·
      23 hours ago

      Vegans don’t. We can’t know what is not told. Vegan isn’t about being a perfectionist. It’s about avoiding harm as much as possible. There’s nothing herculean about not eating a bag of chips because there’s milk powder in it, it’s just very frustrating when all the chips in the supermarket contain milk and you really wanted some chips.

      “I can’t be perfect so I won’t try at all” is a lame ass argument.