@danirabbit https://existentialcomics.com/comic/639

@danirabbit I used to call myself "semi-veggie" because I wouldn't feel guilty if I had meat once a week. Now I'm more veggie than not.

Absolutism is wrong in politics and diet.

@danirabbit I eat a lot of vegetables because I love vegetables! But I'm still an omnivore (periodically vegan for religious reasons, though)

@danirabbit vegan + mussles is underated nutritionally

@danirabbit this is some popular thread. And also goes in my line of being "accidentally vegan" or "vegan where it doesn't hurt"

Like in a cake you usually don't need eggs, you could apple puree or vegan egg. For omelette keep your egg.

That slice of cheese on a burger? Vegan cheddar is just fine.

Some crumble in tomato sauce? Just add soya minced meat.

And you are fine to mix and match to your taste. Just reducing animal product consumption will help.

@danirabbit I actually tend to order plant based burgers with bacon in it. It is a great way to lower your meat consumption while enjoying that tasty tasty bacon

@danirabbit I've only been buying Oat Milk for 6 years, and before that it was Rice milk (what happened to that??), and before that I was 20 years on Skimmed. Now, cows' milk on my cornflakes tastes horrible!

@danirabbit this a smart approach and it's what we're doing or at least trying to do at home. We cook from scratch every day, use the public transport or walk and use the car only when is strictly necessary. I do like vegan dishes but I do like cheese too. My sister is vegan and her husband is not, living together is possible ;)

@danirabbit right on. A good example is my attempt to de-Meta. I removed Fecesbook, Instagram, Messenger. But I can't get rid of WhatsApp. There are family groups, friend groups and work groups on WhatsApp and the momentum is not yet there for them to all move to non Meta alternatives. Especially family groups with all the elderly members who already struggled to learn WhatsApp as "The New Thing To Use". It's too much to ask them to do it again 😒

@danirabbit This is actually exactly what I did. Bacon was the last meat product I dropped from my diet. After a while it became easy to let it go, too.

@danirabbit What a wonderful, thoughtful thread! Kudos, everyone.

@danirabbit
Agree on the bacon. I did start to make my own so I know what's in the cure and use very little pink salt (nitrates) but now I don't like others bacon haha

I usually do a salt/black pepper cure and smoke with apple wood.

@danirabbit absolutely!

"I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end." ~ Albert Schweitzer

@danirabbit

Example from my life:
I'm generally pretty cook-from-scratch & environmentally conscious, but right now in this phase of life, using a few of those little instant microwave rice baggies per month makes a huge difference to my ability to navigate disaster capitalism and make a lunch me and the kid both enjoy.
In a couple of years I'll go back to using the rice cooker, and I'm just not gonna beat myself up about it too much.

@danirabbit Yeah, people are so black-and-white in their thinking. Including me often, although I fight against it.

@danirabbit Jeez of you can live without black pudding, surely bacon is just a rounding error? 🐈‍⬛

@danirabbit I think I could do "whatever you eat now plus more bacon".

@danirabbit also it's amazing how people who have no ethical stance like to pick holes in other people's ethical stances.

I think it's defensive because if someone else is being moral maybe you should too - but if you can find fault you're off the hook

@danirabbit Elsewhere, a guy was arguing the difference between plant-based vs vegetarian/vegan. You cannot be the latter unless you’re fighting for animal rights!

People love to put their own labels on others. Having a couple of vegetarian meals a week can make an impact on health and environment.

@danirabbit 100%. I’ve been a committed vegetarian for a long time but when I go home and visit London I always get a Fish and Chips from my favourite place. I don’t feel bad about it because I’ve already put the hours in. I look forward to it.

And you know what? My non-veggie friends see that and tell me if they can “lapse” now and again they’ll make the switch too. Changing habits is a process, far easier to do at your own pace.

@danirabbit I eat meat less frequently than I used to, in smaller portions, and I generally buy it from the farmers' market when I do. I'm not pretending I'm an ethical superstar, but I'm doing what I feel is reasonable without denying myself something I enjoy. (And I actually savour it more for being a smaller part of my diet.)

@danirabbit my sister was a "bacon vegetarian" for a long time. Now.... she's back to meat and my wife has gone full-on vegan.

but, eating "less" meat is still an improvement. I almost never buy red meat anymore, after spending the vast amount of my life eating beef and pork as a requirement for meals.

@danirabbit

You see it a lot with everything. The $solution isn't perfect so it isn't worth doing at all. I'm thinking specifically of renewable resources here. "Solar doesn't cover 100% of our energy needs, so we'll just keep burning gas, and throwing some more coal on the pile".

A tiny bit better is still better, and it equals a lot when 350 million people make trivial changes. At that scale, it's no longer trivial, and can be further improved over time.

@danirabbit once I learned this, it became much less pressure. Just add a little exercise. Read one chapter of a book. Eat less meat.

@danirabbit
I don't actually hate this but it's just reinventing the idea of vegetarianism.

& maybe that does need some rejuvinating & maybe that'll do some good in the world, still it's really not veganism.

I don't think it's cool to benefit from the moral associations of veganism without the hard work (being an animal use abolitionist).

I guess vegetarianism is kinda lame nowadays (now we say plant-based or plant forward or 'vegan'), & part of that is because veganism makes it look obsolete, but you can't just take the name without doing the work.

@danirabbit big +1 for just going for a more vegetable heavy diet. They’re wayyy hardier in the fridge so I deal with way less food spoiling on me, and my insides felt way better when I gave up eating meat everyday.

When I was a little kid every Sunday my dad would get up early to make everyone eggs and sausage and the nostalgia of how much I still enjoy that for breakfast sometimes is hard to let go, but I can def have veggie pasta for dinner like 3 nights a week

@danirabbit I'm sort of like that, although it's vegan plus eggs, cheese and yoghurt. (Cheese and yoghurt are hard to find vegan versions of and eggs I just flipping love.) Otherwise I only very rarely eat meat or fish and I use oat milk.

@danirabbit So weird that it's bacon. I've been vegetarian for 27 years and I don't miss bacon at all. There are many forms of meat that I remember being a lot better.

@danirabbit Hooray for small positive changes! Yes!

@danirabbit Bacon is great because it adds a lot of flavor even when used in small amounts.

Bacon should not be the main part of a meal; it is a spice.

@danirabbit Exactly.

It has taken me a long time to be "mostly" vegetarian.
People change their diet quickly, and then complain and whinge and don't stick to it.

Of course that's going to be hard, unless you've got serious will-power.

First I started eating veggie stuff at work for lunch as it was really nice, but still having "normal" meals at night with my family.

Over the years I ate less and less meat, and found good alternatives (some even my meat-eating other half likes).

I found some good cheese alternatives.
I found a nice tea that doesn't require milk.
I use plant milks for pretty much everything.

I thought i'd never give up bacon, but I don't really miss it. I don't think i've had bacon for more than a year now.
I can smell it when other people are cooking it, but it doesn't really bother me.

I'm still far from being vegan, but i'm getting close....

The last thing I need to cut out is butter and cheese.

Vegan food has come a long way from the 80s and 90s when it was just crappy dry "nut roasts" and things like that.

There's no excuse not to at least eat more vegan stuff. There's so much choice now.

@danirabbit
I remember one guy from college who was pretty strict with himself and kept vegan. He'd been so his whole life.

EXCEPT burgers. He preferred his vegan burgers with bacon on them, which always got him some looks. Cheese alternative, vegan condiments, and bacon.

@danirabbit I totally agree, and I would like people to be less hard on themselves. Any improvement is great. Celebrate that. We all have a lot of things going on around us. Celebrate the efforts you make on doing good things. You're great! You're making the world better for yourself and for others! Celebrate every tiny win!

@danirabbit I heard about a woman who’s vegan but eats cheese socially. I have a similar approach, veggie at home but burgers allowed if I’m eating out

@danirabbit Yeah. Don't want to go vegetarian/vegan entirely, so my wife and I just cut our meat consumption considerably, especially cow since it's the worst meat, environmentally. It may not get us any environmentalist of the year awards, but at least we're doing something.

(I'd be fine with eating whatever meat someone wants if only the treatment of the animals was actually humane, they had more than enough space, and couldn't be killed before a certain humane lifespan. Of course, that would drive up costs considerably and make meats slightly less tasty, so unless we burn down our system and my guillotine business plan takes off, that's not going to happen.)

@danirabbit

I don't know if it's Vegan but veggie bacon is petty tasty! I prefer it.

@danirabbit mmmmm bacon.

@danirabbit yeah, never understood people complain about others only doing things half way.

Like every single bit helps. And people should also never blame themselves for not meeting set up standards like "I'll be vegan from now on". This isn't a competition you can "fail".

Exploring vegan options is a process and some things you'll like and others you won't + there are also dietary restrictions

Disclosure: I'm totally the kind of person who would go for a vegan patty + bacon burger thing 🙃

Maybe you can’t buy everything local. What one thing can you start buying local? Can you switch from Starbucks to the local coffee shop? Can you switch from Petco to the local pet feed store? Can you switch from Dominoes to a local pizza place?

Maybe you can’t completely de-Google or de-Apple or de-Amazon your life. Can you switch one thing? Can you use DuckDuckGo? Move your passwords to Bitwarden? Open a Fastmail account?