Do vegans wear wool?

How about the 6 spiders most people are thought to inadvertently eat during their lifetime? I'm joking, of course, but really, each individual has to do what they feel sits comfortably with them.

Tegan I mentioned my brother was vegan at one point. He realised that he was basically existing on bread and chip shop chips and it was seriously cramping his love life! He taught himself to cook in the end, but has been vegetarian for over 20 years now.

Is there a name for someone who's very picky about where her meat/milk/eggs come from?

I try to eat only organic and free range, mostly from local producers whose farms I know. I'm fortunate I know that I can do this. It does mean that I usually go vegetarian when on holiday or when eating out. Not a problem for an omnivore. Try asking where your chicken comes from in restaurants, especially chains. The answers are interesting. Bella Pasta used to get theirs from Brazil. Pizza Hut from Poland. I haven't asked lately but I doubt in either case that they were free range in woodland! My main problem is that if I ask for vegetarian more often than not it contains garlic - which I have an intolerance to!

I don't think I could ever go completely vegetarian as I'm too much of a foodie, and never vegan, but the more people do the better as it means there'll be less need for intensive farming.

Missadventure I agree. As a vegetarian I don't believe in 'preaching' to people about food. If I'm asked a question I will try to answer it, but everyone has to make their own choices.

Nfk I think you could call yourself a thoughtful or conscientious omnivore!

www.vivahealth.org.uk/healthfeatures/viva-mamas

A new mother and baby guide, but with information about nutrition from the start along with messages from vegans about bringing up their children as vegans.

Have not a lot of those species been bred as animals for meat? And therefore would never have existed if not for the meat market.

The booklet is downloadable, link at the end of the article, as is this for anyone bothered about bone health.

www.vivahealth.org.uk/blog/joint-health-and-vegan-diets

Would that be a bad thing? Not much of a life path, really.

Some elite sportsmen and women are vegans. Venus Williams and Lewis Hamilton for example. I think they chose veganism for the health benefits and claim it makes them fitter than before.
I expect they have assistants who prepare carefully balanced meals and provide appropriate supplements if necessary.

www.vivahealth.org.uk/resources/white-meat-myths/white-meat-athletes-online

Carl Lewis as well as Martina Navratilova.

Actually I’d like to correct a misconception about shearing sheep. Yes, most of our modern sheep have been bred so they do not naturally shed out their coats.

But with most breeds it’s imperatve they are sheared annually for their own good. An example of this is while walking in the Lake District earlier this year, one of our group pointed out a dead sheep, lying on its back with its legs in the air and two very distressed lambs bleating beside mum.

I recognised the problem as I’ve come across it before. The fleece gets waterlogged and the sheep can easily turn turtle when it tries to go from lying down to getting up. They then die. This happens when the fleece has grown quite thick and is solved by shearing.

Luckily this one was still alive. I grabbed it by the fleece and yanked it upright. The first time I didn’t get it right because it was so heavy with wet fleece and it turned turtle again, but the second time I managed to right it and it shot off followed by its lambs.

I only hope it dried out enough during the day so the problem didn’t reoccur.

Other problems are Fly Strike, when poo gets caught in the fleece and flies lay theur eggs on the poo. When the maggots hatch out they can then start to eat the sheep’s flesh.

So there are good reasons to shear after the lambs are old enough, usually in summer and this means the sheep don’t catch cold.

I am veggie edging towards being vegan but I doubt I ever will be. I realised a long time ago that we do not need meat or fish to live a healthy life. Some sheep are raised just for their wool by the way. Vegans do not believe in 'using' animals from what I understand so presume that even if a sheep is raised just for its wool they would not wear it.

I agree with Eglantine that my life is filled with ethical dilemmas which I can't really resolve. I try to lead as "good" a life as I can but it is hard work and often there are incompatible solutions to problems eg wool vs. synthetic clothes using petrocarbons and shedding plastic when they are washed. I end up being inconsistent and permanently guilty!

That’s what I don’t understand Theoddbird - I would have thought that seeking out a wool sourced from a flock reared just for wool would be more environmentally friendly that wearing clothes which have been artificially processed.

It’s a bit like chickens. They don’t want the eggs they lay and indeed abandon them once laid. Providing they are kept in humane conditions and free ranging why not eat the eggs?

Yes; that's why my house is such a tip; it's because I feel guilty every time I throw something away. I, too, live in a permanent state of guilt. Trying to throw old nail varnish bottles and old videos away at the moment but, as they will just end up as landfill, I end up putting them back on the shelf/in the cupboard. At least I don't change my mobile phone/tv etc on a regular basis, I suppose.

Tegan, as my DGS is an ‘accidental vegan’ I’m not sure whether his diet is typical or not. On the one day a week I look after him his diet might look like this:

Breakfast: readybrek with oat milk. Cup of milk to drink. Toast with vegan spread and jam or marmite if he’s still hungry

Lunch: maybe beans on toast! Or a homemade vegetable soup made by his mum in batches and frozen, usually with added quinoa or beans.

Tea: on a ‘ junk’ day vegan fishless fingers (Linda McCartney) with potatoes and veg. Alternatively something like a homemade shepherds pie (frozen again) made with lentils or vegan mince.

Bedtime: he still loves his bottle of oat milk.

Snacks: lots of baby and toddler snacks are vegan: he also likes fruit. He does have dairy free chocolate but isn’t all that bothered!

He is allergic to all dairy (milk proteins not just lactose), eggs, soya, strawberries amongst other things so ingredients have to be carefully scrutinised. His mum has to keep a regular food diary which is looked at by the dieticician and she has offered advice about protein as well as different sources of vitamins and minerals. His diet is far more scrutinised than other children his age and I suspect is therefore more balanced than most. As I said earlier, he has not needed any supplements.

Thanks nightowl. One of my problems is that I try to avoid bread [although am going through a bread eating phase at the moment]; realised years ago that it caused me a lot of digestive problems.

Why are non-vegans so obsessed with how vegan food is grown? They would do better to concern themselves with how their own food is produced.

We are not obsessed. just curious. Until this thread I had lived 74 years without considering the question. Hardly an obsession.

dj what is your evidence that those contributing to this thread are not actively concerned about how the food they eat is produced? I would say that, reading the posts in this threads that many are, and are actively putting these concerns into action in their own grocery shopping.

Indeed, to quote Wilma, I would say the majority of contributors to this thread could be described as thoughtful or conscientious omnivores and the proportion of the population falling into this group is growing rapidly. Like Nfk I am usually vegetarian if eating out and I know many others who are the same. We, as much as vegetarians are driving the growing presence of meat free options on restaurant menus.

The fact that someone expresses something in a dramatic and rhetorical manner, may not be helpful but does not invalidate the seriousness of their inquiry. Surely the point is, if plant products feel pain, where do you draw the line on not eating anything that will suffer as a resultof being eaten, because without food you die. It is a valid ethical point worthy of discussion.

I've never heard any vegan suggesting that the wild cattle of Chillingham should be set free to roam where they want
jen no one would suggest that, whether they were vegan or not, because the cattle would die, wouldn’t they?
Wondering what you think of the idea of reintroducing lynx into Kielder Forest?

Like I said, Monica, we just die out. Problem solved.

I agree with it, Jane, like most people surveyed.
They are talking about a group of six, collared for tracking over five or six years.
Apparently most of the rural people surveyed also agreed, which surprised them.

My point on the Chillingham White cattle is that, if people don't want to let them loose, why should they want to let any others loose?

dj, dodging the question again. I think most thoughtful vegans would sit down and consider the issue and try and sort out a rational, ethical and compassionate diet. The rest of us would continue to eat as we do now.

I think I have a rational, ethical and compassionate diet, Monica, having been thinking very carefully about what I eat for over forty years, thankyou.
It did not involve having to consider whether carrots feel pain.
In fact, over Christmas I paid for a few barrowloads of carrots for a donkey/horse sanctuary.

Someone telling me that carrots squeal when I bite their heads off is not being rational in my opinion.

Is that a rational and thoughtful enough answer for you?
Or am I still dodging the question?
Are you now going to tell me there's no need to be like that?

I live in an arable desert in East Anglia where animals and humans are very rarely seen in the fields. In fact, you look twice if you see any. The obvious fallout if we all became vegans has already been pointed out. As to clothing, vegans should know that cotton and bamboo use so much water that they harm the environment. Many synthetic materials use oil in their construction or shed very damaging micro size plastic fibres. As humans we are integrated with all other living things but we are capable of and do cause the extinction of other species for our own profit and convenience. Goodbye grazing animals, and hello uplands clothed in thick scrub and trees.