*please note i deeply value and respect the vegan movement. i am just critical of how humorously it precipitates in online spaces, particularly this one. :)
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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Definitely a vegan lol
Nah, I love meat. I just eat it without any illusions that it's not fucked up. Ultimately, many people can't afford to not eat animal products. Being a vegan is expensive in time and money, which is why lower income people aren't as commonly vegan. It's possible for them, but it does take a ton of time and effort.
Things are this way because the full cost of the meat industry get passed off to the public as negative externalities. It's the same way with the fossil fuel industry. Chevron doesn't pay for the harm caused by greenhouse gasses in the same way that the meat industry doesn't pay for the diseases their industry spawns, the increased agricultural production to feed livestock that cuts down forests, or the fucking cow farts spewing methane.
Mocking vegans has the same energy as mocking renewable energy. It's not as bad, but only because we aren't as totally reliant on meat. Our current society cannot function on renewable energy. We'd need to effectively degrow to reach net zero, and markets will never do that. Average people cannot solve this problem by going vegan or getting solar, but that doesn't mean it's bad to do those things.
I don't think the second half is true. Despite being subsidized like crazy, meat is still relatively expensive.
It's definitely more time-consuming if you wouldn't be cooking otherwise. At least in my experience if you want to eat something vegan you gotta make it yourself (at least in my home country).
i really think it's just more nuanced. vegan meals can be both cheaper or more expensive, easier or more complex, depending on the specific meal/where you live/time of year/etc etc
like you can totally just eat whatever plant bits and mushrooms you can get your hands on along with a multivitamin, that will probably be cheap and healthy as hell and the most effort involved is peeling things and spending a few minutes frying or an hour of unattended time stewing it. That is however probably really fucking unappealing for most people, so you have to either spend more effort on making the meals interesting, or spend more money on premade actually appealing vegan products.
As an autistic person who was viewed as "picky" growing up, and having been raised with the culture of a "meal" consisting of starch/protein/some veggies/TONS of sauce; it's taken a fair bit of effort to even accept the idea of not having any meat in my food, and i still regularly use stuff like ground pork or chicken breasts in my cooking because it's just such a simple way to produce food that makes me happy.
What i really wish would change is the proliferation of more good, simple, tasty, and cheap vegan or at least low-meat frozen food. One of my absolute favourite food products is Felix vegetarian hash, which is just diced potato, onions, soy-based protein chunks, and some seasoning; which you toss in a frying pan with some fat and fry for like 10-15 minutes and it's done. Costs 7 EUR per kg and tastes really good, it's human kibble in the best way possible especially if you just add some frozen peas.
Absolutely! Despite making a short straightforward comment about my own experiences with the time commitment and cost of veganism, I fully understand that it's more nuanced in my own life, let alone across the breadth of differing human experiences and cultures worldwide.
I am genuinely glad you managed to find a cheap and tasty food which can at least help you reduce slightly your meat purchases.
This is complicated; both yes and no.
In the west, where time is often at a premium, the least expensive meals--in combination of time and monetary cost--are rarely vegan. On a calorie-per-calorie cost basis, it's far less expensive to eat a hamburger at McDonalds than it is a cheap salad from anywhere. Yes, you could cook your own vegan meals, but that takes more time (and bluntly ability) than most people currently have. Fresh ingredients can easily cost more--per calorie--than garbage fast food.
In other parts of the world, notably India, it's far less expensive to be vegan, in part because they don't have the cheap calories of mass-produced fast food as readily available. It's closer to being a cultural norm. OTOH, chronic malnourishment is also pretty common, so...
I really dislike non-vegan leftists and environmemtalists, the bullshit, the endless excuses as soon as YOU have to change, not others. Stop eating meat and save 3/4 of landuse, water pollution and co2 emissions.
Going vegan is such a money-where-your-mouth-is move. If you're left enough to know the damage meat eating causes, yet you still eat meat, how are you better than the industries you call out?
So much right wing bullshit is based on greed, yet left wing meat eaters can't make the single most significant consumer change because "bacon too yummy lol".
All these great left wing youtubers, as soon as I see they're not vegan my respect drops in half.
I feel you! My last comment here was exactly this.