@NicoleLynne That’s saddening to hear. If you remain rigid in your beliefs without questioning anything at least once, you aren’t doing any actual growing.

If that’s truly your stance, you don’t belong in the animal rights movement. You should probably start working with animal welfare. Because that’s a huge goal of the AR movement, to get everyone to the point where we can all be vegan.

I’m willing to believe you if you can show me the studies proving it. Until then, I’m bound to think that the research I’ve done over the years is correct. Meat eating, in our society, is not essential. It costs less money, is better for the environment, and leads to better health to be vegan. You do not have to purchase lazy foods to be vegan.

And when the demand for a certain type of product goes up, the more competitors will spring up, and the prices will go down due to the competition, as is how our economy is based. Basic high school economics can teach you that. That’s just how it works right now. Everyone will do anything to make more money these days. Why do you think more fast food chains are providing vegetarian foods? It’s not because they’re particularly fond of vegetarians, but because they realize they’ve been missing out on a particular profit that could have been made to fill their pockets with. So if we convince more people to go veg, when they absolutely can if they make the effort, the easier it would be for more to go vegan because of the demand for those specific products.

@drean Yeah right I know everyone can’t & there’s plenty of reasons I done typed this all before not doing it again… But I think it’s great to be V I really do but I stand by what I stand by & always will.

@NicoleLynne: Everyone can. It’s a matter of education about what is happening and a changing of cultural norms that aren’t beneficial to the world. People don’t want to change their minds. It doesn’t mean they CAN’T. And if you’re referring to the fact that some people eat their roadkill around here, that’s not out of necessity. They do it because people have always done it without thinking about it. The people who do it have tons of food sitting around in their houses. They do it because they want to.

Like i said not everyone can b v.

There are tons of reasons to go vegan. It can improve your health, help you save money, save the trees, save resources, feed the hungry, fight global warming, save the lives of thousands of animals, and so on. These infographics are a great visual:

http://www.peta.org/features/vegan-diet-infographic.aspx?PageIndex=2

http://www.peta.org/features/feeding-the-future-infographic.aspx

You can contact Chik-fil-A through their webpage and ask them to update their slaughter methods/let them know how you feel.

@drean You said everything I was going to and more.

@loveall: Thank you. I think the only compliment that takes root in my head is when it has to do with what I say. Looks come and go, anyone can draw a pretty picture or learn to play an instrument, but my thoughts are my own.

@drean You are really an inspiration. It’s in the way that you are so opinionated but you use your voice in such an intelligent and strong-minded way, without an ill attitude or sarcastic remarks. You have an open mind, yet strong roots and I applaud you for that. Stay strong, your beliefs are worth fighting for, and you certainly have the strength to do so. Thank you.

@NicoleLynn: I’ll answer in order.

Yes. We very well could go vegan if my mother chose to make that lifestyle choice. Most of the foods my mom buys are vegan without her really paying attention to it. The most expensive parts of our grocery bills each month come from the meat products. If we didn’t buy meat, we would have a surplus of food every month. If she wanted to. But she doesn’t want to because she’s decided that she likes meat more than she has compassion for animals.

It would work better than it does now. Since she buys meat, we have little to eat at the end of the month. We mainly get by with little things we can pick up at the local dollar store. If we were to go vegan, we could have cans upon cans of produce available to us. One does not have to purchase overly-priced, pre-packaged meals, such as Amy’s Kitchen and the like, to live a vegan lifestyle, as many have stated before me. You can get three cans of beans for $2 around here. Packs of freshly packaged dried beans of many types, which make enough to feed us for more than one day, sell for two for $1. Huge packs of frozen vegetables don’t cost that much. As I said before, it’s the meat that’s killing our food money. You DO NOT have to live off of fake meat. That’s the modernized way of going about veganism. There was a girl who lived a few towns away who never so much as tasted pre-packaged fake meat because she viewed it as less clean and more impersonal than making her own foods from fresh ingredients. Countless vegans live this way. Don’t be so closed minded as to think that the actions of the majority equals the actions of the entire group.

No. My brother is not a vegan newborn. It would be pretty miraculous if he was, considering my mother’s stance on meat and dairy/eggs. If she truly wanted to, she could breast feed him. That would pretty much eliminate all of his non-vegan issues.

The only thing stopping my family from becoming vegan are their attitudes toward meat itself, which is something that is a major cultural thing down here. It’s based off of the years of not having anything in the area and having to get by on whatever you could find. I know some people to go home and cook an animal they just hit with their car. Being a vegetarian, you might as well say you’re the antichrist for the looks you get, as I was given an example of today shortly after I wrote that post. It’s the main reason I preach education and compassion to people. When you want something to change, reason and facts go a long way.

@NicoleLynne There are vegan alternatives to most foods. If this kid is allergic to soy, peanuts, and tree nuts, wheat, and fruit, there are still many options, and you can probably get many of them inexpensively. i don’t know the specifics of her allergies, but if these were the case, she could still have rice (including milk) , beans, legumes, spices, vegetables (Berry jam, is she allergic to berries?) and many other things. i know she probably isn’t likely to become vegan, WV isn’t exactly the vegans’ capital, but even so, cutting down on meat and dairy could still help. i’m sure that she could eat less meat, or become vegetarian at least. Also, i never eat faux meat. I know many people do, but it is not vital to veganism.
@drean I really loved the organized, fact-based arguments and the way you rendered them. Thank you, you made my day

@NicoleLynne I am sure that she could live without meat. The only nutrients that are vital to humans that are in meat is a not-very-healthy serving of protein and iron (soy material contains all the essential amino acids that humans cannot make themselves, being considered a “complete protein”), which can easily come from wheat, broccoli (one pound of broccoli has more protein than one pound of beef, and more iron too), spinach, soybeans, and many other green, leafy vegetables. There is no medical condition where someone absolutely has to eat meat, also there is no food allergies that pertain to someone only eating meat (they would die from high cholesterol, diabetes, and most likely heart cancer.). Drean’s family could be vegan if they wanted to I am sure, including the newborn, as a vegan diet is completely healthy during all stages of growth/development/adulthood. Not all vegans consume faux-meat, and there are plenty of homemade faux-meat recipes on PETA.org (I am pretty sure) and real meat is not very cheap right now either, nor is dairy products. The previous nutritional information came from my boyfriend who is studying agricultural sciences (minoring in nutrition, and he is also a vegan), so if you have any questions I would be happy to ask him for you. Good luck!

Yeah but thats not all vegans eat they eat fake meat right….. thats what I’m saying that stuff aint cheap. I don’t care I know what I am talking like I said I see with my own eyes everyday esspecially where I live. & also I know a child that is allergic to certain foods and she can’t eat fruit drink soda, the dr tells her what to eat & meat has to be in her diet or she won’t have any choice of foods at all .

I’m not saying people can’t be vegan I am saying everyone can’t be. . .

& to @drean Can your whole family be vegan? Do you really think that would work out?? Is that newborn a vegan newborn?

@SassyVegan Your support really does mean a lot, I have very dear Christian friends and in no way should Christians be synonymous with homophobes. Sadly, I have to agree with you that freedom is not free. (Which is why I guess we are here )
@drean I have so much respect for you right now. Your argument was very well written and thorough. I am honored to be a member of a community with amazing people like you!
Free For All!

Can I get my two cents in? NicoleLynne, do you or do you not act like a couple when you date someone? When you obviously care about someone, it shows. Now, the feelings you get for guys when you like them is the same that we, as lesbians and gays, get for our significant others. It’s pretty saddening that there are still people who think this is all about some kind of lust thing and not that we have any kind of emotional investments with these people that we are in relationships with. Our relationships wouldn’t last for years and decades if it was simply about satiating lust.

Also, your view of how it is to be vegan and on food stamps is obviously showing your privilege. You aren’t on food stamps, so don’t assume you know what we can and cannot do. My family is on food stamps and we have four mouths to feed with a newborn baby to buy formula and such for. I can still fully well live vegan this way. I’m mostly vegan right now and my entire family eats meat.

Also, thousands of vegans live this way. Most countries that aren’t as “developed” as we are sustain themselves on a mainly vegetable based diet because it’s easier to produce and doesn’t cost as much money to raise and kill the animals. And saying it’s “a little under $100″ and saying that’s affordable, that’s showing how much money you have. Most people, when we’re on food stamps, barely have enough money to pay basic bills, let alone blow $50+ on a gun when we get food stamps. I agree with FAR in the fact that meat consumption is only acceptable when it’s absolutely necessary, like with Inuit tribes and those tribes in Africa/Aborriginals in Australia and what have you.

You’re also uneducated in a lot of aspects of the racism and sexism still going on in this country. Educate yourself before you start touting supposed “facts”. And no gay man or woman is the same. If I was to say that all people who believe in a higher power are terrorists waiting to happen, that would be a gross overgeneralization based on the actions of a few select people that are not a good representation of a larger group. Don’t be so closed minded. Please, for the sake of all humans.

That being said, PETA is Free for All. We need to change how people show compassion to other people while we work for the equal rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” for animals. Does that mean that animals will suddenly become doctors? No. The pursuit of happiness means different things to different people, so why should the same be said of a different species of animal? When people finally start showing compassion to others of their species, they should then realize the horrors of what they do to animals and work to abolish that state of the world. You seem to have a skipped that step. Reevaluate how you look at the world. Because the same book of the bible that said man shouldn’t lie with man later said you could have slaves and had instructions on how to beat them, and I’m pretty sure you don’t follow that rule.

@NicoleLynne No, you can live of fruits and vegetables. What do you think vegans are doing? Drinking moonbeams and ambrosia? Legumes (soy, etc.) are vegetables, just ftr. They don’t buy anything processed to go with their meat? Fruits, veggies, and soy milk, ftw!