Bottom-line: Vegetarians and vegans – please live and let live. Even Anthony Bourdain likes my kind of vegetarian food. Proof? See this video…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTeOtAdBr-o

And here is another Bourdaine-lesque beeing… http://www.thehappyhoarfrost.com/2008/03/bourdain-hezbollah-tofu-cant-take-tony.html

I don’t agree with hunting animals, however I have far less issue with someone who hunts an animal and eats it (hopefully the whole animal) than with the process of factory farming where animals live out their lives in the most abysmal of conditions and are then tortured before finally being dismembered, sometimes while still alive. Let me be clear though: I believe that it is wrong to kill a sentient being for food when there are so many other options available to us. “It tastes good” is not a valid reason to me.

I am not trying to force you to be vegan. We live in America, you have the right to make your own choices. Hopefully, your choices are informed rather than based on habit. What Jane and I strive to do here is to present information about our experiences as vegans. If that causes you to reevaluate your diet, great. If that causes you to change your diet, even better. But ultimately, it’s still your choice.

As for you statement that “your arguments are as flawed as Bourdains” — you have not presented my arguments. I never claimed that animals were unethical because they eat other animals. Some animals eat other animals in the wild because they have no other choice. Nor did the Inuit or other Native American Tribes have a choice. Prehistoric man ate what he could get, it was an issue of survival. Jane’s grandparents were incredibly poor subsistence farmers and when their livestock no longer produced eggs or milk, or they were that hungry, they killed an animal and ate it. ALL of it. I don’t condemn them for their actions. They had no other choice. In this day and age, and in this country, the vast majority of people have a choice in what they consume. There is no need to torture animals (and factory farming is torture) in order to eat. If it were an issue of survival, I would eat animal flesh. It’s not, so I won’t.

Finally, this blog is not about name calling. If you would like to present rational discussions from the omnivores point of view, you are welcome to comment. If you are going to be derisive, please vent elsewhere.

You can best honor the animals by letting them live, and allowing them to pursue their most urgent and compelling interests. You would want the same if your fate was in someone else’s hands.

To kill animals because you like the taste of their flesh demeans and devalues rather than honors them.

Our choice of words can slant the truth. The animals whose corpses appear on your plates did not make a “sacrifice.” They were killed at your behest, for your profit and indulgence.

You ask why animals don’t let other animals live. The question may be rhetorical, but I’ll answer it as if it were not. Most of our closest primate ancestors are vegan or nearly so. Many other animals, including cows, sheep, elephants, and hippos, are vegan. But cats eat mice and bears eat salmon because a) they have to, b) they don’t have our capacity of understanding of golden rule ethics. We don’t judge the morality of human behaviors based on whether another species engages in them. Rather, we judge them on near-universal, fundamental principles pertaining to humans, such as the golden rule, “first do no harm,” mercy, kindness, and compassion.

If an Inuit – or anyone – is in a position where they must kill animals to live, that is morally justifiable. The vast majority of us in the developed world – including you, I would imagine – are not in that position. Read “The Indians Killed Buffalo and Used the Whole Animal. When I Eat Meat, I’m Honoring Indians.” to see how eating meat in our current society – out of choice, not necessity – dishonors both the Indians and animals, and how adopting a peaceful vegan diet honors both.

I assume you’re talented and creative cooks. Thus, you can surely do better than a plate of grilled vegetables. Check out vegan cookbooks such as Vegan With a Vengeance and The Joy of Vegan Baking, or peruse vegan cooking blogs such as VeganYumYum to get an idea of the diversity and depth of vegan cuisine. You may be amazed.

For that matter, check out some of the food-related posts in this blog.

Let me know when you’ve expanded your vegan selections; I’d be happy to drop by and pay good money for an inspired, well-prepared gourmet vegan meal.