An omnivore with a dilemma

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

So, I have this conflict inside of me and I am hoping that I'll get some insight here.

At age 22 I went vegetarian as a result of my distaste for the factory farming industry. I was into it big time and wanted to eventually become vegan. After I met my boyfriend and we moved in together I stayed vegetarian for 10 months, but then went back to eating not just meat, but a very unhealthy diet over and above just the meat. I was veg for about 4 years total and increasingly had cut out more and more unhealthy foods. I read labels and stopped eating jello and white sugar and everything

Bf is an amazing cook and expresses his love by cooking for me (among other ways of course). I love the food he cooks based on taste -- it's delicious, but it's very meaty and not particularly healthy unless it's by accident. He's not fond of vegetables.

The delimma is, I still feel that factory farming is horrible and that it's healthier to eat at the very least vegetarian. On the other hand, I love the taste of the foods I eat now and that my bf is happy when I eat the food he lovingly prepares. I know that he would still love me if I stopped eating meat, etc. He didn't try to coerce me out of being a vegetarian to begin with. I think I just got tired of being vigilant and having to make my own food when I had someone there willing to do it for me. So, why do I still hold back? I don't feel guilty when I eat meat anymore, even though I know where it comes from and everything. I think I would describe the feeling as numb.

I'm sure there is a lot of stuff I'm leaving out and things that I don't see looking at it from the inside, so what are your thoughts?

[Eric Revelin]

If you like eating meat, then eat meat. However, I'd suggest you sit down, have a talk with him, and decide to switch to healthier versions of what he prepares. Meat itself isn't unhealthy but overdoing it will only hurt you in the long term.

If you're feeling numb, you might have bigger problems than you realize. I guess what it boils down to is how strong your convictions are. If, deep down, you're strongly against what you're doing it's going to take a heavy toll on you. If you're not, then I'd say focus on establishing a healthier lifestyle, period. Your health is too important to throw it away, whatever the reason.

It might do you good to switch back to your old vegetarian lifestyle for a bit so you can gain some clarity. I remember a few years ago when I was working out every day, eating healthy foods, etc. and then I slipped back into old habits. My mind was dulled over that period and I didn't understand the extent of the shift until I cut out the fatty foods and started working out again.

[jfrancis]

Originally Posted by {aspiring_to_clarity}

-- it's delicious, but it's very meaty and not particularly healthy unless it's by accident.

LOL, "whoops, sorry honey, the broccoli just jumped out of the fridge and into the pot!"
I have a friend who used to be a strict vegetarian for the same reasons. Recently, he began to include meat raised from small local farms in his diet. That way he can be sure that the animals were raised humanely with minimal impact on the environment. It's a little more legwork to find sources of small-farm raised products, but you might be surprised at how much is out there. It might be a compromise for you two. He can still prepare the types of food he likes, and you wouldn't be sacrificing your values.
Whatever you decide, I agree with Eric, though, about looking into that numbness...it sounds like you would benefit from communicating with your bf in more detail about your values if it is as important to you as it sounds. Otherwise it could be a recipe for resentment.

[WilliWibald]

Simple suggestion:
You could ask your friend to cook delicious vegan meals. There are many vegan cookbooks out there. Many wonderful recipes to try.
Probably start with a challenge: Can you both kick off a month with only vegan foods.
Next thing: Fuel your motivation. Get some books about animal-rights, veganism and/or some DVDs. Do you know the "vegan-freaks" (bob and jenna torres). This book got me started on veganism (after steves articles got me interested).

The same applies to health motivation: Fuel it. Watch at how carefully designed your body is. I changed my mind about some health habits after seeing an exhibition with plastinated human bodys. Everything looks so fragile. Look at footage of clocked arteries. Buy a book with medical pictures of all kinds of illnesses. Remember how you felt when you where sick last time. That and more is waiting for you. It's going to get ugly. Face it now to change your path (sounds scarry, but hey - I guess it's true). Denial is no river in egypt

[funchy]

He is welcome to cook what he wants, but if it were me, I'd just say "thanks but no thanks". If he wants to cook for someone else, he'd try a few dishes that didn't have meat. It really isn't that hard to make great meals without the meat.

Suggestion: just have him cook the meat in a separate pan, and he can add it to his meal at the end.

If he doesn't want to change, that's fine. I wouldn't force someone to have critter-free cooking. But he should not expect anyone else to change for him, either.

Look at it this way: he'd learn more about cooking and you'd be helping to lower his cholesterol and saturated fat.

[Dharma]

When you went vegetarian or vegan because you opposed factory farming, did factory farming suddenly vanish?

No, the two choices are not connected in any way. You cannot change factory farming based on personal diet. Same thing is true with food and health. Meat is not unhealthy. It is used as a scapegoat for bad health all the time, so we won't look deeper into the real consciousness that causes bad health.

Just like going vegan.... you think you're doing something for the cause, but what you're really doing it hiding some aspect of reality you don't want to deal with. If you like the vegan diet then eat that diet... don't think it's doing something for the animals. That's poppycock.

If factory farms still exist in your reality, you're still choosing to have them. As I said the choice of diet has no connection to factory farming. The mind will say "oh yes it does and here's my 134 websites of proof blah blah blah". If you're really aspiring to clarity I'd suggest you get quiet inside and really experience the choices involved with eating and factory farming. Eating will mirror choices of nurturance and factory farms will mirror a belief in lack and manifestation being a process. The underlying choices are very different. That's why changing your diet does nothing to change factory farming.

And then add the guilt and wrongness you put on eating meat, and then polarize that with how good it tastes. You've boxed yourself into quite a corner. How about just be present while eating, experience it fully, don't label what is happening, just experience eating food? If you start feeling guilty, feel that fully if you cannot let it go. If you take the mind out of eating it is a totally different experience.

[footprints]

Originally Posted by {aspiring_to_clarity}

Bf is an amazing cook and expresses his love by cooking for me (among other ways of course). I love the food he cooks based on taste -- it's delicious, but it's very meaty and not particularly healthy unless it's by accident. He's not fond of vegetables.

I had to laugh, because you just EXACTLY described my husband!

I was also vegetarian for almost 10 years, and started eating meat again when I was pregnant (my body demanded red meat and I thought I should listen!). We were also living in Portugal for a while, where vegetarian food is almost impossible to find when eating out. My husband tends to the shopping and cooking in our household for various reasons and loves to cook for us (me and our daughter), and he is a carnivore, he loves meat and only cooks vegetables when I nag him constantly! Salad? Forget it!! I miss being vegetarian - it was something I believed in, and I felt healthier eating that way. Now though, I still eat meat and I don't have any solutions for you. I can only tell you the way I deal with it.

When I am not eating at home, I eat vegetarian. When I shop or cook, it's vegetarian. I insist on organic meat, which is so expensive here (Switzerland) that it deters him from buying meat everyday! I make the effort to cook for myself as often as possible. I have a double-motivation, as I also want my daughter to ingest less meat, toxins, antibiotics and hormones. (Dharma - how can you say that meat is not unhealthy???? if we hunted down the meat ourselves on the prairies, ok, it's not unhealthy, but the the way meat is raised now????)

When I was vegetarian (and I was militant about it!), he had no trouble cooking excellent vegetarian food. It's hard to go back, but not impossible. If you absolutely decide not to eat meat anymore, things will work out. If you are ambivilant (sorry, can't spell) about it, you will be swayed by him many times. Find a balance that feels GOOD to you and commit to it. Your numbness may be to do with feeling that you are not making your own choices here.

[lovelyn]

I've been vegetarian and vegan before. Now I eat meat. My meat intake is limited--only a few times a week. I like meat and even though I was a vegetarian for years I still craved it every so often. I like food way to much and hate to feel like I'm being denied anything.

I think that eating organic meat could be a good solution for you. This will make it so that you aren't supporting factory farms. Because organic meat tends to be more expensive you'll start eating less of it.

Start out just eating a few vegetarian meals a week. You'll probably have to cook them. Then slowly add more and more. Think of vegetarian foods that your bf might be willing to try.

When I married my husband, he and my stepson were meat eaters. Especial my stepson. He didn't eat vegetables or beans. I had to reintroduce him to different foods slowly. One of his favorite foods is enchiladas. I started out replacing the beef he usually had in them with chicken. Then slowly started adding black beans in with the chicken. Eventually I removed the chicken all together and now he eats black bean enchiladas with no complaints. He's also started liking spinach, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, and a few other things. He's also more willing to try new foods.

I think that your numbness might be occurring because of your fatty diet. When you start to clean up your diet, you'll start to reconnect.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by Eric Revelin

It might do you good to switch back to your old vegetarian lifestyle for a bit so you can gain some clarity. I remember a few years ago when I was working out every day, eating healthy foods, etc. and then I slipped back into old habits. My mind was dulled over that period and I didn't understand the extent of the shift until I cut out the fatty foods and started working out again.

Thanks for your input, Eric. I think that this is where I am right now. I remember that I didn't feel this sluggish and tired when I was veg. Right now I am planning to start eating more healthfully and then hopefully transition to vegetarian again. But sometimes I also feel that I only want to be veg becasue so many people that I look up to think it's the right thing to do.

It seems like what I need is to stop thinking about what everyone else feels is best and really look into myself.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by jfrancis

he began to include meat raised from small local farms in his diet. That way he can be sure that the animals were raised humanely with minimal impact on the environment.....It might be a compromise for you two. He can still prepare the types of food he likes, and you wouldn't be sacrificing your values.

That would be a good thing for me to do regardless of what the final outcome will be. If I decide to keep eating meat, I think that eating organic, free range is the only way to go.

Originally Posted by jfrancis

Whatever you decide, I agree with Eric, though, about looking into that numbness...it sounds like you would benefit from communicating with your bf in more detail about your values if it is as important to you as it sounds. Otherwise it could be a recipe for resentment.

Well, I do agree that I need to talk to him about it. The thing is, I know he will support whatever I decide. The issue is me deciding! I don't have a problem with him eating any way he wants, except that I do want him to be healthy.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by WilliWibald

Simple suggestion:
You could ask your friend to cook delicious vegan meals. There are many vegan cookbooks out there. Many wonderful recipes to try.
Probably start with a challenge: Can you both kick off a month with only vegan foods.
Next thing: Fuel your motivation. Get some books about animal-rights, veganism and/or some DVDs. Do you know the "vegan-freaks" (bob and jenna torres). This book got me started on veganism (after steves articles got me interested).

I've read all the books and websites, but I could stand to go back to keeping that info in my life on a daily basis. I love the vegan freaks.

As for a challenge, my bf won't do it. He has no desire to give up meat. But I know that if I talk about this with him he will cook veg food for me. He did it before.

Originally Posted by WilliWibald

The same applies to health motivation: Fuel it. Watch at how carefully designed your body is. I changed my mind about some health habits after seeing an exhibition with plastinated human bodys. Everything looks so fragile. Look at footage of clocked arteries. Buy a book with medical pictures of all kinds of illnesses. Remember how you felt when you where sick last time. That and more is waiting for you. It's going to get ugly. Face it now to change your path (sounds scarry, but hey - I guess it's true). Denial is no river in egypt

I've already to some extent used this line of thinking. For the past couple of days (since I got more serious about getting my health in line) I've stopped before eating anything and asked myself how it will make me feel. It's helped me avoid a soda during my mid-afternoon energy slump yesterday as well as a piece of candy from the office jar

Good suggestions!

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by funchy

He is welcome to cook what he wants, but if it were me, I'd just say "thanks but no thanks". If he wants to cook for someone else, he'd try a few dishes that didn't have meat. It really isn't that hard to make great meals without the meat.

Suggestion: just have him cook the meat in a separate pan, and he can add it to his meal at the end.

If he doesn't want to change, that's fine. I wouldn't force someone to have critter-free cooking. But he should not expect anyone else to change for him, either.

Look at it this way: he'd learn more about cooking and you'd be helping to lower his cholesterol and saturated fat.

I didn't mean to make it sound like he is dead set against cooking anything but meat, at this point it's just what he knows how to do best and also what he prefers. I haven't talked to him yet about possibly returning to veg. So, he's operating right now under the impression that I love his cooking (well, I do but he doesn't know about this conflict I'm having).

I can definitely have him cook the meat separately since that's usually how he does it anyway.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by Dharma

How about just be present while eating, experience it fully, don't label what is happening, just experience eating food? If you start feeling guilty, feel that fully if you cannot let it go. If you take the mind out of eating it is a totally different experience.

Man, Dharma, you always come in and throw a wrench in the works...in a good way I guess . I have trouble wrapping my mind around what you are saying here. Even if the way I eat doesn't affect factory farming in any way should I not live my life according to what I think is right? And then I guess I have to ask myself why I feel this is right.

Still, being present while eating would have good effects anyway. I know that if I stopped eating so mindlessly I'd make different choices and feel differently about it. Like I said above, when I do that I tend to eat more healthily.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by footprints

When I am not eating at home, I eat vegetarian. When I shop or cook, it's vegetarian. I insist on organic meat, which is so expensive here (Switzerland) that it deters him from buying meat everyday! I make the effort to cook for myself as often as possible. I have a double-motivation, as I also want my daughter to ingest less meat, toxins, antibiotics and hormones. (Dharma - how can you say that meat is not unhealthy???? if we hunted down the meat ourselves on the prairies, ok, it's not unhealthy, but the the way meat is raised now????)

This is actually one of the solutions I was thinking about. It would be very easy for me to eat vegetarian for breakfast and lunch because I eat those on my own. I think that if I insist on organic meat we will just have a higher grocery bill because I don't see him cutting back on meat at all! But in all of this maybe I'm boxing him in too much as well. He has tried some vegetables since we've been together and actually said he'd eat them again One thing I hadn't really thought of until now is that we like to cook together. That could be a great solution! I could just cook something veg and he could cook his meat and then we'd have that same bonding time in the kitchen and both get to eat how we want.

Originally Posted by footprints

When I was vegetarian (and I was militant about it!), he had no trouble cooking excellent vegetarian food. It's hard to go back, but not impossible. If you absolutely decide not to eat meat anymore, things will work out. If you are ambivilant (sorry, can't spell) about it, you will be swayed by him many times. Find a balance that feels GOOD to you and commit to it. Your numbness may be to do with feeling that you are not making your own choices here.

I'm not sure I understand why he wants me to eat meat so much, but I agree that until I decide in myself I will just go along. Even in all this discussion, I'm still not sure what I want to do. I know that I want to eat more healthy foods and less junk. I think my first step will be to clean up my current diet and then start eating veg breakfast and lunch and then see what I feel from there.

I appreciate your help. I know you know where I'm coming from. Nice to know that I'm not alone.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by lovelyn

I've been vegetarian and vegan before. Now I eat meat. My meat intake is limited--only a few times a week. I like meat and even though I was a vegetarian for years I still craved it every so often. I like food way to much and hate to feel like I'm being denied anything.

I think that eating organic meat could be a good solution for you. This will make it so that you aren't supporting factory farms. Because organic meat tends to be more expensive you'll start eating less of it.

Start out just eating a few vegetarian meals a week. You'll probably have to cook them. Then slowly add more and more. Think of vegetarian foods that your bf might be willing to try.

When I married my husband, he and my stepson were meat eaters. Especial my stepson. He didn't eat vegetables or beans. I had to reintroduce him to different foods slowly. One of his favorite foods is enchiladas. I started out replacing the beef he usually had in them with chicken. Then slowly started adding black beans in with the chicken. Eventually I removed the chicken all together and now he eats black bean enchiladas with no complaints. He's also started liking spinach, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, and a few other things. He's also more willing to try new foods.

I think that your numbness might be occurring because of your fatty diet. When you start to clean up your diet, you'll start to reconnect.

You make a lot of good points. I have sort of answered them in other posts so I don't want to blabber on. But I did have to think about how you said your stepson started liking a larger variety of foods. I may not be giving my bf enough credit. I don't know really why I've avoided talking to him about it, but I think that's something I need to do.

I agree that my numb feelings are due to bad health related to my diet and lack of exercise as well.

Thank you.

[carenkh]

I found a lot to ponder in this collection of Abraham-Hicks quotes.

Scroll down to "regarding food" - it's similar to what Dharma is saying.

For myself, I had to really look at - is this something I want to do? Or something I think I *should* do? Especially being on this forum, where even cooked vegetables can be considered suspect. I'm still looking at it all - because I know I'll grab a Krispy Kreme doughnut just to be rebellious! There! You can't tell ME what to eat! Silly how my mind works. What is my deepest truth? What do I want? What can I eat *in joy*? Is what I'm about to eat really nurturing me?

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Thanks caren. I feel similarly. I am going to add the quotes to my list of things to read and ponder. Sometimes I'm not sure if it's what I truly want or what I think I should do to be right and moral and, let's face it, cool. A lot of people I really look up to find this the best way to eat. And I also have experience with it being really good for me as well. So, it feels like I need to really look into myself and just make a decision on what I feel is best for me and then judge what I eat only based on that. Being in a bad mood around food times is not what I'm looking for.

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by Dharma

When you went vegetarian or vegan because you opposed factory farming, did factory farming suddenly vanish?

No, the two choices are not connected in any way. You cannot change factory farming based on personal diet. Same thing is true with food and health. Meat is not unhealthy. It is used as a scapegoat for bad health all the time, so we won't look deeper into the real consciousness that causes bad health.

Ridiculous assertions.

Buying products directly funds the company where they are produced. The purchase of any item is an active endorsement, and one that provides financial incentive for the producers to continue their methods.

The world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes, as much as you seem to want it to.


</memento>

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

Ridiculous assertions.

Buying products directly funds the company where they are produced. The purchase of any item is an active endorsement, and one that provides financial incentive for the producers to continue their methods.

The world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes, as much as you seem to want it to.


</memento>

See, this is the mindset I have right now. I just don't know if I'm cut out for subjective reality. Reality all seems so real . I know that I'm funding the very practices I despise by purchasing meat at the grocery store.

It's come to my attention (thanks in part to CroMagna's suggestion in my other thread) that I don't really have a well thought out worldview anymore. I used to be immersed in Christianity and now I'm not. But I haven't really thoughtfully replaced it with anything. I still believe in God, but I don't accept all of the Bible. I still think Jesus had some great teachings. I don't know. I feel like I need to dedide in myself what it is I believe and stand for and then these decisions will be cake...

[Dharma]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

Ridiculous assertions.

I guess that would depend on your level of consciousness.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes.
--Marcel Proust

[Dharma]

Originally Posted by {aspiring_to_clarity}

See, this is the mindset I have right now. I just don't know if I'm cut out for subjective reality. Reality all seems so real . I know that I'm funding the very practices I despise by purchasing meat at the grocery store.

To get out of your dilemma, you don't need to understand how the manifestation works. Whether things happen in a process like Dan says or all manifestations are mutually exclusive like I say.

You can forget all that.

Just be present as much as you can during your day. That's it. At first it will feel like you're never present at all, and then slowly the amount of time you are in the moment will increase. That will have a greater effect on your health and factory farming than changing your diet.

I'd recommend Eckart Tolle (Power of Now and/or Stillness Speaks), Byron Katie and Robert Scheinfeld (Busting Loose From the Money Game).

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by Dharma

I guess that would depend on your level of consciousness.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes.
--Marcel Proust

Let me put it a different way.

I've personally worked for companies where suffering occurred endemically, and it continued to occur because the companies were successful financially.

Seen it firsthand, more than once. Been a part of it firsthand, more than once.

When I apply my own experiences working in businesses like these to factory farming, I immediately see the implications.

• There are real people killing the animals.
• The animals feel real pain.
• There is real pollution that affects local residents. There are babies born with birth effects because the water in polluted from runoff.
• There are people who get cancer from both eating the meat, as well as from the pollution, because their bodies can't handle the toxicity.

And so on.

Point being, denial does not help these things, instead it perpetuates the cycle.

[Doku]

Originally Posted by {aspiring_to_clarity}

The delimma is, I still feel that factory farming is horrible and that it's healthier to eat at the very least vegetarian. On the other hand, I love the taste of the foods I eat now and that my bf is happy when I eat the food he lovingly prepares. I know that he would still love me if I stopped eating meat, etc. He didn't try to coerce me out of being a vegetarian to begin with. I think I just got tired of being vigilant and having to make my own food when I had someone there willing to do it for me. So, why do I still hold back? I don't feel guilty when I eat meat anymore, even though I know where it comes from and everything. I think I would describe the feeling as numb.

I'm sure there is a lot of stuff I'm leaving out and things that I don't see looking at it from the inside, so what are your thoughts?

My wife was a vegetarian for many years (somewhere around 8-10). As a kid, my grandfather owned a farm. He gave us a cow every year for x-mas, we just had to pay to get it butchered. So, I had beef with pretty much every single meal from the time I started eating solid food until I went off to college. My wife had the same issues as you seem to... the treatment of animals in factory farming... So I had her visit the farm of a friend of the family (my grandfather had sold the farm by that time). She saw how their operation ran, and now has no problem with beef from a small family farm. So, we now get our beef from that farm and she's been happily eating beef for the past 10 years. Unless you are in a big city, you can generally visit a local butcher, and ask where their store beef comes from. If it is a local farm, go visit it. If not, then check around with local farmers and see if you can buy some meat next time they butcher. Their is no reason to reject an entire industry because you don't like how some of them operate. I mean, you wouldn't stop eating chocolate, just because some people use child slave labor to harvest cocoa, would you?

[Lauxa]

Hi Aspiring, didn't read the responses but my first thought is that if Bf likes cooking meaty dishes, then you could cook the veggies/salads to compliment those dishes. It will be easier than preparing a whole veg*n meal and will boost the health for both of you, you will be making a contribution to the meal to share lovingly with him, and you will not have to reject his offering.

[PeaceCat]

I agree with Doku that the local farm route would seem to be a good idea.

I have also visited farms like this (as a kid) and eaten meat from them. I saw pigs running around one day, and saw them carved up in peices the next before being served up for dinner - it was educational for me back then as I made the link between meat on my dinner plate and animals in the field (something many modern children probably don't think about).

What bothers me (and prompted me to go vegetarian when I was 13) is the idea of animals in cages being pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones while being fed a shockingly substandard and unnatural diet (i.e. feeding dead cow to cows!). No indelligent person would eat cheap cornmeal & shredded newspaper, so why eat animals that have been fed such things!

A friend of mine and I recently discussed the ethics of eating meat, and he raised an interesting question: which is a better life for an animal, living wild and facing the challenges involved (the threat of hunger, disease and being torn limb from limb by predators) or living on a traditional style farm, never going hungry, being protected by disease, but with a quick untimely death as the price (especially in the case of lambs and kid goats, who don't even get to grow up!).

It's a debate with many arguments from both sides however (e.g. a life of captivity with safety versus a life of freedom with risks), but interesting to contemplate.

[Lena Carpenter]

{aspiring_to_clarity} Thanks for starting this thread. It turned out to be pretty fascinating. I have the same issue with my boyfriend and family being all carnivores and sometimes it feels like I have to take a stance against them, when choosing not to eat the dishes they prepare.

For the fear of copying Abraham, I say take the path of least resistance. What resonates with you? If your boyfriend would go vegan with you, would you be happily vegan? I know this might never happen. I feel the same way about mine Just pretend and see how it feels. Do educate yourself more on where your meat comes from, but from the mindset of see and find out, what happens, and what I feel comfortable with. Sure, none of us like to see cows killed (well, most people don't), but a lot of us don't like to see surgery performed or more than that, perform that surgery! Yet, in some instances it is life giving.

Personally, I'm a vegan at this time. For several reasons. One is that I don't like to think about where meat and dairy are coming from. It's too much work for me to go investigate the local farm at the moment. I'd rather eat my veggies. I don't like the animals suffering. Second reason is that it gives me a great excuse to fill up on all the good stuff - veggies and fruits. Honestly, if I give myself the permission to eat whatever, I might have a piece of pizza for lunch, but since I made the decision to eat a certain way, I take the time to cook. I don't think you need to decide for your whole lifetime if you want to eat animal products or not, just decide for a month, stick with it, and see how it goes.

[Excellent Lodestar]

Eat Wild

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Dan and Dharma, I can see completely where you are both coming from. I do intend to be more and more present to the moment each day. I also feel at this time that I want to have my actions align with what I think is right. At this point, I do believe that what I do affects the world around me, and so if I eat meat that is produced on factory farms I'm supporting that. Even if I decide to contiue eating meat, I'd like to stop supporting the industry.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by Doku

has no problem with beef from a small family farm.

Yes, thank you Doku. This will be my plan of action should I decide to continue eating meat. I've already found an organic farm that sells to the public and treats the animals well.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by Lauxa

Hi Aspiring, didn't read the responses but my first thought is that if Bf likes cooking meaty dishes, then you could cook the veggies/salads to compliment those dishes. It will be easier than preparing a whole veg*n meal and will boost the health for both of you, you will be making a contribution to the meal to share lovingly with him, and you will not have to reject his offering.

That is what we have done in the past. We also really enjoy cooking together so it's a great idea.

I'm starting to understand that the conflict is all very much inside myself. Even though I mentioned him as being a part of it, I think I have just not decided for myself what I want to do.