Being Vegan

[Jorge]

That Ruddo post is just full of wrong

[Anders]

Asher, where do you stand on the fact that humans are carnivores? Would you prefer they only get their meat by hunting? Or are all carnivores dicks and should not eat meat? I'm always curious the vegan's stance on this, as other animals are carnivores and they don't seem to have a problem with the lion killing the gazelle or whatever. I'm not judging, just curious. In a perfect world, we would eat meat only if we hunted it.

Humans are not carnivores.

It was an absolutely necessary part of our evolution into homo sapiens.

"The diet of the earliest hominins was probably somewhat similar to the diet of modern chimpanzees: omnivorous, including large quantities of fruit, leaves, flowers, bark, insects and meat (e.g., Andrews & Martin 1991; Milton 1999; Watts 2008). Tooth morphology and dental microwear studies suggest that the diet of some hominins may have included hard food items such as seeds and nuts, and underground storage organs (USOs) such as roots and tubers (Jolly 1970; Peters & O'Brien 1981; Teaford & Ungar 2000; Luca et al. 2010). By at least 2.6 million years ago, a remarkable expansion in this diet started to occur; some hominins began incorporating meat and marrow from small to very large animals into their diet."

"Why did hominins start eating more meat and marrow?
"Why" questions are notoriously difficult to answer about the past, but we can examine some of the benefits that meat and marrow provide. Meat and marrow are calorie-dense resources with essential amino acids and micronutrients (Milton 1999), and aquatic fauna offer resources rich in nutrients needed for brain growth (e.g., Broadhurst et al. 2002). Increasing the consumption of animal foods could have allowed hominins to increase their body size without losing mobility, agility, or sociality (Milton 1999)."

[Self]

Yes, yes...omnivores. I am certain that's what Ruddo meant to post.

While I appreciate and support Argo in his quest to be a better human, I'm perfectly at ease being a piece of shit, meat eating, planet destroying organism. Good day.

[washing machine]

Let's all appreciate and support this endeavor for argo. I hope you eat well for years to come, herbinaut.

[The Argonaut]

I'm going to make a quick, kind of random post about early hominid stuff because I love early hominid stuff. I'll dig into Rudd' s tougher ethical questions when I have more time this evening.
I love this theory. The first meat that our ancestors ate was likely bone marrow. Before that, we ate like other primates do now: leaves, nuts, seeds, fruits, maybe even some bugs! The first meat was not something they hunted; it was something they alone were able to scavenge because of their intelligence.
The lions kill a gazelle. Hominids stay away because the lions could kill us. Then the hyenas get in there and the hominids stay away because they could hurt us. Not to mention they find it first because they go by smell and we go by sight. The vultures got to it first and picked the bones clean. There's nothing left for the hominid. But she figures out that if she can take this rock and smash the bone, there's bone marrow in there! High calorie food no one else has the intelligence or the tools to access.
Bingo! New source of lots of calories. It allows us to even further increase our intelligence, develop more tools for hunting larger game, develop tools and strategies to grow the crops we used to have to find in the wild right where we want them to be. In greater quantities.
Breaking open that bone marrow is a huge step in human and civilazational evolution.

Now. It's 2017. We've gone too far. There are way too many of us. We're bending nature too far to suit our will. We have induced a geologic anthropocene, and its not pretty. 56 billion animals, the overwhelming majority of which live unnatural and hellish lives, exist solely for our gastronomic pleasure.
And science says that a plant based diet, devoid of meat or dairy, is the healthiest option. Even if you disagree with that certainly you'd concede that we eat too much meat. Especially beef and pork. It's time to pull back.

[washing machine]

I had bone marrow at Cured in San Antonio, TX.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Asher, where do you stand on the fact that humans are carnivores? Would you prefer they only get their meat by hunting? Or are all carnivores dicks and should not eat meat? I'm always curious the vegan's stance on this, as other animals are carnivores and they don't seem to have a problem with the lion killing the gazelle or whatever. I'm not judging, just curious. In a perfect world, we would eat meat only if we hunted it.

Humans are not carnivores.

Correct. Omnivores is what I meant. And yes Jorge, Lions generally can't catch Gazelles, so that is wrong as well.

[E.H. Ruddock]

I originally just wanted to ask Argo how he felt about humans eating meat in general, and I turned it into a horrible post as Jorge pointed out.

Argo, to be clear, I just wanted to hear your thoughts on human meat consumption if it could be done in a non-wasteful way, and as humanely as possible. The thought just popped into my head as I thought of other animals that eat meat and how it would impact them if their main protein/food source was taken away.

[The Argonaut]

Wife, dinner party, thank you kindly.

[washing machine]

Fuck 'em. Then eat their marrow. Or their asses, if you want to be vegan about it. Wait...analingus isn't vegan, is it?

[Self]

Wait...analingus isn't vegan, is it?

Huh, good question for Argo. Would it depend on their anal hygiene and/or what they've been eating?

[E.H. Ruddock]

meaty

[Jorge]

Veganism just seems overly precious and kind of antisocial, not to mention boring. But all of that also describes Argo, so

[Jorge]

That post was a joke. I support Argo fully

[Self]

meaty

Yeah, I guess if you can't put it in a vegan's microwave, it's not vegan.

[washing machine]

That post was a joke. I support Argo fully

I think we all do here. Jokes are ripe for the pickin' in a thread about veganism, though.

[tragabigzanda]

from the ashes of tonkotsu

[Jorge]

We like Argo

[E.H. Ruddock]

Why can Argo post a quick discourse on "early hominid stuff" without awaking the wrath of Malice, but I post one screen grab about amino acids and suddenly I'm a dick?

Maybe because it was your own paper? I don't know, just speculating

[tragabigzanda]

from the ashes of tonkotsu