Bloody hell! Instant vegetarianism

[Mairead]

Four men who made more than £1 million by selling hundreds of tons of diseased and unfit meat to schools, hospitals, supermarkets and restaurants were jailed yesterday.

The meat, classed as unfit for humans, should have been incinerated or made into pet food or fertiliser, but was repackaged and distributed through a network of wholesalers.

The chicken and turkey, often gathered from skips where it had been left to rot, was trimmed and repackaged at a rundown, rat-infested and sewage- flooded factory before being sold on.

It ended up in products on the shelves of Sainsbury's, Tesco and Kwik Save. Other unwitting buyers included Derbyshire police, which investigated the case, Islington council and Farmfoods.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$BWJ4JPZZLK44VQFIQMFCFF4AVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2003/09/20/nmeat20.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/09/20/ixhome.html

[Mari333]

1. Ugh

Thats why I avoid meat...god only knows whats in it, what it is, what Im eating...or what hormones and chemicals have been injected into it.
Back in the old days, we had butcher shops, and at least you knew the guy who was running the business...in the US, thats gone now, its just big chains and WalMart superstores...
when I went to Ireland, I was delighted to see , in the small villages, the small businesses alive and well..the shoeshop man, the butcher shop, the little flower stand...
Ill stick to no meat or a little fish on occassion for the B12.
Ugh, again.

Ann Coulter likes meat.

[bearfartinthewoods]

7. it's not gone..

what meat we buy comes from a butcher. there are five to choose from within 15 minutes.
may i ask where you live that there aren't any butcher shops?

[Mari333]

10. There are no butcher shops in my small town in Michigan

Just a large supersized WalMart from Hell and a small grocery store that wont be around much longer.

[Ohio Dem]

2. Don't worry. You can trust corporations to police themselves.

Here is another example. Just think how often this would happen with no regulation.

[Ignis]

3. Kucinich

Yet another reason to put your vote behind a vegan! ;)

[Mari333]

4. Welcome to DU!

:bounce:

[newyawker99]

6. Hi Ignis!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Ignis]

8. Cheers.

I've been around for a while, but haven't posted much since the board reset. Thanks for the re-greeting. :)

[sham]

9. Is he a vegan?

I didn't know that.

[Ignis]

11. Kucinich is vegan, yes.

I honestly didn't know much about his politics until I heard that he was vegan and decided to learn more about the man.

It's fascinating what roads we take to arrive at the same place. :)

[Ignis]

17. Hmmm...

I wonder if we can coax DK to ask Dr. McDougall to be the Surgeon General? :)

http://www.drmcdougall.com/

I was an ethical vegetarian for years before I started reading Dr. McD's works. They gave me the scientific data I needed to convince my whirring little brain that veganism is the only logical choice for complete health.

[sangha]

5. Makes those who say

"I know meat is unhealthy, but I eat it anyway"

Yeah, you know it's unhealthy, but did you know it come from "a rundown, rat-infested and sewage- flooded factory before being sold "?

[no name no slogan]

12. Buy meat at a co-op, or directly from the farmer

I'm still an omnivore myself, but we don't buy our meat from supermarkets anymore. We are also members of a local co-op, and we can get free-range meat of any kind from them, and we know it can be trusted.

Also, my inlaws are farmers, so we're able to get good produce and meat from them. Her family and their neighbors will often buy an entire steer (or cow or pig) from a local farmer, and have it butchered and dressed at the local meat locker. That way, we know that the meat is as safe as possible and know that it was raised in a relatively cruelty-free environment. We are very fortunate to have this option available.

I'd like to see something like this happen at a local level in inner cities: communities could come together and form "buying clubs" or co-ops and by their food directly from the producers, so they know where what they are eating came from. This used to be much more prevalent about 100 years ago, when the country was more agrarian. Too bad that all seems so long ago...

[JI7]

13. disgusting

that is too disgusting. were you always vegetarian or became one at some later point in life ? and if so, was it because you read about these things ?

[Mairead]

14. I became an ethical vegetarian in adulthood

long before the Mad Cow prions and scandals. It was a gradual process. As I became more closely acquainted with non-human animals, I could see that the differences between them and us aren't as profound as we humans like to imagine. So I started eating more fish and doufu, and less animal and bird flesh. Eventually I simply stopped eating animals and birds altogether, and now I hardly ever eat fish or 'seafood' either.

I probably also got 'softened up' in my early teens by a friend's dad who worked at the local slaughterhouse cleaning up. The tales he told were stomach-turning. Totally put the two of us off sausages, in my case for life.

[wyldwolf]

15. Yo Quiero Taco Bell!

[diamondsoul]

16. Well how lovely!

Thanks so much to everyone in this thread who managed to make me a vegan in about a second and a half! Yeesh!

[Ignis]

18. Yay!

Well, I have an enormous amount of respect for DK for admiting to beging a vegan. In the amazingly (and unscientifically-founded) pro-red-meat culture of the US--wherein being a faux-'rancher' would win a politician praise from the majority of voters--I find it incredible that any candidate for the presidency would admit to being a vegan.

Say what you like about DK, the man sure has stones. ;)