Philosophical Vegan Forum

Hello everyone,

i didn't know where to start this topic, i know its been a while since i did not post anymore. I've been very busy with my new placement, and lately my son was born, i am very happy and well.

I hope all things are well and good for you guys too.

Welcome back Unknownfromheaven!

Congratulations on your child. Do you plan on raising him vegan / vegetarian?

Congratulations, and welcome back!

Cirion Spellbinder wrote:Do you plan on raising him vegan / vegetarian?

Hope there's no pressure to feed him meat.
Breast milk is best for baby, then a well balanced veggie diet with B-12 and lots of beans. Sometimes kids can benefit from more processed food to get in enough calories (hummus, or even white bread and juices), since fiber can be bulky and reduce food consumption for young ones.

All children should be fed veg. regardless of the parents until they're old enough to give consent to eating meat (and hopefully they all choose not to), similar to smoking or other drugs and vices.

I do not, because in my case this came from within, as i was aware with what happens in the world. I think that the vegetarian or vegan position cannot be put in with force, the change requires transition...and i want my child to choose like i did. My wife is not vegetarian.

For now he is on breast milk

Anyway i really want to thank you, since i learned a lot of things since i came here on this forum.
I am following vegan diets for some time now but i feel incomplete in the sense that i do know that being vegan is a lot more than just food choice...

Unknownfromheaven wrote:I do not, because in my case this came from within, as i was aware with what happens in the world. I think that the vegetarian or vegan position cannot be put in with force, the change requires transition...and i want my child to choose like i did. My wife is not vegetarian.

Meat is also given with force, because the child can not consent to eating an animal who has been killed: a child can not understand the situation. It is child abuse to feed a child meat without the child understanding where it came from and consenting to it, and you are making him addicted to it (why not give cigarettes too?). Parents even hide this reality from their children when they are old enough to understand.

I am vegan now, and I was fed meat as a child: I felt disgusted and violated to have been deceived and fed meat by my parents for years when I didn't know what it was or have a choice.
Will you do that to your child whom you love?

Imagine somebody fed you murdered humans, and you didn't know what it was. How could you consent to that?
Do you know the phrase "Soylent green"?

Why not give the child cat and dog meat? How about human meat? Why not give the child cigarettes, if you are teaching the child unhealthy habits? Or other harmful drugs, just as meat is harmful.
How can the child consent to any of this?

If you really want to treat your child with choice, feed him vegetarian until he is old enough to understand where meat comes from, then give him the choice to eat it after that.

But in my view, we teach our children why it is wrong to steal and lie. You are already imposing your values. Your children learn right and wrong from you. Why not teach them why it is wrong to murder humans and non-human animals too?

I would have been glad to have been vegan all my life, and still made the choice to continue being vegan, instead of having the weight of tortured and killed animals on me from when I was too young to know better and my parents forced it on me without consent.

Unknownfromheaven wrote:I am following vegan diets for some time now but i feel incomplete in the sense that i do know that being vegan is a lot more than just food choice...

Why is that?

Do you have a reliably ethical source of non-meat animal products?

Do you not find the environmental and health arguement a compelling?

brimstoneSalad wrote:
I would have been glad to have been vegan all my life, and still made the choice to continue being vegan, instead of having the weight of tortured and killed animals on me from when I was too young to know better and my parents forced it on me without consent.

The problem here is that is just the opposite of your hope. All medics without exception, friends and family would not allow me to ”force” a veg diet to our child.

I can easy understand your example and you are 100% right. Yet here people have a wrong perception on vegetarians and vegan diets. We met some vegans who are very extreme and tend to force things and i really don`t like that. There are some which treats this just like a religion, with dogma and all. I am not saying that this case is for you, TVA said well that those kind of people give bad examples and are not doing good for the vegan community.

Unfortunatly i am alone in this situation, and most people here think its normal to eat meat, not an abuse, in fact they say its abuse not to give the child meat.

I can and will try of course... but thats the best i can do.

Cirion Spellbinder wrote:

Unknownfromheaven wrote:I am following vegan diets for some time now but i feel incomplete in the sense that i do know that being vegan is a lot more than just food choice...

Why is that?

Do you have a reliably ethical source of non-meat animal products?

Do you not find the environmental and health arguement a compelling?

I became interested to veganism last year and i did really think about it.
I followed TVA a lot, and i exposed myself to various information, including the ones here, it was not hard for me since i do not eat meat, yet when i dropped down the eggs (cause i love veg milk products) i was not feeling good. I ignored it for a while, only to hear about other things like ¬ if am not doing propaganda, i cannot be vegan. or if i still use leather shoes or some of my clothing i am killer and i will go to hell.....i did heard a lot of things.

So even if i manage to take veganism in my life there are these other ¬Little¬ things that discourage me.

brimstoneSalad wrote: I would have been glad to have been vegan all my life, and still made the choice to continue being vegan, instead of having the weight of tortured and killed animals on me from when I was too young to know better and my parents forced it on me without consent.

Brimstone, I'm your fwend. And I'm not only your fwend, I'm also your buddy. You shouldn't let your past haunt you. It's a pointless road to go down. I'm guilty of doing this stuff (thinking back to an embarrassing thing I did a few years ago) and there's nothing that can be done except change your ways, which you evidently did. I can understand why it bothers you, and you're not wrong for doing that. Just be glad you're not the immoral and ignorant person you were when you were younger.



But that's just me.