I can’t remember where I saw it, but I feel like today is a good time to revisit the concept of “Vegan + bacon”.

Carolyn

@danirabbit Elsewhere, a guy was arguing the difference between plant-based vs vegetarian/vegan. You cannot be the latter unless you’re fighting for animal rights!

People love to put their own labels on others. Having a couple of vegetarian meals a week can make an impact on health and environment.

Edge 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈

@danirabbit

These are all really good ideas, for making small, productive changes. Thanks for pointing them out.

SeanBurlington 🌈 🕊️

@danirabbit also it's amazing how people who have no ethical stance like to pick holes in other people's ethical stances.

I think it's defensive because if someone else is being moral maybe you should too - but if you can find fault you're off the hook

This results in hostility to vegan + bacon

Because it's really hard to come up with a sensible argument against being just a bit moral - it's not even that hard to do.

Drew Towler 🇵🇭

@danirabbit I think I could do "whatever you eat now plus more bacon".

Opticacia

@danirabbit
Neither are eggs and milk.

Of course, you could stick to strict definitions of vegetarianism or plant-based diets, I don't really see the imperative.

I get this is a strange take, but from my perspective vegetarianism isn't so different from 'flexitarianism', in that they both lean on plants heavily but arbitraily include some animal products according to personal preference.

But all that aside, veganism isn't (just) a diet and there's no half-measures, you either do it or you don't.

Julia

@danirabbit Yeah, people are so black-and-white in their thinking. Including me often, although I fight against it.

Jay

@danirabbit

Example from my life:
I'm generally pretty cook-from-scratch & environmentally conscious, but right now in this phase of life, using a few of those little instant microwave rice baggies per month makes a huge difference to my ability to navigate disaster capitalism and make a lunch me and the kid both enjoy.
In a couple of years I'll go back to using the rice cooker, and I'm just not gonna beat myself up about it too much.

cwicseolfor

@bob_zim @thomholwerda @danirabbit Yeah, silvopasture or other regenerative pasturing isn't just *possible*, it's how nature evolved to keep sequestering carbon into gorgeous, vibrant, three-foot-deep soil for rich grasslands and scrublands. It also makes for happy grazers, often protected from predators, with medical care.

It just doesn't produce huge amounts of meat and money per acre when people are habituated to prices that come of thinking of meat as "every meal, what living conditions" and not sacred, rare, festival food.

Johann Sebastian Staedtler 🇨🇦

@pthane @danirabbit Everyone's situation is different, and it will take more time and a more complicated path for some than for others. Also consider that these corporations intentionally work to lock us in to their products, and they make it as difficult as possible to leave. We can't blame ourselves for not being able to cut free all at once.

Lisa

@danirabbit absolutely!

"I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end." ~ Albert Schweitzer

Justin

@danirabbit
Agree on the bacon. I did start to make my own so I know what's in the cure and use very little pink salt (nitrates) but now I don't like others bacon haha

I usually do a salt/black pepper cure and smoke with apple wood.

zombiecide 馬雄

@danirabbit what's wrong with saying plant based or flexitarian?

Randulo.com (Randy)

@danirabbit What a wonderful, thoughtful thread! Kudos, everyone.

Andreas V. Chatzopoulos

@danirabbit Kagi is the absolute best search engine available, if you're willing to pay a small fee. The idea is that if you pay for your search engine, they will not have to fund it with ads or sponsored content: https://kagi.com

Mikko Karvonen

@danirabbit This is actually exactly what I did. Bacon was the last meat product I dropped from my diet. After a while it became easy to let it go, too.

Pino Carafa

@danirabbit right on. A good example is my attempt to de-Meta. I removed Fecesbook, Instagram, Messenger. But I can't get rid of WhatsApp. There are family groups, friend groups and work groups on WhatsApp and the momentum is not yet there for them to all move to non Meta alternatives. Especially family groups with all the elderly members who already struggled to learn WhatsApp as "The New Thing To Use". It's too much to ask them to do it again

Jean-Baptiste "JBQ" Quéru

@danirabbit The key, indeed, is to change bit by bit. Change is hard. Getting used to the notion of change is hard. So, practice, practice, practice, start with a few small bits until they become habits, and then do a little more, not so much that it becomes overwhelming. And, sometimes, you'll even be positively surprised.

Jen

@danirabbit I'm flexitarian for primarily environmental reasons.

I have been known to order a veggie all day breakfast plus black pudding. I really love black pudding, it's full of haem iron, and it's essentially a waste product.

I refuse to feel guilty for the meat, plastic and super-processed food that comes in my weekly shop. It's through a food waste scheme that is also incredibly helpful for our household spoons and money budgets. This week included several pounds of bacon ends near their use-by date. Some has been slow cooked, some has been diced and frozen, the fatty bits were rendered and used to make potato wedges. All of it would have been binned if not shared through the scheme.

Mirjamsterdam

@Opticacia @danirabbit OK, but who says they’re trying to benefit from any moral associations?

Hans-Cees 🌳🌳🤢🦋🐈🐈🍋🍋🐝🐜

@danirabbit I wholeheartedly agree. Many shades of grey are ok