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Mar 2017
3:06pm, 9 Mar 2017
17,397 posts
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KinkyS
I have a very regular yoga practice and also a firm philosophical approach to meat consumption based on what it means to (a) be a human being and (b) be a responsible consumer. To me, yoga is about awareness not abstinence.
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Mar 2017
3:22pm, 9 Mar 2017
90,763 posts
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GregP
That's an interesting post that begs for expansion.
What is this approach? Humane farming and so on or am I way off the mark.
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Mar 2017
3:22pm, 9 Mar 2017
90,764 posts
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GregP
Sorry, forgot a question mark
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Mar 2017
3:49pm, 9 Mar 2017
6,928 posts
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KatieB
Great article actually.
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Mar 2017
5:33pm, 9 Mar 2017
1,597 posts
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Fragile Do Not Bend
It never occurred to me either to be veggie if I practice yoga. I know that yoga encompasses much more than the asanas, but I'm not much of a spiritual person and the asanas are pretty much all that's important in yoga for me. I'm sure that makes me a bad yogi! 😁
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Mar 2017
7:52pm, 9 Mar 2017
17,398 posts
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KinkyS
I'll explain when I have a keyboard to use rather than a tiny phone screen - can't face typing it all on a touchscreen keyboard 
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Mar 2017
8:19pm, 9 Mar 2017
90,774 posts
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GregP
Fair enough.
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Mar 2017
9:42pm, 9 Mar 2017
715 posts
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Flatlander
Kinky's observation that yoga is about awareness mirrors the last two paragraphs of GregP's article particularly its last sentence. It's about how one conducts one's whole life, not just one particular aspect of it.
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Mar 2017
9:54pm, 9 Mar 2017
17,399 posts
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KinkyS
OK, here goes - I've never typed this out like this so I hope I can express myself in words!
First off, I believe that the consumption of meat is a natural part of being a human being. I have assorted degrees in biological anthropology, palaeolithic archaeology and biomolecular archaeology (that's basically human evolution, the Stone Age and caveman science :-)), and one of the things that stands out is that one of the key changes that happened to take us from being small-brained quadrupedal apes to large-brained bipedal hominids was the addition of significant quantities of meat to our diet. Eating meat made us who we are in evolutionary terms. Other animals eat meat too, and since humans are just a particular kind of animal, I find it hard to condemn one species for eating meat but not another. I'm not going to call chimps murderers, so nor will I put that label on meat-eating humans. Also, there are many parts of the world (mostly deserts of both the hot and cold kind, like sub-Saharan Africa, the Arctic etc) where the land cannot produce enough plant-based food to support the population and so these people must use animal products to survive. I won't condemn them for eating meat either. Hence my belief that there is nothing basically wrong with using animals as food.
However, and this is a *massive* however, I do believe that the modern Western pattern of meat consumption *is* wrong. The consumption of large quantities of meat, and the expectation of a low price for that meat, is extremely damaging. This kind of demand is responsible for environmental destruction, and also for the rise of intensive factory farming and the kind of animal welfare that is in my opinion morally reprehensible. Therefore, as a conscious consumer, I feel it is only right to limit my meat consumption to a low level, and to only eat meat when I know it has been farmed in a responsible way.
It's also worth noting that the veggie and vegan alternatives are not always as ethically superior as they may first appear. Sure, the meat and dairy industries kill lots of animals, but there are some interesting studies around that compare how many animals die in the production of various foodstuffs, and it's not beyond the bounds of reality that more animals died to produce the wheat in your bread and pasta than in your chicken. Grain production requires the slow and painful death of hundreds of thousands of rats, mice and other small rodents that are trapped or poisoned - are they worth any less than cows or chickens? Yes the dairy industry kills male calves, but the demand for soya and almonds for vegan milk and palm and coconut oils for solid fat is causing environmental destruction on a massive scale, not too mention the fact that you can get milk and butter from your local organic dairy down the road, whereas your almonds and soya have to be transported halfway around the world - it's not actually clear which is better. Plus, it is possible to have a more sustainable dairy industry where male calves are used for meat rather than 'wasted'.
So in the end, I believe that regardless of whether you choose to be veggie, vegan, pescetarian or omnivore, what matters more is that you are a conscious consumer, aware of the impact of your choices and striving to minimise that. It's not just about diet either - the man who turned up to where I work (a vegetarian, ethical wholefoods business) berating us for selling cheese and eggs drove off in an ancient, inefficient, gas-guzzling big old van which left a big oil slick in our car park where it leaked... Your own diet might be near perfect, but if you keep a cat or dog then that has a massive impact. And so on.
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Mar 2017
9:59pm, 9 Mar 2017
1,624 posts
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RunningInCircles
That was worth waiting for
A fair amount of that rings true for me too... A lot of sense in what you say.
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