Vegan diet

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118169727#Comment_118169727

MMMMM...... Connective scrotum.... :)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118169684#Comment_118169684

I am curious to know which definition though :) I just checked a few dictionaries and none of them fit the usage here.

I think in one case I would be called a hunter - and in another a forager. I can not find any definition that would call me a "farmer" in those cases.

If you guys all have a dictionary I don't I am jealous :) I collect them :)

green daries

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118169589#Comment_118169589

Pretty cool there. I guess you would be known as a forager... Possibly the farmer but I wouldn't think so. I would expect if it's done on any private lands you would be strictly called a poacher .I wouldn't call it poaching for most of what you've mentioned as most of this stuff is likely to go to waste. The fishing I presume you have a license so your probably defined under the department of agriculture. But probably not under the broad church of the farmer

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118169766#Comment_118169766

Farming dictionaries, then, are we?! For me hunter, gatherer and farmer are in the same category: the cultivation of sustenance. The poster's point being that very little fo the food we eat comes from our own resources. I'g argue you dont live on fish and mushrooms alone yourself.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118169787#Comment_118169787

If my dictionaries are anything to go by you are only called a farmer if you are specifically cultivating some kind of food on a particular fixed piece of land. So if you are moving around killing animals you are a hunter. If you are walking into forests and picking wild mushrooms you'd be a forager.

As for fishing - not all fishing in Ireland requires a license actually. So you can do that wild too. Personal sea fishing is generally license free for example. River fishing I think - I might be out of date here - depends on specifically what you are fishing. Trout for example is license free? Not 100% sure I am current there! Salmon and sea trout have specific exceptions here too.

So really it comes down to what you fish and where I think.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118169835#Comment_118169835

Heheheh cute :) I have the image of planting dictionary seeds and watching them grow in my head now. Not knowing if you are growing a webster or a collins.

Oh that they are in the same "category" is a different conversation for sure. But I was responding to the user who said that "everything" you eat was "grown by a farmer" and I think that this claim might be somewhat dubious.

If they had said "Everything you eat was put on your plate by someone in the same general category in which you find the word farmer" I might not have responded at all :) Even then I am not sure "gatherers" can be said to be "cultivating" anything. So I am not sure the category fits either.

Just me being a little bit of a linguistic pedant really :) Hehe being honest with myself - I probably would not even have replied had they not started the post with "newsflash".

green daries

As an aside does rabbit taste good how do you prefer to cook it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118169884#Comment_118169884

Depends how I kill it - or trap it. Do I fatten it up under captivity before turning it into food - or insta kill? And so on.

Also depends what is growing / going on my garden at the time too. Some herbs and veg just beg for rabbit to be turned into something in the soups category.

You can cook it fast too but generally its recommended to joint it and vary cooking times depending on which part you cook and how. Some parts are better roasted than fried and vice versa.

As for taste - depends how you cook it too - but generally its like a dryer gamier form of chicken with a slightly deeper flavour kind of in the same way hogget is slightly dryer but with a deeper flavor profile than lamb.

I was very rececntly bow hunting with a friend in the US. I think I could take to getting my meat that way if I could. But alas Ireland afford a lot less possibility - legal or otherwise - to do that. But I do source my meat as ethically as I can in Ireland even when that means spending a lot more.

Dial Hard

I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian but I will never, ever understand how triggered some people are merely by discussion of it.

Yeah, some vegans are borderline fanatical, but they're easily ignored. On the whole, I think it's a pretty commendable decision to make and something I know I could never do. I eat local, seasonal and as high-welfare as possible. I also used to be an insufferable snob about people who eat non free-range chicken, eggs etc. But then I realised that not everyone has the privilege of making those choices. If I was on a budget and had to choose between feeding my family a battery chicken or a few frozen pizzas, I'd choose the chicken.

Verganism certainly isn't a panacea for the world's troubles. But there's no doubting that a reduction in meat (particularly beef) consumption in developed countries would be a great help.

BurgerFace

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058218037/vegan-diet

It's possible but I think it might be a bit boring. I'm an omnivore and eat pretty much everything but I am fascinated and respectful of vegetarians and vegans. As an omnivore I could easily have a great diet (not the healthiest) but certainly varied and delicious from products sourced solely in Ireland and the UK. Fry-ups, Sunday roasts, cod and haddock pies, bangers and mash, porridge, berries and yoghurt, summer salads, cheddar on toast or crackers with milky tea....actually BOLLOCKS...scratch the tea AND the coffee. Can't grow that in these islands AFAIK. Salt and pepper...hmm. There's no shortage of salt here but I think we have to import pepper from far afield.

So getting back to the vegan thing, In Ireland (I'm open to correction) you'd have no problem with all the root vegetables and greens and tubers such as carrots, turnips, parsnips, beetroot, cabbage, lettuce, kale, brocolli, green beans, peas, spuds, radishes, and all the onion family like obviously onions, leeks, scallions, garlic, chives, and the grains like oats, barley, wheat, corn and all the fruit like apples, berries, rhubarb, plums, pumpkin, tomatoes, etc. But I think I would pine (no pun intended) for nuts, and things like lentils and rice and things like chickpeas and various beans like kidney beans and fava beans and such which I thing need warmer climes to grow. I'd miss exotic fruits too like citrus fruits, oranges, lemons, grapefruits, and others like bananas, pomegranites, kiwi fruit, melons. I'd miss all the spices too like turmeric, garam massala, paprika.

I can live without coffee....but the TAE....don't take that away from me.

BurgerFace

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118169684#Comment_118169684

Nah, farming is the cultivation of plants and animals, You don't "farm" a wild berry that grows by its merry self in the forest. You don't "farm" a stream that you take a drink of water from.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118170228#Comment_118170228

I refer the honourable gentleperson to the answer I gave a few minutes earlier :)

Feisar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118169294#Comment_118169294

See stuff like this annoys me, they could have climbed to the moon, it doesn't prove anything, one doesn't make rules around outliers. Same applies to vegetation bodybuilders for example.

The lack of an honest conversation also annoys me. I could never wrap my head around how quinoa and ( that old classic, the) avocado shipped from around the world were more climate friendly than beef reared in my own county. Found out recently they don't factor shipping emissions with the food!

So yea I'm a meat eater normal person and am defending my position. Having said that I think people eat to much meat and it's stupidly cheap, I hate the race to the bottom when it comes to food. A whole chicken for €3.50? Something wrong there. Pigs get a brutal time of it to. I eat vegetarian a few times a week and try to buy quality over quantity when I am buying meat.

We're also very removed from our food. Most people wouldn't know how to section up a chicken. And hands up who could pop into a field, shoot a rabbit and prepare it for dinner?

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118170447#Comment_118170447

Shipping has very little impact on the footprint of food, but if you're worried about the impact of shipping food around the world you wont be happy to hear 90% of our beef and dairy is exported worldwide - https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food

Also, given we are a net importer of food and vegans make up a tiny percentage of people in Ireland, I would lay the blame on carnivores eating imported avocados and quinoa!

magicbastarder

The lack of an honest conversation also annoys me. I could never wrap my head around how quinoa and ( that old classic, the) avocado shipped from around the world were more climate friendly than beef reared in my own county. Found out recently they don't factor shipping emissions with the food!

as far as i understand, the way the food is shipped is important too; a tomato grown in spain probably has a smaller carbon footprint than one grown down the road, because the transport element of the equation is lower than the requirement to heat the greenhouse in ireland.

bananas are not too bad because they're picked unripe and put on a boat and ripen en route. according to this calculator, one avocado is responsible for approx 5-6 times as much CO2 as one banana:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46459714

magicbastarder

anyway, most of the (few enough) people i know who are vegan - which includes the local parish priest* who's a neighbour, do it for primarily animal welfare reasons and secondarily for broader environmental concerns. and that's an interesting one to weigh. if you buy say a frozen chicken, and compare it to the equivalent weight of beef, the chicken will be a better option environmentally, but if it's irish sourced, will almost certainly have had a worse life than the beef cow. and the chicken represents an entire life, whereas the beef will only represent a percent or two of the animal life, so not an easy calculation.

*confirmed with someone else who had also wondered how can a catholic priest be vegan and partake of the body and blood of jesus; apparently as it's down to the suffering or exploitation of animals, having communion at catholic mass does not count.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118170727#Comment_118170727

It's the consent element - if the animal (or supernatural being of higher consciousness) consents to the comsumption, it's allowed.

magicbastarder

someone actually decided that if an animal consents to being eaten, that's allowed?

bb1234567

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118169241#Comment_118169241

And? Who said you had to survive on that if you became vegan? Are you implying meat products are somehow less processed, most meat products peple eat are highly processed, fish fingers, chicken nuggets, spare ribs, chicken wings etc..

@Thelonious Monk

We produce a lot of our own food and I think in this climate it would be very difficult. You could definatly have spuds for the year as I now do and my father grew. Pumpkins are also great keepers. Protein is your difficulty. You’d need pulses and nuts, Lots of them. Milk is much easier as a protein source. Plenty of vegetarian farmers out there too @Thelonious Monk and growing veg is hard work. The cow converting grass to milk is a lot less with the added bonus of the calf to sell or grow on to put in the freezer and manure for your veggies. All interconected like life.

There is a lady in North Kerry who eats local every September. Great idea.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/a-month-eating-only-irish-food-pricey-time-consuming-boring-1.4401218

I have veg for the year. At the moment potatoes, pumpkins, marrows, celery, red cabbage, kale, apples and beetroot. I depend on animals for protein and soil fertility. Hens are great for eggs and occasionally meat. My husband hunts and fishes for the table. We have venison and fish in the freezer. To grow my veg my neighbours cow manure is essential for soil fertility. I also gather seaweed for the micronutrients.

I buy pork and sometimes beef and lamb. I have a few acres so next year I’m hoping to get some pigs.

I also buy irish organic milk and irish grown organic food for the hens as well. A friend of mine is a beekeeper so we swap venison for honey.

People really value getting eggs as a gift kale less so.

A lot of vegan food in the shops seems highly processed with tonnes of food miles. Also a lot is not organicly certified so lots of pesticide/ insecticide application i’d assume especially if its from outside the EU.

I’ve have good vegan food in restaurants though and meals cooked by a friend from scratch. Coconut milk seemed a key part of the diet and it was fairly repetitive.

If you want to eat local I wouldn’t limit the food groups, eat whats available in season.

@Dial Hard

@Dial Hard Totally agree with your sentiments.

@bb1234567

@bb1234567Most processed food is generally shite but people are often short of time and / or cooking skills. Real food meat, veg, dried pulses is better. I think you might have hit the nail on the head there. People are probably eating too much processed food. Unlikely to be high quality food or good for the planet ...🤔

Still stihl waters 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118170447#Comment_118170447

Let's talk about all the irish meat and produce shipped around the world? farmers get supplemented to produce cheap food, take away these supplements and you'll soon see you won't be able to buy a chicken for 3.50, which I believe won't be a bad thing, there's a lot of bad farmers who wouldn't be farming but for payments

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118172977#Comment_118172977

We import millions of tonnes of soy and maize from the Americas to feed our farmed animals that are then exported and you still get this ridiculous avocados and quinoa argument from the usual idiots, even though 99% of the imported avocados are being eaten by carnivores.

Still stihl waters 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118169424#Comment_118169424

A great documentary, and something that finally made up my mind about eating red meat, I wouldn't classify myself as vegetarian but have replaced a lot of my diet with veg and salads, it's amazing how creative you can get with vegetarian dishes, i eat chicken still but have cut out 95% of red meat.

On a side note another documentary that put me off eating fish is seaspiracy, worth a watch if people are wondering about the real harm industrial fishing is doing to our world

Still stihl waters 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118172981#Comment_118172981

Exactly, the cheap food debate only seems to go 1 way I.E. the public want cheap food so we the farmer have no choice but to produce it, ignoring the fact that that most cereals are grown for animal consumption to turn it into meat for human consumption, it seems a farmers biggest customer is themselves, I'm not getting at farmers either as I realise they're just part of a bigger industrial machine they've no way of changing, but the will to change isn't there simply because they're being subsidised to keep the status quo

Andrea B.

If pigs were plants, I'ld be vegetarian.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118170495#Comment_118170495

Its a little misleading to say 90% of our beef is shipped worldwide since the vast majority is sold into Europe, almost half of the export is to the UK. Only 16% in 2020 went further than the UK and Europe. It's amazing how those who call all the farmers of boards.ie narrow minded push their ant-farmer views non stop using carefully selected statistics.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118173026#Comment_118173026

so 90% is exported, how about that? it's you lot who always bang on about imported avocados yet have no problem sending baby powder to China or importing animal feed from all around the world

@Still stihl waters 3

@Still stihl waters 3 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gapKKRTEMg8

A documentary worth watching 🐓 regarding hens.

Irish raised beef is a very different product to what you were watching in those american documentaries

https://www.farmingfornature.ie/

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118173057#Comment_118173057

Us lot? you've a lot of contempt for farmers here and know nothing about us other than grabbing the headline figures that suit your love of farmer bashing.

No need for imported feeds on this farm or many other farms in this country. I absolutely do have issue with feeds imported from certain regions.

What about Avocados?

Don't produce milk, so pretty sure I'm not sending any baby formula to China, I doubt 90% of Irish milk is going their either.

How many million tonnes of animal feed are imported from the Americas? and what animals are fed from it, seems a disproportionate amount is constantly blamed on cattle farms from you lot.