Fish is meat. I can’t understand for the life of me why people don’t consider it as such?
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My two cents…if it has a mother, its meat!
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This is it for a LOT of people. Do some research on “food deserts” in the US, it is eye opening! People make choices based on a lot of factors, but sometimes the difference between paying rent or defaulting on bills is buying the “cheap” chicken thighs instead of the fancy expensive more ethical options. Sometimes these options are flat out not available, and that includes a balanced plant based diet! I do my best to shop local and pick the sources of my food carefully, but a lot of people just don’t have the option due to finances or simple geography.
That’s why I will never judge someone for their personal choices - educate if they’re interested, get the word out on options (especially as big producers and chain grocery stores start hiking prices), and try to support those looking to do right by their animals and their environment. But I will NOT judge/look down on/disparage someone for making different choices than I would for myself.
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Get an incubator!!! It’s SO much fun. I have Brinseas, which are great, and pop up on marketplace or Craigslist pretty frequently.
My first broody hen was last year–after SIX YEARS of having chickens! You may be in for a long wait unless you have something really prone to broodiness 
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Oh my! I don’t want to wait that long! I will look at incubators.
I had one that was sitting on about a dozen eggs for a week. Then last week she just got up one day and never went back to them, I was sad. I guess it’s a start lol.
You should take a look at some of the “factory” farm facebook pages. They explain how and why dairy calves are raised they way they are and how well they take care of their cows. Unhappy cows don’t give as much milk so it’s on the farmers best interest to keep the cows happy. Plus the milking robots are just cool!
https://www.facebook.com › IowaDairyFarmer
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Well sure.
I don’t think this is probably true though. I think people see and know what they want to about the meat industry, and think it’s likely that many riders compartmentalize their lives and their food sources (just as most people do)
I agree. I think many people completely compartmentalize the meat industry, I know I’m guilty of it.
And the ethics of horses is a whole other can of worms. The people that do it ethically (in my opinion/definition) I find to be not a huge number. Individual ethics are a sliding scale too and people draw the line in very different places.
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I’ve spent a lot of time on dairy farms including a very large one where a friend lived for five years as a head manager. There are people who do things better than others. At the end of the day I just can’t get behind force weaning an animal because we prioritize our indulgence of a non critical food item over a calf. Just a different value set.
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A friend of mine is very severely celiac and a yoga teacher. It’s very hard for her to find food that is gluten-free period (except when she is making it at home), and eating gluten-free and vegan is damn near impossible without tearing your hair our. She gets a lot of pushback from that.
There are plenty of reasons not eating vegan or vegetarian is very hard for certain people, including increased protein needs, allergies (meat alternatives often have nuts or soy in them), or personal aversions and tastes that are very strong.
I’m a pescatarian and I consider fish meat, but I do feel better about the fishing industry, I guess, than the ag industry, although I know it’s not perfect.
What I find most ironic are people who post the most militant vegan memes yet have dogs and cats, which I presume (hope) they are feeding a meat-based diet.
I very rarely eat chicken and don’t eat red meat, and it’s rare enough for me I can go with the cruelty-free alternatives, but if I was feeding a family every day, I might have to choose differently. I admit the fact it tastes better is a factor in my decision-making!
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“Force weaning” as you call it, is about ensuring survival of a greater number of calves and pretty much nothing else.
Bottle feeding and then bucket feeding calves is a pain in the ass. It would be SO much easier if they could stay with their dams, but fewer would survive. Most of the extra deaths would be pretty nasty.
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I am lucky to live in a province with lots of small family farms still so I can easily source grass fed beef, pastured pork and chicken that hasn’t been shipped all over the continent. When you buy a side it is actually cheaper than buying from the grocery store and better quality but you have to have a big freezer and be able to come up with a relatively large chunk of change to start - that you have to have money to save money. Plenty of people still hunt here to fill their freezer so if you are nice to your neighbours you can get venison and elk as well. My husband is allergic to soy and legumes so vegan is a no even if we wanted too and we actually have to check ingredients carefully of any pre made meats (sad how many chicken burgers are full of soy protein)
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Meat being Halal does not necessarily mean the slaughter was humane. Whether the animal is allowed to be stunned or not is dependent on the choice of the imam who is present. 
I don’t know about the US, but up here in the north, it’s not mandatory to label meat as Halal butchered so for all we know (and yup, it happens) we may buy meat in the grocery store that is the product of animals that were not butchered humanely (stunned). Labelling meat Halal is a marketing thing that doesn’t go both ways unfortunately. We can avoid meat labelled Halal, but have no way of knowing whether the meat we buy that is not labelled Halal is or is not. I guess what we can do is avoid goat, lamb, mutton to limit the possibility.
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I genuinely believe it should be illegal. Doing what they do to the animals, fully conscious and still conscious for some time after the act - it’s cruelty, plain and simple. It doesn’t matter what religion you are to be able to see that fact.
And it’s not about the imam, different sects have different opinions on whether or not the animal can be stunned first, before the cut.
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I was wondering this too. Thank you for asking.
I am more wondering if it counts to the OP as a meat or not.
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Im not full blown celiac, but very much have sensitivities to wheat/gluten. Once I figured that out, the wheels started coming off the plant bus. Taking wheat out of the equation basically knocked my protein options in half.
I also am on the spectrum and get weird food stuff sometimes. I can overdo foods very easily and never want to eat them again, some texture issues as well. I get very overwhelmed with meal planning/prep which my chronic conditions don’t help with either.
With fish, I would eat fish everyday, but I the micro plastic levels and toxins are something to watch there too.
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Time to grow your own! You just need a big stock tank or pool for catfish. That’s next on our list. Catfish, tilapia, and prawns.
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I really need OP to define “meat” before I can check yes or no.
According to the conventional definition, meat is any flesh of a warm-blooded animal, such as beef, pork, lamb, and veal. Under this definition, fish is not considered meat because it is cold-blooded .
A dictionary definition of meat is the “flesh of a mammal.” So avian flesh by that definition is not meat. Neither are frog’s legs or turtle or snake.
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I try to eat fish that are low down on the food chain (like sardines) more often than bigger fish like tuna, but agreed that there is no perfect solution! And, of course, some people are allergic to fish, like another friend of mine, which limits her options. But fish are definitely high up on my list of “tastes so good, I can’t believe it’s good for me” foods!
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Interesting, I never knew of those other definitions.
The USDA definition is flesh of animals, including fish and birds.
Hopefully OP responds for their poll’s intended definition.
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