Very upsetting for animal lovers, but important.

[blue]

I think what you're heading for looks like veganism,Beth.I used to have a vegan girlfriend,and life for her could be pretty tricky.Yep,lots of consulting labels.You have to give up a lot of nice things like most alcohol (isinglass-fishscales-is used to clarify beer among other things); leather shoes/goods/BOOTS etc etc.

Actually the leather goods thing is kind of a non-issue for me anyway - I've never had any desire to wear a leather coat/jacket because I think they look kind of tacky, it's just not my style, and I've never worn belts in my life. Currently I don't have a leather handbag, I'm into fabric ones at the moment. My purse is leather, but that can go. Shoes/boots I don't think would be too much of a problem, there are lots of nice synthetic kinds these days, I wouldn't mind that.

I think I could live quite happily as a vegan actually, except that I'd be worried about giving up milk and yogurts due to lack of calcium. I might have to do a little research tomorrow on that, I'm sure there must be other ways of getting calcium. I don't eat cheese or eggs very much as it is, so giving them up would pose no problem.

I'm sad about wine, though. I'd have to go back to drinking gin! Although I'll probably discover now that spirits too are made with a bit of dead animal thrown in for taste.

[blue]

I'm fully vegetarian since 2002 and I really want to tell the price of meatless meals is much lower than one with meat.

This is a really good point, Alex. I noticed the difference today, doing a shop that didn't include any meat or fish. Nowhere near as much as I usually spend. I'm well stocked up with veggies, pasta, rice, dried pulses for homemade soups, and we've actually eaten really well and healthily today. I think this could be a very good decision for my pocket and my health, as well as my conscience.

We already need 2 to 5 times the surface of Earth I we would need to feed correctly the whole world at the same level of modern quality life we are used to live. So I guess it worth to try to feed in a new way from time to time. Your grand children will thank you for that.

Another perspective that I hadn't really considered, till now. This is something I need to learn a bit more about, so if you've got any links I'd appreciate them, Alex. *

* I just wiki'd veganism and found lots of links to information about the environmental cost of animal based agriculture. Interesting reading for tomorrow.

[paul-pgss]

Very upsetting for animal lovers, but important : when you eat animals they need to be killed first

That's why I've been a vegetarian for two years now. I just couldn't live with the fact that I was partly responsible for keeping an industry of killing harmless animals. Frankly, I don't miss eating flesh anymore but in the beginning it was hard to find something nice to eat without using flesh.