vegetarians

[heatqueen]

A question I randomly thought of: If your boyfriend/girlfriend is a vegetarian are you allowed to kiss them if you've just eaten meat?

[SwissBoy88]

erm... I doubt that it's forbidden....

[Gerry]

I'm a vegetarian but my boyfriend is not. And that's a good question, I haven't thought of that one before. But I would say that I have kissed him after eating and he probably had some sort of meat...

[xequar]

Lol, you've reminded me of a funny moment from last night. One of our friends is a vegan, and one of our other friends, after a series of events, yelled, "TASTE MY MEAT BREATH!" Of course, she was like, "Get away bla bla blah," so I asked if her if that would be a violation of being vegan.

Her response? "I don't know, but I'm going to say yes so he doesn't do that anymore!"

[theJosephDean]

My boyfriend and I are both vegetarians, and we've joked that if one of us ever did go back to eating meat, kisses would cease In all seriousness though, I don't think I could date a non-vegetarian... not for anything against the person, of course, but just because eating meat and knowing that the person has just makes me shudder. There's always exceptions, obviously (i.e. frantic rage-brushing of teeth), but just as a general rule. I'm just glad I wouldn't have to reach that point with him :P

[Darkwing65]

I'm a vegetarian and i don't think i'd have a problem with kissing someone right after they ate mean. That's there problem.

[partietraumatic]

I'm not sure I could date someone who is a vegetarian

[Chandra]

I'm vegetarian, and the only kiss-refusing I'd take part in is if there were some kind of nasty stinky meat-breath involved. Yech. But happily that is never the case.

[TheInquisitor]

I'm a vegetarian, and the point is that it's not some religious law send down from on high that all meat is unclean and not a particle of it may touch me. It's about minimising the amount of animal suffering I benefit from and am indirectly responsible for. No more animals are harmed if I kiss my girlfriend when she has a bit of cow flesh in her teeth. It is however, icky. But it's not much worse than if I have spinach in my teeth.

Also, your boyfriend or girlfriend is made of meat and you put parts of them in your mouth. Just saying.

[heatqueen]

Originally Posted by TheInquisitor

Also, your boyfriend or girlfriend is made of meat and you put parts of them in your mouth. Just saying.

This is an excellent point

[Pseudojim]

Originally Posted by heatqueen

This is an excellent point

hahaha, agreed. best ever!

[Chandra]

Yeah, but you don't... eat them... and I sure hope nobody's putting their mouth on a cow in the same way they would their gf/bf...

[TheInquisitor]

Originally Posted by Chandra

Yeah, but you don't... eat them...

That makes me wonder, do vegans spit or swallow? It is an animal product after all

Originally Posted by TheInquisitor

That makes me wonder, do vegans spit or swallow? It is an animal product after all

Swallow. They need the extra protein!

But in all seriousness, I kiss my boyfriend after he eats meat. I've loosened my stance on meat eating after I realized my previous thoughts were irrational. He is now making a real effort to buy organic, free range meats. And that's all I can really ask of him!

[TheInquisitor]

Originally Posted by Numfarh

I've loosened my stance on meat eating after I realized my previous thoughts were irrational

I'd be curious to know what aspects of your stance were irrational and how you came to that conclusion. I sometimes wonder about the rationality, morality and effectiveness of it. It's mostly out of habit at this point.

Originally Posted by Numfarh

He is now making a real effort to buy organic, free range meats. And that's all I can really ask of him!

This is really quite off-topic, but since you self-identify as a skeptic I thought you might be interested in what some in the skeptical community have said about organic farming. There's a couple of episodes of the "Skeptoid" podcast about it. Google: skeptoid organic to find them if you're interested.

Free range is good though

[zeratul]

If I was in love with a vegetarian, I would stop eating meat.

Originally Posted by TheInquisitor

I'd be curious to know what aspects of your stance were irrational and how you came to that conclusion. I sometimes wonder about the rationality, morality and effectiveness of it. It's mostly out of habit at this point.

This is really quite off-topic, but since you self-identify as a skeptic I thought you might be interested in what some in the skeptical community have said about organic farming. There's a couple of episodes of the "Skeptoid" podcast about it. Google: skeptoid organic to find them if you're interested.

Free range is good though

Oh. I'm aware of the pluses and minuses of organic farming. It really isn't the ultimate solution to the world's agricultural problems, but from my own research as well as what I was taught in my entomology classes, it is a step in the right direction. There needs to be greater education about chemical resistance and over-fertilization amongst farmers if we are to continue to grow agriculturally without harming other natural resources (eutrophication being a problem with run-off from fertilizers). In many ways, biological controls such as specially designed bacteria, introduction of parasitoids/parasites and pesticides derived from the toxins produced by these organisms are much more cost effective.

So yes, I'm not a crazy hippy, but I have weighed the benefits and found it a worthy cause to support. And it really has nothing to do with healthy living. It is really more or less based on evolutionary biology and ecology. I certainly don't believe that organic foods are healthier for you!

As for the irrationality, I had oversimplified my definition of personhood. To state it simply: I widened my net of what I considered to be a person when I came to the conclusion that a reasonable method of testing for sentience would be to evaluate an animal's personality. That is to say, does this species exhibit multiple different personality traits that can't be simply attributed to genetic inheritance (so C. elegans could be ruled out for example). I feel that it may be an oversimplification of the problem.

Without adequate research to support my claims, it was silly to assume that animals have the same type of cognitive processes that we have. It is very clear that certain animals feel pain in very real ways and that they can form long-lasting bonds with each other, but how much of that results of "true thinking"?

Still, I feel very strongly that there should be humane treatment of these animals if we are going to slice and dice them up.

I am a vegetarian mostly for the environmental reasons now as I feel that the pollution and contribution to greenhouse gas emissions by factory farming to be alarming. I used to eat fish, but I found that most of the fish I truly enjoyed eating are not doing so well in the wild and figured I would speak with my wallet.

So those are my reasons. Not perfect and I'm still re-examining and working on them, but I think that re-evaluating our food industry is something that really needs to be looked into.

Originally Posted by zeratul

If I was in love with a vegetarian, I would stop eating meat.

Lol I think I would stop eating meat too.

[Pseudojim]

Originally Posted by silvousplait

Lol I think I would stop eating meat too.

i easily could. i LOVE vegetarian food, some of the tastiest food i have ever had is vegetarian. But i'm too damn lazy and too damn apathetic to make the switch. I know i wouldn't be apathetic if i read a little more about the horrible effect the human meat addiction causes, but i'm too damn lazy to go and read about it.

And cheap, too damn cheap, too.

[MusicIsLife]

I dated a non-vegetarian twice. But I'm vegan so in all honesty it grosses me out more if she has milk breath as opposed to meat breath, which I know sounds weird.