It's not extreme at all. Plenty of cultures/people have lived primarily as vegetarians for thousands, if not tens of thousands of years.
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You are being less than honest here; agriculture just hasn’t been around that long. The first rudimentary plow is maybe 5000 years old. Sure there weren’t as many people on the earth to feed as there is now, and that’s a good thing because with ancient farming practices you just couldn’t feed that many people.
So as far as long practitioners of vegetarianism; I guess Hindus would be one of the longest practicing groups with a sizable population, and history to track. 2500 years sound fair to you? The problem is they don’t really practice vegetarianism, not that they don’t try, they just can’t. Sanitation is their problem, along with bathing in that filthy river every day; they eat a lot of bugs. They accidentally ingest so many bugs in their diet that it forms a complete protein. Although we have a few grass hoppers and ants ground up in our cheerios, sadly just not enough, so American vegetarian’s need supplements to survive.
Personally I think ancient man ate a lot of plants, and anything else he could get his hands on, and that’s how our digestive system evolved. I think it’s a bit extreme to flip a switch and go to an all plant diet only, but whatever floats your boat.
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It's only in the past hundred years or so that we've seen the consumption of animals become a factory-driven exploitation. If you have no conscience, then I guess you don't care about the vile, shaming-the-human-name kind of treatment they give to factory animals. I don't know, maybe you can taste the torture and you like it.
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If animal rights are your thing then good for you; just please don’t tell me vegetarianism is the only answer to combat factory farming. There is a large movement in this country looking for an alternative to this problem. I have helped build five chicken coops in my middle class neighborhood in the last couple of years. I have purchased two irrigated acres for my son’s 4-h project. His steer will be grass fed, brushed and massaged daily, then eaten.
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BadMofo how long have you been? I loved meat until a year ago, now I can't go back.
What are your staples? I just eat a lot of beans, grains, nuts, veggies, fruits, soy, take a multivitamin etc.