Whenever someone tries to point out the "inconsistency" in my not eating beef but wearing leather shoes, I just patiently explain that I do not, in fact, eat my shoes, so it's never been a problem for me.

On another note, tofu is delicious. I live in Asia, so I'm able to get tons of varieties at the local convenience stores. I eat the hard thin kind as a snack. Yum!

lisaz:

Whenever someone tries to point out the "inconsistency" in my not eating beef but wearing leather shoes, I just patiently explain that I do not, in fact, eat my shoes, so it's never been a problem for me.

The obvious question is, "Why do you choose not to eat meat?" If it is because of a moral outrage, or to quote from the original story "I suddenly realized that I could never look a cow in the eyes, press a knocking gun to her temple, and pull the trigger without feeling I'd done something cruel and unnecessary" then it most certainly IS a contradiction.

Explain how it is unjustifiable to kill to eat, but not to kill to wear. I find it much more distasteful to kill for clothes than food- I can always move to a warmer clime and be nude, but I cannot live long without food.

As far as eating shoes- plenty of starving people have resorted to boiling and eating leather boots/shoes- so it does happen.

Doc

"Explain how it is unjustifiable to kill to eat, but not to kill to wear." She did not say it is unjustifiable to kill to eat. Perhaps she simply finds the act of eating flesh repulsive. That said, it is certainly possible to see leather as a by-product of animals that are being killed for their meat, which, for the most part, it is.

I choose not to eat meat because I have more energy and feel healthier when I don't eat it. I also think it's a little disgusting, but that's probably because I haven't had any for a while.

I didn't say that it's unjustifiable. I said that I don't do it. There are a lot things that are justifiable that I don't do.

As for eating shoes, what other people do doesn't have anything to do with the dietary choices that I make. Even if people ate their shoes for fun, it doesn't change the fact that *I* don't eat my shoes, and I don't eat meat. I never said that it didn't happen, just that I don't do it.