The words mote and beam suggest themselves as does the inadvisablity of stone throwing for those who live in glazed premises.

Those in the US who enjoy cheap food should enquire about the conditions of pigs and chickens.
Remember that cow with BSE?
It was too weak to walk to the slaughterhouse.

Neo, the only reason your romaine looks and acts the way it does is because some poor field hand peed on it before it got to Naples.

Josser---I totally agree about the BSE thing. I think the way we treat our meat in general is dispicable. I have friends in UK who won't eat meat because of madcow, but their meat is checked far more often than ours!! So only Lord knows how many cases of BSE is actually in our cattle.

If I were better at combining proteins then I would lay off meat and poultry altogether.

Ducks and geese in the wild will gorge themselves and expand their livers before migration...these guys are going to be table food anyway so they might even enjoy not having to forage.

I've never tried foie gras, but I just may have to now. As the son of a West Texas rancher who grew up around a working cattle ranch, I have no sympathy for these animal rights crusaders, most of whom have never been in close proximity to the animals they claim to love (like so many environmental activists who live in cities but want to dictate how rural people use their land).

So, as a foie gras neohpyte, how do I eat this stuff? We've got a grocery store here in town that has a gourmet and foreign food section where I've seen it in the display cases, but I have no idea how one is supposed to eat it.

I am in St Remy at the moment and had the most incredible foie gras salad for dinner tonight. When I took the first bite, it may have been my imagination but I don't think so, three people stopped eating. I don't think I was moaning. Guess the only thing I'm gonna be eating in Chicago is the Vienna Beef Hot Dogs.

twk, if you can, go to a good French restaurant for your first foie gras experience and have them prepare it. That said, it's not difficult to do, just requires careful attention. I love sauteed foie gras - warm and buttery on little rounds of toast or over salad!

Here's two to try:
Sauteed Foie Gras
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/re...s/views/105578

Classic Terrine of Foie Gras
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/re...s/views/104376

I love to eat piles of foie gras whilst wrapped in my mink coat and wearing my crocodile Jimmy Choo boots.

Hi PalQ.

Let me congratulate you on your decision to become a vegetarian. But as an almost vegetarian who does eat fish, let me tell you that the derision will not stop with this. Some people will always be eager find some weakness of yours--maybe you're unwilling to give up eggs for instance--and be eager to call you a hypocrite. And instead of congratulating you on your doing what little you can to end suffering, in whatever form, they will tell you what you should be concentrating on instead. Child labor, for instance.

I recently participated in an effort to keep factory pig farms, along with some of their cruelest practices, out of my state. You should have heard the derision that was aimed my way. People were furious that I would ask them to support such a cause when children are being abused. Very strange logic, if you ask me. How do they know what I do or don't do to stop child abuse?

Another example. An acquaintance who eats meat pointed out my 20 year-old leather belt as a sign of my hypocrisy, ignoring that I haven't bought leather in years and go through a lot of trouble and expense finding decent non-leather shoes. Others can't get past the fact that I still eat fish. Well, I'd like to give it up but am finding it difficult. That's not hypocrisy. It's weakness. And it doesn't detract from the fact that the factory pig and cattle farms do not have my financial support.

It's just something many people can't help. Rather than turning inward and asking themselves what they could do end the unnecessary suffering of animals (like geese) they can't conceive of themselves as needing to change a thing about themselves. So they make fun of other people who are more compassionate than themselves--like you. Or they call them hypocrites.

PalQ, it's a process. Do what you can do today. Tomorrow you may be able to do a little more. Don't let ignorant people discourage you.

"...almost vegetarian who does eat fish..."

No offense guy18, but you're no where near being a vegetarian - your eating another living thing's body. Reminds me of someone who posted here saying she doesn't eat meat but will eat duck and poultry. Chicken is the other white meat but duck isn't. The mental gymnastics some people do is amazing.

I don't care for sport hunting of any type - and I think the way factory farms raise and kill cattle, pigs, chickens, etc is cruel and unhealthy to the environment and us. Factory farms provide cheap tasteless food.

Until humans stop growing canine teeth I'm going to figure that nature intended us to be carnivores.

I live in farm and ranch country. My neighbors run cattle and its all rather idyllic.

Factory farms are another matter. They're vile and pollute the enviorment.

C.P. Did you even read my post? No mental gymnastics about it. And you're right. I'm NOT a vegetarian. But I do what I can.

yes, and those synthetic materials you have in your shoes and belts don't pollute the enviroment??

How odd that the entire point of my post seems to have gone over the heads of jody and c.p. Why don't you both read it again?