Hi Bob. Well, I speak strictly as an atheist, so factor that opinion into what I have to share here, but I would agree with your 'situational' approach to being an omnivore with a vegan conscience. This is definitely NOT a perfect world and if there IS a Supreme Being (of the Christian persuasion), I'm sure he would forgive your exceptionalism; if on the other hand there is NO Supreme Being, it matters not in the slightest anyway.

I admire your desire to do the 'right thing' with regard to other animals by consuming non-meat foodstuffs, as well as your earnest desire to help preserve the Earth's fragile natural eco-balance, but let's face it: as long as there is one other Homo sapiens sharing the planet with you, the best intentions will fail to have much of an impact on the foregoing status, given the wildly fluctuating vagaries of basic human nature.

My personal take? Do the best that you can to balance all those good intentions of yours, given the circumstances that present themselves. This seems to be your approach and it is commendably reasonable. We must always be flexible in our encounters with the fixed realities that present themselves, QED, since survival as an organism depends upon this to a large part.

I feel compelled to point out in passing all the very recent work being done in the biological sciences (particularly in botanical studies) which suggest that biological organisms we have thus far NOT credited with so-called 'sentience' (like Goldfish, Banana Slugs and most especially TREES) may actually have a form of thus-far little understood 'sentience'...therefore suggesting that our desire to not inflict pain & suffering on other life forms is somewhat incomplete and not fully based. Even assuming that we do NOT have a full and complete understanding of what constitutes 'reasonable sentience', this lessens the aesthetic impact of the 'do no harm' dictum so many try to adhere to in daily living. [Frederich Nietzsche would disagree, as would a host of existentialists, I'm sure, but we won't further muddy the waters of this colloquy will we, eh? ;)) ] -K2