Why are you a vegetarian - Page 2

[mamaveggie]

Back in 2002 I saw a show on pbs about chickens. It wasn't skewed either way, but it did show some factory farming that was just horrible. That was the end of eating meat for me, so I would have to say ethical reasons. I switched over to free range eggs and went vegan for a few months, but I've been vegetarian for almost 8 years now and I can't foresee myself eating meat ever again.

[vegemamato]

Originally Posted by rhubarbarin

The cows didn't feel a thing

Maybe the cows shown in that particular episode didn't mind, but I still don't see how you can claim this. From my quick research, I read about many burns and accidents from flame-clipping. Although it can be painless, it isn't always..

(also, I highly doubt they would have aired a cow who was accidently burned, I'm sure the advertisers would have a brick)

[vintagetroll]

for me it started as health reasons- I was pre diabetic after having a gestional diabetic insulin dependent pregnancy and with alot of research a low fat vegan diet was my best chance to reverse it. And it did. I still get it when pregnant but it saved my health.

but it never was NOT about the ethics to me either. I just don't believe I have a right to torture an animal just so I can enjoy the taste of something. And I have always felt this way because I come from a family of hunters. It has been drilled into me that animals deserve respect and are to be treated humanely. That just doesn't gel with factory farming. In fact before becoming strict vegetarian for years my husband and I only ate venison that came from either my father or him. My husband still occasionally eats hunted game but myself and our children will not till they are old enough to understand the gravity of what eating meat really means.

so when I feel like slipping due to ethics the health part of me takes over. When I am like F it with the health the ethics take over. And I am super stoked its better for the enviroment too but I wouldn't say its a reason why I am.

oh and I am also a nutrition nut. I flirted with the idea of having that be a career actually. So pumping us full of whole grains and veggies is like a wonderful hobby to me. I am no junk food vegan, and wouldn't ever be if that is what it took. We are a whole foods advocates first and foremost.

[KaylaBeanie]

It makes me physically sick to think of eating a dead animal. I wouldn't eat my dogs. In fact, if my dogs died, I would be absolutely inconsolable and heartbroken. Therefore, it makes no sense to me to eat dead animals just because they aren't my pets. I have never seen those PETA scare-tactic videos, nor will I ever. For me, being a vegetarian is a huge sacrifice. I love meat. Not eating meat limits my diet, since I am a very picky eater. However, it is a sacrifice that is well worth it. I have to say, the thing I miss the most is pepperoni. I used to eat that turkey pepperoni as a snack. I have tried the veggie pepperoni, it tasted like rubber.

[mama_kass]

By not eating meat I am:

Preventing disease and illness

Saving lives

Helping the planet

That's the short version. Best to keep it simple.

[Organique Gal]

My decision to stop eating meat was a long and gradual process over a period of about 5 years. Different meats started grossing me out until I was only able to eat organic free run chicken and turkey. It was a texture thing for the most part... grissle, fat, bones... Ugh... Not good. Then at Thanksgiving dinner 2008 I decided that was going to be my last meat, and I haven't touched it since.

I'm an octo vegetarian, I don't eat dairy (currently on an 8 month cleanse and may or may not resume eating dairy at some point... but only organic local sources if I do) or soy (allergies). Eggs gross me out too, but I find I really need the protein in the mornings or I'm famished and grumpy all day. Protein drinks just don't cut it. :/ I try not to look at them while they are cooking, but once they are cooked I'm fine... :

Interestingly, after becoming vegetarian, I started seeing more animal cruelty cases in my own neighborhood. The worst was seeing hundreds of live chickens being shipped from a chicken farm in tiny cases stacked on top of each other, pooping all over each other. The stench was so intense I dry heaved when I drove by. Very sad...

As for the health aspect, I haven't really noticed any difference there.

[wytchywoman]

My journey of veg*nism started years ago when I became really sick with a virus and my body started violently rejecting meat and animal products. I've toyed around with it off and on over the years, but recently I witnessed something that absolutely broke my heart and made me really resolute not just about being vegetarian but gave me that extra push to become a vegan,

Warning......not for the faint of heart or overly hormonal












1) I was watching Iron Chef and watched a live lobster struggle to save itself while a chef unceremoniously shoved it into a pot of boiling water

2) I was driving behind a semi truck that was hauling cattle when a little baby calf stuck it's sweet little nose out and was sniffing around and looking straight at me. It was the most beautiful little thing I've ever seen aside from my own kids and it devastated me that it was being hauled somewhere in the back of a semi truck. At best it was taken away from it's mom who is a dairy cow, at worst it is now veal. I started crying and knew then that I could not ever again eat meat or cow dairy products. I'm done participating in that. I figured since I'm not eating meat or dairy, I might as well be kind to chickens and bees and just become straight vegan.

[smallmama]

I object to torturing and killing sentient creatures. Especially since becoming a mother, all I can think of when I see a glass of milk is that there's a mama cow out there somewhere who just wanted to snuggle and nurse her baby (just like I did) but instead they were forcefully separated and she was hooked up to machines that didn't care if she got mastitis or anything else.

The health benefits and environmental benefits are certainly very nice side effects, but for me the ethical reasons reign highest.

[Shaki]

I've been vegetarian for 23 years. Stopped eating meat at 17 because I was old enough then to make my own choices about what to cook and eat (in other words my parents were no longer in charge of those choices), and from the time of being a small child had not liked meat or the idea of eating a dead animal.

I'm aware off the environmental impact, factory farming, etc. But the real base reason-and the reason I think that it's never been a struggle for me--is that I simply don't like it.

[BeanyMama]

Primarily for the animals, followed closely by for family's health, followed closely by for the environmental impact, followed closely by because it's icky.

[anne1140]

1. The way they treat animals on factory farms is disgusting.
2. Environmental impact
4. I can easily survive without meat. It was easy for me to give up.
3. Health

in that order.

I've been a vegetarian for, oh, 6 years now? Barring a developed problem where eating meat would be much healthier for me, I don't plan on going back.

I did try to be a vegan in college and managed it for a month. I love dairy so, so much.

[nolansmummy]

1. Environmental
2. Health
3. Ethics

[Turquesa]

Ethics. Why inflict violence on an animal when it is not vital to my survival?

[onyxravnos]

I have lots of reasons including think humans were not ment to eat meat as a main staple but really its ethics: as in if i were presented with a cow i would pet it and name it betsy i would not be able to kill it.

If i'm not willing to kill the animal how can i ethically eat meat just because someone else did the dirty work. i'm also not against hunting or even farmers who butcher their own as the animals have a normal life and they are willing to kill it go ahead and eat it. I on the other hand can not kill poor besty.

[Ahappymel]

Originally Posted by seashells

I hadn't heard of it either until a couple of weeks ago! A flexitarian describes one of those semi-vegetarians that used to, until the advent of the word, pass themselves off as vegetarians (either out of ignorance or out of a desire to not describe ad nauseum how they are mostly but not totally vegetarian).

Just want to say that I think it's great when people who are not truly vegetarian do not call themselves so

[Ahappymel]

Oh! My reasons:

1) Out of respect for animals (do not want to kill them). I realize that some do it for survival on this planet but I really wish that animal eating was kept to a minimum when there are so many alternatives out there.

2) Environmental impact.

3) Health : )

[amber913]

I don't feel it's right to kill something for food, when it's not necessary nutritionally. I also don't approve of how animals are kept. I feel they have rights and feelings, and shouldn't be treated like walking food.

I'm slowly becoming vegan because it's healthier. Our milk, eggs and dairy come from local, organic sources, so the possibility of animal cruelty isn't so much an issue there. (DH works for the CSA co-op, so he see the farms.)

Now as to what i tell people when they ask...i lean more towards "it's healthier". That's a less debatable reason. i hate debating it with people and will tell them "i don't want to talk about it" if they challenge me.

[gingerbane]

I am not intrinsically against eating meat. I would eat free range animals (if they were available here - they're not) or raise my own animals for consumption (if that was an option where I live - it's not).

I cannot condone however, the meat "industry," their practices of confinement and torture while animals are alive, and their often faulty methods of "quickly" killing animals.

I believe in eating meat (if you want to) but not the way it's done today. (Please no flames!)

[russsk]

I stopped eating meat because I could not eat animals that were so inhumanely treated and poorly fed. I did not know there were alternatives (I was 10). Now, though, I mostly don't eat meat because I don't eat meat. It's been so long that it's just not something I do, if that makes sense. I remember liking chicken and fish as a kid, but I always hated beef so it's never really been difficult for me. I feed my family pasture-raised meat from a local farmer I trust and respect that's been butchered in a small, family owned facility. I think that it's healthy for them, though I believe that industrial meat is very unhealthy and wasteful.