You are a VEGETARIAN because...?

Question

a) you think it is ethically wrong to eat animals.
b) compassion for animals.
c) spiritual/faith.
d) ecosystem. forests are cut down to provide food and grazing land for meat animals.
e) world hunger.
f) health reasons.
g) food preference.
h) all the above.
i) none the above.
explain please!

Answer 1

I became a vegetarian after I walked through a slaughter house and saw what happened. Don't get me wrong it wasn't the blood and guts that bothered me because I did a few years of med school. It was the fact that these animals were gutted alive. There are humane ways to do this but most of them don't practice it unless they are being watched. I don't have a problem with people eating meat its just they way these animals are killed for the meat that is my problem. Also, I have never been more healthier than I was when I didn't eat meat. There are some great fake meats out there and yes some of them do take getting used to but keep trying them because you may not like one but like another one. I did start eating meat again after 9 years and I am now switching back to vegge products and have already noticed me loosing weight and I feel so much better.

Answer 2

a) Yep. Sorry, but I don't feel the need to kill animals for something I don't need. I do understand that meat eaters don't think it is immoral or unethical, and I do not think they are evil for eating it. I just can't eat it.
b) Yep. Same as above. :)
c) I am not sure about much in this area, but I do know that I would not want to be reincarnated into a "food" animal, and if asked, I think I would have a hard time explaining being a part of the deaths going on in the factory farm industry at the pearly gates.
d) Not at first, but I have learned a lot about how great vegetarianism is for the environment, and I am happy to be a part of it.
e) Nope. This one is a myth. We could feed the world now if we wanted to, we have just chosen not to feed the people who cannot afford it/ don't have resources.
f) Nope. I like junk food.
g) Not really. Before I became veg, I was one of those people who always said they could never live without meat.


Thanks. This was fun.
:)

Answer 3

Currently, 'all of the above' although my initial reason was compassion for animals. When I was old enough to understand what meat *is* I didn't like the idea of eating it but it took several years before I learned that it isn't necessary to eat meat in order to survive, in fact it's healthier not to.

For the person who doesn't see aconnection between vegetarianism & world hunger: If more people were vegetarian, there would be less need to give crops such as corn, soy etc. to 'food' animals & these crops could be used as food for people. I don't have the statistics @ hand, but something like 60-80% of many food crops go to feed livestock. Also, "food" animals take up a huge amount of resources including land & water which could be used to raise crops for human consumption.

Answer 4

In order:

F) I started a low fat diet because my cholesterol began to creep up. Vegetarianism was the natural extension of a healthy diet. Then, concerns surfaced about hormone and antibiotic residues in dairy and meat products, mercury in fish, etc. I felt so good eating vegetarian I didn't see any reason to risk my health by eating meat and dairy products at all. And my numbers are good - my cholesterol went way down, and (despite all the hysterical warnings from the carnivores) my iron level is high-normal without any effort on my part (I can't say the same about calcium -- not that my level is bad, but I do actually make an effort to get enough calcium in my diet, as well as B12).

G) I've never been a big meat-eater anyway. I always was a big-time carb addict. When I was a kid and my mom would ask what I wanted for my birthday dinner, I would say "mashed potatoes, corn, hot rolls, noodles, etc." It would never occur to me that the "meat" part of the meal could be a particular treat. I felt the same way about meat as I used to feel about vegetables: some were really disgusting while others were actually edible, but for the most part they were foods that had to be "got through" to please the parents, not actually enjoyed. (That was when I was a kid, by the way: I love vegetables now).

I've always felt milk was pretty disgusting, and have not willingly drank it plain since I was nine years old. Even chocolate milk or cocoa was too "milky" for me. To be honest, I did discover I enjoy the taste of "raw" (un-pastuerized, un-homogenized) milk, but I don't think it's legal anymore.

The idea of eggs is pretty disgusting to me, although I could eat them if they didn't taste too "eggy", and if I didn't think too hard about what they are and where they come from.

However, I do like cream and butter, and I did use eggs and milk for baking and cooking, if not eating and drinking, until I became concerned about health.

B/D/F (some sort of combination). The people who say that ranch and dairy animals are happy and well-treated have clearly only passed by a few small farms with cattle grazing peacefully in meadows. There are a very few of those farms left, and I can assure you that's not where your meat is coming from. Feed-lots are enormous and the stench can be smelled for miles. That's the beef cattle. Dairy cattle, after being pumped full of hormones for a few years, are also slaughtered for human consumption ("lean" meat has a higher proportion of dairy cattle).

Even if the animals were well treated and only eaten after dying of old age, I think in the long run, vegetarianism is healthier and more sustainable ecologically. Note, however, that forests are cut down to provide farmland as well as grazing land. One of my concerns is the rate at which the rainforests in Indonesia are being destroyed for palm-oil plantations.

Answer 5

All of the above except c. I feel that it's a more spiritually sound decision, but I can't really say my religion teaches it (since I don't have one.)

Adding to Catkin's correct answer about how meat eating contributes to global hunger: in developing countries, particularly in Central America, more and more land is being given over to raising crops to feed beef cattle and/or keeping the cattle themselves. Most of that beef is exported to America so we can get more and more obese; the rest is consumed only by the few affluent folks in those countries. The poor people can't afford the meat and are being continually forced off the land on which they used to sustain themselves. In the fight for fertile land, the rich win and the poor are forced to try to feed themselves from substandard land. Young children bear the brunt of this and the child mortality rates from starvation are something that we as affluent Americans can DO something about: namely, if we reduce our demand for meat, we change the economic set-up that rewards taking fertile land out of human food production. Unfortunately, I doubt rohak1212 will come back and read the answers that follow up his ignorant one...

Answer 6

So I'm not going to lie, I became a vegetarian out of spite because i knew my parents would hate it and i was your run of the mill spoiled teenager who thought life was centrally focused upon yours truly.

And then i started reading articles in Discover and Scientific America about the poultry industry and the mass distribution of antibiotics put into feed for the animals because it is a commonly accepted myth that the Chicken actually grows at a faster rate, with said additives. However because of the additives it is quite hazardous to humans in the quantities being dolled out on these farms, and can cause the immune system in the body to create an immunity to certain antibiotics for diseases, which in essence had me making a more scientific based decision as opposed to loving animals or just having a love for the asparagus.

Answer 7

A, B, D, F, G.

I'm not at all spiritual, but I feel it is wrong to raise animals for food. It's also very damaging to the environment (animal industry does more harm to the environment than automobiles). I also had trouble digesting meat as I aged, so I stopped eating it.

I would have said world hunger, but really the problem there is not food supply, but a matter of distribution.

Answer 8

In order of my reasons as I found them (good job on your list).
f, b, a, c, d, e, g.

Edit: I missed the explain please part.
After choosing it for health reasons, and studying our diets for a long time - I realized we weren't meant to eat meat. I moved to a farm with some grazing animals and realized they shouldn't be eaten. This idea became an ethical part of my life, which in turn became a part of my spirituality.
A few years later I read some info on vegetarianism and the environment, I now use it to strengthen my argument for staying veg. And knowing that it would help environmentally, leads one to believe it would help with world hunger.
After living with a chef for a few years, I learned some tricks of the trade, and now I can cook a veg. meal to please the harshest critic.

Answer 9

h, but not so much c.
I'm a vegetarian mainly because I don't support murder!
The animals in factory farms are treated so poorly.
Also, because I'd much rather not be eating the discusting things that they force them to take like the steriods and drugs the put into them. It's disgusting.

I feel so much better morally and I feel so much better health-wise. Not eating meat gives people a lot more energy and vegetarians are prooved healthier than meat-eaters.

Answer 10

All of the above but mainly because I think it's ethically wrong, compassion for animals, environmental, and health reasons.