Why are you a vegetarian?

Answer 1

part of my culture and non-veg food just looks ew 2 me

Answer 2

I started because of the cost of meat.. oneday I went in to store and weiners were $2.49 a pkg.
and they use to be 99 cents. Well I never really cared all that much for meat it was just convenient!
Well I sure didn't want to pay $2.49 a pkg. I decided I'll be vegetarian. Not realizing that fish isn't vegetarian I got some fish canned sardines instead of weiners. When I tried to say I was becoming a vegetarian my friend said then why are you eating fish? I thought about it and said you're right it isn't a plant. Although other meats were easy to give up.. I had a hard time with giving up fish! I liked the taste of fish! The mercury scare got me to quite fish. I'm healthier without eating any meats. So I remain vegetarian!
I'd never go out and kill an animal so I don't really have the right to eat any!

Answer 3

I first started doing it because I did not like the fashion in which animals were brought up and slaughtered in factory farms. After the first month or so, of going vegetarian, I couldn't even think about eating meat. Once it becomes routine, you can no longer go back to meat. It's very hard and I don't think I could do it for long.

Answer 4

I started when I learned that some cows aren't properly stunned on the line in slaughterhouses causing some to be skinned alive, and have their limbs cut off while they are still conscious.

I have learned many things since then that confirmed my suspicion that the entire meat industry is guilty of similar horrors.

Answer 5

I saw a video of animals getting killed for meat...that stopped me right there. I've always loved animals, and that made me stop eating them. And, because of the lives they live before being killed.

Answer 6

I'm not strictly vegetarian, so maybe you don't think this applies to me. I'm going to answer it anyway, because my reasons for restricting animal food intake can apply to people who choose to entirely eliminate it.

Short answer: I think the issue is far more complex than simply whether an animal lives or dies, and base my decisions on environmental, human, economic, health, nature, and quality-of-life factors. So, those are my reasons.

Environmental

From an environmental standpoint, meat production is really not that hot. If it weren't such a huge industry (that is, meat foods), it probably wouldn't cause problems. Let's take cows as an example. Cows require a lot of space to grow properly. This is directly and indirectly. Native ecosystems are destroyed to make room for cattle and grain to feed the cattle. Other problems associated with the meat industry are erosion and water pollution.

Human

I don't think the way we as a society raise and consume animal foods is all that hot from a humanitarian standpoint either. One obvious reason is that it contributes (I think) to the food distribution problem. If people were growing grain to feed their country, rather than ship over here to feed our cows, there would be less of a problem with starvation. Same goes for water. It takes a LOT of water to produce meat. In short, nutritionally speaking, meat isn't the most efficient. Last, but not least: working in slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants can be hazardous due to unsafe conditions.

Economic

This is more complex and is related to all of the other reasons, so I won't really dwell on it. I guess it's akin to shopping at a local store rather than a national chain. I think meat farmers get breaks that they shouldn't. I guess it's not my own personal economy that I'm concerned about, but economics on a larger scale and what mass-production does. So it's less of a factor, but is still there.

Health

Well, this wouldn't really apply to a more traditional diet (that is, a diet that people ate back when they had to produce all their own food), but these days, we eat a lot of crap. Animal foods have a lot of cholesterol and saturated fats. We need both, but in smaller amounts. There also have been some questions about the consequences of consuming products that comes from animals raised with hormones, antibiotics, etc. For example, American girls reach puberty a lot earlier than they used to. Furthermore, the rise of bacteria-resistant diseases might be due in part to the overuse of antibiotics. Some of these antibiotics might be passed on to humans through animal foods.

Nature

I think, basically, that humans eat a heck of a lot more meat than we're supposed to. While we certainly have the digestive system of omnivores, it more closely resembles that of herbivores (on the business ends, at least). Our teeth are designed mostly for chewing, whereas carnivores have teeth designed mostly for tearing (we have four tearing-type teeth). Our colons also are more like herbivore colons. This indicates to me that maybe we should be going after more plants. Our lifestyle these days points the same way. We need less energy-dense fat and protein calories because we're not spending our lives running away from something that wants to eat us or after something that we want to eat. We also are beyond our need for the "feast or famine" instinct. Our hardwiring just hasn't caught up yet.

Quality of Life

I'm obviously talking about the animals here. I myself am not comfortable contributing to an industry that keeps animals in unnatural, dirty, crowded environments. There are farms out there that raise their animals in pastures and allow them to eat what they choose naturally. They don't fill them with growth hormones, or antibiotics, and generally treat them the way that they were designed to be treated. I don't have a problem with killing animals for food, as it's perfectly natural. I merely object to the way most producers go about doing it.

Answer 7

I married one vegetarian that`s why i have to become one

Answer 8

The Way animals are treated is espeicialy cruel. If you would like to see why then here is the URL to a video of it. I want to warn you though it is gruesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIjanhKqVC4

Answer 9

Personally, I think eating animals is just plain gross. I don't want any part of a dead animal inside of me if I can avoid it.
Secondly, I think animals are better alive than on a bun.
Thirdly, I think an animal's parts belong to it, not me. :)

Answer 10

because the treatment animals go through before and during slaughter is extremely cruel. it's not just about killing animals, but about the lives the animals must endure before they are killed. if you want detailed information on it go to www.peta.org. they have videos and articles on it.

and if youre thinking of becomming one, you should. its not that hard to give up meat cause there are plenty of meat supplements that taste almost the same and are really good.

Answer 11

I just don't believe animals are ours to exploit. In my world view every living creature is an equal....equally important, and with equal rights.

The manner in which animals are raised and slaughtered for meat is also just horrible and frightening.