I am often asked why I am a vegetarian. I always find it a hard one to answer as the reasons have evolved over time and now cover a large range of factors. I think it is a subject where the more you learn the more amo you accumulate to "justify" (as if you need to) the stance and the inconvenience that it causes within a omnivirous society.
1. Economic reasons: Meat is expensive - even when I did eat meat it was mainly cheaper cuts. I think the economic reason was why I initially cut down on my meat intake as it was hell of a lot cheaper to not buy meat. That was back when I was first flatting. I could buy a lot more food with a fixed amount than if I included meat. I could concentrate on getting good food with the budget I had. Beans, rice, seasonal veges etc are comparitively cheap.
Latterly my family primarily buys organic food. I feel that the savings through not having meat on the food bill goes some way to help cover the premium prices of organic food (In NZ there is a big difference between organic and non-organic prices)
2. Health Benefits: I have read many studies that link health benefits to excluding meat from your diet. I don't see too much dispute within the research that it halves (or more) the incidents of heart disease and cancers. This was fairly compelling stuff. (I'l try and find some links)
I also knew from my own experience that my body did not react well to eating meat. I would get at stress reaction where my muscles would go tense and I would get insomnia after eating meat. This was indicating to me that It may not be so good for me.
3. Conscience: It makes me feel good to know that animals are not being killed unnecesarily to feed me. I have heard a comment that goes something like: "In some situations eating animal flesh is a necessary evil, when there are other alternative it is not necessary so is just an evil".
4. Environmental: The huge numbers of domesticated animals is a distortion of the animal distributiions. Natural wild animal habitats are removed to make way for a very limited diversity of domesticated animals along with the effluent, wormers, drenches, carcases, etc that are added to the environment. This is a distortion of the range of animals that would otherwise occupy the countryside. There is also all of the land that has been cleared to make way for these pastures.
4. Meat is inefficient food. I have seen figures that show that if we only produced vegetarian food we could produce the same quantities as we currently do with a quarter less cultivated land than we currently use. Dispite what the Green revolution people claim - the world is not short of food even now the surplus's are in the wrong place. In the US cattle are used as a "protein sink" to dispose of the excess of grain and soybean that is being produced due to the distortions caused by farmer protections and subsidies.
5. I feel to be part of a 'movement'. My individual actions do make a difference. Friends and colleagues are aware that I am vegetarian so I believe that they will see that it can be done and each time they question me either openly or to themselves they will also have a spark of a question to themselves. "why do I eat meat?". I believe that most meat eating is due to upbringing, habit and social perseverence. We would never normally question the wisdom of it unless there is some prompt.
6. Following on from the above, another reason is logic. I am an analyst who has looked at meat eating and decided that there is no logic behind it. Essentially it is un-necessary and bad for our wellbeing and health. I do not like to do something I can not honestly justify so I can more easily justify being vegetarian than eating meat. I have read an argument that compares the logic of meat eating to that of smoking - it is bad for you, it is a habit, it gives a percieved sense of pleasure, it causes harm to others (in this case animals).
It would be an interesting debate to hear the other side - someone justifying why they eat meat. Do people who eat meat research it to convince themselves of the merits (I certainly did not when I ate meat). I would expect that the only lines delivered to justify it would be based upon meat industry marketing babble regarding the iron and protien benefits of meat rather than researched verification.
