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I am not a meat eater but I don´t like labels.
I'm vegetarian.
There are six main reasons for choosing this option
(1971, "Diet for a Small Planet," Frances Moore Lappé.)
Social -
Fewer people would starve if more land was devoted to plant foods.
Vegetarian farts are sweeter smelling, less strong and less offensive.
Ecological -
It takes 15 times less arable land to produce plant foods than to produce meat, putting less stress on arable lands from human overpopulation. This includes the effects of feeding grain in intensive factory farming of livestock. It leaves more land for wilderness and non-human species to have a chance of survival.
Ruminants give off a huge amount of methane in flatulence, 20 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Reducing numbers to natural wild levels would help restore balance.
Religious -
Some people take the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," to include all animals.
Some people (brahmins, Hare Krishnas, some other Hindus, & some Buddhists) believe it is bad karma to take a life and will result in being reborn as an animal.
Jews & Muslims will choose vegetarian options at restaurants when not sure if food is Kosher or Halal.
Ethics for some atheists-
That it is wrong to deprive a sentient being of its life, except to end unavoidable suffering.
Economic -
Meat, fish, and ethically raised poultry cost five times more than a vegetarian diet.
Aesthetic -
Vegetarian foods are delicious.
Some people find the look, smell and idea of eating a previously sentient being repulsive.
Health -
A well-balanced vegetarian diet meets all needs for nutrition. Obesity & heart disease are almost unknown among vegetarians.
Vegans go a step further by rejecting eggs, diary and often also other animal products such as honey.
They do this because they believe it is absolutely wrong to cause any suffering to animals, even indirectly.
The objection to eggs applies to intensive poultry farming, inseminated or fertile eggs, and the thousands of unwanted roosters that must be slaughtered as a result of producing hens for laying.
This can be overcome by buying from ethical free range producers or raising one's own free range chooks. Roosters can be kept separately - for instance, eating insects in orchards and fertilising the trees.
The objection to diary arises from the fact of what happens to the calves. They are taken from their mothers at two weeks, which causes a furore of mooing and bleating stress among both cows and calves for around a week afterwards. The females calves are kept in cramped, filthy pens and fed on reconstituted dried milk until four weeks and then turned out to grow. The males either go straight to slaughter or are sold to be raised for (lower quality) veal or beef.
An alternative is to have one's own dairy animals, letting the calves suck milk for half of each day until they are four weeks old and begin to graze, then separating mother and offspring but leaving them in sight of one another for half of each day, taking the milk at the end of that 12 hours, and then releasing the pair back together. This produces no suffering for either. Excess males can be used to crop grass and fertilise on fallow ground and in orchards. There is always excess and this can be shared or sold.
There are several types of bee hives which allow harvesting without taking an excess that deprives the bees of their winter nutrients
Vegans are at risk of not getting sufficient B12. Inoculated fermentation of soy products (miso and tempe) and vegetable-based kefir drinks can solve this problem. Most vegans do not baulk at the consumption of bacteria.
In our area, it is not hard to get ethically produced eggs, dairy, and honey.
Vegetarian is fine, but it's a bit of a misnomer. Vegetarians may eat eggs, which aren't vegetables.
Surprise and delight at that story - never met that reason for vegetarianism before.
A recent study at Sydney University found that 9 out of 11 common brands of cat food did not meet the nutritional needs of cats. Maybe the same applies to dog foods. I suspect the industry uses pet and stock feeds as a way to make profits out of the waste from human food production.
:)
Me? I am almost vegetarian. I eat fish. I used to be total vegetarian. I think I need the oils in the fish. The Omegas. I think fish is good for me.
So, I added it back.
I am totally against the butchering of animals. I am anti-slaughterhouse. I am anti-torturing animals. So, I can't put that stuff, filled with poisonous additives and hormones we don't need that cause cancer, not to mention animal fat is not great either....in my body.
I eat dairy and fish along with a vegetarian diet. No meat, no poultry.
Couch potato.
