Why are you vegetarian/vegan?

WildBoots

Hi folks! I'm just wondering why you chose to become a vegetarian/vegan? It seems that most people do it for ethical or environmental reasons. For me, I adopted a plant based diet because I feel it is a lot healthier than a diet high in meat. What about you?

SomeFool

Same reasons really, never ate much meat though, mostly processed stuff like burgers or nuggets which I packed in at about 15 or 16. I'm probably 50% freaked out at where meat comes from and 50% healthy if that makes sense??

maameeo

I'd be 100% freaked out about where it comes from. i dont think its right that something has to die so i can eat. there is plenty of food in the world (good food i might add) that doesnt involve killing to make. I understand there was a time we had to kill to eat, to survive, but now we dont so i choose not to

YFlyer

For health reasons and I lost the taste of meat.

Ms. Koi

I don't agree with eating animals. I think it's cruel and unnecessary. I enjoy carrots more than the rabbit
Let the bunnies and cows live!

Irish Guitarist

I used to feed swans and ducks at the river. I felt like a hypocrite giving them bread and then going home and eating chicken or something so I stopped eating meat.

I had made another attempt to be a vegetarian a few years earlier but I didn't do a very good job. I've become more attached to animals over the last few years so I've stuck with it this time.

Absurdum

cuz I HATE vegetables

Tar.Aldarion

My answer damn you! 'Because I hate plants!'


For ethical reasons, I don't need to kill to eat, and it is wasteful really. So I don't. I have no right. No problem eating something if it is going to be thrown out though, like meat. Just haven't yet. Analyzing the slippery slope aspect before I ever try that first.

ElaElaElano

Sometimes when people ask me why, and I tell them it's for ethical reasons, their response is "so you think you not buying meat is going to stop them being killed do you?"...now I'm normally a very calm guy but that písses me off no end...it's like saying, "well, if I don't support fascism it won't stop existing so pass me the bedsheet and call me Adolf".

Sheer stupidity.

soccymonster

Everyone asks me this I guess I wanted to challenge myself at the time and try something new but now I actually feel way healthier and better in myself so that's one of the reasons that keeps me at it, I guess.

Coleyoscar

I became a vegetarian for ethical reasons, because I felt it was wrong for us to kill animals for food when there are so many alternatives available. Of course, once you become a vegetarian you realise you have a wonderful selection of food available to you; you're healthier; you're not prone to many of the diseases caused by eating meat; you're not as prone to putting on weight and you limit animal suffering. Join us!

Mark Hamill

People are meat and I dont eat people, so why should I eat animals?

itchyblood

I went veggie a month ago for ethical reasons mainly, though I've lost a good bit of weight since I have to think twice before cooking meals. I got a job working for my neighbour feeding her animals. She has a pet pig and I found out pigs are actually smarter than dogs, generally. I wouldn't kill a dog to eat, so why should I kill a pig? It's just cruel and there are so many other ways to eat.

rcaz

Sustainability! I dunno if anyone has read the Observer Food Monthly vegetarian special that came out on Sunday, but there's a pretty interesting article about the environmental impacts of eating meat. Some very interesting figures - 30% of available ice-free land on the planet is used for livestock, a pound of potatoes takes 60lbs of water to grow, while a pound of beef takes 20,000lbs of water, so much of our fossil fuels go into producing fertiliser, pumping water, fueling transport, refrigeration, etc., all for the production, processing and sale of meat.

sweet-rasmus

Sounds like a good read. I've heard similar water stats before and the figures speak for themselves. Pity it's too late to buy that Observer! Maybe the piece is on the net somewhere...

laurashambles

A few different reasons for me. It started out as an ethical thing but as time went on meat started to gross me out a little. It's hard to explain to meat eaters, but the fact that there is a DEAD THING on your plate and you're supposed to PUT IT IN YOUR MOUTH AND EAT IT started freaking me out. I actually can't eat a lot of the fake meat products because they taste too much like the real thing to me.
Factory farming and the environment come into it for me too. I don't think it's wrong to eat meat but I do think that people eat far more of it than they need and the ways in which most meat is produced is monstrous.

itchyblood wrote: »

I found out pigs are actually smarter than dogs, generally. I wouldn't kill a dog to eat, so why should I kill a pig? It's just cruel and there are so many other ways to eat.

Also; they're adorable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WfJBpN4elI

Jim

Only recently became a vegetarian (tried a few times in the past but found it too difficult as I already have a very restrictive diet). My reason is because I have a great moral objection to how animals are treated and therefore can't support the system that exploits them. I have no problem with eating animals for food, just with the way they are exploited. (for instance my friend keeps chickens in his house for eggs and kills the older ones for meat, I have no issue with this). Aiming to become a vegan but the process might be slow.

Aisling&M

I'm vegetarian and now 99.9% vegan because I don't believe I have the right to cause another animal to die when I can eat better from plant and grain sources. I have nightmares about animals being killed and turned into food. It really is horrific to me. I do somehow manage to ignore my carnivorous husbands eating but I know I will never touch meat again unless it's a case of me or the animal.

karenjlwalker

I couldn't say that I am vegetarian, rather pescetarian as I still eat fish. My reasons for not eating meat probably differ a lot to others - I just don't like meat - the texture especially. There are probably a lot of both benefits and drawbacks not including meat in your diet, however I have heard that pescetarians have one of the best diets...

Lia_lia

It was the way I was brought up. Mother is a vegetarian.

Fancy That

kellief wrote: »

I don't agree with eating animals. I think it's cruel and unnecessary. I enjoy carrots more than the rabbit
Let the bunnies and cows live!

I'm curious about your thoughts on following....

What about the amount of bunnies that are harmed/killed by electric fences/poison which are put up to keep them from eating carrots?? Which are in turn cutivted for human consumption. :eek::eek:

Absurdum

Fancy That wrote: »

I'm curious about your thoughts on following....

What about the amount of bunnies that are harmed/killed by electric fences/poison which are put up to keep them from eating carrots?? Which are in turn cutivted for human consumption. :eek::eek:

:rolleyes:

Another benefit of using an electric fence to solve your rabbit problem is that it is safe compared to other methods. When a rabbit tries to get into your garden, they will be shocked with a small jolt of electricity. It will be enough to scare them, but it will not hurt them. Many people will use poisons or other methods that are not safe around your pets. An electric fence will shock your pets also, but there will be no lasting damage.

Read more: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/controlling-rabbits-with-an-electric-fence#ixzz0w3Ehs3pD

+ anyone who uses poison should be shot

Aoifey!

I became a vegetarian when I was 8 (despite my parents objections). I always loved animals and could not, and can still not, understand how it is perfectly acceptable to murder and eat one living creature and not another, surely all living things have a choice in their own lives?

And as for 'but they're only rared to be eaten' ... Okay, having a baby for the sole purpose of killing it is okay as it was never intended to live?

YFlyer

Aoifey! wrote: »

I became a vegetarian when I was 8 (despite my parents objections). I always loved animals and could not, and can still not, understand how it is perfectly acceptable to murder and eat one living creature and not another, surely all living things have a choice in their own lives?

And as for 'but they're only rared to be eaten' ... Okay, having a baby for the sole purpose of killing it is okay as it was never intended to live?

Wow at 8. You must have a highly evolved consciousness.

Aoifey!

YFlyer wrote: »

Wow at 8. You must have a highly evolved consciousness.

I just knew it was what I wanted and there was no changing my mind. I remember my mother forcing me to sit at the table for 3 hours looking at a sausage until she realised I was serious. Haven't looked back since

YFlyer

Good for you.

Breezer

Aoifey! wrote: »

I became a vegetarian when I was 8 (despite my parents objections). I always loved animals and could not, and can still not, understand how it is perfectly acceptable to murder and eat one living creature and not another, surely all living things have a choice in their own lives?

And as for 'but they're only rared to be eaten' ... Okay, having a baby for the sole purpose of killing it is okay as it was never intended to live?

Fair play. From what I remember, I decided I wanted to be a vegetarian at the age of about 5 or 6, but a combination of mam's objections and me not having quite developed the willpower scuppered that. I was never really happy eating it knowing an animal had been killed for it though, and I did try quite a few times to go vegetarian. By the time I was 15 I'd developed the willpower and the mother had relented.

I went vegan about 3 months ago having been vegetarian for 8 years.

Anyway, to answer the question: ethical reasons. I can't stand the idea that an animal is killed for the food we eat. It's disgusting and I want no hand, act or part in it.