I often get asked why I am a vegetarian. 

First I'll tell you how long I have been a vegetarian: I gave up every kind of meat except chicken and fish in 1987, my second year in high school. I stopped consuming all meat in January of 1991, my first year at the University of Arizona.

Since about 2000 I cut back my consumption of dairy (~one to three meals per week). On my 15th year anniversary as a vegetarian, January 2006, I gave up eggs, milk, and cheese completely. I am a vegan.

I'm not asking anyone to become a vegetarian or vegan, I am just telling you a few of the reasons why I choose a vegan lifestyle. I don't like getting up on a soapbox or even talking about the issue to people, it makes me uncomfortable.

So why am I a vegan? These aren't necessarily in order of importance, but here are a few reasons:

  1. I read the books Diet for a Small Planet and Diet for a New America circa 1990.
  2. Animals are sentient (have a nervous system-- feel pain and fright).
  3. Animals are often intelligent.
  4. Meat production uses resources that could be used for other purposes or not used at all:
    1. land-- 87% of our agricultural land
    2. petrochemicals-- used in processing, shipping, storing, and bringing the final product home (1/3 of the raw materials and fossil fuels used in the US)
    3. electricity-- to process, and refrigerate/freeze (not to mention advertise)
    4. water
    1. depending on the weather, one cow drinks ~30-45 gallons/day! This does not include the water used at slaughter or to clean-up after them... This does not include the water used to raise and harvest any feed they may consume (most of the corn grown in the US goes to animal feed). 
    2. ~2,500 gallons are used to make ~1 lb. of hamburger
    3. a single hamburger = enough gas to drive a small car ~20 miles, and enough water for ~17 showers
  5. Waste from livestock in the U.S. is ~130 times that produced by people. In central California, 1,600 dairies produce the feces and urine of a city of 21 million people.
  6. Grazing has decimated millions of acres of land and riparian zones with desertification, erosion, manure and non-native grasses that have destroyed native ecosystems.
  7. Factory farming is barbaric, if not criminal (especially factory chicken farming). I'd rather see people hunt than partake in the factory farm terrordome.
  8. Dairy is rape.
  9. The thought of eating an egg sickens me.
  10. Over-fishing has decimated our oceans and some species have been pushed to the brink of extinction.
  11. 70 % of the antibiotics used in the U.S. are for meat production-- promoting the selection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a ticking time-bomb that may give us another swine flu epidemic or fuel the avian (bird) flu.
  1. Meat can be bad for the circulatory system, and too much protein is bad for our bodies.
  2. Milk does not 'do the body good.'
  3. My journey to vegetarianism had spiritual roots, but I currently harbor no religious sentiments, and I am not a vegan for any sort of 'spiritual' reason.
  4. My ecological footprint is much smaller as a vegan.
  5. When the industry does accomplish more efficiency, improvements usually come at the expense of the animals, via genetics and growth-enhancing drugs.
  6. Awareness of the information above makes me feel good about my choice.

As far as missing meat, the taste etcetera, it took just a little bit of time to get over it. The thought or act of someone else preparing or eating flesh does not sicken me, and I don't hate meat-eaters. I am only repulsed at the the thought or act of putting flesh into my own body considering I take the reasons listed above to heart. The hardest thing about veganism is that it is sometimes inconvenient. There aren't vegan restaurants on every other corner, and reading the ingredients on nearly every item I consume takes patience. I can live with a little inconvenience, I cannot live participating in the wasteful destruction of the environment, nor the subjugation, imprisonment, murder, and torture of other species. 

I know meat consumption played a critical role in our evolution and advancement as a species. Our hunting and gathering past came to an 'end' not that long ago. Considering current technology and our knowledge of nutrition and food production a life as an herbivore is a viable one. To me compassion for all life and the ecosystem is the next step in our evolution as a species, and much needed. However, this seems futile being that so many of us have a hard time getting along with our own kind. With this in mind, some people don't seem to understand, or care, why people become vegetarians, and just the same, some vegetarians can't seem to understand how people could consume meat...oh well, let's keep doing whatever it is we choose do, freedom of thought and action are precious things.

 

Being that I am a vegan I also get asked what my stance is on animal testing.

Animal testing is an entirely different issue than eating animals. I would have to examine the testing in a case-by-case fashion. Experiments on primates are particularly hard for me to accept as necessary or justifiable, despite the fact they give more "reliable" data than mice. I am certainly against any experiment that could be construed as analogous to torture...which happens to be a large portion of animal testing.