Hold the Meat, Please

One of the questions I get asked most often is why I am a vegetarian. I think people often assume one chooses to go that route because they are sentimental about God's furry little creatures. Well, I have to admit, I'm not really that sentimental. I mean, I love animals and don't relish the idea of their pain, but I also don't have any fundamental issues with eating them. I don't think that it is theologically problematic at all. That said, I would definitely call into question the factory farming practices that are widely used.

However, I am somewhat sentimental about humans, and creation in general. So I've gone veggie in large part because I think that most meat is raised/processed in ways that are not healthy for my body. Not only the drugs used on the animals directly, but the agricultural chemicals that go into the grains they are fed. I don't really want to put all that into my system. And that applies not only to meat, but in trying not to eat a lot of processed foods in general.

Also, I think that the methods used in raising livestock are often not good for the planet. Farming and ranching are often separated in ways that leave lots to be desired, and the massive deforestation that is happening to make room for more livestock is problematic, I think. Other environmental factors are pollution, soil erosion due to overgrazing, more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined, and the list goes on. Plus, animals raised for meat consume tons of feed (for example, it takes about 16 pounds of soybeans and grains to produce 1 pound of beef) that could potentially be used for feeding us human folk. It's plausible that eating lower on the food chain could ultimately help with some of the hunger issues worldwide if it was done on a larger scale.

That said (and it's terribly oversimplified for purposes of brevity), I wouldn't want to preach or pretend that vegetarians have some greater degree of ethical sensitivity, having in some way attained an enlightenment that omnivores don't have. Truthfully, I am an omnivore when I can be. I love that my dad and brothers hunt and fish, and I have no dilemma at all in eating the venison and redfish that I'm happy grace my plate when I'm home. I don't have any ethical problem with wild meat. And while I have some reservations, as there is no perfect system, I would probably eat free range organic meat and non-farm raised salmon if I could afford it. I know I can't be totally consistent (and vegans could call me hypocritical in a heartbeat), but I feel like I need to do what I can. For me it's about claiming control over that which is in my power, since so many of the things that grieve me about the world are completely outside of the scope of what I can do. So I look for ways to go green, but recognize that no matter what I do, it's probably insufficient and/or contains problems that I'm simply not aware of. It's somewhat overwhelming, actually.

So there it is, my little spiel. For more information on vegetarianism, I'd recommend The New Becoming Vegetarian. It offers a much better articulated rationale for the whys, as well as giving lots of great nutritional information to help make the best food choices you can if you decide to cut out or decrease your meat intake.