Vegetarianism is a loaded topic… loaded with fear and controversy and emotional reactions and threats to the status quo.
Deep down, I think most people feel there’s something “right” about it. When I mention to a new acquaintance that I don’t eat meat, nine times out of ten they’ll say apologetically something like, “Oh, I don’t eat much meat anymore.”
It’s like they understand why it’s a healthy lifestyle but it’s out of their realm of possibilities, because a follow-up remark is often, “But I just can’t give up my hamburgers”… (or steak or chicken or bacon).
Fear and Controversy
Sometimes people seem to be scared about making a dietary change. They believe the misinformation that’s abundant in the media and commercials, which makes them think they have to eat meat to be healthy, that plant-based
protein
is inferior to dead-animal protein.
People seem to think that animals that people eat are raised and slaughtered humanely. I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but if carnivores could visit a website like
Tribe of Heart
and watch the amazing video “The Witness,” or read No More Bull by former cattle rancher Howard Lyman, they might have a change of heart about the suffering that millions of animals endure so they can be food for us or shoes for us or furniture coverings for us.
Reasons for Becoming Vegetarian
Going back to the friend who admits to eating less meat lately, it seems that most people begin vegetarianism for health reasons. There is a lot more information available these days about the health benefits of eating more
fruits
and vegetables. And if the meat and dairy industries weren’t such powerful political forces, the “experts” might even admit that we’d all be healthier without dead animals in our diet.
My initial reasons were humane and political. After reading Diet for a Small Planet I decided switching to a
vegetarian diet
would allow more starving people in the world to be fed. The book explained how raising animals uses up so many precious resources.
I also considered it a healthier approach, even though I still included lots of dairy and eggs in my diet (the lacto-ovo vegetarian approach).
Some people (more enlightened than I) choose to give up meat at a young age because they are already in tune with the
suffering of animals
. That took me many years. And when I finally “got it” it was like a big “duh… why didn’t I understand this all along?!”
Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends. ~George Bernard Shaw
Environmental Reasons
Did you know that it takes somewhere between 2,500 gallons to 5,200 gallons of water to produce one pound of U.S. beef?
To produce one pound of lettuce or tomatoes or potatoes or wheat or carrots or apples takes about 23 to 50 gallons of water… in California, where the farmers probably have to irrigate more than in other parts of the country.
In addition to using up our precious water supplies, the meat industry also contributes to water pollution. John Robbins in The Food Revolution reports on one instance: 25 million gallons of putrefying hog urine and feces spilled into the New River in North Carolina when a "lagoon" holding 8 acres of hog excrement burst.
And we wonder why our vegetables are now being contaminated by E. coli.
Once it clicks in someone’s consciousness, there’s such an obvious connection between not wanting to eat animals and listening to our consciences. It can just blossom from that into a
vegan lifestyle
.
I recall reading or hearing David Wolfe say that his spiritual awareness increased after being a
raw foodvegan
.
Hallelujah Acres
teaches nutrition from a Biblical perspective, and it’s a vegetarian perspective.
Beauty
Eating for beauty is the meat-free way to look radiant and healthy. Click here to read more.
"Thou shalt not kill" does not apply to murder of one's own kind only, but to all living beings; and this Commandment was inscribed in the human breast long before it was proclaimed from Sinai. ~Leo Tolstoy
To read more inspirational words of famous people,
click here
.
