Why I'm Almost Vegetarian, But Not Yet

I've toyed with the idea. I've tried for a day or two, slowly changing my eating habits to accommodate a second serving of salad instead of another chicken thigh. Try as I might, though, I can't take the full plunge and become a complete vegetarian. One can't deny the benefits of going vegetarian, but despite the health and environmental concerns, it just doesn't happen for me. These are the reasons why and my justification for remaining an omnivore.

Primarily, I like the way meat tastes and it fills me up in a way that fruits and vegetables don't. I do, however, subscribe to Michael Pollan's way of thinking. In his book In Defense of Food, he gives his simple tip for how to eat: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

It's important to point out that "Mostly plants" comes third and "Eat food" comes first. I'm much more concerned with eating fresh, whole, unprocessed foods than I am with eating only vegetables. The ideas aren't mutually exclusive, though in the age when the vast majority of our food comes from CAFOs, it would certainly appear that way. Attempting to avoid factory farms would be my primary concern if I were ever to completely convert to the vegetarian lifestyle. In an ideal world, I would eat meat a few times a week and it would be grass-fed beef. The meat you get at Burger King simply won't do. However, this is the world we live in, and I'm the first to admit that despite all my hemming and hawing about the industrial food industry, I will often eat meat from restaurants, fast food restaurants and even the odd taco truck.

Second: I do not believe it is inherently wrong to eat meat. The food chain is rough and life for animals, whether they're domesticated or not, is dangerous. Different species have always relied on each other for survival, and cows, chickens and pigs would not exactly be on easy street if we didn't kill and eat them. However, I don't consider this a justification for the inhumane treatment and unsanitary conditions of America's factory farms. The way we prepare and distribute meat in this country absolutely needs to change, for the environment and for our own wellbeing. I urge everyone to see Participant Media's Food, Inc. this summer. You'll cringe, then cry, and if you're anything like me, think about going on a hunger strike (I lasted about four hours).

If our industrial food system's practices changed, and animals were no longer fed stuff they were never intended to eat and left standing knee-high in their own excrement, I'd feel much better about eating them on a daily basis.

Last: It's available and it's cheap. Once again, I regret that this is the way it is. When peaches are $5 and a double cheeseburger is $0.99 something is definitely wrong. However, as a person living on relatively limited means, I find it essential to take the easy route on my way home.

So, once again, I want to be a vegetarian. I wish I could live completely off the land, consuming food from my own garden perhaps! However, it's just not in the cards. For everyone out there who thinks it's possible for everyone to go vegetarian or vegan, think about the millions of lower-income families, working several jobs a day, but having a duty to feed their kids. The McNuggets are cheap, simple and effective. What's the solution? Cheap plants that taste like burgers? I don't know. I think science has done enough already.

Follow Jonathan Daniel Harris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jdbranded

Comments

[RMankovitz]

As a holistic health practitioner, I routinely treat vegans, vegetarians, and those that follow the Standard American Diet (SAD), all of whom have a host of health problems. Years of research have shown me that neither a vegetarian diet nor one that incorporates grain-fed caged animal products, is healthy, sustainable, or natural. What one should eat to help themselves and the planet is easy. Just follow what Nature intended- a diet of free-range grass and grub-fed animal products and ripe sweet fruit. The largest “clinical trial” in the history of our species (conducted by Nature over 100,000 generations) has proven that this diet is the healthiest and most ecologically sustainable. Of course, there are no recent studies based on this diet because virtually nobody eats this way as a result of having been brainwashed by the AgriGiants and the feedlot meat production industries.

For those interested in the evils of planting annual monocrops such as wheat, oats, corn and soy (all require huge amounts of fossil fuels and manmade chemical processing to produce), and the benefits of raising animals on perennial grass (no planting, no fertilizing, no pesticides), read:

"The Vegetarian Myth" by Lierre Keith and "Against the Grain" by Richard Manning (researches the ethical, political, ecological, and nutritional deficits of a vegetarian diet).

"The Original Diet-The Omnivore's Solution" by me (researches what Nature intended humans to eat to provide a healthy life in harmony with our environment).

Roy Mankovitz, Director
www.MontecitoWellness.com

[lyredragon]

Well all I have to say about the matter is you are right on about it being cheaper to keep meat in the diet right now, and it is absolutely wrong. I am soooo glad some of you have the money to be able to get fresh and/or organic fruits and veggies. Here in Nebraska, I have only about$150 per month to spend on groceries, and that has to go to buy everything for two people. You veggies instead of bragging about your diet ought to be finding a way to remind people that food costs are too high for some people. Meanwhile i have to go buy some bulk rate hamburger and whole chickens. and soy pellets if they are on sale. and frozen or canned veggies. Why? because as much as I would love to shop the fresh produce and lean meats, anything that has been classified as healthy has had about an extra dollar strapped on it because of buzz and hype. So that includes all fruits and veggies. Be glad you have the wherewithal to graze. the poor in this country are being killed off with empty calories and processed food.

[Aelfgifu]

I tried in the past to become a vegetarian. I went cold turkey several times. It never worked.

I decided to start transitioning. In October, 2007, I ate my last bite of red meat. I was never a big fan of beef. I never ate pork or seafood, because I didn't like them.

In July, 2008, I thought I should move on to the next step. I only ate chicken or turkey. I stopped buying meat at the grocery store. I'd only eat meat at restaurants. I ordered more and more off the vegetarian section of the menu anyway.

In February, 2009, I moved to Germany for a year. I told everyone that I was a vegetarian. Saying it out loud was stronger than simply saying "I'm transition­ing."

Maybe there is a cultural difference, but the other times I tried to become a vegetarian in the US, I was always met with hostility by people who, for some reason, viewed my choice as a threat. In the US, I found that some restaurants don't have a single vegetarian item on their menu. But here, there always seems to be many vegetarian items listed.

In short, I'm now a vegetarian, even if I'm still a newbie. I'm proud of myself and feel like I have accomplished something. I, too, thought the same things the author of the article wrote. But I kept at it. Now I'm doing what I think is right.

And I *do* feel healthier, by the way.

[CTModerate]

I eat mostly vegetarian, but primarily for health and diet reasons. Essentially, I aim for 0-70% of my weekly diet to be raw vegan. But the other 30-40% does include cooked vegetables, meat, dairy, eggs and fish. I blog about it here: http://losingweightafter45isabitch.blogspot.com/

I really never ate fast food hamburgers, because I never really liked them, but I have always enjoyed having meat in small quantities. I grew up in an Italian household were many meals were vegetarian or only had a tiny bit of meat in them. Meat was never the centerpiece at our dinner table.

But then I grew up and got married to a man who thinks every meal should have meat in it (and fish doesn't count.) I saw the results of the meat-based diet in my expanding waistline.

Two years ago, I threw down the gauntlet and gradually began reducing the meat we ate. My husband had been diagnosed with a heart condition, and I wanted to lose 40 pounds.

Despite my husbands protests, I slowly reduced the quantities of meat I cooked. If I used 1 pound of sausage in a meal, I reduced it to 3/4 of a pound initially, then 1/2 pound, then 1/4 of a pound. I replaced the reduced meat with vegetables.

And, I began serving more vegetarian meals and one meal a week of fish.

My husband still gripes but he's adjusted, and I lost 35 pounds.

[erinlondon]

This is the first time I've ever replied to an article, but I really am quite miffed as to how your statement which says eating meat is cheaper than a vegetarian diet stands up.

You do know vegetarians eat bread, pasta and rice as well? Don't you? In saying that, next time you're out at dinner with friends do a quick price compare at the restaurant.

All I can say is, yes, the price of fruit and vegetables around the world is escalating to extremes but on a whole I'm far better off than my meat eating mates.

Give it another crack. You will lose weight, gain health and probably cancel the gym membership.

[Jonahson]

Easy, develop strong compassion. Practice loving kindness. If you love fishing, buy some live fish, make sure it is not carnivarous , and free it into their natural habitat. Watch them swim free. Feed cows, goat and chicken and all those animals that you like to eat.

[mherzog]

"Second: I do not believe it is inherently wrong to eat meat. The food chain is rough and life for animals, whether they're domesticated or not, is dangerous. Different species have always relied on each other for survival, and cows, chickens and pigs would not exactly be on easy street if we didn't kill and eat them."

Raising and killing animals will almost certainly involve tremendous suffering in any real scenario. So if it is inherently wrong to inflict suffering on animals then it is inherently wrong to eat animals.

Cows, chickens and pigs are domesticated animals and wouldn't exist if we didn't bring them in to the world (to be tortured and slaughtered). (I should say, I don't think their species would die out completely because there will be people with an interest in keeping them alive as companion animals and so forth but that's a little abstract and beside the point.)

Despite these objections I applaud you intellectual honesty.

[rtolmach]

McNuggets? That meat eating seems to have impaired your judgment.

[Punchumgum]

I can't really believe you are recommending that over-worked and underpaid parents should be feeding their children McNUGGETS!!!?!!!

[LMPE]

I've been a vegetarian my whole life and have no plans to change. Here in Portland it's practically easier to be a vegetarian than to be a carnivore.