Meat Free Everyday - Food for Thought

Why do people become Vegetarian?

There are two types of vegetarians. Those who choose to be vegetarain and those whose religious beliefs dictate they must be vegetarian. The non-choosers, if you will, are likely to be Hindu, Rosicrucian, Rastafari, Seventh Day Adventist or Jainist. Buddhists and Sikhs may be vegetarian but not necessarily.

The choosers have their own reasons. It may be that they cannot reconcile their love of animals with eating them. I do agree with that. I cannot see how Westerners deem it prefectly acceptable to eat a chicken but not a parrot or budgie. Sheep are OK but dogs and cats are off the list. Meat eaters happily eat cows but frown on horses or donkeys. I think this type of thinking is more about social conditioning since in other cultures the meat menu is a lot wider. Some cultures readily eat monkeys or cats and see nothing wrong with it.

Choosers may find the wholesale farming of animals and the contribution of this to the demise of the earth unacceptable. They may choose to avoid meat as a way to make a difference.

Choosers may also find the slaughter of animals unacceptable. This is another one I can buy. I don't know many people who would take out a knife and slash the throat of an animal, skin it, disembowel it and then cook and eat it. Buying ready prepared meat on a sanitised white tray with a piece of parsley is a whole lot less gory. People can easily disassociate themselves with how the meat came to be on their plate.

My reasons are simply that I don't feel good about taking life unneccesarily. If I can eat vegetables, then why eat meat? I hate seeing those trucks full of animals heading to the abbotoirs. I don't know if animals have souls or feelings, but the whole ideaa of being pumped full of hormones and anti-biotics on a cattle farm and then straight to the slaughter house seems wrong to me.

The yogis talk about keeping karma as low as possible and avoiding meat is one way they suggest to do that. Interesting is that karmic law - what you sow, you reap - means vegetarians, by not taking life, should gain life. And they do. Vegetarians outlive meat eaters and have fewer health problems.

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