Why become a Vegetarian?

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By all reports, vegetarian cuisine is a healthier choice, probably reducing the risk of several diseases, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes. For sure, you feel better since the food is easier to digest. It is also easier to maintain a healthy weight. What may be surprising is that you can prepare a wide variety of delicious gourmet meals and that everything tastes so much better.

We read a story about how Linda McCartney became a vegetarian many years ago. She was eating a lunch of lamb when she noticed some lambs frolicking outside. She started to think about what she was eating. The story made us think, too, and we gradually changed our diet to a vegetarian one.

Many reasonable people may think that the animals they eat have good lives and are killed humanely. In fact, most of the flesh that is eaten is from animals raised on factory farms, where they are treated like commodities. For the grisly details see the web site: www.factoryfarming.com

Ann Wilson has written a wonderful poem, "Through their eyes" about our relationship with animals.

There is an environmental aspect to factory farming also. The concentrated amounts of animal waste can contaminate the land and the water, with potentially deadly results. The resources for feeding a nation of carnivores are orders of magnitude greater than for one of vegetarians. For example, twenty thousand pounds of potatoes can be grown on one acre of land, but only 165 pounds of beef. Another example - it takes 2500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat, but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat. More info on the environmental impact.

There have been many great thinkers who reportedly were vegetarians - Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, George Bernard Shaw. George Bernard Shaw, a vegetarian for more than 70 years, is quoted: "My hearse will be followed not by mourning coaches but by herds of oxen, sheep, swine, flocks of poultry and a small travelling aquarium of live fish, all wearing white scarves in honour of the man who perished rather than eat his fellow creature."

Many of our contemporaries who are famous also promote vegetarianism. Among the most notable are Paul McCartney and his late wife, Linda (see story above.)

Bill Maher, in his inimatble style: "I got a Genesis award the other nigtht and I was very proud to get it. In my acceptance speech I said that the animals are the most defenseless, innocent, speechless creatures, and they deserve a mean, take no prisoners son of a bitch like me talking for them. And that's how I feel. Nobody speaks up for the animals."

There are many animal rights organizations promoting the idea of respect for the other species. One of the largest and most active is the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).