Let me begin with a small anecdote. My office colleagues and I were in a lunch meeting. One of my colleagues ordered a "sushi" dish that is basically made up of fish. In an attempt to tease me being vegetarian she exclaimed "I love fish" only to receive my polite smile as a reply. As I was about to begin my Garden Veggie sandwich her dish was on the platter. Trying to act smart and garnering support from the rest of the crowd she remarked ,"See. This fish is so tasty..!! Its my favorite. Sad that you do not like it." I could not suppress my tongue in the pretext of courtesy and was quick to retort saying "Who said I do not like fish ?" and then realized I had taken the entire crowd by surprise that thinks that I am a strict vegan. I paused and said, "I like it swimming in that tank (pointing to a fish tank in the corner of the restaurant) than it being on your plate". I am sure I embarrassed her this time and exceeded limits of courtesy but felt happy about getting my point across. (I wanted to do this at least a twenty times before...!! to ten different people). I am not a fanatic by any chance but quite strong on my principle of "Live and Let others live".

This made me think! Do I have a convincing argument for being a strict vegetarian. I personally view vegetarianism as a trait imbibed from birth and strengthened through mental and physical growth. To me it is more of an ethical issue. Is eating an animal eating a dead body ? Why is it barbaric to kill a human being for food while, killing an animal is forgiven. An animal does all that humans do. They give birth, they live, they make noise, they cry in pain, they love fellow beings, they reproduce and they die. I do not see any difference in the normal life chain of an animal that is slaughtered for food and a human in that aspect. With trees and plants, its leaves and fruits in no way affect the well being of the tree. The seeds of the fruit need to go back to the soil for their reproduction which is matter of time and will happen as part of the food cycle. Extending this logic to animals, I will accept milk products as vegetarian because we are not in any way endangering the very existence of the animal. I am reminded of one other incident that my friend narrated to me. He was in the Frozen section of supermarket. Chicken breasts were strung in display. A mom and her kid walked by and the mom was checking out the price of chicken. The smart kid asked her mom what was she looking at and the mom in an educative tone said "She was thinking of buying chicken". The kid became more inquisitive and trying to use her kinder garden education asked, "Mom..! How did the chicken come here and Why is it here?" and the mom still very patient in her reply said." It is dead and so is in the store for sale!." The kid did not think much to leave her mom speechless with her next set of questions. "Mom...! How did it die..? Who killed it ?Was the killer punished ?"

I read this counter-argument from a religious propagandist. "God created plants and he also created animals. He did this for the sake of man and there is nothing wrong in eating animals." I just have append my answer by saying "Sticking to vegetarianism becomes a matter of prudent choice" when survival with just plants is possible why impose the pain to an animal.

And to dear meat-eaters who say claim bacteria as meat, think twice before you pull in science about the bacterium. I have more scientific reasons such as hygiene, easy access to a balanced diet, calorie and other economic and spiritual statistics to support my practice.

Untill I was a young teenager, my family members were big meat eaters and then my parents went through this whole religious change and the family went vegetarian. I ended up going to a religious school where they really spat at meat and meat-eaters. Even when I got out of that school, I remained a vegetarian for a number of years and really preached it. I knew all the ethical, moral, health, etc, etc arguments for being vegetarian and believed in it.

As the years went by and I got more assimilated in the secular world, I suppose my religious training wore off. My desire to eat meat started to slowly come back. For a little while I was torn between the arguments against meat eating that I had felt and my current desire to explore the worlds cuisines.

After being a veg for 13 years, about a year ago I started to eat meat once again. I guess it was a change in personal philosophy. I didn't feel that the arguments that I gave years ago really touched my heart. I'm glad at present that living in the States I have a much wider variety of dishes to choose from (wheras before I would scan the menu for what I could eat--rather than for what I wanted to).

Philosophically, at present I feel that its a dog eat dog world. Compassion is over rated. We don't give up a lucrative job offer because someone else's children will have less opportunities do we? The weaker at the mercy of the stronger. Welcome to life. I don't try to pretty it up more than it is.

Over the years, listening to all the (health, wealth, morality, religious, etc) arguments I have realized that...it's a personal choice. If you can live with your choice, do it. If you can't, change. But be honest with yourself.

Wow...this turned out longer than intended

homeyji,
I am glad you followed your hearts desire. I do not think anyone can be relegious or not relegious by the food you eat. Food just defines your taste and your thoughts to some degree but not your belief. But if you belong to a relegion that spat meat eaters, dont you think you need to change your faith to more tolerant beliefs? I am sure you can find one more closer to your faith.

Yes, since my primary reasons for being veg was religious, actually I think that distancing myself from the extreme views of my religion was what helped me to go non-veg. I used to be a Hare Krishna--ISKCON.
And the more I associated with the greater world, I realized how extreme and orthodox their view points are.

I may go to being veg again, but it will be for reasons that I believe in.

Don. Corleon, if you can restrain yourself, that's all the better. Thus let me stop short of 'making you an offer that you can refuse.'

However, I am an omnivorous. Can't help it. As long as you can stick to what you believe in, it's all good. I hear you though!

IndisGUise:)

Some people become vegetarian for cause of their health but some just become vegetarian for SHOW UP in group or society.

I just cant be a vegetarian.
But, i cannot watch birds and animals being butchered.

I think its what i am.

There are many choices we make in life based on our religious beliefs, cultural upbringing, level of education and social influence which shapes our understanding. Based on these we make a decision and want others to abide by it or want acknowledgement for our decisions.

I have seen both sides of the argument on being a vegetarian and not being one as I have been on both sides of the fence.

My decision not to be a vegetarian is for health reasons. I am healthier and stronger than when I was a vegetarian. Vegetarian diet does not give me enough nutrients and I felt hungrier sooner and tend to eat more versus when I eat meat I am full with less content and do not have to divulge myself on food as much.

When I was a vegetarian I could exercise less and jog less but now I have doubled my workout.

I have nothing to say for or against being a vegetarian or not being one. It is only one of the choices we make out of many in our lives and I respect either choice people make for their chosen life style.

To sum it up
Long live the vegetarians
Long live non-vegetarians.
Peace out
-Shiv

Corleone , twant khayera senti bhayera lekheko jasto lagyo.

I had lots of pet animals back in nepal...... i cant eat meat now...but i am happy and i still do think meat is meant to be eaten....like i said before..... else earth would be full of animals..hehe

Felicity I don't agree with you on the population part... The animals that we eat are domesticated by human beings for consumption. If all people turned vegetarian, there would be no need to keep ranches or poultries full of them. No consumption leads to no production, so that theory of overpopulation doesn't apply here.

hi Beauty in disguise

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Mokshya.... okay ...not for meat....fine. but we still keep them for other reasons, dont we? like for example...say cow. nepalese dont eat cow...but we still domesticate them in order to get milk, ghiu, etc. feri nepali ko ta kurai arko...... nakhaye pani puja garna layee nai rakhinchha animal... hehe. although, i partially agree with you.

That is why...even though i am a strict vegetarian... i still think animals are also meant to be eaten..... in addition to their cuteness :)...so i dont despise anyone who eats meat.

i dunno ...anything :oD..hehe

but time to time..i do check this video..maybe i like the song?or maybe i like blood?sick eh?..and yes i do eat meat..takn it the easy way out :oD..its really hard to be a vegetarian..just one day searchn for vegetarian meal with a fren was enuf to make me lose me head :oD..yes i dunno how many heads i have :o| lost so many times already :o| hehe

anyways..heres the video..:oD

enjoy the song ;o) hehe..

good day :oD

to MOKSHYA:
"plants do not have pain receptors"

Corollary: So if we were able to silence all the pain receptors in animals that we slaughtered, would that mean they are like plants then. man! that would be quite a business in a semi conservative society like US. Appeal it has on the mass of buying meet of painlessly killed animals! Anybody interested?

Good for you VEGAN Don Corleone. For the most part I could not agree more with you. But I would like to focus on the ambiguities associated with the logics that you have articulated.

Humans are considered advanced animals. So, the adjective “advanced” would put us right up there at the top of the food chain and the same adjective could be used to qualify the way we use different techniques to kill animals or even humans in some cases. Cannibalism is not that rare in animals and presumably not in advanced animals by the name of humans.

You wrote that “vegetarianism is a trait imbibed from birth and strengthened through mental and physical growth.” It is true to an extent but there are person who are vegetarian not by birth but by choice. If I am not mistaken you seem to be vegetarian by birth, if so, lots of the reasoning that you have presented are mere coincidental to your personality.

Now the use of the term “ethical issue” doesn’t fit the bill in your case because you are not vegetarian by choice but by birth or in other words you did not have the choice of eating meat in you earlier days. “Is eating an animal eating a dead body?” I would say for the most part yes, unless you gorge on the animal alive and make no mistake the dead body that I am implying here is not human body. Just because you don’t see the suffering of plants doesn’t mean that they don’t have the sensation of pain. I agree that the suffering is more visible in animals but it doesn’t mean that the things you don’t see don’t occur at all.

Let’s not bring god into this equation at all because it would be trite as we are not sure of the absolute truth. If you are spiritual or practice meditation or something along these lines you might know better than rest of the people otherwise we are in the same plane of consciousness.

Make no mistake, you have some valid points.

I am vegetarian (since birth) too…

Initially it was based on religious beliefs, cultural and family upbringing…..
Now, I am used to with it, personally, I am satisfied with what I am doing and never get temptations to eat or try meat and alcohol. Nowadays, I am vegetarian not because of religious and family and cultural reasons but due to health benefits and some kind of self-realized commitment to keep something that I have been doing so long. But the fact is that I am enjoying it. So, I never thought about abandoning vegetarian way of life.

keep it up nut....

well done guys you all give a really good arguements, i was wondering what has happened to the people in sajha ,all they seem to do in the recent is curse each other or
polititians, by the way shiv i am not the sambhu from california, as a matter of fact i name is not even sambhu.lol

Veg or non veg ? personal choice but dont force yourself to be either non veg or veg, as simple as that.

What is vegetarian food? Material-things made out of vegetables.

Most cows, sheep, lambs, goat etc eat grass so their meat is vegetarian meat.
Meat of those animals who eat meat are non vegetarian meat.