Questions I get asked. Number 1: Why be vegetarian?

Why be vegetarian?

I, like every vegetarian out there I’m sure, gets asked this question a lot. At first I’d get annoyed and explain my point of view rather poorly. But then I learned that people don’t want to attack you and your point of view (sometimes they do- but it’s still no reason to treat them badly). Sometimes people are curious. Maybe they’ve never met a vegetarian, or never heard of the idea. Sometimes they’re simply curious to know what makes you be a vegetarian and how you deal with it. They might ask you about your health, or if you’ve ever had anemia or not. And sometimes there are those people that want to be vegetarian, and all they need is a little push in the right direction.

My tip to other fellow vegetarians out there is this: Answer their questions with as much honesty and as much willingness as possible. Don’t let their negative opinions bring you down – expose your ideas clearly, and most importantly, don’t criticize their ideas!  Focus on the positive side of your ideas.

That brings me to the reason I’m a vegetarian personally. I’m an animal lover.  I love animals so much that I can’t stand the idea of eating them, even though unlike most vegetarians I know, I find meat very tasty. But I will easily sacrifice any of my tastes if it means saving animals.

People tell me: but hey, you don’t make a difference. The amount of meat produced per day won’t change if you’re a vegetarian or not.

I strongly disagree. I might not make a difference statistically all by myself, but I sure can make a difference in our society.  Humans are funny creatures- they tend to go with the majority. Ten years ago, vegetarians were aliens. Now we’re accepted because we’re stronger in numbers. For example, the vegetarian population in Brazil grew from 7% to 10% in just a couple of years. That definitely causes a reduction in the quantity of meat produced.

And I’ll also quote Mother Teresa here: “We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.”

Other reasons I’ve stopped eating animals: when I was 10, I stopped eating tuna because I found out dolphins were being killed in fishing nets because of tuna. And that dolphin-free tuna doesn’t really exist – every fishing industry ends up killing dolphins and sea turtles. And don’t get me started on sharks.

And then there are the other huge reasons that probably should count more: like the fact that we have enough food to feed the world population, and a good part of it is ending up in cow’s stomachs. And the fact that the Amazon is being destroyed to make place for soya plantations (to feed cows) and pastures.

But for me, the main reason for not eating animals is because I think they don’t deserve to die to satisfy our hunger if we can easily satisfy it otherwise.

What do you think?