Vegetarians Don't all Care About Animals (really)

Vegetarians are all vegetarians because we think animals have feelings and souls, right?

Fellow veggies, you know what I'm talking about. The people who think we're overly-sensitive or just plain crazy animal-worshipers. The people who think we don't eat animals because we don't want to "hurt their feelings" or something. But this is such a misconception.

I became a vegetarian in gradual steps, and it wasn't until I was living a fully meat-less diet that I became an animal rights activist. For me, it all started in my junior high cafeteria when I bit into one fateful hamburger, so undercooked and thoroughly disgusting that I swore to never eat a burger again. It was kind of a joke, but things snowballed from there as I began to question why I ate any meat in the first place. My research showed me disgusting factory farms, horrifying abuse of both employees and animals, health hazards, and more unpalatable truths.

I love animals and always have, yes, but I am also, like most vegetarians, a naturalist: I do believe humans are naturally omnivores, and I do not challenge that. But I also believe in natural meat. Free-range cattle, chickens that get to see the light of day in their lives, turkeys that can actually walk and reproduce on their own, etc. The fact is, the meat people are eating today is nowhere near natural, unless you're lucky enough to raise your own or have access to organic meat. The stuff in the grocery stores is pumped full of antibiotics, raised in artificial conditions, and fattened up on an unnatural diet. You are what you eat, so a cow raised only on corn is... corn... and that just ain't right. Cows get plenty fat on a grass diet; that's what is so great about them. Plus, their meat is healthier, and, most would agree, tastier.

Another reason a lot of us don't eat meat is the environment. The way the majority of meat in the US is "farmed" today is unsustainable and destructive. Chemical run-off ends up in water supplies. Shipping meat over 1,000 miles to get it to consumers is just ridiculous. Huge factories are used to raise, slaughter, and package... And most Americans eat way more meat than they should, which just magnifies this whole problem.

People also have health reasons for abstaining from an omnivore's diet. Some people just do it to challenge their self-motivation. For many, it's actually about human rights: to safe, fair working conditions and healthy food. For others, it's about cutting off the big companies and supporting the little men. Whatever the reason, we are not all just in this because we think piggies should be hugged.

A lot of people say they could never go veggie, meat is just too tasty. A lot of people think vegetarians are sissies. But if meat is so tasty, and we're resisting it in order to stand up for our beliefs, we're not really the sissies, are we?