Photo: Zoha N.
I have been a vegetarian now for long enough now to consider it a permanent life decision. People ask me why all the time and I brush it off to avoid having a lengthy, serious conversation. I don’t enjoy conversations where I feel I am defending my choices or trying to convince someone else how to live their life.
I won’t do a lengthy post trying to convince my readers to give up meat either. Instead, here is a 4 minute TED talk that gives a great introduction and proposes a 70% solution for those who fear committing all the way – “Weekday Veg”. Hopefully this short video will pique your interest and lead you to further research the benefits of becoming a vegetarian.
“I don’t enjoy conversations where I feel I am defending my choices”… Really? I feel like those are the most interesting conversations you can have with people. I see those discussions as a very accurate reflection of who a person is – whether they have any sort of rationale behind something they are passionate about or they are just following blindly. Why does the iPad totally suck? Why do you believe in God? Why would anyone buy a moped?
I feel conversations where I am defending my choices are incredibly intimate – I only want to have them with my closest friends. I should have qualified that statement: I don’t enjoy conversations with most people where I am defending my choices. They also take a certain amount of time and are not appropriate for some environments. Thus, there are other reasons I will deflect the conversation even around my best friends.
You don’t enjoy defending your choices because you realize you’ve made a terrible mistake yet are too stubborn to change.
My girlfriend is vegetarian and gets asked “why are you vegetarian?” all the time. It definitely gets old. On the flip side, I don’t get asked very often why I eat meat.
However, when we are asked those questions, only one of us has a defensible answer because only one of us is actually making a responsible choice.
Whatever the reason you chose to be a vegetarian is a good one. Whatever reason one chooses to eat meat is unclear…
So, although the question is tiresome, at least you can answer it.
ok, so this may not be a reason to not EAT meat, but it is certainly another example of the health implications of the livestock industry
http://www.good.is/post/superbugs-agricultural-antibiotics-and-farm-worker-infections-a-new-study-connects-the-dots/
maybe i’m just extra sensitive to it because of those yellow gowns and purple gloves in the hospital, but it makes me want to stop eating meat.
Exactly. Add it to the list of reasons! I have a new and entertaining new answer to the “why are you vegetarian” question: “because it’s the right decision”. It’s not the go to answer yet, but it is pretty fun in certain situations.
Glad I found this little gem. I’d be interested in talking to you more about this.. not so you have to defend, but rather enlighten. I understand why you wouldn’t want to get into those deep, intimate conversations with someone you don’t know, but it’s kind of fun sometimes! I really enjoy your blog.. and TED is such an amazing site!