My point of view ... grew up on a family farm, got a blue ribbon at the county fair for my calf, have participated in the slaughter of family owned animals and have toured two slaughterhouses, including the "kill floor", am very physically active, have more energy than I did in my 20s, feel great every single day, come from a family whose every member, except me, has heart disease, obesity, diabetes. I have two siblings left, both of whom have had heart attacks and are now diabetic and very obese. Two old sibs have died of heart attacks as did both my mother and father. And, I've been vegetarian/vegan for more than 30 years. I don't consider myself vegan because I do occasionally eat dairy away from home. (Yes, I know its bad for me but, sometimes, it can't be helped.)
There are three reasons why people stop eating meat:
1. Health: as in my case, with such a strong history of meat-eating-related illness, it would be stupid for me to eat animals.
2. Environment: The growing, transporting and slaughter causes more harm to our planet than any other activity.
3. Ethical - because, no matter how cruel you think it might be, you cannot imagine the reality of our "food animal" industry.
None of this is new or unknown. One would have to live under a rock or in a cave not to know that eating meat is not a good thing and that it has been found to be a causative factor in many diseases. Its like smoking - there are lots of reasons NOT to do it but not one reason to do it.
Yes, I know that some would argue this but, again, just like smoking, there are many who just don't want to know or change their own lives. That, of course, is an individual choice.
If you don't want to go veg, consider cutting back. If you have kids, you know that children as young as two years old have been found to have elevated cholesterol due to the high fat American diet. Why not have one day a week where you serve only healthy food? Or, cut the portion size.
There are any number of websites showing the facts of meat eating. If you want to know, start with Earth Save, the site of John Robbins of Baskin-Robbins. In his book, Diet For A New America, he writes of telling his father and uncle that he could not live with making money off of a product that tortures animals, harms the planet and poisons children. He was, of course, disowned -- until his uncle died of heart disease and he and his father finally 'made up'. The book was nominated for a Pulitzer the year it was written. He has since written several other books - all are well worth reading.
If you don't know or don't believe the incredible degree of cruelty involved in our food animal industry, check out meetyourmeat.com. Someone above mentioned Thanksgiving turkeys. The turkeys we eat can't even reproduce themselves. They are all produced by artificial insemination.
Someone else mentioned a family owned dairy farm. Fact is, family farms are an endangered species. Most animal AND vegetable raising is now done by huge corporations and on an assembly line basis. Most of the workers are illegals (not usually from Mexico but some are). They are treated as bad as the animals and they have no legal recourse. IOW, we are running a third world right here in the US. Back when Americans were hired by slaughterhouses, the turnover was 300%. Now, the huge mega-corp's are making a bigger profit, charging the consumer more and taking work away from Americans. if you eat meat, you are supporting that.
And, someone mentioned hunting ... I live in an area where there is a lot of hunting and I grew up with hunting. One one hand, I have no use for the reality of hunting and I've seen enough of it to last me my whole life. OTOH, I almost admire anyone who is willing to do their own dirty work. BUT - killing and cleaning a deer is a little girl's tea party compared to an assembly line slaughterhouse.
Slaughterhouse meat is diseased and filthy. Look up "fecal soup" or as the workers call it, "shit soup" and think about that when someone says they have a stomachache after stuffing themselves with dead turkey on Thursday. Thanks to the R, there are very few inspectors. Years ago, I remember that they had, on average, 3 seconds to inspect a carcass and they did not inspect every single one. That means you're eating all sorts of things that you would not eat if you knew about it. And, if the R get their way, there will be even less accountability from the big corporate farms.
Don't make the mistake of thinking there is nothing "good" to eat if you don't eat chunks of charred bodies.
Consider this: a meat based diet gives you 4 choices ... dead cow, dead pig, dead bird and dead fish. Take that limitation off your plate and you suddenly find you have literally thousands of choices. And, its very easy and much cheaper to eat a gourmet vegetarian diet than to eat what is considered a normal American fat-based diet.
If you don't want to know any of this, then don't. You have that choice.
You could not pay me to eat a piece of dead animal.
