“The moral rules of destroying our fellow biota get even more tangled, the deeper we go. If we draw the okay-to-kill line between “animal” and “plant,” and thus exclude meat, fowl, and fish from our diet on moral grounds, we still must live with the fact that every sack of flour and every soybean-based block of tofu came from a field where countless winged and furry lives were extinguished in the plowing, cultivating, and harvest.”

–Barbara Kingsolver, “You Can’t Run Away on Harvest Day”

I have never been a big fan of vegetables–unless you count broccoli drowned in melted cheese or potatoes in all of their glorious forms. (French fries are totally a vegetable, right?) It’s no surprise that I failed when my vegetarian brother challenged me to see how long I could go without eating meat. I made it a total of four days, that is, until my parents made breakfast for dinner. Without hesitation, I quit the challenge the second the smell of my dad’s juicy bacon hit my nose.

I can see why a person might choose to be a vegetarian. First, a vegetarian diet has health benefits. Well, it should have health benefits, but that is if you actually eat vegetables. (I was more of a pastatarian than a vegetarian.) Another reason, and probably the most popular reason, is because of moral beliefs. Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of having an animal killed for their eating pleasure instead of necessity. In addition to being killed, often times these animals live in awful conditions up until their death. These animals are purposely fed too much and are kept in tight, overcrowded spaces. Continue reading →