Random

One year ago today I thought to myself, starting tomorrow I’m going to try and go one week with out eating any meat (full blown cold turkey style) and yes that includes fish. I know a few people who are veggie and I was always against the idea. I didn’t understand why any body would want to give up the ‘delicious meat’. But to really understand I wanted to see from their perspective. One week passed and I actually found it surprisingly easy. I never realized that the Uk food industry caters for this diet pretty well. Then another week passed with out touching a single piece of meat. At this point I was thinking to myself, Well I’ve come this far I wonder how long I can do it for. Not realizing the longer I went with out it the more I was becoming aware of what meat actually is, where it comes from and all the other obvious reasons for being veggie.

I found the hardest thing was telling my dad but mainly my step mother who eats meat daily and doesn’t have much idea about this life style. Her argument for raising animals to eat was, If we don’t raise animals for food then there wouldn’t be enough food to feed everyone?! obviously she is oblivious to what is actually going on and how many resources the meat industry actually uses. To be fair on her I’ve found that a lot of people have similar views, I think its mainly down to people not knowing/not wanting to know the negative sides of eating meat. The hardest thing I’ve found about being veg is the social pressure. I often find I get my self in pretty awkward situations where I’m the centre of attention with everyone asking questions that I sometimes find hard to answer with out making people go in to defensive mode. However I’m becoming more confident when announcing it and finding the best way to put my reasons forward without making people feel too bad.

One thing I do enjoy about being a veg is meeting other veggies. This is usually a rare occasion but it always means a pretty good conversation is about to follow . All the people I’ve met/know who are veg are really sound people who usually have very similar interests to me other than what they shove in their mouths. I honestly feel with ever increasing population and fuel costs being a veggie is the way forward. My arguments for not eating it now totally out weigh the reasons for eating it. I now see meat in a totally different light and I hope Ill never buckle under the social pressure to eat it ever again…

I know this is pretty unrelated to my work but its now a big part of my own culture and lifestyle so I feel its worth writing this short post .

UPDATE:

If you’re curious about the thinking and reasons behind vegetarianism check out some of these documentaries. And no they’re not preachy in any way they simply inform and make you realise how amazing life and this planet really is..

Food Inc..

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Earthlings..

http://www.earthlings.com/

The Cove..

http://www.thecovemovie.com/

Home..

http://www.youtube.com/user/homeproject

Baraka..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO1nSVy8q8I