On Being Vegetarian

For some reason my vegetarianism is a pain in the ass for some people. I’ve been one since 1979. I had visited factory farms and read a lot about corporate farming. I never tried to change anyone’s mind. I just didn’t want to be part of it.

People tried to convince me I wasn’t going to make a difference. I think the only power we really have is how we spend our money. I think there are others like me and together we might make a small difference.

My daughter became a vegetarian a couple of years ago and my ex is pissed at me about it.

She wanted to get her a guitar strap for Christmas. I told her I would find one that didn’t have any leather in it. I guess it hadn’t occurred to her there were animal products in things other than food. “Don’t you dare put those stupid ideas in her head!” she scolded. She already feels put out that she has to accommodate Chloe’s diet.

I think PETA has set the cause back years. You don’t change people’s opinions by polarizing their passions. It’s like people that bomb abortion clinics. What are you thinking?

We live in the land o’ plenty. There are cultures where eating animal is necessary for survival. I would too under those circumstances.  I don’t have to here so I don’t.

I remember a conversation I had at the Oyster Bar with a customer of mine. I said it wouldn’t be so bad if the animals could live a happy, healthy life instead of continuous suffering before they were harvested. She actually got mad at me about this. She said I wanted to lull them into a false sense of security before their lives were suddenly snatched away. The logic of the world we live in??!!

People are pretty set in their ways but if we could just stop eating cows the world would improve greatly. With several stomachs, cows produce methane from both ends. Methane is worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. The cows people eat now aren’t nutritious anyway. We’ve subsidized corporations like ADM to produce corn for feed. Cows need to graze on grass. It actually changes their chemical composition.

Something like %75 of the fertilizer produced for this corn runs into the Mississippi. This feeds massive amounts of algae in the delta. The decomposition of the algae robs the water of oxygen and nothing animal can live there. There is a dead zone in the gulf the size of New Jersey and it keeps growing. The gulf is probably our nation’s most important fishery by the way.

This entry would probably be more appropriate for my political blog but I’m 50 and I’ve been a vegetarian longer than not.