Once I knew someone who just… didn’t like meat. After a diagnosis of mild iron-deficiency anaemia, the doctor told her, “eat some red meat” [or something like that], and I witnessed her give it a try. So in that case it definitely was not a moral philosophy. I do not know how her diet eventually worked out, unfortunately.
Then there is the guy who grew up on a farm where they would, e.g., kill and cook a chicken and he was forced to eat them. Lifelong vegetarian as a result of the trauma, though he will eat dairy products and so on (apparently milking was not so horrifying).
In keeping with the Jewish tradition of more viewpoints than necessary on any topic, there’s about a thousand agencies world-wide putting a seal of approval on kosher food items. Further complicating the issue are “look alike” marks that are not actual hechsher but sort of look like they are. Again, more information than you might need to know on the topic is here.
I have a bud who did that when she was in college. She just decided that she could not in good conscience eat the flesh of what had been another living being, so she decided to stop doing so. It was purely an ethical decision on her part.
My daughters (20 and 22) have been vegan for ~6 years. When they were kids, they enjoyed the flavor and texture of meat and probably still would if they tried it again. But they won’t.
They’re vegan strictly for animal rights reasons and I respect them for that. I’m not vegan, but they’ve converted me somewhat in that direction. I do enjoy many vegan dishes, but still indulge in meat on occasion. They’ve given up bombarding me with documentaries and articles about slaughterhouse abuses and whatnot.
My younger daughter is more strict than her sister. She inspects every food label with a magnifying glass and won’t eat anything with even a hint of animal product in it, even honey (that’s bee vomit from exploited bees, dad!). If she orders food and they mess up her order by including mayo or cheese, etc., she will not eat it. She’d rather starve than break her conviction to the cause.
The 22 yo used to be that strict, but she has relaxed somewhat. She still avoids meat and animal byproducts, but if she inadvertently gets something with mayo or cheese on it, she’ll still eat it (after scraping it off). Meat is still a no no, however.
I respect the cause, but when a juicy cheesesteak looks at me seductively, well…
I remember when a girl got dinged in the later rounds of the National Spelling Bee for spelling “hechsher” wrong, and it turned out she was actually right, because of the alternate spellings.
Can only speak for myself, as a flexitarian for about one year. When you change your diet, your gut microbiome changes, which affects what kind of food you want. If you change your eating a little, your preferences will change a little. If you change your diet a lot, you might lose the taste for meat completely. I’m at the point where I still love beef occasionally but I’ve lost my taste for chicken and pork almost entirely. So has my husband. And we weren’t really trying to go full vegan. Likewise, fresh plant foods are a lot more palatable than they used to be because that’s what we eat now.
I made this chicken soup tonight and I just didn’t care for the chicken. It’s not that I never will eat it or I’m disgusted by it, it’s more like a mild distaste. It tastes kind of bland and rubbery to me. My husband comments negatively now (in private) when we have to eat a meal where the primary food is meat. It doesn’t bother me as much as it does him.
This is one couple’s experience. The driving force behind the diet change was inflation more than anything else, with the added bonus of health benefits and benefits to the environment. We will probably never go completely vegan because I can’t imagine not sitting down to good steak dinner occasionally. I also never want to be a pain in anyone’s ass when dining with other people.
I will also add I’ve tried to go vegan three or four times before this and I think the dietary change only stuck because this time I didn’t try to move to this radically different dietary plan. To this day I think the fact that I’m sometimes willing/wanting to eat meat makes it easier to stick to eating it dramatically less often.
It’s pretty easy to buy honey from bees that aren’t exploited. A lot of hives are basically pampered pets. Just buy honey from bees that aren’t carted around. It’s still bee vomit, though.
I regularly buy eggs now that are (supposedly) from happy chickens (chickens that are in a pasture and not a warehouse). They cost about twice what factory eggs do but I pay the price (partly because a dozen eggs lasts me two weeks).
I’ve started doing that because I prefer that animals be treated humanely and as a bonus the “happy chicken” eggs taste better. Even at $6 a dozen are only 50¢ each. Which is still damn cheap for the nutrition you get from one. Then again, I’m another one where a dozen eggs lasts weeks.
Damn. I’m here visiting the in-laws in Phoenix and the regular grocery has regular large eggs at $6.99 a dozen! Back in Chicago, though, I have seen the “cage free” (not “free range”) sometimes cheaper than the usual factory farmed eggs.