# Why aren't you vegetarian? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 2, 2010, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198 "2010-11-02T12:48:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/41 "2010-11-02T15:43:21Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > The poll leaves out another reason which I suspect actually applies to many people: “someone else prepares the food in my house most of the time, and I just eat whatever that is, because I’d have to do it myself otherwise.” Also known as the _Jules Clause_: “Well, if you like burgers give 'em a try sometime. I can’t usually get 'em myself because my girlfriend’s a vegetarian which pretty much makes me a vegetarian. But I do love the taste of a good burger.” ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/42 "2010-11-02T15:45:23Z")
I think vegetarian diets are too boring. I love to cook, and eliminating all meat dishes limits me too much. I need variety. However, I do have a big problem with factory farming, and buy our meat (including the meat I use for dog food) from a local free-range farmer/butcher. ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/43 "2010-11-02T16:38:57Z")
Too lazy, too damn inconvenient. Voted “bad person.” ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/44 "2010-11-02T17:20:51Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > This is along my lines of reasoning. It’s not only the killing of plants that is involved in raising vegetables for market. It also means the killing of insects that would otherwise infest the vegetables. Insects are a part of animal life, so vegetarians are killing animals in the production of vegetables anyway. > > You cannot get away from killing. Would you be happy to allow roaches to overrun your house? Would you refuse to take antibiotics to fight an infection? > > If the reason you are vegetarian is because you think killing is wrong, yet you have no hesitation in swatting a mosquito, you are being hypocritical. I’ll never understand this argument. Just because you can’t get away from killing altogether, you shouldn’t try your best to limit the amount of killing directly related to your diet? 😕 It’s not all or nothing - eat meat or eat no food. Meat-eaters don’t all draw their line in the same place, either; some only eat free-range meat or avoid specific types of meat and fish (like cod from overfished areas). We all make decisions about our diets, don’t we? It’s not just vegetarians. It’s just such a strange, strange argument to make. Why do I keep seeing it on threads like this? ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/45 "2010-11-02T17:24:25Z")
Some people here honestly eat meat because they think vegetarians are self-righteous? That seems to be on par with driving a Hummer because Hybrid drivers are smug. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/46 "2010-11-02T17:42:22Z")
Some vegetarians are self-righteous. Some radically so. Fortunately, my friends aren’t. They’re fine with me eating meat; they just choose not to themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/47 "2010-11-02T17:43:47Z")
I eat very little meat, but when I’m hungry for it, I have it. The inhumane methods we use to slaughter our living food grate on my conscience and I try not to think about it. I’ve done my research and it sickens me. Cognitive disonance, yes? It makes little difference in the scheme of things but I suspect I soothe that guilt by trying to treat all living things in a nurturing way. I imagine some of my behavioral indifference comes from the culture in which I was raised where it wasn’t uncommon to see people slaughtering their own food in a matter-of-fact way. It also was a culture where meat was the centerpiece of each meal. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/48 "2010-11-02T17:44:32Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > I checked ‘because meat is delicious’ and ‘Vegetarians are self-righteous’, but the real reason I eat meat is for my digestion, body composition and general health. This, mostly. If I don’t have meat, I get very weak and spacey. I’ve tried the vegetarian thing. It was like going off heroin. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/49 "2010-11-02T17:50:07Z")
I love vegetables. I could probably easily become a vegetarian. I sometimes order vegetarian meals in restaurants, or make a vegetarian meal at home. But, I also love meat. I like a nice char-broiled steak, or lamb vindaloo, or chicken wings, or bacon, or … It’s all good: vegetarian and carnivore. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/50 "2010-11-02T17:50:44Z")
I’ve tried vegetarianism and veganism and it just didn’t work. I need meat. If I don’t eat meat, I still feel hungry. Vegetable farming kills tons of animals, by the way. Not only directly, but indirectly by encroaching on their habitats. Incidentally, I don’t see how a person can be a vegetarian for ethical reasons, but also say that they don’t think they’re ethically superior to those who eat meat. If you think eating meat is unethical, then you think meat eaters are unethical. If you don’t think eating meat is unethical, then vegetarianism can’t be an ethical choice. You can’t have it both ways. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/51 "2010-11-02T17:50:46Z")
I checked _Meat is delicious_ and _I’m a bad person_. I was vegetarian for a year, and I am still concerned about the conditions under which most food animals in this country are raised and slaughtered. When I was a vegetarian, I missed meat a lot, and when I moved in with my stepsister and her boyfriend, we all cooked and ate together, and they weren’t vegetarian, so I just let it slide. I would like to limit my meat purchases to only humanely-treated animals, but unfortunately that is outside of our current budget. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/52 "2010-11-02T17:56:48Z")
I couldn’t really tick anything on the poll. I don’t consider meat-eating as inherently immoral. If we allow animals to live “happily” to an advanced age (or at the least no more suffering than they may experience in their natural environment), and then slaughter them painlessly (or at least quickly), I have no problem with that. I try to buy meat that comes closest to this ideal. A common response to this is “How would you like it if you were being farmed for meat?”, for which I have an answer, but it would be a hijack to go into that here. ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/53 "2010-11-02T18:16:34Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > My father and brother, growing up, and largely to this day, are fish-atarians (they eat no meat except for fish). They are [pescetarians](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pescetarian). You’re welcome. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/54 "2010-11-02T18:24:12Z")
I was a vegetarian for about two years, but gave it up for a variety of reasons. Mainly I lost too much weight. Also, my diet was crappier than ever; I just ate a lot of junk food. My household was reluctant to give up meat, and the rest of the family was constantly arguing with me about it (my uncle asked me if I was going to turn lesbian as well). If there comes a point in my life where I’m not responsible for feeding anyone but myself, I plan to reduce my meat intake drastically but I don’t think I’ll give it up completely again. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/55 "2010-11-02T18:41:35Z")
I was vegetarian for 10 years, and I stopped when I moved abroad because I didn’t want to be refusing food that people offered me. Since coming back, I rarely cook meat, but I’ll order it occasionally. I’m not terribly fond of meat, but I have no good reason not to eat it now and then. ---
**Author:** ![jlzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jlzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlzania)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/56 "2010-11-02T18:49:54Z")
Because I’m a pastured poultry farmer and it would be more than a tad bit hypocritical of me to abstain from meat. With that said, I make it a rule not to eat anything I don’t know personally. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/57 "2010-11-02T18:54:50Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I was a vegetarian for about two years, but gave it up for a variety of reasons. Mainly I lost too much weight. Also, my diet was crappier than ever; I just ate a lot of junk food. My household was reluctant to give up meat, and the rest of the family was constantly arguing with me about it **(my uncle asked me if I was going to turn lesbian as well).** > > If there comes a point in my life where I’m not responsible for feeding anyone but myself, I plan to reduce my meat intake drastically but I don’t think I’ll give it up completely again. Must resist urge to make joke connection to not eating meat… ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/58 "2010-11-02T18:59:26Z")
Mmmm… meat! ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/59 "2010-11-02T19:02:12Z")
> [@jlzania](#): > > I make it a rule not to eat anything I don’t know personally. nm. too easy. ---
**Author:** ![Elysian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Elysian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysian)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198/60 "2010-11-02T19:09:46Z")
If I became a vegetarian I’d have to give up chicken, which is not going to happen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-you-vegetarian/559198.md?page=4)