Why I'm a Vegetarian

My name is Stephanie.

I am a Virgo, a Chapstick addict, a Southerner, a liberal, a sweets lover, an Alabama football fan, a Guster fanatic, a college graduate, and a vegetarian.

“Really?”  (Insert head cocked to the side here.)

That’s the reaction I most often get when I tell people that I am the last thing on that list: a vegetarian.

Combine that with being a liberal, and I’m surprised I haven’t been kicked out of the state of Alabama yet!

In all seriousness, though, vegetarians are a rare breed in the South.  Down here we’re all about home cooking, fried chicken, and barbecue.  Putting the words “Southern style” in front of any vegetable means it’s likely prepared with chunks of ham or pure fat.

This is not meant to be a knock on the South; it’s just one aspect of the culture in this region.  I’m proud to say I’m from Alabama despite the limited food choices I have here. 

I just want to take this opportunity to write about why I chose, and still choose every day, to be a vegetarian.  I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, and I am finally doing it now because it is National Vegetarian Week! 

Don’t worry.  I’m not recruiting for some guerilla vegetarian organization (though I do follow PETA on Twitter).  Also, don’t feel like I’m trying to convert you; this isn’t a sermon.  But it is a testimony.

I became a vegetarian on January 27, 2008.  I never actually remember the date (I had to look it up.), but I do remember that it was the day after the Senior Bowl my freshman year.  The last meat I ate, if my memory serves me right, was a turkey sandwich provided to me by the Million Dollar Band on the way home from Mobile after that football game.

Laura, one of my best friends, had approached me about giving up meat with her for 40 days.  One of her friends in Auburn had suggested it, and she wanted somebody in Tuscaloosa to do it with her.

I understand why she asked me specifically to do it with her.  I have always been weird about meat.  I never liked hamburgers or hotdogs, pepperoni, beef, or pork.  The only red meat I ate at all for a long time was Taco Bell “beef.”  People always poked fun at me for my strange eating habits.

I did eat turkey, chicken, and seafood.  But I started to be wary of even these meats sometime during high school.  My mom would cook chicken, and I would refuse to eat it if I thought there was even a hint of pink in it.  Meat just grossed me out.

It wasn’t just the actual meat that made me uneasy back then either; it was what had to happen for that meat to be on my plate.  I wanted to cry (and throw up) when I saw pictures of people hunting poor, innocent animals.  On the most basic moral level, it never seemed right that an animal had to die just for me to eat a meal.

I think I was predestined to be a vegetarian.  Mom, Scotty, and I were looking through my baby book a few months ago and discovered a page that said my favorite food was macaroni and cheese and that my least favorite food was meat.  Not much has changed.

I think I could have stopped eating meat at a much younger age than 18, but it was never logistically possible.  Firstly, I honestly don’t know if I had ever interacted with a vegetarian before college.  I don’t know any vegetarians now either, but I have had some interaction with them.  Secondly, it’s difficult to make autonomous food choices when eating lunch in the school cafeteria and living in your parent’s house.  My options were to eat what was provided or to eat nothing at all, and Lord knows I was never cut out for a hunger strike.

Now, back to my story.  I agreed to join Laura in giving up meat for 40 days.  Those days were easier for me than for her.  It honestly was barely a challenge at all.  I liked not eating meat; my only real trouble was finding things I could eat using my meal plan and dining dollars.  Again, Alabama is not the most vegetarian-friendly of states.

Unfortunately, my vegetarian options were mainly cheese pizza, pasta, French fries, desserts, and other terrible foods.  Vegetarianism is often touted as being very healthy, but there are certainly ways to make it unhealthy.  And I was guilty of every single one of them.  (Since then I’ve become much better about eating my fruits, vegetables, and meat-free proteins.)

After the 40 days were over, Laura eagerly returned to her carnivorous ways.  I, however, decided to continue my vegetarian lifestyle without a set ending date.  Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years.

As of today, I have been a vegetarian for 3 years and 4 months.  (The only meat I’ve purposely eaten was a couple crawfish this year at Mardi Gras, though some people don’t consider that meat.  And I felt guilty afterwards!)

Yes, I’m one of those people who goes to college and changes in some major way.  Instead of questioning my religion or my sexuality, I questioned my food.  And I’m so glad I did!  I feel better physically and emotionally, and that is what matters to me.

When I tell this story to people who inquire about my not eating meat, it often isn’t enough.  They want more specific reasons I choose not to eat meat.  While there are plenty of statistics I could use to explain my “alternative lifestyle,” I don’t feel like that is the best way to get my point across.  Instead, here are a few of the “buzzwords” surrounding vegetarianism and how I feel I relate to them:

Health—This probably initially had the very least to do with my choice to be a vegetarian.  I didn’t become a vegetarian to lose weight or to better other measurements of my health, although these are definitely valid reasons to give up meat.  In fact my doctors would probably prefer I had stayed a carnivore due to my severe anemia (low iron).  But I would argue that not eating meat is generally healthier than eating meat, and there are plenty of numbers to back me up.  Meat is so much more likely than fruits or vegetables to be contaminated by something dangerous.  And there are much safer ways than eating meat to get all your essential vitamins and nutrients!

Environment—I remember almost nothing from AP biology in high school, but I do remember one thing about food chains: each level only gets about 10% of the energy from the level before it.  It is INEFFICIENT to eat meat.  I could say that my eating vegetables instead of meat means that nine more people could also eat vegetables (rather than one person eating meat), but this is an overgeneralization.  The bottom line is that meat production is not sustainable.  Cutting any amount of meat out of your diet can save a remarkable amount of energy, and it can also decrease pollution.  You think driving an SUV is bad for the environment?  I dare you to look up how bad meat production is.  If you’re one of those whackos like me who believes that human activities impact our environment and our (another buzzword…) climate, the data will be absolutely appalling to you.  Maybe it’s the hippie in me, but I’d prefer that our planet be usable for many generations to come.

Ethics/Animal Rights—No, animals are not people, too.  However, they are living, breathing, sentient creatures.  What gives me the right to take an animal’s life for my sustenance when I could literally eat anything else? I don’t see any significant difference between my dogs sleeping on my couch and the cows, pigs, and chickens that most people have in the center of their plate at every meal.  While some people are able to eat meat without thinking of the animal it came from, I just can’t.  (On a related not, last year I read a summary of an interesting study about how vegetarians and vegans differ from omnivores in feeling empathy.) And the conditions under which these creatures are raised and slaughtered are repulsive to me.  If you really love animals, as so many people say they do, why do you eat them?

So there you go.  There is a simple (I promise, I could have written much more.) explanation of my road to vegetarianism. 

I have been asked many times whether I think this is just a phase.  As I noted before, plenty of people experiment in college.  It’s okay to be a little crazy when you’re young and finding yourself, but is it possible to sustain this lifestyle forever?

I guess we’ll see.  While I personally could see myself being a vegetarian for the rest of my life, there will come a point where I am no longer the most important person in my life.  I hope to get married some day, and the chances are slim that the man of my dreams will be a vegetarian.  It isn’t exactly on my checklist.

And when I have children, I don’t know that I could make them be vegetarians.  I made my own choice about eating meat, and I think my children should have the same opportunity.  While most parents obviously want to pass their beliefs onto their children, I am not the kind of person to force my choices (as good as I think they are) on other people.  I certainly haven’t tried to coerce any of my friends into vegetarianism over the past few years!

Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have.  Even feel free to criticize my logic or my opinions if you’d like.  I’ve been teased plenty since that fateful day I became a vegetarian.  When it’s not lighthearted, I brush it off.  So bring it on!

Until next time when I’ll talk about religion, gay marriage, and abortion!  (Just kidding.)