Meatless Monday: How I Became a Vegetarian

I was once your typical meat-loving Asian girl. Marinated pork ribs, roast chicken, snake soup, braised ox-tails in red wine. I loved meat, especially fancy and exotic types, and didn’t ever stop to think that vegetarianism could be an option for me. After I spent some time observing fellow vegetarians, I got comfortable with the idea. It wasn’t as bad as people often make it seem. Tasty fake meats are abundant, at least in the Bay Area, plant food tastes great especially if you spice it right, and the chances of developing chronic disease later on in life are significantly diminished.

But I still didn’t make the leap. I didn’t want to know what was going on behind closed factory farm doors, probably because I didn’t want to feel responsible for what was happening and become *gasp* a vegetarian. I didn’t want to change my identity and face the negative stigma that would inevitably pour forth.

Finally I discovered Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, in which, while describing the horrors of the US farm system, he flirts with vegetarianism and then decides that as products of evolution, we were meant to eat meat. Additionally for Pollan, the social culture surrounding meat was something he didn’t want to give up.

Me? I branched from Michael Pollan’s conclusion, because the harrowing details of factory farms described in his book were enough to convince me it was the right choice. As for culture, Sleater-Kinney says it best: Culture is what we make it. A food culture surrounding less meat and more wholesome plants is entirely possible to establish. In fact, it is already in motion.

My choice was not completely ethical in reason (as in, purely against the killing or use of animals for human benefit), as I am still somewhat swayed by Pollan’s evolution argument. We evolved to eat meat, to this I agree. But the conditions of factory farms are simply unsustainable as, among other reasons, they contribute immensely to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. If you have seen the footage, heard the stories, agree with the scientific, environmental, or ethical arguments against factory farms, and are in opposition to their continued practice, then you have a responsibility to put your money where you mouth is. Your dollars are a vote: whether you are conscious of it or not, your purchase says you support the practices of the brands you buy.

I’ve been mostly vegetarian for 2 years now. I never cook meat, and only indulge in the occasional fish or chicken at restaurants. I started out with a 6-month experimental period, where I flirted with vegetarianism and allowed myself to eat meat every now and then. At some point, I realized vegetarian food satisfied my taste buds just fine, and it felt like the right thing to do. I encountered a good deal of negative stigma, but eventually I got comfortable with my new identity and with the external resistance. If you ever wanted to do something different, expect opposition. Opposition doesn’t mean you’re wrong. Eventually, opposition becomes a normal part of living your authentic life.

And now, in honor of Meatless Monday, I will show you how I was persuaded to become a vegetarian. So, that is your disclaimer. I hope you will share your opinions below: all well-meaning, non-hysterical opinions are encouraged.

Why boycott meat from factory farms?

Manure lagoons pollute groundwater, kill off economically viable animals such as fish, and deplete soil fertility. Whereas in a sustainable system, waste is a valued resource and never left sitting out, a conventional system is not able to use manure effectively. Massive amounts of waste are collected at feedlots and funneled into manure lagoons, where a small amount is liquefied and used as fertilizer. Most of it is not used and instead stays in the lagoon, where it spills and leaks out to deplete the health of the local ecosystem.

The United Nations estimates that livestock cultivation contributes 18% of greenhouse gas emissions – more than cars, planes, and the entire transportation industry combined.

Factory farms’ heavy reliance on antibiotics encourages antibiotic resistance in bacteria, which affects both the quality of your meat as well as your own personal health. All living things undergo genetic mutations – this is the basis for evolution. New genes, new proteins, new survival tools. Over time, as bacteria mutate, certain populations acquire increased immunity to specific antibiotic drugs, meaning they are ever less likely to die.

Conventionally-produced meat is more likely to become spoiled with bacteria – you suffer the consequence of foodborne illness. Many factory farm workers do not respond to antibiotics in treatment, because the bacteria they are surrounded by have acquired resistance, and we don’t have new antibiotics to treat them yet. This also affects antibiotics used to treat human pathogens, as diseases from animals can infect humans.

The extensive use of hormones and antibiotics pollute our waterways and the air we breathe. They are used to increase animal size and speed up the rate of development, but they make the animal less healthy overall and infuse your meat with growth hormone byproducts. Consistently exposing yourself to low doses of hormone metabolites can alter your hormonal chemistry, effecting reproductive, stress management, and metabolic systems in your body.

These compounds and their metabolic byproducts run off into our waterways, volatize into the air we breathe, and they won’t get filtered by your Brita. The pollution that runs through waterways often ends up in the ocean, creating ‘dead zones’, such as one in the Gulf of Mexico, where no living things can survive. This has disastrous effects on the marine ecosystem, decreasing the livelihoods of coastal fishermen.

Compassion. Factory farm animals are confined to tiny spaces where they can barely move. They are forced to eat feed made from agricultural byproducts as well as animal byproducts, and their feed mixes with their waste.

Millions of chickens packed into a tiny warehouse die every year before reaching slaughter weight at 6 weeks old. Due to such unsanitary conditions, these birds often die of overheating, infectious diseases, and cancer.

Laying hens, breeding pigs, and calves raised for veal are all confined to tiny crates where they can’t even turn around. They are stuck sitting in a sloshy mix of feed and waste.

A female cow is artificially inseminated and gives birth. Her calf is taken away from her after a few days, to which she bellows and moans in grief. She is milked for milk until she produces no more. Then, she is artificially inseminated again, and the process begins anew. If you are a woman, imagine if you are this cow, constantly impregnated for your milk, your children all taken away from you. Not a pretty sight.

I will spare you further ugliness, as there are plenty of stories one could tell. Essentially, I realized my meat eating habits were supporting factory farms. There was no reconciliation. If I don’t believe in factory farms, if I truly want a more humane and sustainable system in place, then I must act according to this belief. Otherwise, nothing will ever change, and no one will honestly believe that I am against this practice. Either I go vegetarian, or eat only sustainably, humanely-raised, pasture-fed animals. I chose vegetarianism.

But Meat Tastes Good…

People often cite taste as a reason why they would never stop eating meat. Taste is a physical sense, like sight, smell, touch, or sound. Taste doesn’t say anything about the consequences of eating meat. Most people love the taste of sugary and fatty foods, so much that we have an epidemic of obesity and metabolic disorders. These people have every power to reduce their intake of sugary and fatty foods, and they often do to extremes, if it means improving their personal health and lengthening their time on this earth. If we can eat less of our favorite desserts, then we can eat less meat. Possibility is not in question; willpower is.

You Can Help Stop Global Warming Today

The most effective way to fight the global warming crisis is to stop eating meat, eggs, and dairy products. Start today by taking the Pledge To Be Veg for 30 Days. — Goveg.com

I’ve decided to take a pledge to eat as vegan as possible. In my terms, this means cooking almost 100% vegan at home, and at restaurants, eating 100% vegetarian and as vegan as possible.

I was persuaded by my own story above of laying hens and milking cows. As I read it over again, it moved me to question my own behaviors and to challenge myself to act according to my personal beliefs. I don’t think it’s okay for these dairy-providing animals to be raised in such a way. I always buy cage-free eggs, but ‘cage-free’ has no legal status. Even then I can’t trust that laying hens were treated the way I wanted, so no more eggs for me. Tofu scrambles for the win! That is, unless I’m absolutely certain the eggs were from finely treated hens, such as those of a permaculturist or the eggs from the freely roaming ducks in my backyard.

I never buy milk and have cut back on my love for cheese, so I will continue to keep it that way. I will make my own vegan cheese sauces and they will taste delicious.

Not everyone is willing to go this far. Some people love meat too much. If that is you, I direct you to alternative livestock systems:

• Featured in The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Polyface Farms Production
• Eatwild.com: Grass-Fed Basics
• Eatwild.com: Shop for Local Grass-fed Meat, Eggs, and Dairy