I'm vegetarian, so this is a very serious issue for me. There are lots of viewpoints for people. Here are the main ones that I know of:

Arguments for vegetarianism:

* Efficiency- Sun --> Plant --> Human is a more efficient energy transfer than Sun --> Plant --> Animal --> Human

* Morality- Animals are brutally slaughtered, trapped in a cage and not given basic rights, etcetera.

* Weight loss- I know of people who've gone vegan/vegetarian to try to lose weight.

* Sustainability- That carbon footprint site. The argument that we as a species cannot continue to eat meat, simply because it will cause CO2 emissions which will screw up the Earth majorly.

* Personal Preference- The "I don't like the taste of meat" argument.

Arguments for eating meat:

* Personal Preference again - "I like meat, it tastes very nice."

* Protein: Fallacious, in that protein can be derived from other sources.

* It is a cheaper lifestyle to adopt and I'm poor. (this is debatable, it may or may not be true.)

This post has been edited by OpaQue: Nov 14 2007, 07:34 AM

1. Eating meat doesn't necessarily entail approving of how the meat is produced. The reason why animals aren't killed humanely anymore is that the demand makes this impossible. Solve the problem of overpopulation and you have perfectly moral meat.

2. I know of people who've gone vegan/vegetarian to try to lose weight. This is idiotic and self-refuting, since V People will argue that there are no important food qualities missing from a vegan/vegetarian diet.

3. Simply by breathing we create carbon emissions. So even if people didn't have to eat, only process oxygen, we'd still reach an overpopulation point at which the Earth wouldn't be sustained. So, again, solving the problem of overpopulation is the course of action which I conclude from that argument.

1. If you don't approve of it, in my opinion, then you should stand up for it. It's like saying wars are wrong, then going and joining the army. You're a complete hyprocrite if you eat meat but believe in animal rights.

2. You can easily find replacements for the protien lost by not eating meat. I eat lots of quorn and things like that. I like the sausages, burgers, nuggets, fillets etcetera!

3. The non-eating of meat is still better than nothing. Yes, overpopulation is a big problem and is contributing to climate change, but so is eating meat, and vegitariansism is a solution.

I am a vegetarian for several reasons:

1. I do not really find the taste of meat that appealing, the idea of eating an animal's cooked flesh makes me grossed out.

2. I get sick when I eat meat, maybe it's because I never ate it a lot growing up so my stomach is unable to adjust to it, or what but it makes me physically sick.

3. I like animals and think that if we can live without eating meat (which we can) than we shouldn't really eat meat, animals shouldn't be eaten because people like the taste of it, they should be eaten because we NEED to eat it. But since we (unlike other animals) can live without meat, why eat it?

Great to see another veggie.

I've been veggie since I was born, so I dont have a clue what it tastes like.

i eat meat and respect me for that

Many vegetarianism is for belief in china, i think. They don't eat animal and fish for mercy. But many animal is grown by man for cooking. if we are all vegetoriamism, so many people will be fired. they will have no job. Society will have havier burden. we will waste more resource. Many recource will not be able to be used. Since with the develepment of science, animal might be changed in to oil run the vehicle. Now man is facing the lack of resources, if in the near future ,we can use animal energy as a kind of resource. If we have no skill to grow the animals ,what shall we do ?

Actually, if everyone was a vegetarian, then we'd have more resources. It takes less space to grow vegetarian food for twenty days than to grow animals to last for twenty days. (twenty is a number picked randomly, basically it takes less space to grow veggetarian food).

Also, we can run cars on vegiatable fat. In that way, we would save time and money in not having to kill animals, and spend scientific brainpower on figuring out how to make meat = energy.

Eating meat doesn't attracts dis-respect from my side. I respect all animals (including social animal).

But do you respect others, the meat you eat, comes after killing animals, who lost there beloved ones. Do you have respect for them.