Vegetarianism and my Subconscious

I’ve recently been thinking of becoming a vegetarian, mostly for some environmental reasons.  It is pretty clear that animal agriculture has some adverse environmental effects.  A massive amount of land is being used around the world to allow cattle to graze, in many places fueling deforestation and species endangerment.  Huge amounts of water are also needed to sustain livestock.  Runoff from factory farms contains pollutants, especially high amounts of nutrients, leading to problems like eutrophication.  Farm animals and their excrement emit fossil fuels, to such an extent that animal agriculture related greenhouse gas emissions now exceed emissions from all forms of transportation put together.  And as less developed countries continue to improve their economies, worldwide meat consumption is expected to increase.

There are also arguments that it is ethically unsound to kill animals to eat their meat.  I’m not really sure how I feel about this.  But when I think about the meat industry in the United States, I do find it somewhat unsettling how removed I am from the whole process.  I very rarely think about where my meat comes from.  I never have to witness a slaughter.  While studying abroad in China, there were a few instances where I saw the animal that I was going to be eating before it was slaughtered, which was an affecting experience.  It sort of just made me think about how every piece of meat I had eaten had come from some animal that had been killed, which I had never really addressed before.  And there’s also the whole problem of whether animals are treated well during their lives, something I’m not really going to get into.

But anyway, like I said before, I’m mostly thinking about this from the environmental perspective.  The idea is that I don’t want to support an industry that is so harmful to the environment, and by boycotting it I won’t be contributing to the damage that is being caused by animal agriculture.  But the problem is… I LIKE EATING MEAT.

The other day I was hanging with some friends who had ordered a pizza.  There were four pieces left, two with meat and two without.  I was tempted to take a meat piece, but instead went for the non-meat one.  However, by eating the meat one I wouldn’t have been monetarily supporting the meat industry.  My friends had bought the pizza without my knowledge.  So why wouldn’t I take the meat one?  I can think of two reasons.  I could be trying to spread awareness of environmental effects of animal agriculture.  Or I could have decided that even if I didn’t monetarily support the meat industry, I didn't want to eat it anyway because of the problems that come with the product.  But actually, there’s also a third reason I guess… by not taking the meat piece, I was telling other people that I don’t eat meat.

I have thought about this kind of more subtle incentives for becoming a vegetarian, AKA,  the certain kind of social capital that being a vegetarian affords in some places.  In a place like Bowdoin College, people might see being a vegetarian as a more socially and environmentally conscious way of life, and thus they might respect your more.  I want to be careful not to let this kind of less apparent motive have too much control over me, so I think about it a lot and There is the stereotype about vegetarians that they are always quick to let you know they are one, ostensibly because they want to show you how righteous they are.  Of course one can think of many reasons why and hypothetical circumstances in which soon after meeting someone, they might feel compelled to let you know they are a vegetarian; if you are sharing a meal for example.  I don’t consciously believe I would become a vegetarian in order to impress anyone.  But I think it’s certainly possible that my subconscious might make the idea more attractive just for that purpose, to impress others people.

But then again, there are also social circles in which being a vegetarian isn’t really a good or cool thing.  None of my relatives are vegetarian as far as I know, and some of them might even think it strange if they knew I was deciding to live this way.  Anthony Bourdain, someone I find intelligent and interesting, reserves aspecial kind of hatred for vegetarians.  He says, “Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn.  To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.”  He has also said that vegetarians are self-indulgent, and that they inconvenience people who cook for them by having too selective a diet.  However, despite the fact that I love my relatives and enjoy reading Bourdain’s books and watching his TV show, I don’t think these people’s opinions will keep me from becoming a vegetarian.

I don't think these subconscious motivations will affect my decision too much.  It’s more about the food I think…  This past week, I have eaten very little meat.  Today I ate the first veggie burger I have ever had, a black bean burger.  It was pretty yummy, but there was something missing (hint: it was the meat).  At this point, after really cutting down my meat intake, I am missing it.  But, as most people tend to do when they switch to a no meat diet, I think that I can probably get used to it.