Let me begin with a small anecdote. My office colleagues and I were in a lunch meeting. One of my colleagues ordered a "sushi" dish that is basically made up of fish. In an attempt to tease me being vegetarian she exclaimed "I love fish" only to receive my polite smile as a reply. As I was about to begin my Garden Veggie sandwich her dish was on the platter. Trying to act smart and garnering support from the rest of the crowd she remarked ,"See. This fish is so tasty..!! Its my favorite. Sad that you do not like it." I could not suppress my tongue in the pretext of courtesy and was quick to retort saying "Who said I do not like fish ?" and then realized I had taken the entire crowd by surprise that thinks that I am a strict vegan. I paused and said, "I like it swimming in that tank (pointing to a fish tank in the corner of the restaurant) than it being on your plate". I am sure I embarrassed her this time and exceeded limits of courtesy but felt happy about getting my point across. (I wanted to do this at least a twenty times before...!! to ten different people). I am not a fanatic by any chance but quite strong on my principle of "Live and Let others live".

This made me think! Do I have a convincing argument for being a strict vegetarian. I personally view vegetarianism as a trait imbibed from birth and strengthened through mental and physical growth. To me it is more of an ethical issue. Is eating an animal eating a dead body ? Why is it barbaric to kill a human being for food while, killing an animal is forgiven. An animal does all that humans do. They give birth, they live, they make noise, they cry in pain, they love fellow beings, they reproduce and they die. I do not see any difference in the normal life chain of an animal that is slaughtered for food and a human in that aspect. With trees and plants, its leaves and fruits in no way affect the well being of the tree. The seeds of the fruit need to go back to the soil for their reproduction which is matter of time and will happen as part of the food cycle. Extending this logic to animals, I will accept milk products as vegetarian because we are not in any way endangering the very existence of the animal. I am reminded of one other incident that my friend narrated to me. He was in the Frozen section of supermarket. Chicken breasts were strung in display. A mom and her kid walked by and the mom was checking out the price of chicken. The smart kid asked her mom what was she looking at and the mom in an educative tone said "She was thinking of buying chicken". The kid became more inquisitive and trying to use her kinder garden education asked, "Mom..! How did the chicken come here and Why is it here?" and the mom still very patient in her reply said." It is dead and so is in the store for sale!." The kid did not think much to leave her mom speechless with her next set of questions. "Mom...! How did it die..? Who killed it ?Was the killer punished ?"

I read this counter-argument from a religious propagandist. "God created plants and he also created animals. He did this for the sake of man and there is nothing wrong in eating animals." I just have append my answer by saying "Sticking to vegetarianism becomes a matter of prudent choice" when survival with just plants is possible why impose the pain to an animal.

And to dear meat-eaters who say claim bacteria as meat, think twice before you pull in science about the bacterium. I have more scientific reasons such as hygiene, easy access to a balanced diet, calorie and other economic and spiritual statistics to support my practice.

Typo in the title: Read as "vegetarian"

i am vegetarian too...... for the same reason.... love animals.
but i dont blame meat eaters either......
all about food cahin and survival of the fittest. if we were not to eat animals, then the earth would have been full of animals.....
w...well that would have been better than insensitive homo sapiens ...eh?

;)

I bet your scientific reasons can't prove if the plants feel the same pain when you rip them off. Come to think of it: they are also like humans: they reproduce, they mate, they transpire and perspire, and give rise to young ones. Some of their genomes are way too big than the organisms that feel the pain. (taking on your scientific claim)

If you really are so concerned bout imposing pain in animals, eat nothing. If our buddha boy can do it for six months, i am sure you can too! cheers!

Snurp, plants don't feel pain... They don't have receptors to feel pains like humans or animals do... Blame it on my biology teachers if what I said is not right hehe....
I am a non-veg, but i'm seriously considering to quit meat... My only problem is, everytime I see grilled salmon or khasi ko masu, I cannot resist... Someone help me get rid of this temptation.. Don. Corleone, have you got some ideas? I shall enrich you with a penny, if you give me the solution...

>What's it in being a Vegeterian?
Nothing, really! No big deal.
It is only ONE of the choices that we make out of many in life. Fortunately we can sit in a nice comfortable chair and choose between the choices of food that we are going to devour. Unfortunately there are many others in the world who cannot make that choice.

Animals have always been an integral part of human civilization in the form of pets, food, entertainment and others. If animal contribution is taken out or human civilization we might still be in the neighborhood of the gorillas ;-)
Meat - I consider animal contribution to mankind and I love it esp khasi ko masu.

yes yes shiv, khasi ko masu... tyo pani bhaat sanga... ahhhaaa kasto mitho..

mokshya,
This thread prompted me to have khasi ko masu and bhat. I was grrreeeaaattt! I wish you could have joined me.
:-)

no wayyyyyy... You made my mouth water... aba timro khana ma mero aakha lagyo.. Let's see how that masu gets digested...

goatmeat sucks. only chicken i prfer

umrika ko chicken ta boiled aalu khayeko jasto... malai khaas man pardiana... goat meat is the best... jhol hala, bhuta, sadha, pola, je gara, khasi nai mitho....

I have good appetite and have no prob digesting the food I love.
FYI - I still have some left overs if you do not mind left overs, I can ship it to you in a refrigerated container.
;-)

chicken is ok but goat is the best.

How miser you are.... I expected to hear that you would UPS me an entire khasi, but you are talking about shipping some leftover... I'm seriously disappointed in you....

If I send you my left overs you can taste my cooking. I am a good cook when it comes to khasi ko masu.
I can UPS you a live khasi but I know you would not like it as a pet. Even if you like it you have to move to a farm to have a pet khasi.
:-)

awww you are so generous and concerned.... I know you wouldn't mind buying me a ranch for that Goat..

You want a ranch?? Sure I can buy you one. Is new mexico ok?
;-)

i believe one should be either a complete vegetarian, or a complete non-vegetarian, if your reason for doing so is religion , but if it is preference of taste then it is ok like someone above said he does not like the taste of khasi so he does not eat it, that's acceptable by me, but common all you partial meat eaters blaming religion for not eating beef or pork, tell me where is it written that it is alright to kill a goat/ bird, but not cows/ buffs, who are you to decide that one life is important than other. If you eat meat you should not have a problem with anybody eathing any kind of meat if it is clean and tasty.

that my opinion.

Shiv, I prefer Texas :-)

sambhu,
When you bring religion into the picture it becomes complicated and ofcourse relegion is based on belief. When you have a belief you are relegious. People try to justify their belief with justifications which does not work that well. Simply say that your faith does not allow to do certain things or allows, that explanation will be enough.