I too would like to be a vegetarian -- for health as well as emotional reasons.

I debate this often with myself (and my stepson who is a vegetarian and sometimes a vegan). If we all became vegetarians, what would happen to the cows, pigs, and chickens? They don't make real good house pets, if there is no profit motives farmers aren't going to keep them and they would have trouble surviving in the wild. (I know, cows give milk and chicken eggs -- but what about the males??) So which is better for them, ensuring the survival of the species by eating meat or seeing cows, chickens, and pigs in zoos?

So I try and eat "further down the food chain" chicken, fish, etc. but sometimes I just eat meat.