Quote Originally Posted by Crazy-Cat-Lover
I love meat, I always have, always will. I eat meat because humans have eaten meat since the beginning of time. I cant stand pork and hardly eat beef. I love poultry, you can put any flavour under the sun on it. I love to cook and if I became a vegan - what would DH and my daughter do? They would be forced into vegetarianism. There many negative aspects of vegetarianism. The possible deficiencies that may develop if a balanced eating plan is not consumed. If dairy, meat, fish, and poultry are excluded, one may become deficient in vitamin B12(important for nerve transmission and necessary for life), calcium (for strong bones, among other functions), iron (for blood), and zinc (for immunity and healing), just to name a few. You have to be VERY determined to stick to your diet and consult a doctor before becoming a vegetarian. It is NOT something you can do overnight, you have to study, plan and think about what you're doing to make sure you dont end up seriously ill.

While the PETA video shows cruelty, not every place is like that. You cant judge stuff like this, especially when it's coming from PETA.

Nuff said....
Yes, people have been eating meat since the beginning of time. Does that make it right? No. I could bring up the old "Just because someone jumps off a bridge, do you?" and use that as an example here. You should do what you feel is right, tradition or not.

Just because you are vegetarian/vegan doesn't succomb your family to it as well. If my future husband wants to eat meat, fine, I don't care. But I would hope that he would let me explain how important is to me that it comes from a place that treats their animals humanely, and respect that.

There are just as many things that can result from eating meat as can from being vegetarian. Different diets work for different people. I am much healthier as a vegetarian, but it is not right for everyone. There are certain diseases that are higher risk as a meat-eater. Anyone who does not have a balanced, well-planned diet will not be as healthy as someone who does, vegetarian or not. Vitamin supplements can take care of lack of calcium, iron, and B-12.

Yes, you have to be determined to stick to your diet. I stick to it because I don't like to know that what's on my plate was treated cruel during it's life and died a painful death. I guess it all depends on what your priorities are.

Every place is not like the one in the video, as already mentioned in this thread. However, a majority of them are. The animals welfare is usually not the concern at meat farms -- the money is. And the ones that do treat their animals humanely usually have something on their package saying so.