Vegetarianism

Greetings.

I am beginning this blog mostly because I have been asked many times why I have decided to become vegetarian and did not have a coherent response at the time.

Also, I have heard that some people's blogs get enough hype that they get free food, so I thought it was worth a shot.

I will be posting thoughts, recipes, pictures of food, restaurant reviews, etc, so check back occassionally if you're at all interested.

Why am I vegetarian?

This isn't a simple/straight forward answer as it has an assortment of reasons. A year and a half ago, I tried it for a month because some people at work were vegans, and some were giving it a shot, so I figured there had to be some merit in it. It was difficult for me, not because I missed meat, but because 1) I wasn't convicted about my reasons behind it and 2) living in a house with a bunch of meat eaters, it was difficult to get the groceries needed to make it work.

However, I have been vegetarian for 6 months now, and don't miss meat at all (usually). The lasting decision came when I started to date a vegan girl who said that she wouldn't date someone who ate meat. To be honest, while I had been tapering off on meat for a few months prior, this was the kick in the butt I needed to go into it officially. However, this is NOT the sole (or even the main) reason that I am currently vegetarian. After doing a little reading and thinking, I have decided that vegetarianism is not only a more healthy lifestyle (when done right), but is also a significant form of stewardship, not only toward animals, but toward other human beings and the Earth as a whole.

Stewardship toward animals is probably the most obvious. Now, let me say that I'm not inherently opposed to the idea of eating meat, but in our society, the way in which we go about the meat industry repulses me. On an average day in Amerca, 130 thousand cattle, 70 thousand calves, 360 thousand pigs, and 24 million chicken are killed for the food industry. That number continues to blow my mind.

Stewardship toward other human beings is also an important part of vegetarianism. Not only is the majority of food borne illness transmited through infected meat and poultry (70% according to the USDA), but also so much of the crops grown go into feeding livestock instead of humans. I can't find the stat right now, but many pounds of crops go into creating one pound of meat. This means there is a plethora of goods that cannot be eaten by humans becuase it is being used to fuel the meat industry. According to one website I found, 80% of corn grown annually in the US is used to feed livestock, as well as 95% of the oats grown in the US. http://www.soystache.com/environm.htm Basically, check out that site, it has lots of good facts.

Stewardship for the Earth...this ties in to the huge ammount of resources used by livestock. It goes for the ammount of gasses that the ammount of livestock produce, and it ties in to the waste of these animals getting into human drinking water.

Food has been tied into God and worship since the beginning. God gave food laws to the Jews, Daniel refused to eat the king's food and instead chose a diet of fruit and vegetables, God provided manna for his people in the desert. Jesus' reminder of His body and blood were food. Food was tied into worship and sacrifices. I'm not claiming that God calls us all to be vegetarians, but that there is certainly a tie between food and worship. And I feel that in a society where we have access to alternatives to meat to fulfill all of our dietary needs (soybeans, beans, lentils, etc have lots of protein and very little fat), we have a special opportunity to take care of our world, our animals, and most imporantly, each other.

I truly feel that vegetarianism gives us a way to fulfill God's commandment for us to look over His creation in a beautiful and relatively easy way.