Why Become A Vegetarian?

Meet Hamid, a hypothetical child in sub-Saharan Africa. He's two years old, two and half feet tall and weighs 20 pounds. He has tiny hands and tiny feet and piercing dark eyes. Each day his little tummy rumbles in pain because he struggles to get enough to eat. He will likely die soon.

If so, he will become one of 16,000 children who die each day from hunger, one child every 5 seconds. If famine doesn't kill him a disease may sweep through his hunger ravaged body and finish the job.

None of us wants little Hamid to die or to live so miserable a life. Yet there are millions more children just like him in many parts of the world and they and their parents reach out to us for help.

One way we can help is to become vegetarians. It takes far less land and other resources to raise fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts than it does to raise animals for slaughter. And wide spread rain forests and ancient timber lands have been cleared and are being cleared to raise animals for slaughter.

If the industrialized nations cut back on their meat production and instead grew healthier foods, there would be far more food to share with the world and we would all be taking better care of our bodies by eating healthier.

But there is another reason I became a vegetarian. Karma - What goes around comes around. I didn't want any living creatures being killed so I could eat their flesh. They are living, thinking beings just as I am.

Pigs, cattle, fish, birds and other animals all have brains, all have babies and they all think and they all feel. Lambs cry out as their hearts race in panic before they are slaughtered and in parts of the world, dogs are slaughtered and eaten.

Dogs, "mans' best friend," thinking, loving, feeling animals are eaten. But how can one say this is wrong if one eats pigs, which are also intelligent animals and sometimes become pets as well.

There are good reasons TV cameras rarely show slaughter houses at work. It is stomach turning. Death followed by pools of blood spilling on the "kill floor" and guts being ripped out so the meat (dead animal tissue) can be processed into food.

Some of the animals are sick or their feces or urine have made contact with the meat and disease can easily spread to humans who eat them. But even the bodies of healthy animals contain toxins that can be poisonous to people.

Becoming a vegetarian is not as hard as you might think. I've been one for over eight years and in most metropolitan areas there are a wide variety of vegetarian products available. More products than ever before and they are readily available in super markets as well as specialty shops.

My favorites include veggie burgers, veggie meatballs and thick vegetarian soups served with hot toasty grain bread. I became a vegetarian by gradually eliminating meat from my meals until I was only having meat one meal a week. Then after a year I tried it with no meat thinking if I miss it, I can go back to it. I never have missed it and if you take this gradual approach, you may not either.

You may be wondering if others will think less of you for doing this. But my experience is others raise their respect level, for many people know this is a far better way to eat but don't want to do without all the foods they're used to.

You may also be wondering if it will hurt your social life because few restaurants cater to vegetarians. Yet more restaurants than ever offer veggie options and of those that don't most will allow you to bring in and they will prepare your vegetarian meal. Just speak with the manager before you arrive.

So why become a vegetarian? You'll help feed the hungry, you'll be kinder to mother earth, you'll bring good Karma on yourself and you'll live a much healthier life style.

Dick