What made you want to become a vegan/vegetarian?!

Before becoming an ecologist I was a cook. For a few months I worked on a factory farm run by the Salvation Army where they raised pigs and dairy. The place was a rehab for drug addicted men.

I visited the piggery, and saw the animals suffering. Pigs eyes are very similar to humans, and to me they looked miserable. The constant screaming, the stench, the fighting, they were just suffering. They never saw daylight. It was horrible. I knew from that moment I could not support this by eating meat.

This was a huge shift for me as I had done my apprenticeship in a steakhouse. I loved the taste of meat. But I accepted that I couldn't do it anymore with a clear conscience. Within a few years I stopped cooking altogether because it was hard to find work in strictly vegetarian places. I went back and finished high school then got a science degree. While studying I learned alot about farming systems and their environmental impacts. The environmental issues far outweigh anything else regarding our use of animals... what we are doing is completely unsustainable and even the United Nations says so.

Now I'm doing master's of environmental science. I am going to help animals by working in conservation, and try and educate people as to the benefits of just cutting down their meat intake, but everybody needs to. Most people will never have the compassionate reaction I did upon seeing a piggery, but many more will understand the difficulties their grandchildren will face if we don't stop the runaway freight train of ecological destruction caused by consumption and overpopulation.

Your video is nice one. But personally I left meat because of Spiritual Reasons and actually a bit scientific too.

Spiritual reason: if we eat something bad, like an animal meat who died miserably, then his meat/body would have blood with cells that contain fear, hatred etc. Because body starts to produce such chemicals when in fear of death. So eating that meat will surely make me full of fear, hatred for others, and also a bit of revenge.

Scientific reason: Making meat requires 900 times more water and electricity resources combined. Plus the land / farm required to feed an animal meant for meat is 15 times greater than farm needed to feed a vegetarian human. So in all sense, its wise to avoid meat, because it impacts Global Warming, plus Farm Land can be used to feed more people (maybe poor people can get more food to eat).

In a way, I'm helping myself spiritually and in other way, I'm helping the climate and poor people too.

www.ashram.org

I did it to reduce my carbon footprint.

You could debate whether animals have a right to life. You could debate whether you'd lose weight faster going Atkins or going vegan. You could debate whether meat tastes icky or not. But it's hard, settled science that eating fresh, in-season, local, organic, and vegan drastically reduces your contribution to global climate change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment…

Two main reasons: 1) I worked as a cashier at a grocery store that didn't package their meats very well. Was quite gross getting meat juices and sometimes pieces all over your hands.

2) After my grandma cooked chicken a different way, every day for two weeks, I proclaimed that after the first (of Nov.) I wasn't going to eat chicken anymore. She didn't think I could do it for a week--I said I'd last two. She said I could never last three. I said I'd last four, and better yet, I'd go without ANY meat. Grandma didn't think I could do it, even for $50.

I've been a Vegetarian since Nov. 1st, 2004. Vegan since Fall '09.

I don't remember if I got the money or not. :P

I've always loved animals so much....
When I was little, my mom tried to force feed me chicken, but I just spit it out at her...(LOL)
For some reason, even the smell of meat made me sick..
So, when I turned 7, my mom just got fed up with trying to force feed me meat, and said that I could be a vegetarian if I wanted to, and that is what I did :)
I guess I was a natural born vegetarian :)

As for me, I watched videos on YouTube. I also checked out this book at a local library and it told me everything. And I wanted to die knowing that poor animals suffered for our food. Lots and lots of them are becoming extinct nowadays so it's very important not to eat them. Even if they do taste yummy. For me, I've been a vegan for almost a year, on December 24. (; good luck! Hope you don't eat any animals! Haha

I am a vegetarian and I became vegetarian because I love animals and I have seen how they are treated in the process of becoming food. Normally it takes a lot to disturb me, but it kind of disturbed me to see what I saw. I didn't want to hurt animals anymore, so I became a vegetarian.

i found a fingernail in some meat in my school dinner when i was 5 and have not gone back since! some years later i found out about the animals and it strengthened my resolve. i however have absolutely no problem with other people eating meat unlike my friend who preaches from the rooftops!

my insane mind ;)

i did it as a challenge to myself. i was wondering why people were vegetarians in the first place cause i couldn't understand why people wouldn't eat meat. i decided to try it for myself, so if anyone ever asked i could say that i gave it a go and it didn't work for me. i never stopped.

Ive seen personaly how farm animals are treated. And.. Would i eat my pet? No. Many meat eaters use the argument that God put animals on earth to be eaten, well i ask them this : Why is it okay to eat cows,pigs,chicken etc.. and not your loving pet? Its a animal too.

Well I grew up in a vegetarian household and I'm still a vegetarian because I can see myself how wrong and unnecessary it is.

Edit: To eat meat that is. Not being a vegetarian. lol

It started out as not having enough money to buy meat, and it just grew from there.

http://declubz.com/blog/wp-content/uploa…

http://lh4.ggpht.com/TomboCheck/R-LR79ZG…

I found out how disgusting the meat, fishing, dairy and egg industries are and how the animals are killed to become "food".

it was cus i love animals so much, i couldn't imaging eating they're dead flesh. its a carcas! a dead body should be left to rest in peace. GO VEGETARIANISM

My excuses for eating what I knew was causing suffering were no longer holding up.

Be a vegan! Take your time. Do research. IT IS THE BEST CHOICE!!!