Its official. I’m becoming a vegetarian. Since three or so weeks I have lowered my meat consumption to almost zero now. It was easier than I first anticipated. Being a “carnivore” for more than two decades makes you know every possible taste of meat and sausage, so I actually don’t miss anything. My family is – of course – not with me. Especially not my wife, but hey, we have different opinions on almost everything anyways. (Sometimes I think this is the reason why “it works”, we have both quite strong egos.)
Why I’m suddenly becoming a vegetarian, you ask? Three important points to note here:
1. *Money:* Meat will get way more expensive in the mid- to long-term, since the demand from Asia will raise rapidly in the next years as people gather more welfare. On the opposite, we – the “developed world” – will have to reduce our excessive meat consumption sooner or later, simply because we can no longer afford it. I’m just starting a little earlier.
2. *Ecology:* To produce one kilogram meat you need about 50 kilogram of corn. Think about this number for a second. Again, the demand for corn raises rapidly especially in Asia and so do the prices, additionally fired by speculants. At the same time the places where crop can be cultivated shrink, more and more forests have to be cleared. I will simply get sufficiently harder to feed eight billion people by the year 2025, especially if more and more of them become carnivores.
3. *Health:* I’m simply too fat, I cost myself, my family and my environment too much money, now and even more in the future. By reducing the animal fat, I hope to do something good for myself as well (though I know I won’t loose much without changing other parts in my life as well).
There might be more for other people, for example animal rights, hunger in the third world, but the above ones are the most honest for me. (How much have you spent to organizations like “Bread for the World” recently?)
I strongly believe that everbody can change something, in his own life, his direct surrounding and even beyond. You _just_ have to start it. And you know what? It feels right and good.