Because I like the way some meat tastes, and it is good for me in the quantity I eat it in.

The best reasons to go vegetarian are for people who are concerned about the environment - because meat is far less efficient to produce than veggies are. In the real world, this just means that meat is more expensive. It takes a lot more resources to produce for the amount of nutrition it provides, so it costs significantly more, too.

Because I like the way some meat tastes, and it is good for me in the quantity I eat it in.

The best reasons to go vegetarian are for people who are concerned about the environment - because meat is far less efficient to produce than veggies are. In the real world, this just means that meat is more expensive. It takes a lot more resources to produce for the amount of nutrition it provides, so it costs significantly more, too.

It can be healthier, but it can also be worse, as it is a somewhat harder diet to follow well, and it's easy to fall in to a trap like my brother has, eating almost all processed junk food (He's vegetarian and has gained weight because he eats a lot more junk food now). A healthy, balanced diet including meat looks nothing at all like what a carnivore might eat.

So, on the few occasions a year I want a nice steak, I pay out the nose for it. If a good steak were $2, I'd eat more of it. But a good cut of beef is $10+/LB, and I can't justify spending that much on beef. And it's $25 for a decent steak at a restaraunt (6oz tenderloin, medium, with veggies please) I eat quite a bit more chicken than beef, but it isn't the majority of my diet, by any means. I probably eat meat 4-5 days/week, and average 4-6oz on the days I do eat it.

It can be healthier, but it can also be worse, as it is a somewhat harder diet to follow well, and it's easy to fall in to a trap like my brother has, eating almost all processed junk food (He's vegetarian and has gained weight because he eats a lot more junk food now - he jokes that he hates veggies too, he won't eat mushrooms, peppers, squash, onions, soy beans, or many other things). A healthy, balanced diet including meat looks nothing at all like what a carnivore might eat.

I'll personally never give meat up, as it forms an important part of my own diet. But I'll also never be one of the people that eats 5lbs/week, either.

Humans are omnivores, a diet including mostly grains and veggies with a fair amount of meat is what we evolved to eat.

I would turn this question back around to you actually. Why SHOULD people adopt a vegetarian diet? What are the benefits compared to a balanced/healthy diet which includes meat?

The argument that all animals raised for food are mistreated is a false one. Many organic meats come from animals that are treated very humanely. As for vegetarianism being healthier, that's actually up for debate for as well. The healthiest diet is a balanced one. It's extremely difficult to get sufficient levels of protein on a vegetarian diet.

Like another poster said, human beings as a species are omnivores. Eating meat is part of our evolutionary makeup. Animals eat other animals in the wild all of the time. There's nothing wrong with it. It's all part of nature.

This is an opinion question and I like questions I can answer with clearly defined answers.

In my opinion I like a balanced diet and the taste of meat. I don't have a problem with slaughtering my own animals and I enjoy the end results of home grown food.

I could give you a long list of reasons to support my position. However, it's my opinion and I don't feel the need to support how I feel about it.

I'm not adopting it because it does not work at all for my metabolic disorder. I oppose factory farming and get most of my food from sustainable local sources, including my pasture-fed, free-range meats, poultry products, and eggs. Many of the animals I eat are from heritage breeds that would have been extinct long ago had people not chosen to farm them.

I do share many goals with vegetarians. From a list by a former vegetarian:

" * we oppose Genetically Modified foods
* we support the ideals of organic and biodynamic agriculture
* we oppose unsustainable methods of corporate agriculture, which drive out small farmers, thrive on the use of pesticides and chemicals, deplete the soil, produce an inferior product and cause tremendous harm and suffering to countless animals
* we support efforts to obtain quality foods in a whole state directly off of local farms, thereby supporting small farmers and local economy, and also by-passing the ridiculous state of affairs wherein most modern organic foods travel further from the farm to your dinner plate than do their conventional equivalents
* we oppose food irradiation
* we believe that the typical diet of the average (meat-eating) American is extremely unhealthful
* we believe that the practice of raising vast amounts of grains to feed the cows that are turned into fast-food hamburgers is wasteful and destructive of our environment (Raising a cow on grains is the equivalent of raising a child on a diet of candy. The cow will get very fat--which is what drives the practice in the first place--but it also makes the animals unhealthy, makes them produce copious amounts of methane, and greatly diminishes the nutritive value of the milk and meat which are obtained from it. Exclusive grass feeding makes for a happy, healthy animal, provides superior nutrition in milk and meat, and naturally limits the number of animals that may be raised in one location.)
* we believe that Americans today consume far too much sugar and empty calories, especially young people and especially in the form of soft drinks
* we believe that the answer to a great many of the health problems people are experiencing today is to radically change and improve our diets…although our group would prescribe very different sorts of changes than would a vegetarian group.

All of these points of similarity say to me that we have a lot which we might work together to achieve! Meaningful change in this world can only come about when people overcome their differences and find the common ground. "

Spoon asks "Why SHOULD people adopt a vegetarian diet? Very briefly, because many studies have shown that it is healthier; It doesn't require the mistreatment of defenseless animals on factory farms and their slaughter; it doesn;t contribute significantly to global warming and other environmental threats to all of humanity, as animal-based diets do; it doesn't require vast amounts of water, energy and other resources; it doesn't waste grain while millions are starving. Much more at my over 130 articles at JewishVeg.com/schwartz and my movie at ASacredDuty.com. With the world threatened as never before by global warming, a major shift toward plant-based dirts is a societal imperative.