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I Stopped Eating Meat
A journey into another world
There’s an old joke making the rounds these days that goes something like this:
Question: How do you know if someone is vegan?
Answer: They will tell you.
I have flirted with vegetarianism and veganism off and on most of my adult life. In a carnivorous culture like ours, the presumption is that we eat meat, and the offerings at restaurants, family gatherings, and office parties reflect that. Meat, in one form or another, is the default entree just about anywhere you go. Everything else, from salad to vegetables to potatoes, is little more than decoration.
Making the decision to stop eating meat is a tricky endeavor, much more complicated than the average layman would assume. For instance, does fish count as meat? Catholics are forbidden to eat meat on Fridays during Lent, but they are allowed to eat fish. I’ve read that a person who only eats fish but no other kind of meat is called a “pescatarian.”
Other people eschew eating meat but allow themselves to consume eggs, cow’s milk, cheese, and other dairy products. These people are what we call “vegetarians,” but not “vegans.” The food they eat doesn’t come from the killing of animals, but rather from the byproducts of the animals. No chickens die when an egg is cooked, and no cows…
