Thoughts on not eating on animals

Hola amigos!

This is my attempt at talking about going veggie without sounding preachy:

The idea of being vegetarian/vegan always appealed to me, but I could never follow through growing up. First it is hard to do so living in Spain, a meat feast eating country, and also it is quite a hassle being the only veggie in the family. It was only when I went to University that not eating meat became a viable option. I met people who were and had been vegetarians for years (Shout out to Lizzie), and saw how easy it was, and how convincing their arguments were. 

Considering myself an ethical person has always been one of the things I have liked the most about myself. I didn't believe I was ever cool or funny, but I did feel that I was ethically "right". Blame it on growing up admiring Hermione, or simply a personality trait, but I have always tried to be as "good" as I can (I am not full of myself I swear). Therefore eating meat when I wasn't entirely sure why I had to seemed like something I ought to change.

So I gave it a go, and it was fine and quite easy. If I am being completely honest the main reason I actually took the first step to change my diet was because I put on a lot of weight at uni, and I believed cutting the meat out would change that (top tip: if you just replace meat with cheese toasties no weight it lost). But then I started reading a lot more into it.

Turns out that the meat and dairy industries are the BIGGEST source of contamination, and they are the lead contributor to global warming. My dad is a climate change scientist, so this topic is one I have grown up listening about a lot. Short showers, recycling, Tupperwares instead of sandwich wraps, public transport etc. were vital 101s to living in our household. Our house was even the first one in Spain to be warmed up through the heat of the ground. Therefore I was SHOCKED to have heard so much about this very important issue, yet to have not been brought up vegetarian. I talked to my dad and made him watch Cowspiracy, and then he read into the sciency articles most humans see as illegible symbols and letters, and he confirmed how detrimental these industries were; yet this information is kept hidden from the general public (for more information watch Cowspiracy).
End of eco rant. 

The other main reason I am so glad I made the change is because of the poor animals. I think we become blind and passive, not because of anyone's fault, to the utter cruelness that goes on in slaughter houses and farms. I did not manage to sit through Earthilings, but if you can stomach it, that is all you need to see and understand what goes on. I feel that the general public 'knows' what is happening, but they have not really understood it or thought about it. After being veggie for a year, now the thought of eating something that came of the leg of a living thing, whilst being killed in the most gruesome and unkind way just does not appeal to me any more (and I f*cking love ham).

At the end of the day I don't see why we eat meat if we don't have to. If we can feed ourselves and be healthy without having to give money to places that kill animals, why shouldn't we?

I'd love to know what you guys think! These are just my midnight thoughts on the matter xx

Love,

J.