Eating both non-vegan and vegetarian diet for ethical reasons is hippopotamus.

---Pro "An interesting point of view. Indeed there is vested interest in the meat industry. Yet, this doesn't mean change has to happen overnight. A chaotic situation would arise if massive change happened over night. A more gradual change could be implemented."----- Let"s look at this gradual change idea. Suppose over the course of 20 years farming animals for food and associated industries were phased out. Now pretend 58% of a population is now employed in the renewable energy field. We are all now happy vegans with a clear conscience. Think again. What about the 30 to 40 million people of the world that are nomadic? Their existence is dependent upon raising and grazing animals for food, or they are hunter gatherers. Most of these people live in arid or snow covered regions where growing crops is not an option for survival. Are you going to put a seed in the hand of a Botswanan bushman and say plant it to eat? He"ll reply no rain, an Inuit in Greenland, Canada or Alaska, too cold. How about the Kham Magar in the Himalayas; we live above tree line. In addition to the nomadic tribes of the world, millions of others live in these regions as well. Is it ethical to shut down all their cultures and starved them out of existence for the sake of preserving animal life? ---Pro "As for the economy there are some who think people are much healthier on a vegan diet. That health care costs would be reduced. I know in the USA health care costs keep rising."--- There might be some lines of thinking that "some" people are healthier on a vegan diet. But not all people, as mentioned above. Also, many children under 5 do not do well on vegan diets. Young children on vegan diets do not obtain essential amino acids that are only available in animal proteins. Many of these children suffer from rickets and fail to thrive as a result. After reading several sites purporting vegan diets for small children, most recommended some kind vitamin supplements; obviously something is missing nutritionally from an all vegan diet for children. Is this what we want pill popping babies? Personally speaking, I"d make sure my child ate some chicken or an eggs once in a while without worrying about chicken ethics. Anyone who believes that health care cost in the US is determined by the level of health of the population at large is misinformed. We pay two-and-a-half times more than most developed nations in the world much of that has to do with 3rd party payers, much higher administrative cost, the inability to regulate fees for drugs and services, over testing due to the litigiousness of our society; as well a multitude of other factors. The $245 billion you state for diabetes testing is only 0.0245% of a 3 trillion dollar per annum industry. --Pro "To stay on topic though the main point is vegetarians indirectly cause animal deaths. Vegetarians have animal blood on their hands. It annoys me that some hold their-selves on their high horses thinking they are so grand. If you want to save animals go vegan. As you can see eating eggs is one of the highest causes of animal deaths from the below graph in the animal visuals link. Milk is much higher than vegetables, fruits, and grains."--- Let us look at it this way, when omnivores turn into lacto ovo vegetarians they have much less blood on their hands, they are saving some animals. And I did look at your graph. Your sources are skewed toward a bias. The web sites mission statement is "The mission of Animal Visuals is to provide compelling visuals and interactive media to empower animal advocates, educate the public, and expose the injustices of animal exploitation." These dot.org sites are being used to make your whole point. As I have pointed out throughout this rebuttal, there is much more to consider when stating preventing animal deaths is ethical, and should be brought about through an exclusive vegan diet. The statement "It annoys me that some hold their-selves on their high horses thinking they are so grand," is a subjective personal point of view. Furthermore, I let you off the hook concerning the definition of Hippopotamus. If I were a person that would to stoop to use semantics as a win strategy, I would have smoked you in the second round. https://en.wikipedia.org... http://one-simple-idea.com... http://www.vrg.org... http://www.pbs.org... http://www.forbes.com...