Ben Should Become a Vegetarian

1. What other options? If they're so awesome, why aren't they accessible to people like ourselves?Your last bit seems to rely upon "but it's still not a big enough impact to help, so why bother?" By eating meat, you're actively doing something; by not, you're passively not doing something. Say a house in Joplin was severely damaged in the tornado. You not doing something isn't really going to help, it seems, so why bother? But does that mean you're okay to throw a rock through one of the windows and smash it up more? Or what about a store that lost most of its inventory - do you steal an item because they won't notice the difference anyway? There'd be one way those actions are acceptable: if you have rock-solid proof that the house is a lost cause and will be demolished anyway, or the store owner said he's cutting his losses and to just take what you like. ("Oh crap, I didn't think you were using that house anymore" doesn't cut it, in other words.) As you don't seem to have a strong evidence-based platform upon which to stand free of guilt (that is, nobody's given us the "all clear" to go ahead and eat meat without remorse), I'd conclude that you must be compartmentalizing your ethical knowledge from your emotional decision-making process.2. All those food pyramids? Um... no. http://www.mypyramid.gov... The current official food pyramid itself says "choose more fish, beans, peas, nuts, and seeds". That's quite clearly a non-meat majority. Also, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org...3a. Either you don't know what "food acquisition source selection" means, or you're deliberately changing the subject. I'm saying it sucks when you really want to eat out, and then I have to choose between putting my foot down and demanding you choose a more accommodating restaurant to desire, or else suck it up and "enjoy" yet another supper of french fries and a cheap-o salad (or if I'm really lucky, onion rings and baked beans). If you were vegetarian too, those other options wouldn't even be on your radar, and so we could both be enthusiastic about a food source which actually caters to both our diet. Or else you could develop far more empathy for the vegetarian lifestyle. Though I have a feeling if you did that, you'd simply find conversion to vegetarianism to be the natural course of action.3b. Again with the changing the subject. I wasn't talking about red meat, I was talking about which aspects of people's lifestyles have been proved to be the easiest to customize. You seem to think that it's actually easier to go out of your way to be a political activist than it is to simply buy different food at the store (and that somehow the prier affects more change than the latter). Last I checked, the grocery store is FULL of foods containing no meat. Walls and walls of foods. If only political activism were as easy as buying the ingredients for a bean burrito with fresh salsa. But it's not. If I'm going to buy the "vegetarianism is the harder path to take toward change", I'd better see a viable and convincing easier path laid out before me, and so far I haven't seen anything but a dream and a prayer.3c. So get on it! I haven't been woo'd with romantic noms in years.