For your health. Tons of studies have linked consumption of red meat to increased heart disease. For your wallet. Vegetarian items are almost always cheaper than meat. Let's face it, preparing raw meat is pretty gross.
Beans are much nicer to deal with.
I plan to cook only vegetarian when I cook at home. When I go out to eat, I may eat meat. If I'm in a group of friends ordering pizza or Chinese food, I don't want to limit everyone else's choices and have them annoyed with me. I will make a reasonable effort to buy organic food. I've been experimenting with this for about a month and was pretty unhappy with the circumstances until I found Country Sun Natural Foods .