Are Vegetarians just Vegans who can't commit?

I’ve been a vegetarian for seven years, now. It’s never been terribly difficult, except at family gatherings, and then it was more awkward than difficult, a matter of making my own dinner. I was in my early twenties, and there were a few of us that were, or were becoming, vegetarian at the time. I was at college, so I couldn’t afford to buy meat anyway; I just sort of fell into it by default. Since then, however, I’ve moved to San Francisco and become friends with a rare breed of individual; the vegan.

Tomorrow, I take the plunge and join their ranks. For the month of July, there will be no milk, no butter, no eggs, and, worst of all, no cheese. I love cheese; it’s savory, it’s salty, it smells like a farm. It’s one of the crowning achievements of human kind, up there with fire and Barcelona.

But I digress. I’ve always wondered if vegans look at vegetarians as a little half assed; they believe that the use of animals for food is wrong, but they don’t quite have enough of the courage of their convictions to follow through and cut out all animal by-products. In a way, isn’t it worse to be educated about a subject, but not to act on it? I don’t buy this argument, personally, and I’ve never had anyone explicitly say it to me, either, so perhaps I’m just setting up a straw man; but I’ve got to think that any step is a good one.

There are, of course, many practical arguments for not eating meat, or using animal by-products, besides the obvious moral ones. A cow, for instance, is a very inefficient way of feeding large numbers of people, requiring much more water, producing a much larger amount of carbon dioxide and methane, and taking up valuable arable land. If this planet is to really get serious about ameliorating the effects of global warming, then the population as a whole, and in the westernized world especially, are going to have to bring about a radical reduction in meat consumption.

I suspect, however, that I am preaching to the choir here. As individuals, the quantitative effects that we can have are merely a drop in the ocean. More import, however, is the example we can set as non meat eaters. The more normal such behavior is in society, the more positive role models we provide, the more people will can the carne and learn to love the legumes.

I’d be lying, though, if I were to say that were the reason I was trying this. My overriding motivation is one of curiosity – I have a number of friends who live a vegan lifestyle quite comfortably, and I must admit I’m interested to see what it’s like. For starters, I’m going to have to eat something else for breakfast other than a bagel and cream cheese!If you’ve got any hints and tips for me, please leave them below. I’ll be reporting back on an irregular basis to update you on my progress.