My primary impetus for going vegetarian was ethical. I thought animals were pretty chill dudes who maybe preferred not to be eaten. I saw a world where no one ate meat, where no animals suffered for our enjoyment of food.

I've changed my philosophies a little since. After all, I was 11 at the time. I don't think it's necessarily wrong to eat meat, just that it's not for me. After years of vegetarianism, the texture of meat started to freak me out. Whenever I ingested a little accidentally it just felt gross in my mouth. Too sinewy, too close to what powered my own body to move. It felt a little too much like cannibalism. I also found myself reading about and believing in the Buddhist philosophy of never enforcing one's will on another sentient being. If we consider the sentience of animals to be of value, then eating meat is an inherently violent act. Violence isn't really my thing, and so I found more justification for my dietary choice. 

Lately I've been entertaining the idea of going vegan. It's partially for health reasons (I learned dairy's not the best thing in the world to consume regularly) but also ties into my ethics as they've developed over the years. Most of the time, I don't know where my animal products are coming from. I don't know what kind of suffering lies behind any given carton of eggs or gallon of milk. Both egg and milk production can be nasty businesses if done on an enormous scale. Factory farm animals never see the light of day and are pumped full of antibiotics to fight the diseases they get from their inedible feed. It's not a pretty scene. Less gorey than your typical meat production facility, perhaps, but ugly nonetheless. 

Of course, not every egg is laid in a filthy, sunless cage. Many companies boast free range hens. Many small family farms allow their dairy cows to roam outside all day. I've worked on one. The cows were happy animals. Cases like those are where the ethics argument for veganism ends. If you can secure your animal products humanely, why wouldn't you? 
I suppose one could go full PETA and disparage the keeping of livestock as unethical animal ownership, but I'm not sure what else the cows are going to do with themselves than hang out with humans. You can't really set a cow free and expect it not to become food for predators. They've been domesticated to the point of needing our protection. They'd probably evolve back into wild beasts thanks to a serious predatory bottleneck effect, but isn't that giving them a nasty future too? Like household pets, farm animals are probably happier with human protection. 

While I've been cutting out dairy, I'm still on the fence about going full vegan. More and more of the food I cook for myself tends to be vegan these days (I find it to be cheaper and more efficient to just load up on fresh produce and dried legumes) but when I eat out I don't watch out for animal products. I might start selecting vegan options at restaurants if they're readily available, but I'm not sure I'm ready to narrow down my restaurant choices to only those that cook vegan food. Eating out is a social activity and none of my friends are vegan. I think it would be too frustrating for everyone involved if I cut out half our favorite restaurants due to my dietary preference. While I'm even less certain of where my eggs and dairy come from at a restaurant than at a grocery store, I'm not sure it's worth inconveniencing my carnivorous friends. Maybe it's weak of me, but we tend to have our best times at places where I barely scrape by as a vegetarian, and the times are worth more than the food. 

Any full blown vegans out there? What was your transition like, and what were your reasons? Are restaurant outings easier than you thought they would be, or can you only go out with your vegan compatriates? And do you think veganism is the ultimate ethical dietary choice? 

(Photo via Epicself)