BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Vegetarian Why are Meat Eaters so hard on Vegetarians?

I have been a vegetarian going on 5 years. I always felt like I should be a vegetarian because when I would eat meat, I would eat very little of it. I never really cared a whole lot for meat so I decided to give it up completely and to this day, I don't miss it and never have to have another piece of meat ever ever again. My question is this, why are meat eaters so hard on us vegetarians, like we're some sort of species from another planet or something? People have tried to give me a hard time about my choice of not to eat meat, at first it frustrated me, but now it doesn't bother me. I am proud to be a vegetarian and I wouldn't have it any other way. The people are used to my vegetarianism now and the questions are beginning to cease. Would you all give some answers on this? I am curious on what other vegetarians have to say.

A lot depends upon the company you keep. When I attend the regular Sunday potluck cookouts at the local Audubon sanctuary, nobody looks twice when I toss a Bocaburger on the grill; mainly because there are usually one or 2 others there too.
However, I think some people get defensive about their meat eating, even if you don't make any remarks about it. Maybe they think we are being "holier than thou" even when we're not. Or else they know that they should go vegetarian but don't want to.

I have been a vegatarian since the mid 1970s (with a short-lived return to sporadic meat-eating somewhere in the late 80s). My reasons have much to do with the cruel practices of factory farming. When people make fun of me or react negatively I try to gage whether it is in real fun or if they are seriously judging me and then I ask myself do these people matter - if they do matter I calmly explain why I have chosen a vegatarian lifestyle and that they should perhaps investigate the practice of factory farming so they can make a more informed decision regarding what they eat. If they don't matter then why worry about what they think of you anyway - just be happy that you have made healthy choice not only for yourself but for the planet and the animals that have served mankind for so long.
By the way there is more and more range-fed and grass finished poultry, eggs and beef available in many local markets - anyone interested check out craigslist farm and garden section to find someone near you. I am married to a meat eater and this is the only way he consumes meat on my watch.

It's an almost age old practice, sad to say, but...

They do so to make themselves feel better about what they do. Anyone, if you really went to the factories, the farms where they reproduce just for market, I feel couldn't swallow another bite while thinking too much about it. I think it simply makes them feel nervous to see someone practicing, "out loud" reality.

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Elleise
Clairvoyance Editor

I also think that some meat-eaters react with so much sarcasm/hostility because deep down they know that eating meat is not a nice thing, so the they really have to exaggerate how necessary meat is and minimize animal suffering. Otherwise, they would be monsters, wouldn't they? They have to put you down to be able to feel better about eating corpses. Of course it is more subtle than that, but it underlies their thinking process.
Of course for others it all boils down to making fun of those who are different.
People who don't own televisions or don't want to have children, or have blotches on their skin have to put up with a lot just for being deifferent

I 'went vegie' thirty years ago, when I started yoga, because killing is the ultimate cruelty, the greatest violence. Our earliest ancestors lived on herbs and berries and nuts, only later did they start to hunt and kill and cook. And if I cannot kill an animal myself, why should I ask someone to do it for me?
As a child, I was unhappy eating meat, so vegetarianism felt quite natural, although it caused difficulties because eating out meant either jacket potato or omelette! Nowadays most cafes/restaurants have a wider choice.
Incidentally, there were spin-offs: (a) my arthritis improved and (b) so did my allergies!
Love and Peace, Ednamay

My son is the only one who qestions my decision to go vegetarian, in fact he asked me not to tell his wife because she would follow suit then he'd have no need for a grill. Basically I think people ridicule things they don't understand. I'm fortunate because none of my friends even blinked when I told them I was going vegetarian. Two of my friends have kids who are vegetarian..one of the girls son and dil are vegans which I think is a more difficult lifestyle to embrace. Both of these friends and I swap recipes and I even cook for my friends 16 year old veggie daugter. Some people have different eating peculiarities. My dil,(married to another son) when they first married ate only chicken breast, OM hot dogs, spaghetti with marinara sauce and grilled cheese sandwiches...for no other reason than she came from a picky family. She's better now, but when I come to a cookout there I bring my own veggie burger and she cooks it for me no questions asked. Guess I don't have nearly the gaff to deal with that others do.

Of course when discussing an atypical lifestyle choice how you project yourself makes all the difference. I have come across many vegetarians in my 40 years of not eating meat that have been very self-righteous and have even rubbed me the wrong way.

I personnaly cannot abide the thought of animals spending their last few hours on this earth in feedlots, stockades, crowded trailers or my lastest picture of cruetly - a flatbed full of chickens on the highway in over-crowded cages without any protection from the wind and/or weather and whatever else may hit them on the road.

I have often thought I should raise my own food and will in fact be raising chickens for eggs and goats for milk in the next few years. Even though I have considered raising them for food as well I know I cannot kill something that I have raised in order to eat it - therefore I cannot contemplate buying them in the store either. As I said my hubbie is a meat eater and although he eats very little meat I do, from time to time, offer him meat purchased at a local farm whose cows are in the sunshine and on grass for their entire lives and are butchered on the premises so no scary last few hours for them either.

Whenever the discussion comes up about food and where it all comes from I offer the local farms as a source for my meat eating friends and associates - this way I am not condemning them for their choice but give them another option. I hope that they will stop buying meat from the grocery store and ultimately the need for these factory farms will no longer exist. Of course fast food places are the biggest supporters of factory farming so if you are going veggie for the animals avoid these places like the plague.

I do think we all need to speak up about this. Factory farming is an extremely cruel existence for animals that were supposed to spend their lives in big pastures. And as another thing to consider - milk cows from huge farms never see the light of day so if you are eating milk and cheese again find a farm locally that sends their milk to a bigger company so at least some cows are living a normal life.

I've been looking at the conversation in these posts and I think there are a lot of great points here. When it comes to meat eaters being hard on vegetarians, I think that it's somewhat a statement of relativity.

I've seen both sides of the coin, where vegetarians have been judgmental of meat eaters, their motives for eating meat, their thoughts, etc. as well as carnivores looking at the vegetarians/vegans as being weird and disconnected from reality, weak, sickly, space-cadets, etc.

I won't be the voice of chastisement, but hopefully a voice of a modicum of reason when I say that we may need to rethink our positions on both sides of the coin.

Some eat meat or don't eat meat for cultural, geographical, medical, personal preference, along with a myriad of other reasons that we may not ever be able to relate to or understand. I don't in anyway agree with the cruel methods in which animals are treated that are raised for commercial slaughter. I think it's deplorable; however, I don't begrudge the person who is into to eating meat or oblivious to what is happening to these animals.

I think all in all it is all relative, where each way has it's validity and areas of challenge depending on the motive.

Love the question and topic though!

Hope the discussion continues and the right foundation can be laid for understanding the true reasons behind both ways of life and the mindsets that support them.

If this posting is from who i think it is then McDonald's double cheeseburgers must not be considered a meat product.And in the past 5 years the drive thru was utilized on many occasions.