Going Vegetarian or Vegan
Vegetarianism — a lifestyle based on a choice not to consume meat, fish, or poultry — has been practiced for thousands of years. The choice can be based on health, religion, or personal preference, but the well-being of the environment has become another reason to embrace vegetarianism in recent years.
Being a vegetarian does not automatically exclude dairy products or eggs from the diet; that's an individual choice. Vegans are a stricter form of vegetarians. They eat no animal flesh or products and abstain from wearing or using animal products such as leather, silk, wool, lanolin, or gelatin. Then there are dietary vegans who adhere to a strict diet but are amenable to using animal products.
When he was not calculating the hypotenuse of the right triangle or solving algebraic equations, Pythagoras was a practicing vegetarian. Pythagoras was a member of an organization called the mathematikoi. They believed that reality in its purest form was mathematical in nature, and many were vegetarians.
There are a variety of reasons beyond concern for the environment to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle. The quality of life for livestock can be an influential factor. Rather than allowing cows and other animals to graze and forage naturally, they are confined and fed grain and corn grown using pesticides and transported to farms by truck and over rail. Overall, the meat consumes massive amounts of energy, burdening the soil, groundwater, surface water, and air.
Health is another reason to give up meat and meat products. Forgoing, or even reducing, meat consumption can be a key factor in lowering cholesterol and limiting the intake of unnecessary chemicals like hormones and antibiotics.
