Daniel, did you work in a family farm or a factory farm? there is a marked difference between the two. Apart from the obvious animal cruelty there are many more reasons to go veg. One reason is environmental factors, the animal produce industries produce more greenhouse gases than all vehicles combined (cars, buses, trains, planes, ships etc.) and they also produce a lot of fecal waste that is incredibly difficult to dispose of. Meat the Truth is a great film to watch on the environmental effects of animal produce production. Also, in a country as dry as ours we are very big on water conservation, to produce one kilogram of beef takes something like four times the amount of water to grow a kilogram of rice and a kilo of rice is going to go a lot further than a couple of steaks! (plus it takes up more land, which is then degraded by the cows hooves). Another reason is health. Western countries are the highest consumers of meat and dairy in the world, we also have the highest incidences of obesity, heart disease, most cancers, osteoporosis and others. It has been shown that many of these diseases are directly related to diet. I recommend reading the China Study, it compiles over eight thousand studies showing the link between animal protein and disease. Another reason to go veg is to decrease world hunger. More than fifty per cent of plant produce (particularly grains) is fed to livestock that feeds less than half of the worlds population. It makes no sense to me that our country is growing fatter everyday while other parts of the world starve, especially while there is enough food to feed everyone! The food just gets fed to cows instead to put the steak on your plate. As for jobs, factory farming has resulted in the loss of more jobs than you realise. Factory farming is all about getting the most product with the least labour and cost.
I'm not going to put my dollars towards a) cruelty, b) increasing environmental degradation and climate change, c) adverse health effects, d) fueling world hunger and, e) putting people out of business so that faceless corporations can take over. This is why I believe that vegetarianism is right and that "but it tastes good" is not a good enough reason to eat meat.
