HELP! I need some tips to convince....

Ask them if you can 'trial' being veg for two weeks. And during the two weeks talk to them about how good you feel, and just 'slip in' information about what they do to animals when you can.

Offer to cook vegetarian meals, and let your parents see how good and healthy vegetarian food can be. And if you can, educate them about how meat is bad for you, and how vegetarianism is beneficial.

Good luck! When I went veg I made it clear to my parents that I was doing it whether they liked it or not. I would have sat there all night if it meant not having to eat the chicken. Prove to them how determined you are.

how old are u jake?

thats awsum that u are going veggie . just sit down and talk to them about it. offer to cook, all i did was sit down and talk to mum and dad and they accepted it - after a very long talk- lol . good luck . sorry i dont have much advice

You just need to stand firm, and let them know how serious you are. Explain that you aren't necessarily opposed to eating meat, but the modern production of meat (if this is the case of course, plus they may be more open to this line of reasoning). There are so many negatives about the modern meat industry, including it's cruelty and barbarity, mass production, mass slaughter and mass waste. If all meat were free-range it would be a much more "palatable" option.

As for your dad's argument regarding the comparisons of the environmental impact of meat and vegetable industries, there is so much information and research stating the exact opposite.

"Animals fed on grain need more water than grain crops.[4] In tracking food animal production from the feed through to the dinner table, the inefficiencies of meat, milk and egg production range from a 4:1 energy input to protein output ratio up to 54:1.[4] The result is that producing animal-based food is typically much less efficient than the harvesting of grains, vegetables, legumes, seeds and fruits for direct human consumption.[4]

Relatedly, the production and consumption of meat and other animal products is associated with the clearing of rainforests, resource depletion, air and water pollution, land and economic inefficiency, species extinction, and other environmental harms.

At a global scale, a 29 November 2006 United Nations report called the Livestock's Long Shadow - Environmental Issues and Options assesses the meat and livestock industry to contribute to about 9% of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, including 37% of methane and 65% of nitrous oxide emissions.

The production of protein from grain-fed animals requires eight times as much fossil-fuel energy as the production of plant protein."

The above is just excerpts from Wikipedia, and there is much, much more information everywhere supporting this.

It's a real shame that your parents aren't being supportive of your decision, but try and stand firm and let them know just how important it is to you, and that it isn't just a "phase", and hopefully they'll come round. Maybe you can convince them to watch Earthlings, that's sure to give them a different perspective on it all! Hang in there

Good on you Jake! A lot of people have trouble with their parents when they first decide to go veg. Stick with it and show them it's something important to you and they'll come around eventually!

Find some good information on veg health and nutrition, print it out and show them, so that they know you're doing your research and that you'll be healthy. Here's a couple of good places to start:
http://whyveg.com/nutrition.php
http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/index.html

The point of going veg is to decrease demand so that piece of meat never gets produced. The less people who are buying meat, the less animals need to be raised and killed, and therefore the less suffering that is caused.

That's a good reason to buy organic veggies, but I don't see it as a good reason to eat meat. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about pigs, chickens, cows, sheep, etc, it is going to take more resources (eg. water, land, grain, oil) to grow plants to feed to those animals to fatten them up to be killed for food, than it is to simply grow plants to feed to people.

Others have already offered some good tips. For a few more tips on talking to your parents: http://www.unleashed.org.au/features/veg-week/what-to-eat.php#tips

It sounds like your parents are the "no nonsense, let me see the facts" kind of people, so here's how you should break it down.

1. Look into the arguments Peter Singer uses, he's really good.
2. Your Dad's little "veggie farming is killing the ozone layer" speal is bullocks. Think about it in lamens terms, If humans eat the animals, the animals will have to eat something too, that something will most commonly beeeee THAT'S RIGHT! VEGETABLES!! So! by us eating the vegetables, we are skipping a step, which eventually, will result in a supply and demand domino effect, which will mean that less and less animals will be being "produced" for human consumption, meaning less Co2 in the air from the smelly farts and slaughter houses etc etc etc. So rather than having an area for veggies and an area for animals, we would just need the area for the veggies
3. Work out the price of your current meat an three veg meal, then work out the price of a vegetarian meal. Show them how much they would save if you went vegetarian.
4. Print off an info sheet about exactly how much iron a person needs per day and which vegetables etc you can get it from.

If none of these tactics work, tell them you are going vego whether they like it or not, and if their caveman views are going to stop them from having a good relationship with their child, then that's their own fault and you shant be eating with them again. Then  make the most delicious smelling vegetarian meals until one of them caves and wants to try it as well.

I hope these help, I realise not everyone is as strong headed and bossy as me, but this way you can present solid facts to them (although this doesn't always work, I was teased to no end by an old group of friends and they didn't hold back until one day when I collapsed in tears and they realised how much being vego meant to me).

Good luck!
If you ever go vegan, I highly recomend www.parsleysoup.co.uk she's so inventive and delicious!