How many vegetarians here?

I'm just curious how many veggie EcoHuddle members we have. Since meatless meals are a great way to lower your footprint, It's an important green point to consider. I'm bad. I was a total vegetarian for about 15 years then about two years ago I started eating organic chicken and turkey plus sometimes fish. My son was raised vegetarian and is way better than me. He will barely touch meat but will eat chicken nuggets sometimes and he really like Morning Star soy hot dogs and grillers. 

I'm thinking of getting my household back to total vegetarian eating though. Right now I'd guess we're at 70% meatless.

Reasons to go meatless (or more meatless)...

For health - vegetarians have lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and some cancers. Less meat can lower your body weight and cholesterol.

Meat farms and meat production amount to an insane amount of resources. Such as growing grains for feed - you need seven tons of grains to produce one ton of beef.

Animal waste produced and cleared land for grazing also takes its toll on the planet, as does packaging and shipping of meat.

So is your household total veggie, partially veggie, or big on meat - and why?

Russ, I like the idea of meat as the extra rather than main part of a meal - prob more people would be more healthy if they had that mindset.

srj0385 - It's cool that you're making healthy changes slowly. I have a list that I compiled a while back of meatless dishes that work really well for meat eaters. Luckily, they don't seem to notice as much when you add more beans and pasta then take away the meat. Pork is one of the big bads when it comes to meat, so if polish sausage is pork (I never eat pork or sausage, so I'm not sure) then you might want to consider buying that organic when you can. Or less :)

Turning veggie is not right for everyone, but there actually is a lot that's wrong with eating non-organic meat, such as the eco-issues pointed out in the first post, which is just the tip of the iceberg. Eating less protein may be harmful if you have specific health concerns but there are other ways to get protein.

I think going veggie is a choice, and even when I was a full vegeterian I didn't get all cranky with meat eaters, but there are major eco-consequences of eating meat and health consequences (for those eating high fat meats).

You're welcome :) Good luck!