The increase in plant death by eating meat is a good point for those that wish to decrease death.
On the other hand, I'm not sure it's effective to really guilt trip people into stopping eat meat. I mean at this point I think most of the regular members here are well aware of the arguments for and against in general.
Let's have understanding that
(1) not eating meat tends to reduce somewhat your dining out choices. meat eating is a central part of most cultures and there is difficulty in stopping eating meat from that perspective
(2) not eating meat takes effort. people have an innate tendency to only take action when they could take complete action - you hear this in many forms in that not eating meat won't change animal cruelty, or that means that they'd stop having to have leather or silk. There's resistance to incremental change. I know for myself I welcome incremental change: I don't eat meat for animal rights reasons, but I do eat diary and occasionally eggs and whole take some effort to buy humane and local produce I don't go out of my way to do so. I also try to avoid leather and silk, but I don't go out of my way too much if I can't find non leather dress shoes for example. Some may me a hypocrite, but I have compassion and understanding for myself and others that full change does not occur overnight. I'm 100% ok with incremental change myself.
(3) let's face it, meat does taste good.
It can seem psychologically very difficult to give up meat. A lot of the discussion on this board involves overintellectualization of philosophy and spiritual concepts. It's not until you've actually tried them out can ones perspective be more complete. The seemingly fact that many people who give their opinion on vegan/vegetarian issues have not even tried month long vegetarianism is proof of this phenomenon. Which is fine, but it's like trying to talk intelligently about meditation and about why it is or isn't for you after only trying to meditate a few times over several days. Experience just doesn't work that way.
P.s. I'm totally ok with people eating meat. I can get it's just a hard or undesirable thing to give up. I've been there myself when I had a gluten allergy - take our bread and I felt there were too few dietary options for me so I went back to eating meat. But I've now been veg for 2.5 years and it's been fun.
On the other hand, I'm not sure it's effective to really guilt trip people into stopping eat meat. I mean at this point I think most of the regular members here are well aware of the arguments for and against in general.
Let's have understanding that
(1) not eating meat tends to reduce somewhat your dining out choices. meat eating is a central part of most cultures and there is difficulty in stopping eating meat from that perspective
(2) not eating meat takes effort. people have an innate tendency to only take action when they could take complete action - you hear this in many forms in that not eating meat won't change animal cruelty, or that means that they'd stop having to have leather or silk. There's resistance to incremental change. I know for myself I welcome incremental change: I don't eat meat for animal rights reasons, but I do eat diary and occasionally eggs and whole take some effort to buy humane and local produce I don't go out of my way to do so. I also try to avoid leather and silk, but I don't go out of my way too much if I can't find non leather dress shoes for example. Some may me a hypocrite, but I have compassion and understanding for myself and others that full change does not occur overnight. I'm 100% ok with incremental change myself.
(3) let's face it, meat does taste good.
It can seem psychologically very difficult to give up meat. A lot of the discussion on this board involves overintellectualization of philosophy and spiritual concepts. It's not until you've actually tried them out can ones perspective be more complete. The seemingly fact that many people who give their opinion on vegan/vegetarian issues have not even tried month long vegetarianism is proof of this phenomenon. Which is fine, but it's like trying to talk intelligently about meditation and about why it is or isn't for you after only trying to meditate a few times over several days. Experience just doesn't work that way.
P.s. I'm totally ok with people eating meat. I can get it's just a hard or undesirable thing to give up. I've been there myself when I had a gluten allergy - take our bread and I felt there were too few dietary options for me so I went back to eating meat. But I've now been veg for 2.5 years and it's been fun.