Why are YOU vegetarian?

Because eating dead animals is not necessary to be healthy.

For animal rights. I think it is wrong to exploit animals, especially to kill and eat them. Since all the necessary nutrients are available from vegetable-based sources, there is no reason to eat animals or their products.

The health benefits are a big bonus, but not the main reason for me.

as a means of diet restriction

I tried it for a month and felt so good I never went back. I'm healthier and feel better than I have in years.

I like keeping the harm toward sentient life minimal.

I first decided to become a vegetarian when I was around 11/12 because I adore animals.
It infuriates me when people label themselfs as "vegetarian" to lose weight or just because they don't like the taste of meat... Or when people claim to be vegetarian but then they eat seafood because they allegedly don't feel pain as much as say a cow. Sorry it just makes me angry.

I was a vegetarian until I realized it is a complete sham.

I grow most of my own food and it was not possible to grow enough food to substain yourself as a vegetarian because you can never produce more calories then you burn tilling, sowing, watering and harvesting your crops.

The only reason people can be a vegetarian or a vegan is because we live in an unnatural environment in which you purchase your food from a store that was grown elsewhere and trucked to your local supermarket and by living a sedentary lifestyle. It is an unnatural way to live and is a complete hypocrisy for those that want to live in tune with the earth. IMO a vegetarian or a vegan can never be considered a true hippie.

Originally Posted by Grainpsilo

IMO a vegetarian or a vegan can never be considered a true hippie.

and exactly what is a "true hippie"?

[if it means i have to kill animals then i never want to be one]

Originally Posted by wa bluska wica

and exactly what is a "true hippie"?

[if it means i have to kill animals then i never want to be one]

Someone that lives in tune with the earth

Originally Posted by Grainpsilo

Someone that lives in tune with the earth

like an animal - perhaps a deer, or an elephant?

they neither grow food, nor do they eat meat

human nature is somewhat different

we have the ability to grow food

we also have the ability - the nature, if you prefer - to organize into extraordinarily complex societies

so perhaps what you consider unnatural is in fact, for us, the most natural thing on earth?

all that said, the scenario of one person struggling to grow food alone is, in human terms, unnatural

perhaps the "true hippie" - or true human - would prefer to live with others, and farm communally?

in which case the work load would be spread to a point where no one need starve

or eat meat . . .