why am i vegetarian?

whenever I eat with new people, I end up having to have the “why are you vegetarian” conversation. I try to avoid it, skillfully scanning the menu for the token vegetarian options and just going ahead and ordering so that nobody notices, but often i’ll be offered something, or maybe there’s a set menu, or we are eating at someone’s house and i’ll have to admit i’m a veggie.

People want to talk about it. I don’t. mainly for the reason that i’ve had the conversation literally hundreds of times, I know every argument and counter argument and nothing changes and it bores me.
When I was 16 – 17 years old I was fairly opinionated about it, and I remember once in particular getting in a strop when some previously veggie mates ordered some sausage fritters in a chip shop and I refused to sit with them. “don’t be an idiot” one of them said, “come and sit with us”. It made sense – I was being an idiot – so I climbed down permanently from that particular (vegatable fat) soap box and went and joined them – I ate chips and beans, they ate sausage fritters.

So why did I become vegetarian then? loads of reasons all of them except religion probably. I think my main gripe at the time (16 years ago) was factory farming, but the options for non-factory farmed animal products have improved considerably since then. I think that smiths bloke with the quiff and the daffodills that I used to listen to on a daily basis influenced me too and mike vallely. I was also under the impression it made me more popular with hippy chicks 😉

I have no intention of starting to eat meat again unless I move abroad to a non-veggie friendly country where being veggie means eating mushroom omellette and chips every time you go to a restaurant, so until that happens I guess I will have to go through “why am I veggie” pre-dinner routine a few more times.