Vegetarians are used to hearing the question "why are you a vegetarian?" Let's flip it around a bit, and ask yourself "why do you eat meat?" To answer this question, I think it helps if you go back in time. Imagine yourself travelling back through the ages.
You are moving from today's highly technological society where can find just about anything in abundance. You move past the industrial revolution, to a time when horses and sailing ships were still used for transportation. You go beyond the turmoil of the dark ages, even beyond the days of the Roman Empire. You move to the other side of our time-scale, to the times before Jesus. Continue even further. Go beyond the bronze-age. Go all the way back to the stone-age and beyond. It is a time when people live as hunters and gatherers.
Many things have changed since then, but one thing remains the same: we still eat meat. It seems to be the one thing that hasn't altogether changed throughout history.
So what made us start eating meat in the first place? I think it started as a matter of convenience. Sure, there was a lot of work catching an animal. But once you had made the kill, you had a lot of food with a high energy-density. You didn't have to eat a lot to be full. At this point, it was simple. You didn't have to dig up roots from many different places to make out your meal, one kill was enough.
I imagine that the weather would be another reason. In areas with cold climate it would be a hard time finding food in the winter, especially if the ground was covered with snow. At this time of year it would require a great level of knowledge and skills to find any form of food. If you could kill an animal during the winter, your reward would be great. And because of the cold, the meat could be stored for a long time.
And so it became, that the habit of eating meat became a part of the human way, as natural as walking upright.
Years past. Society changed. Wars came and went. Cultures grew. Evolved. Populations grew. We diversified the functions in society. Specialized. We found new ways of doing things. Constantly inventing new things. We are learning how the world around us works.
And we are still eating meat. Lots of it.
I don't think it's a conscious decision any longer. It is simply something that has stuck with us, which is so deeply embedded into the human psyche that we can't even see that there's anything strange about it.
At the intellectual level, we now know how to live completely without it. Not just that, we are discovering that numerous diseases and health issues are cased by it or could be cured by not eating meat.
At the level of survival, we are hardly dependant on meat to survive the day or the long winter. The supermarkets weren't open 7 days a week during the stone-age, but they are now.
I encourage you to consider to at least reduce the amount of meat you are eating. You will find, just like I did, that you will feel more energetic and awake. Not only will you feel healthier, you will be healthier! Donald Watson, the founder of veganism, died in 2005, at the age of 95. When he was interviewed three years earlier, he said that he had lived his life thus far without any medication and hardly a day of illness.
To learn just how meat is affecting you, I recommend that you read the book "The Real Forbidden Fruit", by Jeff Popick. It goes through not only the health-issues surrounding meat, but also the environmental aspects of is, and takes a hard look at how animals are being treated (or mistreated) before they end up in your local convenience-store or supermarket.
I understand if you are sceptical. Believe me, so was I. And I didn't become a full-blown vegetarian in a day without first giving it some hard thinking. I reduced my meat-intake over time. Then, while attending one of Anthony Robbins seminars, I decided to try it for 30 days. That was in the summer of 2007, and I haven't had any meat since. I still eat fish, but nothing with legs and a brain.
I hope you try vegetarianism - you will love yourself for it!