مکالمه

Vegetarian Conversation

Joe: Hey, Peter came to me today to let me know that he’s decided to become a vegetarian.

Kristin: Oh, really, that’s great.

Joe: Yeah, he told me he’s finally seen the light.

Kristin: Well, what helped him arrive at that decision?

Joe: Well, I mean his girlfriend’s been a vegetarian for about a year now and I’m sure she probably played a major role.

Kristin: Yeah, that makes sense.

Joe: He told me that he wanted to speak with me about it because I was an authority on the subject.

Kristin: Well, you pretty much are. You’ve been one for many years now.

Joe: Yeah, but, as a rule I usually don’t bring up the topic of vegetarianism with people. I mean…

Kristin: Yeah, I, I don’t like to either, actually.

Joe: Yeah, the way I figure it, if the person’s already a vegetarian, then it’s pretty much preachin’ to the choir.

Kristin: Um-hm.

Joe: They probably already know a lot of the facts that I would tell them, and, y’know, we probably share some of the same reasons for, as to why we actually became a vegetarian anyway.

Kristin: Right, right.

Joe: And if it’s a person who’s not a vegetarian and they’re not interested, it pretty much just goes in one ear and out the other. I mean if they’re not interested in hearing about it, they’re not gonna retain anything I’m telling ‘em.

Kristin: Right, and for me, I just don’t like to feel like I’m preaching to someone either, y’know?

Joe: Yeah, I think that’s a really good point actually. But, uh, yeah he was startin’ to, y’know, um, ask me a whole bunch of questions about vegetarianism.

Kristin: Like what?

Joe: Well, he wanted to know how I actually, uh, became a vegetarian.

Kristin: Well, what’d you tell him?

Joe: Well, I actually began to think back to when I was in college, uh. I first started to learn about vegetarian by word of mouth. I had some friends who were vegetarians and, y’know, they would always tell me why they became a vegetarian.

And they’d also try and convince me to stop eating meat which, at that time, I just, y’know, wasn’t interested in at all.

Kristin: Mm-hm.

Joe: But, y’know, as I got older I became more curious. And, uh, I started to actually read some literature on my own. And it was probably at that point that I began to weigh the pros and cons of meat eating. I mean, there’s a lot of good reasons to go vegetarian. I mean…

Kristin: Yeah, yeah, there are.

Joe: Y’know, there are environmental reasons, um. There are also health reasons obviously. I mean it reduces the risk of heart problems and high blood pressure.

And…

Kristin: Right.

Joe: …y’know, as you know, high blood pressure runs in my family. So I, I’ve always needed to be careful about that.

Kristin: Right.

Joe: Um, another thing for me that really struck a chord was that I just didn’t think it was a practical approach to solving the issue of world hunger. I mean the land that’s being used to raise these animals could be put to so much better use if it was, uh, y’know, growing crops, uh, like, y’know, rice or wheat or soybeans or just some other vegetables.

Kristin: Now that’s a particular aspect of, of the, um, whole idea of going vegetarian that I’d never even thought of before.

Joe: Yeah, y’know, that one is important to me. But, I, I think just as important to me was the fact that I felt that it was really inhumane to the animals. I had read, uh, some…

Kristin: Yeah, yeah.

Joe: …literature that talked about how these animals are treated and all the, uh, chemicals that they get injected with. And, y’know, that for me was just a real turnoff.

Kristin: Yeah, for me as well.

Joe: Yeah? So, uh, why did, when did you first become a vegetarian? I mean, what, what led you to it?

Kristin: What led me to it, um… I guess it was a series of things that kind of led up to it. My, uh, uncle for example, he’s been a vegetarian as far back as I can remember. So that wasn’t a new concept to my family at all. Um, I can remember when I was in high school I just kind of started losing the taste for meat, particularly red meat and, uh, chicken. I, by the end of, uh, high school I’d pretty much cut those out.

Joe: Yeah, you see for…

Kristin: So…

Joe: …me that wasn’t the case. I mean I ate everything but the kitchen sink [laugh] when I was in high school.

Kristin: [laugh] Well, um, yeah, so in, in, in college then it was pretty much just seafood that I was eating. And by the time I graduated from college I was dating a guy and actually living with him then. And he decided to become a vegetarian and wanted me to become one as well. And even though I’d been thinking of becoming one, I didn’t want, I wanted it to be my own decision. I, I didn’t want to feel pressure from him. So he did pretty much all the cooking and I told him, “Look, y’know, it’s fine that, I’m not gonna ask you to cook meat. But I am not, I am not giving up seafood.

So if, y’know, if we go out to eat or if I’m out eating at a restaurant and I choose to have seafood, I will.”

Joe: Yeah, that was a good first step.

Kristin: Yeah, so…I would say though, the straw that broke the camel’s back was going out on a deep sea fishing trip with a friend. And, I just went along for the ride.

And, uh, he was fishing, reeled in this really big fish. It was flopping around and someone came over and just clubbed it to death. And watching that act, someone killing a living creature, it just really disturbed me. And so from that point on I thought, y’know, I’m, I’m totally giving up seafood as well. I’m not gonna eat anything anymore that has been alive.