I'm seriously considering becoming a vegetarian or vegan next year when I go to college. I don't like eggs and I'm lactose intolerant so I figure I may as well go vegan and be deemed "hardcore"
It's obvious on a macroscopic scale that the world couldn't function without killing animals for food. But even though something might be necessary for the world in general, it doesn't have to be necessary for you. Unlike other people in the world, there are no dangers to my health associated with becoming vegetarian or vegan. So I am thinking about going veg. because I simply don't like eating animals when I don't have to. Another reason is that I don't like the conditions that farm animals are subjected to.
A common argument against going veg. is that farm animals exist solely so that we can eat them. If the whole world went vegetarian, farm animals would die out and eventually go extinct. I disagree with this argument because although it is true that the population of farm animal species would greatly decrease, there will be enough animal-loving good samaritans to preserve their species in some kind of human-directed safe habitat.
Furthermore, you have to address the issue of whether breeding animals so that we can subsequently kill them and eat them is better than not breeding them at all. Personally, I think that given the choice between breeding an animal to be slaughtered for food and not breeding an animal, it's better to not breed the animal. Consider the proposal of breeding babies for their meat and skin presented in
A Modest Proposal. Of course, this is not at all the message of the essay, but it came to mind and substituting farm animals with humans in this situation is a good counter-argument. The essay does, however, apply to what iago said about profit driving the food industry.
There is also something aesthetically repugnant to me about eating meat. It's been this way with me my whole life. I really only eat well-done steak and very specific types of prepared chicken.
