Vegitairianism: more than eating?

For a long time, maybe a decade now, I've been thinking about going vegitarian, or more recently, organic, and most recently, local. (No, not loco. Already there anyways!)

My reason would be for humanitarian and environmental reasons. This blog will be too long if I go into detail here, but prolly most people reading this blog have some idea about the horrors of the world beyond the cosy chair they sit on this very moment.

So what is vegitarianism to me? It's hard to think about because to each vegitarian there is there own personal world view attached. For example, I said earlier that I am concerned about the environment. So I'd rather not eat meat, because it requires more energy to produce than vegtables. But then again, it might take less energy for me to farm a of chicken myself than to buy florida oranges, and healthier to boot. That's not a litteral example of course, but the point is that I'm not going to save the environment if i just stop eating my chiken, because florida oranges are just as bad.

I also wondered about my cats. Can a vegitarian own a cat and not feel guilty? Because a cats main diet contains meat, which would be cruel or environmentally unsound. In this case I would chose to not own cats, and instead volunteer at the humain society to walk dogs and pet cats. And there are certainly no organic cat foods that I know of. Or that maybe, the cat will catch birds and mice, killing them needlessly since he's well fed. And you can't keep a cats caged indoors all the time. Or if it's about animal rights, that animals should not be owned like objects.

And I've always wondered, is it important that a vegitarian also not wear clothes that derive from animals? or any other products, like makup or ferterlizer? Is driving acceptible, since accidental killing of animals is more likey?

What I'd have to conclude on, so as to stop my mind from spinning, is to not take vegitarianism so litterally, at least not is a society that isn't mainstream vegitarian. To just think of vegitarianism as a statement about how our current society works. Since eating is one of the most important things that people do and a very important way for people to bond, I'd say that vegitarianism would make a strong statement. Not only that, but because people eat so much, an enivornmentally friendly diet prolly does make a difference, specially if every did it.

My goal is firstly to eat and buy local when ever I can, secondly choose organic/post-consumer products, and thirdly choose not to use animal products when viable alternatives are available. Of course, I'd probably currently place myself at 5% to goal.

Course, that just the vegitarian part. There is lots of other environmental and humanitarian things unrelated to vegitarianism that are wholely important. But my blog is long enough as it is...

Today's Lesson: Philosophers still have great relavance in today's society.