110 - 50

What are those numbers above? Is it a lopsided basketball score? Is it a really good blood pressure? Is it the won/loss record of a really good baseball team? No, it's what I like to think of as my vegetarian scorecard.
I'm am currently on a personal mission to become more vegetarian. Perhaps not 100% vegetarian ( It would be hard to imagine Thanksgivings without any turkey ), but certainly more vegetarian. I'm sure a lot of vegetarians would say that being partly vegetarian makes as much sense as being partly pregnant. I'm sure some of them would tell me that you are either an animal killer or you're not, but that's because a lot of vegetarians see vegetarianism as a moral choice. I really don't, at least not in the sense that a lot of vegetarians do. I have no problem with the killing of animals for food. I don't really anthropomorphize animals, and I don't think animals we use as livestock have the mental capacity to ponder life and death ( I think some animals, such as dolphins, whales, and chimps do have the mental capacity to ponder their own existence, so I would draw the line at killing those kinds of animals ). I also thinks it's naive to think that one can live a vegan life that doesn't exploit animals at all, unless one is willing to live naked in the woods for the rest of his/her life. Anyone who lives in house made of wood is already supporting the killing of animals, because a lot of tree-dwelling animals die as a result of their homes being chopped down. Plus, a lot of vegetables are grown on the plots of lands that used to be wild, which of course leads to the displacement and death of many wild animals. I actually think that actions that lead to the death of one wild animal are more morally wrong than actions that lead to the death of 100 livestock animals that would not have even existed if man wasn't breeding them in such large numbers.
My moral issue with meat eating actually has to do with the impact meat eating has on humans. For starters, the eating of meat is incredible wastefull. If you took all the corn and soybeans that are fed to livestock and simply fed them to people, you could feed about 16 times as many people as the resulting meat would. In a world with so many starving people, it seems morally wrong to waste that much food. Second, the production of meat creates an incredible amount of pollution. Third, the production of meat produces a lot of greenhouse gases and global warming. About a year ago, I read in the New York Times that if Americans ate 20% less meat, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as if everyone in the USA started driving a Toyota Prius. I may not have a moral problem with the killing of animals, but I am very much an environmentalist, so I've decided to start working towards reducing my meat consumption. In all honestly, it would be best if I just gave up meat entirely, but when people try to quit stuff cold turkey, they usually fail ( Oh just in case "cold turkey" is a USA-only term, I should briefly explain that quitting something "cold turkey" means quitting it in an immediate non-gradual fashion ). So rather than quit meat cold turkey, I decided to least take some steps in the right direction.
I took the first step during the 40 days that preceded Easter ( called Lent in the Catholic religion, and I imagine in some other Christian religions ) this year. Each Lent, Catholics traditionally give up something over the 40 days. We also give up eating meat ( except fish ) for each Friday during Lent ( Time for a quick tangent. Up until the early 1960's, Catholics were required to give up meat ( except fish ) every single Friday of the year. I find this very suspicious for the following reason: The Catholic church traces it's roots back to the original Christian Church, which was founded by Christ's apostles. For almost 2000 years, it was Church policy that the only meat you were allowed to eat on Friday was fish. So the Church has always had a policy which leads people to eat fish at least once a week. What was the profession of the apostles who founded the Church? Fishermen. Thus, I've always thought there was something a little bit "fishy" about this fish exception ). I personally like the taste of fish more than any other meat. So, for years I actually quite enjoyed that Fridays during Lent were considered to be "fish days". About 5 years ago, I decided that enjoying my Friday meals during Lent ( which is supposed to be all about denial ), was kinda against the whole spirit of Lent. So 5 years ago, I decided I should just simply be vegetarian during Lenten Fridays ( and nothing yummy and bad-for-you like pizza or pasta - nothing but veggies and tofu, beans, and nuts ). So, this year I decided to expand my vegetarian eating to every lunch I eat at work during Lent ( I eat lunch on my own each workday ( usually Chinese food ). I eat my dinners and weekend lunches with my family, and didn't feel like eating different meals than the rest of my family just yet. I already have vegetarian breakfasts when I actually eat breakfast ). So, the when the vegetarian lunches worked well during Lent, I decided to try to expand the policy to the rest of the year. Well, not all at once, actually. I figure I'd start small. I was planning to eat vegetarian for half my work meals the first year, and gradually convert to having all vegetarians meals at work over a period of about 5 years. After that, I would start converting the dinners, and within 10 years, I'd be an almost full vegetarian. Actually, I sincerely hope I can become a 100% full vegetarian someday, but I'm not going to make any promises to myself that I might not be able to keep. I still not sure I could be vegetarian during traditional family meals and gatherings, and as gross as hot dogs are, it seems almost un-American to eat anything other than a hot dog at a baseball game. In any case, I'm going to need to break a lot of very old habits if I'm going to get this done, and as somebody once said "The longest journey begins with a single step".
So, anyway, after all the long-winded stuff in the paragraphs above, I'm finally going to get to what the numbers above actually mean. After Lent ended, I started to keep a tally of meat meals vs. vegetarian meals during my lunches at work. My goal thing year was to just be 50% vegetarian, but since Lent the numbers are ...
110 vegetarian lunches
50 lunches with meat
So, I certainly still eat way too much meat, but at least I'm ahead of my not-so-ambitious schedule to convert to vegetarianism.
Oh one last thing, which is kinda a nod to a certain old friend in California who may be reading this ( he has commented on a handful of my blog posts ). I've noticed that a lot of folks ( including this friend of mine, and my new brother-in-law's father ) are semi-vegetarian in the sense that they do not eat any meat except for fish. I can clearly see some of the logic in that, but I'd like some clarification. Clearly, the industrial meat industry does some pretty bad things, from massive pollution and global warming, to treating animals remarkably inhumanely. So, all things considered, eating fish probably is at least marginally better than eating other kinds of meat. However, fish farming is pretty bad for the environment as well, and if everyone who currently eats industrial meat were to switch to wild fish, I think that overfishing would completely destroy the ecosystem of the ocean. Even considering all the bad things the meat industry does, the fishing industry just might be able to do worse things to the earth if we give them enough motivation to ( by increasing the demand for fish ). So, that's why I'm not distinguishing too much between fish and other meat ( although because I think fish does taste better than any other meat, I'll eat fish more often than other meats if given a choice ), and my goal is to simply eat less meat of every kind. I may not get to my goal anytime soon, but at least I can make sure I am headed in the right direction.
Sorry for the long post, I've just been thinking about this stuff a lot lately.
Rich