I'm in the third group. On the current subject, areas where food is scarce, it's a tough area for me. I've tried to stop eating meat for 10 years, and I've finally done it. I'm on month 3. Fuck was it hard, but it's easier once you finally commit, and it's been pretty fuckin easy since. I no longer miss it. I still have plenty of unhealthy delicious shit I eat like KD, nachos, mcdicks fries etc. It does get tough when everyone around you is eating mcdicks or whatever, but I just remember what it is.

I realize there are still a lot of things I do that lead to pain and suffering, which sucks, but I see it as a general thing to work at, to get to a point where hopefully, nothing is scared or harmed or in pain for... me. I live pretty fucking comfortable and to think that it's not enough and some beings need to suffer and/or die to make it better is kind of a hard shitty truth that I'm trying to change. Like it took me 10 years to stop eating meat ffs. That now seems ridiculous to me. Anyway...

That said. I wouldn't really call it a belief. I'd call it logic.

I'm a computer scientist with a minor in anthropology which is weird as fuck, but in my studies I feel I have an uncommon knowledgebase that can apply an expertise in logic/math coupled with the biological and physiological characteristics of human's and animals.

There are mainly three reasons people become vegetarian. - health - morals - environment

Health - There are clear health benefits. You avoid heart disease, bioaccumulation of harmful agents, yada yada yada. It is of my opinion you can be healthy and eat meat, it's not really a reason to be a vegetarian... But the benefits are factual and are definitely reasons to cut back on certain types of meat.

Environmental - There seems to be a misconception that growing plants is almost on par to growing any animal, but the environmental cost of growing animals compared to plants is ludicrous. For example a 400-800lb cow on average will drink 25 liters of water a day. A fucking day! Do you think that any plant needs that much water pound for pound? This is already way too long so let's not even go into the food, the land, the methane. It's simply illogical to think that it's more efficient or easier to grow animals. There are no legs to stand on here. No brainer.

Moral - Children can feel pain, feel fear, suffer, feel joy, feel comfort, feel safety. We as a society have accepted the notion that killing children is horrifically wrong. I would say this is for a few reasons; It is a combination of innocence, lack of understanding, lack of a chance to live their lives and the helplessness they inherit. Well human's are animals and they are not exclusive in having these traits. The contrary is true. The only non-innocents are adult human's, I would argue as, they (some) have the control of a situation. Animals and children don't have control and are at the behest of those in control. All the emotions and feelings I mention at the beginning of this paragraph are shared among all of us animals and therefore I don't see any difference in killing a toddler or your dog or a calf or a cow because the logic of why it's horrific doesn't change.

Anyway, (fml, this was way too long.) I find myself at a crossroads where killing animals is strictly required to survive. It's hard for me to justify one road or another.

Though in places where you have a choice, you have just that, a choice. You can choose to eat plants (I get more protein now than I ever did eating meat), or choose something that died for you because you like the taste. To me, it's illogical to choose the latter when you have the choice. Yes, I believed this for 10 years and still ate meat, It's fucking hard to quit, I get it. But I'm glad I'm making progress towards no one suffering for me.