Vegetarian
24 May 2013
Vegetarian means you don’t eat any meat while vegan means you don’t eat any meat and its products such as milk and egg. In my opinion, being a vegetarian once in a while like the one I practiced is good. I am a vegetarian twice in a lunar month: at the first and at the 15th. It is a tradition from my mom. The kind I and the family practising are not eating meat, garlic, onion, and fertilised egg. We don’t eat garlic and onion because it increases our desire to eat. I don’t care much about garlic and onion though. About fertilised egg, we believe that it will soon be alive, so to eat that is similar to eating meat.
Why once in a while? Not every day? Well, the first, for me, I can’t stand being a vegetarian every day. Vegetarian food is more expensive. Also it gives fewer calories than the normal food I ate so I become hungry faster. Another reason is vegetarian food are rarer. We are surrounded by non-vegetarian products everywhere. We need to find a specific restaurant to eat vegetarian food. Here, it is rare that a restaurant serve food that is vegetarian as main dish.
Being vegetarian doesn’t mean you go green. You are just the same. Think about what if everyone is a vegetarian. First, vegetarian products give fewer calories than meat. So to fulfil one’s hunger they eat more. Because they eat more, it means the world needs to supply more food. More food means 2 things: deforestation and/or intensification. Intensifying means creating products that may harm our health. Deforestation means global warming.
Global warming is a current issue which we think being a vegetarian will reduce the warming effect. I suggest that to reduce the effect we can start from things around us. Like using less clean water or even use used-water to flush the toilets. It is good idea to reduce the usage of plastic bag from any transactions. Switching off the lamps while we went out even if it is for a while is also a good idea. Keep in mind to recycle used papers and plastic bottles. Another is to plant some plant in a pot. I’ll let you know that planting there means you also make home for other fungi, algae, bacteria, insects, and even worms. Be clean though, if not, health problem will come. Being healthy is a gift, because if one’s not healthy, they can’t do anything.
To sum up, I think that being vegetarian once in a while is good but it will be a problem if everyone is a vegetarian every day. Being a vegetarian don’t reduce the global warming effect; start to reduce, reuse, and recycle but keep in mind that health is very important. Happy Vesak Day and may all the beings be happy.