I'm a few weeks into my "going veggie" lifestyle reorg and so far it's going pretty good. I don't think I've had any red meat since I last posted. Like I said, cutting red meat out wasn't going to be too terribly hard since I don't eat it anyway... especially after reading stories like this one about a recent beef recall! I prefer my red meat to be feces-free thank you very much! Did I mention that I don't really like vegetables either? Mom never made me eat them growing up (except for corn), so I've never really acquired a taste for them. And seeing how I'm not an adventurous eater, this will probably be harder than most people.
I'm finding that it's pretty tough when eating out. There's lots of chicken & pork dishes to choose from, but I start to think about where that meat came from & I just end up getting a salad or veggie burger, which is probably better anyways. There are a handful of places that I feel ok eating the meat because they purchase their food from suppliers that have good animal welfare standards or they're going to make changes to purchase from those suppliers. Fast food joints like Burger King and Chipolte are places that I would choose first over anything else.
I get a lot of my information from the Humane Society website. They often have post updates about what companies are the latest to switch over to buying cage-free eggs, buying their chicken from producers that use controlled atmosphere stunning (which is a much more humane method of slaughter because it uses non-poisonous gas to kill the birds by anoxia), or buying their pork & veal from producers who no longer use or are phasing out crates. These are the main reasons that I would make it a point to eat at Burger King, Carl's Jr., Hardees, Denny's, Chipolte, Ben & Jerry's over the other places (like McDonalds, Wendy's, Jack in the Box). Just for the egg & pork meals tho! Since all these places have a long way to go with their beef meals, I still won't eat the burgers.
My shopping habits have changed too. Shopping at Whole Foods was one a few options where I could buy my meat products because they have amazingly strict animal welfare standards that their suppliers have to live up to. But after Safeway announced that they will be implementing new animal welfare standards with regards to eggs, chicken and pork, you can bet that I will continue to shop there.
So little by little I'm doing my part to make the changes necessary to have a guilt-free consciencous with regards to eating animals. And I hope some of what I've said here will inspire you to do the same!
