Ethical Meat Consumption

I recently became an extremely reluctant vegetarian. I really, really didn't want to become one, but I'm a university student, and I don't cook for myself much. If I'm eating out, and I'm eating meat, I can't control where the meat comes from, which means it is very likely not ethically raised meat. So I decided that if I couldn't be trusted to not eat factory farmed meat, then I was just not going to allow myself any meat at all for at least six weeks.

Besides the fact that I had been eating factory farmed meat, I was also eating meat a couple times a day. This is fundamentally problematic, I think, because I just can't see a way that we can sustain everyone in the world eating meat a couple times a day. There are new technologies for many a thing that might allow us to have our cars and our carbon reductions too, but with meat? There's only so much arable land. So I think that meat really has to start becoming something that people only eat a couple times a week, instead of a couple times a day.

In those six weeks, I have to say, that I haven't really missed meat on a daily basis. I need to get a little more protein into my diet. I'm going to have to eat beans more often, or add some tofu. But in general I've been doing okay.

It's the occasional meat that I miss more. The once in a while sushi or bagel with lox and cream cheese.

So, I might start to re-add meat into my diet. Not on a daily basis, probably not on a weekly basis, but maybe on a once every two weeks as a special treat basis. I think if I allow myself a little safety valve, it might make vegetarianism the rest of the time a little more palatable.

What about you? How often do you eat meat, and do you think it's sustainable?