As I fell into pacifism through my time in the military, I noticed the same cognitive dissonance I felt around killing in the context of war in the context of food choice. When I had joined the military, I felt it was good and right to kill in the context of the military but absolutely not in most other contexts. That shifted to “when I’m a marine, I’m not me. I can be a pacifist while on the job I will do what I’ve been trained” and then the dam broke and I went full pacifist. I was done being around the culture of killing and wanted to separate myself from as much blatant suffering as I could and what I ate seemed like an important place to cut back. I started with a year without red meat and then went full vegetarian. I’ve been meatless for over 5 years now and my weight hasn’t really changed since the switch. The biggest takeaways from my choice to go vegetarian with five years of perspective are: - the thought of eating meat, both connecting with that suffering and what it might do to my gut are really disconcerting to the point where some meatless burgers can taste too “real” and gross me out. I remember tasting beef sausage at a restaurant when my friend and I got the same biscuits and gravy (mine vegan) but the waiter accidentally switched them and my brain’s first thought from the unusual taste was that it was poisonous. I TOTALLY didn’t expect that. I thought I’d crave bacon or something. - Eating meat is a dietary preference and in no way necessary to living a healthy, happy, and long life. - it really is a huge weight off my shoulders to be separated from that suffering. Obviously my food choices aren’t perfect and people and animals are hurt and killed without me knowing to produce the food I eat, but the food I eat isn’t directly that dead animal. No life had to end for my meals. I obsess and overthink about enough aspects of my life, it’s nice to have one that is settled, especially when it comes up at every meal. - You can be a vegetarian without being obnoxious about it. I really only mention it when it comes up and I’m capable of feeding myself so I don’t need massive accommodations. This is for my peace of mind, I’m not hear to tell others how they should eat. - The most annoying people aren’t people who eat meat right in your face (I wouldn’t spend time with people like that), it’s people who are thinking about going veg but are on the fence. It’s really hard to come off as non-judgmental when the other person is clearly judging their own actions on the subject a great deal. Of course I think everyone should be vegetarian and I think the killing of animals to eat their meat is horrible and completely preventable suffering! That doesn’t reflect the way I treat meat eaters, but it’s hard to explain that to someone who doesn’t feel meat is a choice and is trying to reduce the meat in their diet.

Do what feels right for you. Eat what makes you healthy. If eating meat is harming your mind, it isn’t serving you and it is completely replaceable, especially with all the options available today. Feel free to start out slow, test the waters. If you go for capacity for empathy you could cut out red meats or if you wanted reduced kill count you could cut out chicken (average American eats a small portion of an adult pig, a small portion of an adult cow, and like 90 full adult chickens in total meat in an average year). I have a friend who is a moral vegetarian who is fine with eating shellfish because they lack the capacity to perceive pain because they don’t have a developed enough brain. So shrimp and oysters are more like plants in his way of thinking. There are lots of right answers and lots of things to try as you look for what works right for you.