I became a vegetarian because of the impact that eating meat has on our planet. Consider this:
from Wikipeidia:
Environmental benefits of Vegetarianism
The production of meat and animal products at current and likely future levels is often considered as environmentally and ecologically unsustainable. It is also argued that even if sustainable, modern industrial agriculture is changing ecosystems faster than they can adapt. While vegetarian agriculture produces some of the same problems as animal production, the environmental impact of animal production is significantly greater. [1] Environmental vegetarians can be compared with economic vegetarians, who consider the meat industry economically unsound, and both citing the same efficiency concerns, many vegetarians see natural resources as being freed up by vegetarianism and veganism.
“The cost of mass-producing cattle, poultry, pigs, sheep and fish to feed our growing population… include highly inefficient use of freshwater and land, heavy pollution from livestock feces… and spreading destruction of the forests on which much of our planet’s life depends.” – Time Magazine 11/8/99
I guess I can call myself, then, an “economic vegetarian”.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 