A New Outlook on Vegetarianism

Hi everybody. I have the “political or social activism” topic, and I have been conflicted for quite a while on what I’d like to do, but I have finally decided on and began my journey into the world of vegetarianism. This topic is really interesting to me because for the longest time I have really loved the idea of vegetarianism, but I just can’t see myself being able to commit to it. Among finding some other informative websites, I’ve found 3 vegetarian/vegan chat board/forum type sites that I have joined–happy cow, veg talk, and veggieboards.

From what I’ve gathered so far, VeggieBoards by far seems to be the most “strict” of the three. Upon registration there was a warning about how this is a serious website and to join you must either be a committed vegetarian, or seriously considering becoming one. That part I did feel kind of guilty about, but in a sense I have always considered it. It did say “being vegetarian is the minimum requirement to post here”. Yet it is not okay to post about eating a grilled cheese for lunch because of the living conditions of the baby cows… I hope this doesn’t make me a bad person. They talked about how this includes fish and any discussion of eating meat will result in a ban… kind of intense and I’m really going to have to watch what I say on this one.

VegTalk seems to have more of a vegan focus, but there are also vegetarian sections to it. This site is a lot less intimidating and more of a community feel. There is a different section for everything vegetarian… recipes, health and beauty, family, arts, world, discussion, etc, which actually is really neat how they have everything laid out. It makes it very easy to access what you’re looking for and has a wide range of topics. I’m really excited to explore this site, just because prior to coming here I had never really thought about vegetarianism in terms of ‘beauty’ or ‘art’, just more so the food and eating aspect of it, although I do have vegetarian friends and also am aware of the animal rights side of the topic and their activism.

Happy Cow seems very user friendly, and the first one that I felt super welcome as being a non-vegetarian. Upon  registration you had to choose your “vegstatus” and it actually had the option of non-vegetarian, which I chose. I was slightly hesitant to this just because I don’t know how people see it and such, and I am hoping that I’m not really discriminated against because of this. This is even more so an all-inclusive type of site. They have everything from a humor section, to shopping for veg clothing products, reviews of stores and restaurants nearby me, famous veg, etc. So much information! It’s also really nice because the first page I was brought to after all the registration stuff was a “Vegetarian 101” page–which welcomed those who were just curious–and talked about the very basics of vegetarianism: differences between that and veganism, protein and calcium basics, alternatives, family life, negative comments, and more, which I thought was a nice intro to the website and vegetarianism if you were seriously considering it and wanting to learn more. It did have a photo of Jesus holding a baby lamb and a quote from the Bible, which I had mixed feelings about…I don’t know if I necessarily agree with using that as an appeal (and I am Christian).

I’m really looking forward to experiencing this totally different lifestyle than my own. I must admit that I am sort of nervous too, but I think it will be really interesting to see the different ways in which these users interact with each other compared to how my typical internet use might be.

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