Three days ago I mentioned I stopped eating meat for two categories of reasons: taste and intellectual reasons. Two days ago I covered taste. Today, intellectual reasons.

First I’ll mention that none of the following reasons motivate me anymore. Though I once did, I no longer find them compelling. I find their counter-arguments equally valid, or just as well, I find them equally invalid. I find talking about these reasons tends to promote arguments.

As part of this series on food I’ll write why I find the arguments uncompelling reasons not to eat meat (though I do find them compelling reasons to avoid factory-farmed and some other kinds of meat).

From 1989 and until the past few years, my motivations for not eating meat included that I considered it

• less cruel to animals
• better for the environment
• healthier
• helped make me care more about living creatures
• cheaper

A non-reason

No religious beliefs motivated my eating habits then, nor do any now.

A minor reason that still applies

A minor reason that still applies is that since I choose to eat food I like and most non-meat foods are less filling than meat, not eating meat allows me to eat more food overall. Since I like the food, eating more brings me more joy.

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