Vegetarians are taking over the world. In the last ten years vegetarianism has doubled in size, more often in younger generations. The growth is part of a trend that ties health and environmental concerns together, and includes buzzwords like “organic,” “green” and pretty much anything prefixed with “eco-.” But the fact is more vegetarians are starting to eat meat. Don’t get your Big Mac-hating panties in a bunch just yet. Let me explain.

In a society in the midst of what has been called an “obesity epidemic,” it seems like a smart move for people to eat healthier. That much we can agree on. And if health is your prime reason for being a vegetarian, this is the right article for you. If animal cruelty is what you’re protesting, then you might just want to turn the page.

Unfortunately, vegetarians are often stereotyped as condescending asshats who rattle off reasons without listening to reason. As a former vegetarian myself, I understand where that is coming from because I knew dozens of people who fit the stereotype — often even more extreme. But that’s completely self-defeatist, because who the hell wants to be preached at by some rambling plant enthusiast?

Often, the facts are just plain wrong. While the moral argument for a vegetarian diet is as inarguable as any belief, many of the health and environmental points keep getting recited like a flawed mantra.

For instance, the fact that “many primitive tribes are vegetarian” as evidence of how unnatural it is to eat meat. Oh yeah? In “Diet for a New America” by John Robbins, a book some consider the vegetarian Bible, the author lists many examples of such tribes. He fails to mention, however, that many of the primitive tribes that learned to domesticate animals for food stopped being primitive tribes and started inventing things like the alphabet, wheels and jelly bracelets. People have been eating domesticated animals for meat for over 10,000 years and strong evidence shows that we’ve been eating steak since the Paleolithic period. Additionally, many of the known primitives living in the world today are only vegetarian in the loosest sense. The Maasai tribe in Africa has survived mostly on animal blood for thousands of years, as have Mongolian nomads and dozens of other groups around the world. Australian Aborigines eat lizards and insects regularly. Yummmy!

Factory farming is awful, there’s no doubt about it. We’ve all seen the Pam Anderson video (the other video there, hot shot) informing us of Schwarzenegger-like cows and chickens as she gives us a tour of factory farming. Factory farming, if what they say is true, is completely awful. We can all agree on that. But what about one of the dozens of locally owned farms that focus on pastured meats? On a typical farm, grazing animals are kept on grass pastures specifically designed for feeding animals. This space is otherwise unused, and the manure can be used to grow all those wonderful organic vegetables everyone loves so much — it’s the only fertilizer option, after all. Often, pigs are fed scrap vegetables and grains — the stuff that can’t be taken to market because it’s too ripe. When done right, it actually takes no grain to produce one pound of meat. It does take time, patience and knowledge of animals.

Health is another big topic that comes up regularly, but room is scarce so I’ll keep it short. Meat is bad in large quantities, certainly, but so is everything. Drinking too much water too quickly can kill you. Eating too much soy, especially processed soy (the meat-replacement ingredient of choice), can cause severe thyroid problems. Too much vitamin A will kill your liver quicker than a game of chandeliers with moonshine. In this ex-vegetarian’s opinion, meat isn’t a bad health choice as long as it is eaten in moderation, and is clean, naturally fed meat.

Check out eatwild.com/products/ohio.html for a great list of local, sustainable meat farms the next time you’re thinking of dinner. Because after all, if we weren’t supposed to eat cows, they wouldn’t be made out of steak.
Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/sporkist/