1) The implication inherent in veganism of being judgmental. I think it is wrong to eat animals, therefore you are being wrong when you eat animals every day as a core part of your culture and lifestyle. Sometimes this view of conflict is defensiveness on the part of the omnivore, sometimes it is proselytizing on the part of the vegan, but a basic conflict often develops.

2) The social inconvenience. I know when I invite people over I normally cook a roast or grill hamburgers. If there is a known vegetarian on the guest list I will need to add something else to the menu, and as a good host I would like it to still be something tasty. Since I don’t eat anything vegetarian that one could consider a main course, this will require some research, experimentation, and extra work. I understand this is as much of a hassle for the vegan as it is for someone hosting, but overall the inconvenience can still grate.

Personally I have examined the moral issue in depth and decided on something approximately summarized as”my ancestors didn’t claw their way to the top of the food chain so I could defer to a chicken’s feelings when it comes to my food.” Although I do think that animals should be raised when possible in a relative lack of pain and should be killed quickly and efficiently.

The link above about being “not built” for veganism is an oft used link, that doesn’t list any information on the childrens diet etc…or the mothers implementation of a smart vegan diet. Imagine the malnutrition and obesity we have here in America (alone)….yet no one say’s we’re not meant for milk!

Here’s the American Dietetic Association on a vegetarian (+vegan) diet :

http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/nutrition_5105_ENU_HTML.htm

Remember when discussing veggies having “feelings” that it’s really not the issue. Animals WE KNOW are able to suffer, and feel, so let’s address them first. Don’t let the argument for plants rights devolve into veggie rights…..and remember if it does, and if what you “really” want to do is save plants, then going vegan does that as well, given 60%-80% of our farm land is used for animals feed…..

Being vegan is easy, it’s convenient, and it’s a pipeline to fantastic food. It’s strange the talk about it’s difficulty, because, it’s really just not hard to implement…I’ve not seen a vegan perspective here yet…..and when you remove the ease, the ethical, and the taste argument, I think all that’s left is the fear of a social stigma, and a label…and it’s sad to me, if we’d let that interfere with compassion.

I have no doubt there are golden-ear audiophiles who hear subtleties I cannot, just as there are oenophiles who sense in wines what I cannot. But beware the temptation to extend that too far.

I’m looking at your Last.fm widget, and I see entries for three movements from two different Philip Glass string quartets, followed immediately by “CD Laser Lens Cleaner.”

I know this not to be the case (because I know we both share a fondness and appreciation for Glass, Adams, Reich, etc.), but the playlist leaves me with a comedic mental image of someone naively listening to Philip Glass for a period of time, thoroughly convinced that their CD player is skipping, to the point where they deem in necessary to give “CD Laser Lens Cleaner” a spin in hopes of fixing the problem. Fruitlessly.

I think this is right — an awful lot of people are making significant choices about their lifestyles without ever really feeling like they’re making choices — they’re just doing what ‘everyone’ does. When ‘everyone’ isn’t doing it anymore, the need to actually determine their own preferences, moral intuitions, etc. is thrown into sharp relief, which is an uncomfortable feeling. I think this fear of having to consciously make decisions is part of what underlies this and other forms of rabid intolerance (like homophobia), especially among people who are old enough that they’re pretty committed to the lifestyle they never really experienced choosing.

I’m pretty sure I saw this sort of stuff going on long before I knew anything of what PETA was about. I suspect the issue is that food is entwined deeply with cultural and social considerations, many of which are subtly threatened or undermined by vegetarianism. Of course, in this day and age, it’s a bit rich to suggest our social structure is in any meaningful way threatened by vegetarianism, which is why self-conscious “carnivores” usually come across as boors.

I’m not this person — I believe that while a vegetarian diet allows tons of crummy behaviour, it also by necessity prevents most of the nastiest results of our meals, so it’s hard to get indignant. Factory farms are dreadful for all sorts of reasons, and the cruelty inflicted on animals is one of the biggest problems with them. Still, I’m comfortable with shooting a deer or eating pork (from an admittedly very intelligent, and adorable hog) raised on an ethical farm (an admittedly fuzzy and undefined porn-like quality). An ‘ethically-vegetarian’ diet that consists mostly of processed foods produced in a petroleum heavy, highly-polluting fashion still gets most of the biggest things right — but it’s hard not to be annoyed & maybe a little dismissive if this person acts as if his decisions are far more enlightened than our principled carnivore.