On Being a Vegetarian, Part 3: The Egg Question

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Okay folks, it's time to talk veg again...I don't think I've thought as much about being a vegetarian in the past few years COMBINED as I have in the past two months.  I'm not sure what it is, but it's weighing on my mind lately, and I thought I'd share my thoughts with you lovely readers...

**NOTE: If you are a meat-lover and uninterested in animal ethics/vegetarianism, this post may not be for you.  As always, this is strictly MY opinions and a reflection of the thoughts running through MY mind.  I am NOT here to convince anyone to do or think anything.  I do not look down on anyone who chooses to eat meat. :)  If I did, I'd have a total of maybe 2 friends!!

In March I started giving some thought to the animal by-products I consume, reading more about cheese/rennet and gelatin...I started wondering if my lacto-ovo vegetarian diet was really doing enough...wondering if it's hypocritical to say I won't eat animals themselves, then going and eating foods made using substances taken from slaughtered animals.  I decided to limit rennet (enzymes taken from cow stomach and commonly used to make cheese) and gelatin (a substance from animal skin and bones) in my diet.  Soon after, I became completely overwhelmed by the rennet issue, partly because it's tough when some labels just say "enzymes" without specifying whether they are vegetarian enzymes or animal enzymes, and party because I just really really love cheese.  I did decide that I could handle giving up gelatin, even after my horrific discovery that it is in SO MANY THINGS.  It hasn't been that hard.  I miss gummy bears, but swedish fish have filled that void in my life. :)

This week...it's eggs.  EGGS.  I love eggs.  I love omelets.  I love scrambled eggs.  I love french toast slathered in eggs.  I love baked goods that have eggs in them.  Eggs are delicious.  They are one of the few meals I can make.  They are an amazing source of protein.  Eggs rock.

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Then I read this post on Healthy Tipping Point that kick-started my crazy brain...then the research started...

See I'd always kind of known that the mainstream process of raising chickens for eggs is just as cruel as raising chickens for meat...but as with most things, once you start looking for information about the food industry in the US, you tend to find out more than you ever wanted to learn.  I always kind of knew that hens lived in cages in factory farms, and that their conditions were pretty awful.  But I thought that the "cage free" eggs I try to buy come from humanely raised chickens.  It turns out that to earn the "cage-free" label, it is not required for the hens to have outdoor access.  Worse, beak cutting is still permitted under this label.  Well, gone is my little mental image of chickens happily roaming a farm and laying eggs at their leisure...

I know that I shouldn't get worked up about these things.  I know that there are terrible things going on all over the world, and that if you obsess about all of them suddenly you're not sleeping at night.  The truth is that I'm feeling really overwhelmed.  Which I rationally know is silly.  But I can't help it.  

I'm not sure what my next step is going to be...

I am not saying I'm going to be a vegan.  While I GREATLY admire vegans, and while I even think I could manage to resist the cravings for my favorite animal-based foods, it's more the social things that I think would be too much for me.  Like how hard dinner parties and restaurant meals would be.  And how it ends up kind of annoying friends and family. 

But I AM saying that it's getting harder and harder to justify to myself that being a vegetarian is enough.  And I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by this realization.... :-/

Anyways, that's the soul-search that's currently going on in my crazy head...