Patra Gupta: My name is Patra Gupta. I'm 30 years old. I turned vegetarian about a month ago and three reasons why I turned vegetarian. Firstly, I'm Hindu, so I was brought up not eating beef. Secondly, I've not really liked eating meat since I was a kid, but I'd had to just culturally -- when you go over to someone's house they serve meat, and the third and most prominent reason why I turned vegetarian a month ago was because I read a book called Skinny Bitch, and it talks about how you are what you eat, and it graphically described how animals are treated in slaughterhouses and that completely repulsed me and I just haven't been able to eat meat since.
Larissa Hamel: My name is Larissa Hamel. I'm 24 years old and I've been a vegetarian my whole life. My mother raised me a vegetarian, because of its many health benefits and I've continued to be a vegetarian because of the many health benefits, and because meat is not really appealing to me or appetizing.
Zack: Hi, my name is Zack and I'm 29 years old, and I've been a vegetarian for eight years. I was introduced to the concept of vegetarianism from a previous girlfriend. After we broke up I read a couple books: Fast Food Nation and Animal Liberation; they kind of talked about how meat was prepared and animal rights issues and things of that sort. I kind of decided after reading those books that I wanted to be a vegetarian.
Vicki Rosenthal: Hi! I am Vicki Rosenthal and I am 50 years old and I have been a vegetarian for at least 12 years, but I have a raw vegan for two-and-a-half years and the reason I went raw vegan was because originally for health reasons and I was frustrated with my weight. What started the process is I ran into a friend who started explaining the health benefits of being raw and then I went to the Optimum Health Institute in San Diego and after only being there a week I noticed how much better I felt and I wanted to continue feeling better. So that's what started the process for me.
Kimiko: Hi, my name is Kimiko and I'm 31 years old. I've been a vegetarian for ten years and the reason why I became vegetarian is because when I moved to Australia, I saw the meat-packing process or the end of it, meaning I walked into a local supermarket and I saw the carcasses being hung in the background, and that's when I made the connection that Oh! That part of the animal is this packaging. And after that connection was made clearly like that, I just couldn't eat meat anymore.
Shivani Ray: Hi, I'm Shivani Ray. I'm 22. I was raised vegetarian and my family has, in fact, been vegetarian for generations now. We believe in a principle called Ahimsa, nonviolence, which basically means don't hurt anything unless you absolutely have to. I've stayed vegetarian for the health benefits and the environmental reasons.
Jeannie Lin: I am Jeannie Lin and I am 32 years old. I was vegetarian by the time I was 14 and that includes all meat, sea food everything. I decided to go vegetarian partly, because of the environmental reasons but I think the first reason was simply I loved animals. I always grew up with pets and I enjoyed going to farms and I spent the times on the farm feeding animals and I think finally one day I just made the connection that those animals are the ones that show up in the super market and I just finally just one day just decided not to see the them as food. I loved all the animals and I just didn't think it right to eat them.
Alina: My name is Alina. I am 28 and I have been vegetarian for 28 years. I became vegetarian, because my parents are vegetarian. They brought me along for the ride. I never craved meat as a child, I was never very curious about how it would taste, but we used to joke around that I was allowed to order meat at restaurant if wanted. I always went with the veggie option though.
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