I'm a pescatarian, actually. I don't eat meat but I do eat fish, seafood, eggs, dairy products. I don't eat meat but, I'm sorry, it's not because they have faces...or even because they have cute faces.

I quit eating meat overnight as well, but it was after reading a book, "The Family That Couldn't Sleep: a Medical Mystery" by D.T. Max. I originally found it after a documentary I'd seen regarding a very rare disease that affected a specific families (inherited) and was a prion disease similar to mad cow and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (and is believed to be a cause of Alzheimers) which basically causes holes in the brain not unlike swiss cheese. In the case of 'fatal insomnia' the affects are the same as the other two diseases internally, (but with different symptoms), because of the nature of the illness...however, mad cow (or Bovine Encephalitis) can be transmitted by eating infected meat from cows, where as the other two are generally inherited.

The book was facinating and disturbing, actually, but what worried me the most was the chapter on our own Agriculture Dept....the length that this dept would go to, to export meat that may have been infected (usually meat culled from the spine, or otherwise close to the bone) to another country after that country stated in no uncertain terms, if they discovered spine bones in the meat we sent they would refuse to ever do business with our meat producers again. That and a few other things, made me pretty much distrust the Dept of Agriculture in our country...period.

I make the book sound dry, but honestly it was a brilliant read, albeit scary...in any case, I'm much more aware of where my food comes from and what I choose to eat...and yes, there is worry over mercury in fish but the levels are so much lower than Americans are led to believe (again, be a wise shopper and don't buy from unknown sources) that I feel comfortable eating it.

Btw...the ONLY country which has had no incidence of bovine encephalitis...is Australia. And they are very very careful to keep it that way!!

Great question!