When I was seven I became a vegetarian. This started because my sister (who was nine at the time) had read an article in version of Smithsonian for kids about slaughterhouses. My mom explained to her that the article was a thing called propaganda (the cover had a picture of a cow on the front with a large cartoon tear coming out of its eye), but since she had been a vegetarian on and off when she was in college, said that we could give it a try. We hardly ever ate meat anyway. About a week later, we were all dying for hamburger. Since then, I have never intentionally eaten meat. I gave up fish a few years later because I couldn't stand the idea of boiling a lobster alive.
When I'm purchasing food, this is what I think about most. It's fairly easy to shop vegetarian. Eating out can be trickier. Traveling can be the worst. But being vegetarian is a good way to reduce excess consumption. Eating from low trophic levels prevents calorie waste. For each calorie of meat you consume, ten calories of plant were consumed.
I've tried to eat locally as well. I grow a garden at home. I frequent farmers' markets, both in New Hampshire and here in D.C. Eastern Market provides great diversity of produce, and I highly recommend the Dupont Market.
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