Why did you choose to become vegetarian?

One of the central values of the Full Circle Family is non-violence and that includes violence to animals too. If it were impossible to be healthy without eating meat, that would be one thing but there are so many delicious ways to feed ourselves on a plant-centered diet.

Both of us (founders) ate chicken and fish up to a few years ago (and have been through various dietary regimens in our lives). We now feel solid in our ovo-lacto vegetarian selves and it doesn't seem like we'll go back to eating meat again. In fact, we're moving in the direction of becoming fully vegan. Chris has extensive experience raising chickens (for eggs) and goats (for milk). He says that, in all the time he kept them, even though he was a chicken and fish-eater, he could never bring himself to kill his own chickens. There was one time when his flock became diseased and he had to kill the whole lot of them and it was extremely upsetting for him. In our vision for the community, we want to be able to produce as much of our own food as possible. Chickens require "feed", which can be expensive, and if you grow it yourself, it takes up a lot of acreage and time to harvest and process it. So we have serious questions about whether we would ever keep chickens even for their eggs, but we haven't ruled it out...Goats are easier because they thrive on eating leaves with just a little added grain (while they're pregnant/milking). So, in the right situation we would consider having our own dairy goats. There are challenges with them too - you have to breed them each year to have them continue to produce milk. You have to cauterize their horns when they're little and the boy-babies must be sold or given away and will likely be raised for meat. (You can't keep the male goats around or the milk gets stinky).

There is no, one, perfect diet. There are pros and cons to every choice and everyone is at a different place along their own evolutionary path.