There were a few years, in my twenties, where I was a complete vegetarian. Business travel and lack of decent places to eat in a hurry, social etiquette, simplicity and raising kids had me change and relax.

Now I don’t eat, and haven’t eaten for over 25 years:

1. Beef
2. Pork
3. Ham or bacon
4. Exotic meat like buffalo, deer, rabbit, antelope
5. Processed meat of any kind (to my German mother’s dismay, since all sausage counts as processed meat)
6. Hamburger, ground beef, meat loaf (which I consider processed meat)
7. Turkey burgers (since they taste like hamburger)
8. Sword fish
9. Lobster
10. Crab
11. Faux meat (tofu made to taste like meat)

I do eat:

1. Sushi and sashimi of all variety
2. Pickled herring
3. Tuna
4. Pepperoni, but only on pizza (violating the rule of processed meat above)
5. Shrimp, but not very much
6. Fish, but not often, and I seldom like it and feel good afterwards
7. Turkey as in Thanksgiving, as well as fresh roasted sliced turkey, but not the cold cuts processed type turkey
8. Chicken (whole, breasts, on sandwiches, and in chunks in Chinese or Thai food)
9. Duck
10. Spotted owl and bald eagle (just kidding)

I eat too much chicken.

I don’t know how many steaks can be made out of one cow, but I am sure it’s hundreds. There are probably a thousand or more bits of sushi made out of one good-sized tuna. So one cow or one tuna has to die so hundreds of people can enjoy dinner.

Sometimes I go to Costco when I know I’ll be alone and I’ll bring home a roasted chicken, hot in the container, ready to eat. If I am hungry, I eat a good portion of it, and perhaps leave some left overs.

The point is: One chicken had to die, one being had to give up its entire existence — so I can have one dinner.