Survey: Have You Cut Back on Meat?

I eat beef raised in a sustainable fashion on my parents small farm. They only have at max 3 cows at a time and the animals graze and in the winter eat what my father has raised on the land. When they are butchered the meat is shared among the family and good neighbors.

i only eat meat once, maybe twice a week. reduction by approximately 80%. Only eat meat when its a special occasion.

I have raised my own beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, and trout for 20 years now.

I'm not quite ready to go vegetarian, at least not financially. I am interested in the meat alternatives but a lot of the time they provide a poor value for my money. I'm trying though.

As I was growing up, our family finances were meager and we relied heavily on our garden, so from childhood I always enjoyed fresh veggies. We always had the essentials, so we didn't realize we were poor. Growing up, I was never programmed to eat meat so as an adult, I don't feel I am missing anything. In my "golden years", I eat meat about 2-3 times a week and sometimes go 1-2 weeks with no meat at all in my diet. I feel better, have had reasonable success with weight control, don't blow a large part of my budget on meat and can feel good about myself emotionally, physically, morally and financially. If only we could step outside of what we were trained to do and try things in a different way and from a different point of view. Just think how much we could grow!

I don't eat meat! I am a vegetarian and I won't even touch meat when it is packed at the store!

@ Courtney
There are a lot of hidden costs to eating meat. How do you put a price on dying from cancer or heart disease, both of which are statistically much higher in meat eaters? Also, as more people eat vegetable-based meat alternatives, the prices will fall through economies of scale and as more competitors enter the market. So by starting to eat veggie burgers now, you're helping lower prices in the future.

Here's a tip: I buy my Boca burgers at Costco (which is a great company in the way it treats its workers BTW). 3.5 pounds costs me $11 (in Hawaii of all places), which is about $3 per pound. Is beef really that much cheaper?

It's lunchtime here now, and writing this post and thinking about Boca burgers has made me hungry. I think I'll go make one now...

I have been a vegetarian my whole life. I am almost vegan, except I can't give up cheese (guilty pleasure). I'm working on it though!!

Both me and my boyfriend are vegan. And we intend to stay so.

To address Courtney's concern, think about the reasons why Chinese, as they see their standard of living rise, consume more meat. On the opposite side, people in places like African countries and India mainly consume vegeterian diet. The reason? Because they are poor!

To help you out get started: there is a great cookbook called "Veganomicon." It has a good variety of vegan meals that you can easily cook. And you don't necesseraly need to spend an outrageous amount of money on meat substitutes like veggie patties. They have recipes for those using ingridients that will not cost you a fortune.

I think certain lean meats are healthier than they get credit for, but I may soon have to radically change my habits. I just saw a story saying that the FDA believes some cloned meat, which it approved in '06, may already be in stores.

I just can't support that. Time for the $15 o.g. chicken!

Not at all.I hunt it,kill it,clean it,Then cook it. Or just grow my own groceries.I very rarely use a grocery store.