I say that because your environment depends on how difficult this transition will be, don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
Neither caring about the environment, nor caring about non-human pain and suffering are binary choices. What is better for animal well being may be worse for the environment (plastics in lieu of leather), and vice versa (forest clearing for Palm oil plantations). It's important to care about both and to do what _you_ believe is the most important.
You should strive to make better choices, even if they are imperfect.
Definitely. If some unachievable ideal of perfectionism is preventing us from doing anything at all, it's quite harmful.
> What is better for animal well being may be worse for the environment (plastics in lieu of leather), and vice versa (forest clearing for Palm oil plantations).
This claim is often used as an argument to stay away from soy products even though the amounts of (mostly GM) soy used to feed livestock are larger by an order of magnitude.
It’s often just cultural whether the local Buddhist lineage will eat meat or not. My acupuncturist, who is Chinese, always tells me I should eat meat at least occasionally. Personally I have no desire to after going vegetarian and really don’t miss meat at all. The idea of lab grown meat has zero appeal to me, even if it’s ethical and not horrible for the environment.
The best place to travel as a vegetarian is India. It’s so nice to have pure veg kitchens and to not have to worry if a restaurant will have an option for me on the menu.
In Japan there is a type of vegan cuisine which monks eat, however it’s considered a kind of fundamentalist diet and it’s difficult to find outside of certain temples.