Vegetarianism

I am always mixed on my feelings about vegetarianism - the hare krishnas are very strict on it - and have some great reasons for being full on vegetarian.
Hindus promote it very strongly as well.
Does eating meat breed violence like some say? What about eggs / milk / fish???
Anyway - I found this write up today and thought it was a good one.
What do you think?

The Middle Way
Buddhism discourages fanatical perfectionism. The Buddha taught his followers to find a middle way between extreme practices and opinions. For this reason, Buddhists who do practice vegetarianism are discouraged from becoming fanatically attached to it.
A Buddhist practices metta, which is loving kindness to all beings without selfish attachment. Buddhist refrain from eating meat out of loving kindness for living animals, not because there is something unwholesome or corrupt about an animal's body. In other words, the meat itself is not the point, and under some circumstances compassion might cause a Buddhist to break the rules.
For example, let's say you visit your elderly grandmother, whom you have not seen for a long time. You arrive at her home and find that she has cooked what had been your favorite dish when you were a child -- stuffed pork chops. She doesn't do much cooking any more, because her elderly body doesn't move around the kitchen so well. But it is the dearest wish of her heart to give you something special and watch you dig into those stuffed pork chops the way you used to. She has been looking forward to this for weeks.
I say that if you hesitate to eat those pork chops for even a second, you are no Buddhist.
http://buddhism.about.com/od/basicbuddhistteachings/a/vegetarianism.htm?nl=1
There is more on the above page if you want to read it

Namaste
Glenda

A very interesting discussion topic mixy. I was amused when I realized that all life exists on the death of another life. Plants, Vegetables and fruits are alive, animals are alive, even the mold that makes cheese is alive. There must be death of others to live. This is the circle of life.

From what I've heard, a lot of whether to eat meat or not depends on the person's blood type. Blood type A's will usually feel best without meat, where type O's will not feel good without having at least meat occasionally. I am a type O and grew up as a vegetarian, and found myself naturally eating meat. Two of my friends who are very comfortable being vegetarian have type A blood, and neither of them grew up vegetarian.