Senior student at FHN, Emma Meyers, started a vegetarian club in October to help educate more people about becoming vegetarian.

“I was applying for scholarships and saw that there was a vegetarian scholarship, which was really surprising. It asked like, what have you done to help vegetarianism, and I felt like I hadn’t done enough. So that’s when I decided on starting a club,” Meyers said.

The vegetarian club held their first meeting on Oct. 20, 2016. Each meeting is held every other Thursday and students can join at anytime. The sponsor for the club is Yvonne Kehoe. Kehoe is also a vegetarian. They hope to educate as many people on vegetarianism as they can, as students join the club. Most students who are vegetarian have many reasons to be.

“It’s so harmful to our bodies to eat meat and other processed foods. People from many centuries before us survived on nothing but raw fruits and veggies, so why can’t we?” vegetarian, Eve Abuazza said.

Meyers was originally a pescatarian; she ate no meat except for fish, but decided to convert to a vegetarian to make even more of a difference. She would like to become a vegan one day, but it would be very difficult due to the area not having as many fresh resources. Vegetarians don’t eat any meat, while vegans won’t eat any animal products at all like dairy. One reason it would be harder for Meyers to become vegan is her favorite food being mac’n’cheese. As far as having to give up meat, she sometimes thinks chicken wings sound good, but it’s as easy as putting hot sauce on something else.

“I would recommend for someone to go vegetarian because it is better for the environment and your health and it shows compassion for animals,” Meyers exclaimed.

It is understood that humans are somewhat supposed to eat meat. The meat industry today is highly corrupt, producing more carbon gas than all transportation combined. Meyers knows that the meat industry has no morals for animal lives and the way the meat gets produced is also harmful for our bodies from all the chemicals. Being vegetarian comes with many health benefits. Meyers sees all animals as most people see their cats and dogs.

“Most people don’t know where our food is coming from and the meat packing industry is filled with harmful viruses and diseases from unethical standards of raising the animals and slaughtering of animals. Being vegetarian is important to respect the animals and be healthier,” another vegetarian, Caitlin Adams said.

Click here to see a storify of people’s opinions on becoming vegetarian and how it differs than vegan lifestyle.