Generation V? No Meat, Lots of Ethics

Sitting in a garden oasis atop Abu’s convenience store, Lisa, of the popular cartoon series “The Simpsons,” learned about vegetarianism from Paul and Linda McCartney. She never ate meat again, which is not an easy feat when you’ve got Homer for a dad.

It takes a certain independent spirit for almost any teenager to choose a strict meat-free diet. Fast food, family mores and peer pressure do not normally steer teens toward tofu pups and soy shakes. But this year alone, an estimated 2 million teenagers will choose to become vegetarians. And, according to Stephanie Pierson, author of “Vegetables Rock! A Complete Guide for Teenage Vegetarians” (Bantam), 37% of all American teens are trying to avoid red meat completely.

Like Lisa Simpson, most teenage vegetarians shun meat for ethical reasons.

“I didn’t do it for my health,” says Vanessa Garcia, a 16-year-old junior at Huntington Park High School who is a staunch vegetarian. “The health thing is just a bonus.”

Garcia changed her eating habits three years ago after watching a video that showed the slaughter of sheep, pigs and cows.

“I started crying. I felt really guilty,” Garcia says.

Garcia not only gave up meat, she took action. Believing that she was “destroying [her] brothers and sisters in South and Central America” by eating meat raised in clear-cut rain forests, she wrote a pro-vegetarian article for L.A. Youth magazine. She also attends People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protests and volunteers at Environmental Justice Through Education and Action to educate people about the injustices of meat production.

She hasn’t found any converts at home.

“I tried to convince my little sister,” says Garcia, who shared stories of meatpacking atrocities and explained that vegetarians run a lower risk of some forms of cancer and heart disease. But she was outnumbered by the rest of her family.

Although Garcia has a couple of friends who are vegetarians, the majority of them are not. When they go out, she recommends they eat at places like Yoshinoya, which is vegan friendly. She hates McDonald’s, but if she has to go there, she orders French fries.

Laura Peterson, a seventh-grader at L.A.’s Marlborough Middle School, hasn’t eaten meat since she was 7, when her older sister brought home gory tales of chickens being put into grinding machines while alive. How did she learn to eat vegetarian at such a young age?

“I ate my usual meals, but I ate around the meat,” she says of the days when she first put her ideals into practice. “My dad started forcing me to eat nuts and drink chocolate milk.”

While her sister eventually gave up vegetarianism, Peterson stands tough. Now 13, she doesn’t even like the taste of meat.

“Nothing could tempt me now,” she says.

Peterson gets by on a diet of salad, pasta, tofu and nuts with a small amount of milk in cereal and an occasional piece of fish, but Garcia is a vegan. This means she doesn’t eat fish, eggs or dairy.

“I worry about strict vegans,” says professor Joanne Leslie, who teaches nutrition and women’s health at UCLA’s School of Public Health. Her own daughter is a lacto-vegetarian, eating eggs and dairy but no meat or fish. “During your teenage years, you are building your bone mass and bone density, which is important for prevention of osteoporosis,” she says.

Iron deficiency and anemia are other serious risks for all developing girls, but especially vegetarians. Leslie says beans and whole grains provide a good amount of iron, and citrus fruits help with absorption.

Despite the risks, Leslie is not too concerned. Her daughter runs with the cross-country team and at 15 is already 5 feet, 9 inches tall.

“It doesn’t seem to have stunted her growth,” Leslie says.

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