I was a vegetarian for several years in my late teens and early twenties, but gave it up ten and a half years ago, mostly because I was craving meat so badly I thought my body must need it somehow.

However, I'll only buy ethically reared meat. The meat we eat at home comes either from the local organic butcher or from farmers' markets, where I can buy it direct from the people who raised the animals. If I'm eating out I will generally have the vegetarian option, unless it's a really good restaurant where I know the meat will have been ethically sourced (ethical meat really does taste better).

Occasionally I think about becoming vegetarian again, but although I still wouldn't be supporting factory farms I'd also not be supporting the ethical meat producers, and I think that by doing that I'm actually making more of a statement.