I say, old chap, eating meat is so vulgar

Is vegetarianism the epitome of civilised behaviour? By choosing to break the natural order of death and killing, the cycle of violence I talked about in yesterday's post, are we, vegetarians, actually beacons of intellectual enlightenment?

The inventor Thomas Edison said: "Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."

He could be talking about vegetarianism - indeed, I think he was. Unless we are also part of the local hunt or shooting party, or matadors or something, we, vegetarians, are unlikely, or less likely than most, to harm other living things.

I know, I know, it's a thorny subject and I should be wary of claiming moral superiority while I still wear leather shoes, benefit from medical advances and all those other things that involve animal cruelty - not to mention standing on microscopic organisms.

But as a general step in the right direction, vegetarians can claim to be upstanding members of the rational elite. This is at odds with the often-spewed view that vegetarians are long-haired, sandal-wearing beardies with no understanding of the finer things in life.

In polite society, where I occasionally find myself, the idea of vegetarianism is usually, it seems to me, considered peculiar and quaint. Not something one would associate with high art and good manners, those other bastions of civilisation. But is it us, who, rather than apologising for the inconvenience caused and muttering embarrassedly about liking animals, as though it was soft, is it us who should be looking down our noses at the meat eaters, shaking our heads at their savage behaviour?