Include me in the cult.
I've been vegetarian for over 21 years, but on the cusp of veganism for the past seven (virtually no dairy). I do make an active effort to be vegan as much as possible... but in the modern non-farm, non-commune world, it's really, really hard to be 100% vegan. Perhaps someday when I am old and have all the time in the world I will be able to cook wonderful vegan dishes... but as of now, I am kind of at the mercy of doing the best with the time I have and what is available. Living in the city offers a few more options, but you would be surprised by the hostility that most restaurants harbor towards veggies. My biggest pet peeve, and I mean BIG, are restaurants that assume that since I don't meat, I don't eat like to eat; so some steamed vegetables thrown on a plate would be considered a meal. That is the height of disrespect to me. Any restaurant that does not put out the same thoughtfulness and care into preparing a veggie dish as a meat dish does not deserve my money.
My reason for going veggie all those years ago was: why not?
And why is it necessary to eat meat in the first place? It certainly isn't healthy. It's certainly not good for the environment. And most importantly, it's tragically inhumane. I basically became veggie without thinking about it- one day, after realizing that I had not eaten meat for a couple of days unwittingly, I made the conscious decision to see how long I could live without meat. And that was basically it- I never ate meat again and I never really missed it (although I have had dreams about eating meat every once in a while, namely KFC!). The whiners who insist that they could never live without meat have never really tried to do without it. It's amazing how quickly you lose your taste for meat, and for me that's saying a lot since I ate red meat twice a day, every day, as a kid.