Bruce Friedrich, is a 22-year vegan, but wouldn't be able to do it if a certain gold beverage, popular with college students, was on that list of forbidden foods as well.

"Beer is vegan-- thank goodness," he said.

Friedrich, vice president of policy and government affairs for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), spoke to an almost full auditorium at the Meet Your Meat forum Tuesday night.

At the event, held in the Kern Building, Friedrich said the only diet with integrity is a vegan diet. He discussed the consequences eating meat has on the environment, people and animals.

"If you eat two chicken wings -- boom -- you just killed a chicken. Why is it acceptable to pay other people to slit chickens' throats," he asked.

Rahul Komati (senior-premedicine) goes back and forth on whether to be a vegetarian.

"By not eating that chicken in the cafeteria, am I really making a difference -- it's already dead," he said.

Ronald Hobbs attended the event to hear about PETA from a different side.

"My parents brought me up know where my meat comes from," Hobbs (senior-history) said. "I generally like hearing the other side's argument. If you're trying to prove one thing you better know the other side. He's a very high ranking member of PETA and I wanted to be able to ask him my questions."

The only reason to eat meat is because you like it, Friedrich said. After showing a portion of the Meet Your Meat video, Friedrich said birds have no protection in the slaughterhouses, explaining that they're still alive when their throats are cut.

"There was some stuff that was disturbing for someone in my major -- it makes me upset to see someone hitting their chickens like that," Dustin Dreyfuss (sophomore-agribusiness management) said.

"I care a tremendous deal for the animals and I understand they're going to be used for meat consumption."