Why are there only 5% vegetarians in the US?

Question

1% of them are vegans :-0

Answer 1

people like meat too much

Answer 2

What do you mean? Because it's not as popular. I'm not sure what kind of answer you want; other than meat eating has always been an accepted part of American culture and the majority of people see no reason to change that. English and European cultures were a huge influence on the US because that's where most of their people came from, and all of these cultures had meat based diets or they at least saw meat eating as a sign of affluence and a non-meat diet was seen as a sign of poverty.

What is the deal with Mr. Meat? Now he's an expert in mental illness spouting fake statistics. I have worked in mental health for 20 years and I only know of maybe two patients who were vegetarian out of several thousand. There were several others who said they were vegetarian and really weren't. What the Hell is "OCE?" Did he mean OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)?

Answer 3

I would say most people eat meat because they do not consider the negative impact of what they are doing. When an individual sits down to consume meat, they rarely think about the animal it once was but, instead, how delicious it now is.
Another reason, as others have said, is that the majority of Americans are raised from birth to eat meat and it is very hard to independently convince yourself that your parents and peers are incorrect about eating meat. Along those lines, being vegetarian or vegan is not the cultural norm, and it is hard for many to break away from that barrier and do what they may truly think is right.
Last, the majority of opinions on this subject are uninformed and believe that the only way to a healthy, well-balanced diet is to consume meat. Furthermore, most people are not aware of the gruesome situations in factory farms, slaughterhouses, laboratories, etc. This is unfortunate, and the reason a priority of vegetarians and vegans is to raise awareness.
I hope this helps and that, in the future, the number of vegetarians and vegans continues to increase!

Answer 4

Well, I can only think in horror what the numbers must have been when I became vegetarian 30 years ago . . .

All you have to do is walk down the aisles of any grocery store to see why the numbers are the way they are. The reason the grocery store is full of meat-inflected foods has to do with industry, and industry has the money to advertise.

It's up to the individual to make a choice. Read a package label: if the product contains animal-based products, you have the choice to buy it, or not. I, as a vegetarian, don't. It's very simple.

Answer 5

Why is 5% of the entire population of Great Britain vegan?

You can only answer questions like this by surveying a large portion of the population. One person can not know why the 3.03 billion residents of the States do or do not eat meat.

Perhaps you could badger the government into including your question on the 2010 census.

Answer 6

The statistic is deceptive. It is probably less than that, I'd wager, depending on how the statistic was obtained. I would have to see the methodology used in gathering the information.

"Vegetarian" carries a number of meanings for different people as does vegan. So how they defined it can alter the results.

The "reasons" are historical. Amer-European culture is "meat based". Plant based diets were inextricably tied to religious/spiritual practices. And those religions are usually Eastern.

Such practices are not part of Christianity, the predominating religion of Amer-European culture.

There also is availability of meat and dairy that is more predominate in Amer-European lands because of lush grassy meadows, open expanses of plains, and presence of animals that were used for meat, clothing,etc. from the beginning of their existence.

What is growing in popularity as M.Meat said, is flexitarian vegetarianism and flexitarian veganism. I'd wager that if those were offered as a choice in the gathering of statistics, the percentage for both would be lower. Significantly lower for the vegetarians (maybe 2.5-3%) and about the same for vegans because fanatics of any kind rarely change. But I would say it probably would drop to about .75%

Make no mistake about it, vegetarianism and veganism are definitely on the decline as lifestyles change. The old ideas of vegetarian/vegan work in an agrarian society, or with sedentary lifestyles, better than the more mobile lifestyles of today. Make no mistake about it V&V's in American culture are becoming as extinct as dinosaurs.

Answer 7

The American education system has fallen behind in health education. Other nations do a far better job promoting health. India and many asian nations have a much higher percentage of vegetarians. Quite popular and widely accepted around the world.

Answer 8

1. Cultural inertia
2. Media bombardment (most of the ads are about meat or junk food)
3. Ignorance. For example the 'salad' comment above. Vegetarianism is not about eating salads all the time. I would bet that a healthy omnivore and a healthy vegetarian eat the same amounts of salad.

Answer 9

It's really not in our society. We pride ourselves on being able to give for our families, the American Dream, steak and potatoes...tofu and cous-cous rarely plays into that. Not eating meat is seen as very absurd to the majority of Americans because it was what they were raised with. I mean, family favorites, for the most part, are based off of some kind of meat.

Answer 10

In some countries meat is not readily available to the majority of the poplulation.

In the US even the poor can usually buy meat.

Answer 11

This country has always been a "meat-eaters" country, so most people are raised on meat. Once you start eating meat it's hard to stop, unless you live in a slaughter house.