Try Argentina, where if you say you're veggie, the typical result is incredulous laughter.

The asterisked assertion is blatently false, unless "elsewhere" means "Portland, Oregon". Global meat consumption has been increasing rapidly, as people previously too poor to afford meat climb out of abject poverty.

Wow

This is a good sign. Hopefully they'll all become vegans, then the men can adopt the emasculated ways of Seattelites. We won't even have to bother visiting their country to enjoy the vibrant interplay between the sexes played out to the fiery Afro-Cuban rhythms, we can just stay here and order soy lattes and worry that we're staring too hard at the barista.

What is it, Bash Vegans Day on Slog? Yeesh.

Off the top of my head, I don't know what the world-wide numbers are. In the US, surveys have been done by the vegetarian resource group (vrg.org), in 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009.
In 1994 & 97, roughly 1% of the US population was vegetarian. In 2009, roughly 3% of the US population is vegetarian.

I'm not sure if there's been a world-wide study on the increase in vegetarianism. But although the numbers of vegetarians may be on the increase in the developed world, developing countries are eating increased amounts of meat/animal products, in part because of the cache it has--if you're wealthy, you can afford meat. So, world-wide, it might even out.

Last friday it was the fat issue, today it's vegetarianism, next Friday, pit bulls?

Alright, let the insulting begin!...

This has been Part 37 in a continuing series: Bethany Jean Clement is Still Pissed at Her Vegetarian Ex.

Tune in next time when Bethany asks: Why Don't Vegetarians Call When They Said They Would Call?

I spend a lot of time in Argentina, and while they certainly eat lots of meat, there are vegetarian restaurants popping up more and more in the cities.
I have seen very little incredulous laughter.
politely raised eyebrows, perhaps.

but in Cuba, a chicken is officially a vegetable.

Cubans are members of that rare group, people who desperately need more fat in their diets. Butter is a precious black-market commodity there. Getting meat is something of a luxury. This partly explains Cuba's rich culinary history, which like a lot of poor countries to a large extent involves getting as much mileage as possible out of every scrap of it.

@2, the kind of non-meat-eating you're referring to is rather different than voluntary vegetarianism. It's the vegetarianism of extreme poverty. People in Cuba were "meat eaters" even when they had so little of it that months might go by between bites of it.

Many people in Africa still subsist on nothing but cassava (manioc) or taro day in, day out -- a disgusting diet that's gotten nothing but worse in the past thirty years. Those people aren't counted as "vegetarians" by most counters.

Not too many Western vegans would last more than a few minutes on a cassava diet. The stuff is genuinely repulsive, unless you are rich enough to afford a soup or stew to go with it. Many millions of people cannot. If you've ever had poi (made from taro), you know what I mean; now think about having never had anything else.

Voluntary vegetarianism is a rich country's luxury, and is growing in popularity in countries that are moving into the first world. There are vegetarians, and vegetarian restaurants, in Mexico, for instance, which wasn't really true twenty years ago.

Your statistic might be a bit misleading also because as countries move out of extreme poverty the per-capita meat consumption of the meat-eaters goes way, way up, as people who once could afford to eat an ounce of meat every three days can now afford to eat three ounces daily, or more.

I think you're reading the asterisked passage incorrectly. The author is trying to say that more people are promoting vegetarianism specifically from a heart-health/carcinogen perspective, not that vegetarianism is gaining proponents in general.

The fact that the modern American meat industry is colossally fucked up:
1) Does not mean that healthy meat in moderation isn't good for you, and
2) Does not mean that trying to get everyone, everywhere to be vegetarian is even remotely rational.

Stupids.

@12 Thank you. I'm sick of self-righteous vegetarians/vegans just assuming that because I eat meat that means I'm wolfing down large quantities of industrially-produced crap (and yes, some do make that assumption). There are those of us who would like to eat an omnivorous diet but are not oblivious to the problems of industrially-produced meat and meat products. In other words, don't lump me in with the McDonald's addicts. I haven't eaten a chicken nugget in years.

If you can't eat well, drink well, and fuck well without some scold shaming you for it, then what's the fucking point?

As far as worldwide vegetarianism, nations with devout Buddhist populations have had a good number of them for a long time.

Trying to get everyone everywhere to be vegetarian would be a recipe for famine and malnutrition even worse than it already is in poor countries. Simple fact is that humans need fats, protein and B vitamins that are much harder to obtain from plants than they are from animal products. You can get these from a vegetarian diet and even from a vegan diet (though its harder than if you can eat eggs, yogurt, and the like) but you need resources that the average subsistence farmer in Africa just doesn't have access too. Meat is a rare and valuable luxury for most of the world.

Granted, meat eaters in rich countries have their own assumptions as well. A large portion of the animal protein consumes by people is of types that we shun as disgusting: insects and arachnids are some of the most protein dense foods out there and are a staple in many cultures. We even tend to discard or ignore perfectly good parts of cows and chickens, despite the resurgence of high end restaurants serving offal most Americans have a hard time eating liver, forget tripe, heart, tongue, blood sausage, headcheese, etc. I'd probably never eat any of these things if my farming grandparents hadn't fed me a lot of that stuff when I was a kid.

@17, I LOVE blood sausage, and tongue, and can cope with most other types of offal -- I had a combination pork-lips-and-skin taco in Mexico recently, and I've grown to like tripe in soup, but I still have a problem with kidneys and especially liver. It's really the only thing I just can't get past the smell of.

Insects are a little tough, too, though I'm keen to try them. I think I could cope with fried grasshoppers (crispy) or ants (small) more readily than big ol' squirmy grubs, though.

I'll bet a Bantu tribesman in DR Congo would have a similar reaction to a Chipotle Ranch Dorito....

@19 In Vietnam there are vegetarian restaurants which specialize in "meat" dishes. Plenty of people also eat vegetarian two days of the month - a dietary restriction similar to the no fish on Fridays thing that Catholics do. It depends on where you go. I've heard it is fairly easy to access vegetarian cooking in Laos and Cambodia as well. I haven't been to Thailand.

Meat = luxury. It is energy-dense food. Any group that hasn't had meat will jump at the chance to eat more.

Veganism is a reaction to industrial culture. Some here say it's a "luxury position", and you'd be right. But it's also a revulsion against the horror-show that is industrial cattle/pig farming in Western nations, especially the U.S.

The US markets are flooded with meat... $1.00 burgers at McDo? That's a clear indication that something is wrong.

I was vegetarian for over 15 years, vegan for 10 of those years. Now I eat fish, and also other meats in the right context (e.g., not insulting the hosts; unique opportunity).

But think about it: What did pre- and early-agricultural people eat? Mostly plants. They would eat meat when they could (a) catch it, and (b) afford to slaughter it (dairy or farm cows). So not that often, and usually on feast days/holidays.

That's what our bodies are more or less evolved to eat. With some minor modifications over the last 10,000 years.

But if you live in an industrial agriculture civilization, and you can't get meat readily, you pretty much want to get your teeth into it whenever you have the opportunity.

No surprise there.

Whatever. When all these global trends reach their inevitable climax, we'll eat the vegans first, right?

There are 600 million vegetarians in India alone (10% of the world's population), and many of the remainder only eat meat once a week or only eat fish.

Most of India is poor and they choose to not eat meat, so clearly choosing to be vegetarian isn't only for the rich. Taiwan is probably the second most vegetarian state. Vegetarianism is common in parts of Africa and the Near East as well, particularly during Ramadan and other times.

It seems like vegetarianism is least common in mainland Europe.

Isn't India's vegetarianism based on Indouism, their religion? If so, then it's not much of a choice.

I live in the USA where my being a vegetarian isn't a luxury. There is absolutely no reason that meat is required in your diet here. It's a personal choice, not a pose. I don't care what others choose. There is no reason for strangers to be affronted by my choice.

@26

Your personal choice is, through your own expression of it, a moral indictment of your carnivorous fellows. Hence people are offended with the context of your "choice."

Exactly. A statement like "there is absolutely no reason that meat is required in your diet here" is, in itself, a form of self-righteousness that comes across as you thinking you're somehow better than everybody else. There are lots of good reasons to eat meat. Starting with "it tastes good."

What did pre- and early-agricultural people eat? Mostly plants.

Cite.

@27, @28 Wrong and wrong. It is a morally neutral observation. The manner in which you brought your own baggage to it is exactly what I'm talking about. You are affronted.

Turn it around. Why is meat required in my diet? I don't see dead vegetarians all over the place. Am I commenting from beyond the grave?

One thing I've noticed about vegetarians and vegans is they're always trying to simulate the taste of meat and/or dairy in their diets. A vegan friend is always saying things like, "Oh the vegan turkey/burgers/salami/etc. is great!", or, "The vegan cereal with almond milk is yummy.

@32, We must secretly be lusting after meat. Actually a lot of the vegetarian/vegan meat substitutes are mimics only in name, words like burger are applied to bean or grain patties because they are convenient, not necessarily because we secretly desire a disc of processed meat. I suppose there's that quorn stuff, but it squicks me out- too close to meat, too processed. I am lacto-ovo, so I can't really comment on almond or soy milk, but what's a non-dairy vegetarian supposed to eat their cereal with?

@32 Not me. Please update your stats. When I made the decision to become a vegetarian I left meat behind. I enjoy eating things as they are if you get what I mean by that. The concept of meat is no longer central to my idea of food. I don't miss meat in any way.

How cute! All the little carnivores are offended.

@ 14 - Sean, I've got a new motto: If what you're doing gets people all bent out of shape, then you must be doing it right.