Southwestern - The Vegetarian Resource Group

NOTE FROM THE COORDINATORSTHE LATEST VRG SURVEY: WHO ANSWERED?Since 1994, The Vegetarian Resource Group has been conducting nationalpolls on the number of vegetarians and vegans in the United States. (See.) These are undertaken by nationalpolling organizations and are the same type of polls done for presidential campaignscited in the media.Recently, there was publicity about the number of vegetarians reported bythe Centers for Disease Control. Their numbers were lower than ours, partiallybecause they were counting people who were vegetarian only for health reasons.Not surprising to us, approximately the same number of people reported followingthe Atkins diet as a vegetarian diet for health considerations. Reed Mangelswill be reporting on this interesting study in a future Vegetarian Journal.Periodically, we do less scientific surveys of our members. These are not ‘randomsamples’ and only tell us about the people who responded, not the generalpopulation or even all our members. However, they give us information aboutthe readers most interested in responding, which may be of use to students andbusinesses. Below are some data from the survey of vegetarians we printed inIssue 1, 2006, of Vegetarian Journal. Whether so many of our members are veganis questionable. Nevertheless, many who do respond appear to be the activists orthe ‘loud mouths,’ the people most likely to spread the word about products andthe ones marketers need to reach. There were 276 total responses, with 200 comingfrom the Journal and 76 from other sources, such as outreach booths.Reason(s)for BecomingVeganReason(s)for BecomingVegetarianHave BeenVegetarianfor 30+ YearsTotal RespondentsHealthEthicsAnimal RightsWeight LossEnvironmentSpiritualityFamily/FriendsWorld Hunger5516%24%58%4%7%11%0%4%23224%28%47%2%9%13%3%4%5712%25%28%2%4%26%7%0%Please visit to see more results of this poll.Debra Wasserman & Charles StahlerCoordinators of The Vegetarian Resource Group4 Issue Two 2009 VEGETARIAN JOURNAL