FACTFILE: VEGETARIAN

Richard and Robyn

Definition:A vegetarian is when a person does not consume the flesh or insides of any animal, e.g. meat – red meat, poultry or seafood. Some vegetarians also refuse to use by-products of animal slaughter, e.g. leather from a cow. The company we are working for is the Vegetarian Society defines a vegetarian as being someone that ‘does not eat any meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish or crustacea, or the by-products of slaughter’.

There are different variations on the term 'vegetarian' between different countries, societies & religion. Some people may also call themselves a vegetarian, yet will still eat a certain kind of meat or will eat fish. A person that would eat fish and no other flesh of an animal is a pescetarian depends on the individual. There are also vegans that do not consume or use anything that comes from an animal, either dead or alive.

Demographics:There are many different factors that come into the demographics of a vegetarian, but these demographics vary between countries. Looking at the first table below, you can see how the percentage of vegetarians vary from country to country. This changes from 31% in India to 2% in France. There are different reasons which are discussed on the next slide. Due to the fact there are differences between country to country, the gender and age breakdown are different. Looking at the USA as a main example, they have a 6% out of their population saying they are vegetarians, with 59% of this percentage being female & 41% male. Looking at age, you will find that as you get to lower ages, you find more vegetarians e.g. in the USA 42% of vegetarians are between the ages of 18 & 34 compared to the 17.4% of people that are over 55 that are vegetarians. When looking at the intelligence, which links to the social status of a person, you will find that male & females have higher IQ’s than their meat eating counterparts (male & female both have 5 more IQ points). Typically, you'll find that their are certain stereotypes that come with being a vegetarian. For example, some people would assume that a vegetarian would have a higher socioeconomic number (ABC1) than someone that eats meat. Looking at this website (http://ask.metafilter.com/42131/Is-vegetarianism-based-on-wealthclass) you can see that many people have different personal opinions on this demographic. When looking, I found that there are people that are poor who are vegetarians & their are upper-middle class people that are also vegetarian.

Country Percentage of vegetarians (%)

UK 3

Italy 10

France 2

Germany 9

India 31

China 5

USA 6

Australia 5

Israel 8.5

Reasons:There are many different reasons for becoming vegetarian, this could include cultural or religious reasons, health reasons or environmental reasons. One reason for taking part in vegetarianism is environmental concerns. It takes on average 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein and 35 calories of fossil fuel to product 1 calorie of pork but only 1 calorie of fossil fuel for 1 calorie of soybeans. So by eating plant food, it helps prevent the wasteful overuse of non-renewable sources of energy. The cost of meat is also why some people are vegetarians as it has been proven eating meat rather than a non-meat diet is twice as expensive. Another reason why people may chose to be a vegetarian is for personal health. For example, meat is deficient in carbohydrates, including the starches which are an important essential to a healthy lifestyle. Also, it it estimated that there are over 20,000 different drugs animals can be given to improve the livestock and with eating meat, you are allowing yourself to be exposed to this drugs fed to the animals. Some people give up meat due to ethics, such as a love of animals, respect for sentient life or because of the ‘natural diet’. Some are so fond of animals that they chose to follow vegetarianism to show that they would never want to cause harm or kill them. Some because our body chemistry is proven to be that of a herbivore so why eat meat? Another reason why someone might not eat meat is because of their religion. An example of a religion that does this is Hinduism. A lot of Buddhists are also vegetarian/vegan.

Companies:One of the most well known companies that produces vegetarian meat substitutes is Quorn. They produce this kind of fake meat with the fungus Fusarium venenatum. They produce this Quorn in ready-meals & as an ingredient for vegetarians to purchase. Also, the Vegetarian Society (the company we are working for) gave their seal of approval to the use of Quorn when they changed their production methods to the use of free-range eggs only.Supermarkets usually have products & recipes specific for vegetarians. An example of this would be Sainsbury’s. On their website you can find recipes like vegetarian sausage stew. This then shows you the ingredients needed to make this recipe, that can be found in their stores nationwide. Some companies will have vegetarian alternatives to their non-vegetarian foods. An example of this would be Percy Pigs, which is further discussed on the next slide. Another company that targets their products is itself the Vegetarian Society. They make recipe cards and recommend other kinds of food product to vegetarians. Some food companies and supermarkets will put on their products of they are vegetarian or not (sometimes this label is big - which shows it's targeted at vegetarians. Other times the label can be small because it is not incredibly relevant to the food product). An example of this would be Buffalo Mozzarella cheese, as they have a Vegetarian Society label on their packaging.

Non vegetarian products:There are many foods that have hidden ingredients that vegetarians cannot have. They have to be careful with what they eat because of this. An example of this would be Percy Pigs, made by Marks & Spencers. Included in the Percy Pigs is real pig, which comes in the form of pork gelatin. What you would usually find in a product like this would be pectin, which can be found in other sweets like this. They then made vegetarian Percy Pigs which use pea protein instead, after consumers began to complain.The use of Cochineal, a red coloured beetle, is commonly objected against by Vegetarians. It is found in many different products, such as fabric and cosmetics dye and also as a natural food colour. Cochineal is a water-soluble colourants so can be used in things such as alcohol, jams, dessert, juice beverages and cookies. It’s not always known if a colouring is in a food. Also, different vegetarians have different rules and restrictions on what they will consume, therefore some will consume Cochineal. An example of an alcoholic beverage which included Cochineal up until 2006 in it is the Italian liquor, Campari.There are other types of food & items of clothing that contain products that vegetarians (some vegetarians) cannot have or use. Another example would be leather, as this comes from a cow. They cannot use the leather because the animal has been killed to get this. There are obvious vegetarian alternatives to leather, like faux leather/pleather. There are also cooking fats vegetarians cannot use like meat based cooking fats. Baileys cannot be consumed by a vegan, as it contains cream (from cows milk).

Bibliography:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Pighttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochinealhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camparihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn http://www.sainsburys-live-well-for-less.co.uk/recipes-inspiration/healthier-eating/healthier-recipes/vegetarian-recipes/ https://www.vegsoc.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=599 http://www.statisticbrain.com/vegetarian-statistics/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism_by_country#Russiahttp://www.raw-food-health.net/NumberOfVegetarians.html http://ask.metafilter.com/42131/Is-vegetarianism-based-on-wealthclass http://www.vegsocapproved.com/corporate08/products_detail.asp?id=56973https://www.vegsoc.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=650http://www.faithandfood.com/Buddhism.phphttp://www.faithandfood.com/Hinduism.phphttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080622192215AApAyzM