[609] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
Re: just how many vegetarians are there?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lewis Haddow)
Wed Jun 28 05:12:42 1995
From: Lewis Haddow <9235367@arran.sms.ed.ac.uk>
To: vsg@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 1995 09:57:27 +0000
Regarding a recent mailing:
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Never Eat: TOTAL MALE FEMALE BLACK INFLUENTIAL
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Meat 6% 5% 7% 6% 10%
> Poultry 3% 3% 3% 1% 6%
> Fish/Seafood 4% 3% 5% 3% 4%
> Eggs 4% 4% 5% 4% 5%
> Honey 15% 15% 15% 20% 12%
> Eat Them All 75% 77% 74% 70% 71%
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
> About six percent of the population never eats red meat; 3% never
> eat poultry; 3% never eat dairy products; 4% never eat eggs; and 4%
> never eat fish/seafood. As would be expected, the figures for not
> eating these foods among "influential" people are greater.
> (Influential people being politically and/or socially active.) For
> example, while 6% of the general population never eat red meat, 10%
> of "influential" people never eat red meat. We suspect the
> "influential" category being a higher percentage would also pertain
> to vegan versus vegetarians. Among the leaders in the vegetarian
> movement we know, there is a higher number of vegans versus what
> might be in the general vegetarian population.
>
What's this "influential" thing supposed to mean? "Politically
and/or socially active" - surely anyone who's ever voted is
politically active and anyone who's ever had a friend is socially
active!! It's politically suspect to divide the population into
"general" and "influential" groups. I'm in the general population
but perhaps I'm having an influence over you now. ;) I just fear
that someone out there might go around saying "Did you know that 10
percent of influential people don't eat meat?" and then be asked to
explain themselves. "Discussion of results", indeed!
Apart from this short paragraph of nonsense, the article was
convincing and comprehensive.
Lewis
