ABSTRACT
In a recent study, researchers analysed 29 countries, representing 54 percent of the world’s population, and extrapolated that there are 75 million vegetarians by choice in the world and 1.45 billion vegetarians by necessity (Leahy et al., 2010). The latter are defined as consumers who are too poor to afford meat but would likely consume meat once their income level rises. This suggests that with the rising global economic growth, there will be a significant increase in meat consumption in the near future. Among many other global projections, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, for example, has predicted that meat consumption in East Asia will rise to 650 kilocalories per person per year in 2050 (the corresponding figures in 1970 and 2000 are 100 and 400 respectively). Nonetheless, this ever-increasing appetite for meat is accompanied by persistent advocacy to increase the number of vegetarians (by choice). The roots of organized vegetarianism advocacy can be traced to 1908 when the International Vegetarian Union was formed. Indeed, the first known quasivegetarian society in the Western world – The British and Foreign Society for the Promotion of Humanity and Abstinence from Animal Food (the precursor for United Kingdom’s Vegetarian Society) – was formed even earlier in 1843. Then, the two main reasons for establishing vegetarian societies and promoting vegetarianism were to encourage healthy living and to promote a more humane relationship with animals. The former is rooted largely in a scientific discourse that appeals to the rationality of consumers to eat what is best, while the latter appeals to the morality of consumers to eat what is ethical. Today, the International Vegetarian Union lists hundreds of affiliate vegetarianism societies worldwide and organizes an annual World Vegetarian Congress.
