Vegetarian foods seem to be everywhere. Supermarkets are now carrying soymilk, most restaurants have vegetarian options, and even fast food chains are offering or testing veggie burgers.
The market for a company producing a vegetarian product is much broader than the number of vegetarians or vegans in the country. For example, some colleges have said more than 20 percent of their students are eating vegetarian foods, though some customers may have both a vegetarian selection and a meat item on their plates.
In a 2004 nationwide survey by Aramark, nearly a quarter of college students said finding vegan meals on campus was important to them. The popularity of meatless foods has certainly created many opportunities for businesses and made life easier for vegetarians.
However, the Vegetarian Resource Group wanted to know how many young people today are actually vegetarian. As we have done with our other polls, we posed the following statement: