Meat Consumption And Vegetarianism Among Young Adults

Analyzes the level of meat consumption and avoidance as it relates to gender, father’s occupation, voting intention, and the reasons given for their reduction or avoidance of meat.

This six-year survey studies first year undergraduates, focusing on vegetarianism and declining red meat consumption.

The results show that females are more likely to be vegetarian and to eat less meat; males are more likely to consume more or the same amount of meat from the previous year.

The survey results also show that age, political tendencies, social class and father’s occupation do not appear to be related to meat consumption.

The research showed a slight tendency for Conservatives to be more likely to eat more meat, while liberal Democrats were slightly more likely to eat less meat.

Given choices for important influences, 63.1% of respondents felt that tastiness of food was most important. This was particularly resonating with those who eat the same amount of meat (51.6%).

Of those who consider the healthiness of food as important, 47.3% were consuming less meat and 22% were vegetarian.

Of those who consider the familiarity of food as important, 57.9% were eating less meat.

78.9% of those who felt that the moral acceptability of food was important were vegetarian.

15.7% of the sample were self-described vegetarians, although this level is likely to be higher than that of the overall population.

There was no evidence of declining red meat consumption or increasing levels of vegetarianism among those sampled.