Are vegetarians/vegans dying out?

nightingale+therose

...brush me daddy-o
Mr Nightingale came up with a theory (after watching a Richard Dawkins programme) that vegeratianism will die out due to natural selection.:mad:

Upon asking me to name my top 10 vegetarians, he calculated that only 20% of them are procreating and deduced that we would all die out within a few generations.

i reckon his argument is flawed as i think being vegan/veggie is more of a viral than environmental calling ... - it is far more common to hear arguments for becoming vegan, be persuaded by their ethical nature and therefore become vegan in a learned way rather than being brought up and conditioned vegan/veggie from birth.


Anyway, what do you think? :thumb:

Are we all going to die out? :confused:

Are we really not as fruitful as our carnivorous comrades?:tears:

Answers on a postcard please....:D;):thumb:


.
 
PS: not doing stats or complex argument around methodological fallacies - this is my fun time not my time for deep philosophical thought.

PPS: Mr Nightingale is not vegan (although his delicious partner Mrs Nightingale is -yip that's me) ... and he has just discovered that i call him Mr Nightingale... he is most unchuffed! :D

.
 
nope

Your hubby is wrong.

A lot of Indian and Thai people are vegetarians due to their religious belief.
 
Re: nope

Your hubby is wrong.

A lot of Indian and Thai people are vegetarians due to their religious belief.

and are Thai/Indian folk fruitful as a nation? or are their populations in decline (will they die out in several generations - yes, i know we are talking about millions of people)

does religion have as strong a hold on nations in our pluralistic and global economy?
 
Re: nope

and are Thai/Indian folk fruitful as a nation? or are their populations in decline (will they die out in several generations - yes, i know we are talking about millions of people)

does religion have as strong a hold on nations in our pluralistic and global economy?

I didn't google this info because I'm too lazy, and I might be totally wrong on this, but I heard India's population is bigger than all the Americas put together (from Canada all the way down to Chile).
 
Last edited:
Re: nope

I didn't google this info because I'm too lazy, and I might be totally wrong on this, but I heard India's population is bigger than all the Americas put together (from Canada all the way down to Chile).

We'd need to proportion the population by religious affiliation to gain crude estimates of vegans/veggies... I know Jains are vegan, Hindus are veggie and some Buddhists are veggie... so that's between 20% and 40% of the population.

Impressive! so, are we set for world domination once we get organised?
I say we start the revolution here!!!:thumb: - mind, that only takes care of the eastern part of the world - what about its antipodes in the West?:squiffy:
 
Re: nope

We'd need to proportion the population by religious affiliation to gain crude estimates of vegans/veggies... I know Jains are vegan, Hindus are veggie and some Buddhists are veggie... so that's between 20% and 40% of the population.

Impressive! so, are we set for world domination once we get organised?
I say we start the revolution here!!!:thumb: - mind, that only takes care of the eastern part of the world - what about its antipodes in the West?:squiffy:

I know very little about India, but according to the infallible internets, 80% of the population is Hindu, but not all Hindus are vegetarian.

According to the 2004 census, 25% of India's population claims to be vegetarian.

But I think vegetarianism has nothing to do with procreation rates.

My theory is that the more a population listens to Barry White, the more fruitful it will be.
 
Re: nope

My theory is that the more a population listens to Barry White, the more fruitful it will be.

Flax - i think you may have something in that theory... so in order for vegans to take over the world, we need to be exporting some Barry across the pond to India. The country has high emigration rates too so it wont be long before we are seeding the world to begin the vegan revolution. Sign up for it HERE!:thumb: Viva La Revolution!
 
Re: nope

I know very little about India, but according to the infallible internets, 80% of the population is Hindu, but not all Hindus are vegetarian.

According to the 2004 census, 25% of India's population claims to be vegetarian.

But I think vegetarianism has nothing to do with procreation rates.

My theory is that the more a population listens to Barry White, the more fruitful it will be.

Good idea for new thread "Fave music for having sex"
 
Re: nope

Good idea for new thread "Fave music for having sex"

start it now - would be very telling if we were all quoting Moz songs from the 90's - says either, we're caught in a time warp or... (and even worse)... we've not had any since the 90's!!! *cough*

I'll wait till others respond before i trawl the charts and look for the latest poptastic hit to lie about and say today it's blah, blah, blah!!!!!:thumb:
 
Re: nope

start it now - would be very telling if we were all quoting Moz songs from the 90's - says either, we're caught in a time warp or... (and even worse)... we've not had any since the 90's!!! *cough*

I'll wait till others respond before i trawl the charts and look for the latest poptastic hit to lie about and say today it's blah, blah, blah!!!!!:thumb:

:lbf:i'll let you start it,i dont wanna look like a perv.(remember daddy cool)
anyway,back to vegetarianism!
 
Last edited:
Re: nope

Your hubby is wrong.

A lot of Indian and Thai people are vegetarians due to their religious belief.

feeing rather guilty at Mr Nightingale getting all the schtick for his argument - i was the one who extrapolated towards the viral rather than environmental argument.... religious thoughts never pass my mind so i naively didn't reckon on it guiding folk on ethical issues.... (religion and ethics don't mix - it's all morality) goodness knows western religion encouraged fish on friday and kosher killing etc etc etc. Anyway - admitting my wrongness here Kewpie, Billy, Flax!!:tears::tears::tears:
 
Re: nope

:lbf:i'll let you start it,i dont wanna look like a perv.(remember daddy cool)
anyway,back to vegetarianism!

I'm a lady - i can't start such a thread! would soil my reputation!!!
you're not Daddy Cool in disguise are you?

EDIT: what i should have said is "what about daddy cool" *sings*
 
This is just my theory, so take it as you will.

Vegetarians and vegans in the industrialized world tend to be more educated and more intelligent (and, possibly, more affluent) than the general population. Unfortunately, intelligent and highly-educated people have fewer children than the less educated. Therefore, vegetarians and vegans have fewer children than the general population.
 
This is just my theory, so take it as you will.

Vegetarians and vegans in the industrialized world tend to be more educated and more intelligent (and, possibly, more affluent) than the general population. Unfortunately, intelligent and highly-educated people have fewer children than the less educated. Therefore, vegetarians and vegans have fewer children than the general population.

Chicken & egg? - are they more affluent cause they don't have screaming weans to buy Nintendo's & Nike's for?

Since we started with Mr Nightingales views on this... I'll share some more of his observations here.... he thinks it's mostly young girls that become veggie and that once they find a 'proper boyfriend,' most will give it up in favour of 'family meals'.... whilst a smaller portion will become more extreme and go vegan.Yay! (his observations are anecdotal and he is basing his theory entirely on our own circle of friends:thumb:... it is true, however, that young females are consistently the fastest growing category of veggie in the UK)... He also thinks that once folk start having children, they revert to eating animals 'for the health of the kids':tears:. What do you think of that?


I'm really interested in your Western world perspective... any other theories?

.
 
This is just my theory, so take it as you will.

Vegetarians and vegans in the industrialized world tend to be more educated and more intelligent (and, possibly, more affluent) than the general population. Unfortunately, intelligent and highly-educated people have fewer children than the less educated. Therefore, vegetarians and vegans have fewer children than the general population.

Hmmmm, it's a complex subject. I assume that we're talking about people who are ethical vegetarians, as opposed to people who do it for health or religious reasons.

All of the ethical vegetarians I know are indeed educated, intelligent people, however, they are no more educated, intelligent or affluent than the carnivores I know. I suppose vegetarians really are an empathetic, idealistic sub-set of a generally educated, affluent population that tends not to have so many children.

So, it seems that the educated, affluent population as a whole is winding down, and taking the ethical vegetarians with them. As for intelligence, that seems to be a rare enough commodity in any population. :rolleyes:

Since we started with Mr Nightingales views on this... I'll share some more of his observations here.... he thinks it's mostly young girls that become veggie and that once they find a 'proper boyfriend,' most will give it up in favour of 'family meals'.... whilst a smaller portion will become more extreme and go vegan.Yay! (his observations are anecdotal and he is basing his theory entirely on our own circle of friends:thumb:... it is true, however, that young females are consistently the fastest growing category of veggie in the UK)... He also thinks that once folk start having children, they revert to eating animals 'for the health of the kids':tears:. What do you think of that?

Well, judging from my circle of hardcore veggie (and former veggie) friends, the vegetarian females I know NEVER change their diet for the males - as a matter of fact, the males often go veg in a show of solidarity with the ladies but, sadly, they seldom last for very long.

The most long-term, dedicated vegan I know is a man who is engaged to a carnivorous woman. They plan to have kids - it will be interesting to see how that works out.
 
Re: nope

My theory is that the more a population listens to Barry White, the more fruitful it will be.

Less get it aonnnnnnnn...after we eat these Morningstar Veggie black bean patties and couscous with a side salad and a glass of water.
 
Chicken & egg? - are they more affluent cause they don't have screaming weans to buy Nintendo's & Nike's for?

Since we started with Mr Nightingales views on this... I'll share some more of his observations here.... he thinks it's mostly young girls that become veggie and that once they find a 'proper boyfriend,' most will give it up in favour of 'family meals'.... whilst a smaller portion will become more extreme and go vegan.Yay! (his observations are anecdotal and he is basing his theory entirely on our own circle of friends:thumb:... it is true, however, that young females are consistently the fastest growing category of veggie in the UK)... He also thinks that once folk start having children, they revert to eating animals 'for the health of the kids':tears:. What do you think of that?


I'm really interested in your Western world perspective... any other theories?

.

I did, indeed, become a vegetarian when I was 14 years old, but have never wavered from it even once since then. All of the guys I've dated have been meat-eaters, and that fact has never influenced me. Actually, my boyfriend now, who I've been with for over 2 years, now no longer eats mammals, and only eats poultry and seafood. He often eats vegetarian meals, even when we go out to dinner.

People who claim to go back to eating meat for their health are either a) ignorant of how healthy a vegetarian diet can be, and how to get all of the proper nutrients from it, or b) just making excuses.
 
Tags
vegan vegetarian
Back
Top Bottom