We've been running the Food Demand Survey (FooDS) and each monthly survey has over 1,000 respondents. I took the first years' data, which consists of responses from over 12,000 individuals. This sample is potentially large enough to begin to make some more comprehensive statements about how vegetarians might differ from meat eaters in the US.

Some of the biggest differences appear for age, race, overweight status, and politics. Vegetarians tend to be younger, less white, skinnier, and more liberal than meat eaters. Two unexpected results are that vegetarians indicate a much higher rate of food stamp participation (which is a bit surprising since the share of households with >$100K in income is higher for vegetarians than meat eaters) and a much, much higher rate of food-borne illness.  



Who are the vegetarians? by Jayson Lusk