Just how popular is a vegetarian diet in US?

Will the real vegetarian please stand up? I’m not being cynical with that question, but being realistic, at least according to data from self-identified U.S. vegetarians. First, let’s look at some of that data. According to the Vegetarian Resource Group’s annual national survey, less than 3 percent of Americans do not eat meat in any given year. However, there are multiple studies that make that data even a bit suspect. Two separate nationwide polls conducted in the early 2000s found that between 3 and 6 percent of respondents identified themselves as being vegetarian. However, when asked follow-up questions, 63 percent of those individuals admitted to eating meat within the past 24 hours. So, their image of themselves and their own reality seem to differ just a bit. Being vegetarian is a personal choice. Some do so for financial reasons, some due to significant food allergies and many individuals do so for philosophical reasons. Properly done, you can stay healthy, but it is also extremely easy to not eat a fully balanced all-vegetarian diet and end up causing short-, medium- or long-term health issues due to insufficient nutrient intake. I believe that agriculture can supply safe food for all diet types, and it is up to individual consumers to maintain nutritional balance by choosing foods within their own philosophical window of acceptable food items. The human nutrition courses I’ve taken in my life lead me to believe that humans are omnivores and do have better chances of staying healthy when they allow themselves to choose from all foods, but I also believe that everyone has the right to eat whatever legal foods they feel make them healthy. Why does this topic impact agriculture in our area? Simply put, cows rule our agricultural economy. If the real percentage of vegetarians would suddenly change, it would cause economic change in the dairy and beef industry, and could dramatically impact profitability.