By: Danielle McCauley

This is a look into the vegetarian lifestyle. These are the stories of vegetarians and vegans from all different walks of life. Each of their stories each show unique reasons as to how and why they chose this lifestyle for themselves.

Vegetarianism is the dietary decision to not eat meat. There are many variation of vegetarianism, such as veganism, which is the practice of not eating any animals or animal made products. According to a Time magazine article, vegetarianism was first established in England in 1847 and has continued to grow from there. There are now about 7.3 million Americans who are vegetarians, according to statistics reported by Statistic Brain. Statistics Brain also reported the fact that Portland, Oregon is the top vegetarian city in the United States. While Portland is the number one vegetarian city in the US, there are still limited vegetarian and vegan options found on college campuses, like the University of Oregon. There are options in each of the dining halls on the University of Oregon campus for vegetarians and vegans, but they still remain limited. There are some schools who have begun to change and expand on their options, such as Washington State University. According to The Daily Evergreen, WSU hired a dietician who worked with the school to bring “natural” stations and more variety to each of the dining centers. This large expansion on the vegetarian and vegan options that occurred at WSU is forward thinking and not many college campuses have begun to adopt it, which is why it is something interesting to look into.