Veggie Rights

I’ve been a vegetarian for around 30 years, that’s three-quarters of my life if you were wondering. Inspired by a school friend and the horrifying flyers thrust in my hand by animal rights protestors, as a country girl by birth, it wasn’t difficult for me to give up meat. Although my vegan period was curtailed for love and today I am struggling with the re-introduction of fish into my diet for the same reason, I still have no desire to return to meat. Luckily, when awkward questions, such as “Will you eat it if I just take the meat bits out?” or “But you eat fish, right?” arise, my sambo always steps in and negotiates a vegetable option, as he knows that I will succumb to fish rather than appear difficult or 'special'.

The first Scandinavian Vegetarian Society was founded in Stockholm in 1895 and a survey carried out by UK Food Standards Agency in 2009 found that out of 3,219 respondents in Britain, 3% were completely vegetarian, with a further 5% refusing either fish or certain meats. If there are so many of us, why doesn’t every restaurant in countries such as Sweden and the UK have a vegetarian option, or why not just do as Igi does and ask if anyone has any ‘dietary requirements’? We’re not asking for special treatment, because, after all, as the figures prove, there’s nothing special about being a vegetarian.