New Vegetarians

We estimate that out of 200 brochures given to students, at least 5 become vegetarian after reading it. We cannot know how accurate this is without a complicated study. We base our numbers on this:

Often while leafleting on a campus, students read the brochure and then approach us saying they are not going to eat meat any longer. Jack Norris averaged about 1 per campus when he was traveling to campuses, averaging about 235 brochures per campus (note: the pamphlets were less powerful and in black and white at the time he was traveling in 1996-97; we expect that they are more effective now). We also get e-mails from students saying they became veg and sometimes we run into students who told us they went vegetarian after reading the brochure from a previous time we were on campus. Assuming that there are many who never contact us after becoming veg, we conclude that 5 out of 200 is a good estimate.

We also assume that many students cut back on their animal products without fully going vegetarian. And we know that many students we reach will influence other students to become vegetarian or vegan. We figure that these numbers can make up for any overestimate of the "5 out of 200" number.

Animals Saved

We assume 35 animals (including only mammals and birds) are eaten per year per person.

This number is figured by dividing the 9,997.3 million mammals and birds slaughtered in the U.S. in 2002 (numbers provided by Farm Animal Reform Movement; click here to see in a Word document) by 283 million people.