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A couple of days ago, I asked a question: Which South American countries are the most vegetarian-friendly?

It was closed as opinion-based, which I largely expected.

I feel that it is answerable because there's a couple of pieces of evidence one could use to make an argument for one country or another. (I specifically asked for "which countries" rather than "which country) in the hopes the former would be more answerable.

Specifically, I'm thinking:

  • Number of vegetarian/vegan restaurants in the country. For example, I can tell you there are 205 veg* restaurants in Seattle whereas there's only 35 such results in Spokane, the second largest city in Washington.
  • You could also look at censuses of vegetarians and vegans in a given country. This Wikipedia page, for example, gives values of 10% for Sweden and 9% for Austria, which would be suitable for a question about Europe.
  • I think most of us have experience cultural differences in eating vegetarian in different places. Subway used to have a veggie patty I rather liked, and I asked for it in Montana once and got a blank stare. Clearly, there are cultural differences one could bring up.
  • Other statistics, for example this Seattle Times article uses food budget reports to estimate the most and least vegetarian neighborhoods based on the proportion of their food budget they spend on meat.
  • Furthermore, one could imagine that a given country might have a government initiative to promote vegetarianism; or could mandate labeling of vegetarian products, a country that has done that is probably a friendlier place to go.

Anyway, I think this sort of question could be very valuable to Veg.SE. I mean, there's only so many nutrition questions to ask, and I think many people would benefit from being able to ask what countries or cities, etc., would be easier/more fun to visit for someone on a veg* diet.

How can I rephrase my question to bring it on-topic? I'm open to discussion.

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  • Highly related, maybe a dupe. – Riker Sep 3 '17 at 16:33
  • @Riker, related, but I don't agree with your assessment of the linked question and still think questions like these could be useful – Azor Ahai -him- Sep 6 '17 at 20:35
  • They definitely could, but just aren't a good fit for the SE model. Catalogues don't work well with a Q/A format. – Riker Sep 6 '17 at 20:55
  • @Riker I'm not asking for a catalog of anything. – Azor Ahai -him- Sep 6 '17 at 20:57
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Ironically, by seeking a more objective standard for your question, it starts to become "too broad" rather than "opinion-based". There are a lot of possible ways to measure vegetarianism (statistics, policies, native cuisine, etc.) -- and which of those is the "best" way to evaluate friendliness is still pretty subjective. One user might think it's social acceptance, another might think it's availability of vegetarian foods...

It sounds like you're trying to choose a travel destination and eat at restaurants frequently, so perhaps narrowing the focus to just that would be your best option. There's still a chance that will be too broad (vegetarian penetration is probably better in Buenos Aires than more rural Argentina, for example), so I hope other users can also weigh in on how your question could be answerable.

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  • Also, statistics can change. I know that in southern california, where I live, turnover for new restaurants can be pretty high. There's also no guarantee that there are statistics for an area. There may be ones for, say, Buenos Aires, but possibly not ones for the surrounding rural areas. – Riker Sep 3 '17 at 16:32
  • I'm not sure I agree with your perspective on it becoming "too broad" - but there is a certain level of subjectivity to the question. However, I wonder if there's that much difference between opinions? After all, it does seem possible that there's an experienced SA veg traveler who can say after 20 years they know which country is best. || As to your second point, my goal isn't to eat at restaurants frequently, just to enjoy myself when I do :) – Azor Ahai -him- Sep 6 '17 at 20:32
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