Are There Vegans Here Having Trouble Meeting Other Vegans?

[thatjacktruman (deleted)]

I just moved here to the L.A. area from the Midwest, looking to meet fellow vegans. Anyone else here having a hard time finding fellow vegans?

Jack Truman
Dixie Films

[saucypup (deleted)]

`yep,u are not the only one , we seem to be a hard to find bunch,though i have made a few friends online here.Though u should have more luck living in the states as u have more vegans per square mile than most i think.Good luck!!P.s,do u work in films?

[dchmelik]

Though I help run a town Vegetarian/Vegan Society and meet many vegans, few are ones I want to ask out. I am having trouble here because though there are few vegans in the world, the site limits the search area. I grew up in the UK and USA, so I would like to search around the world. It seems like a better option for most vegans (I do not know if they would want to search as far as me.) Let us all ask the administrators to upgrade the search for the world instead of adding all these other often useless things and extra sites not many people will want. Adding all these sites is another way that divides the members of the Passions Network, sort of like restricting the search area and making it hard for minorities like vegans does here--the administrators really could just add these all as search options, but I suppose getting results in search engines is a good idea and also draws people to the main sites, on the other hand. However, I think spending time adding often useless things (e.g. most stuff that can go in your description, and the 'upgrades') is why sites like the two largest free dating sites are doing better. I still think Vegetarian & Vegan Passions are among the top six free vegetarian personals sites, but all of them are only moderately well-implemented at best. The other free ones are small and far down the results in search engines. Of course, most of the rest are run by dedicated vegans that know why you should not limit the search area.

[emmelinepop]

saucypup wrote: `yep,u are not the only one , we seem to be a hard to find bunch,though i have made a few friends online here.Though u should have more luck living in the states as u have more vegans per square mile than most i think.Good luck!!P.s,do u work in films?



Then I will move to the states because I am from Slovenia (Europe) and I have a feeling that I am the only vegan in my country.

[callovin13 (deleted)]

`Well, we definitely have more vegans in the U.S. But the issue is the same despite this fact. Even on Volentia.com, where the most vegans I've encountered have congregated, most of us still are separated by hundreds or thousands of miles. Remember too, that even though a person may be vegan, he/she still has all of the usual barriers the common person has to meeting other people, especially online. Sadly, a vegan commonality does not guarantee friendship. And when it comes to dating, just think of the drastically reduced pool from which we have to choose.

[vegancharles (deleted)]

At the present time it is very difficult to meet other vegans. This is due to two factors:

(A) There just aren't very many vegans in the world at the moment.
(B) The few vegans that do exist are scattered all over the globe and usually far from each other.

Your best bet is on sites like this where distance is not the issue that it is out in the non-virtual world. Another thing is that the vegan community itself is further fragmented into various factions. Just because someone is vegan doesn't mean they share the same philosophy as another vegan.

There are basically 5 reasons that motivate someone to take up veganism. They are (1)animal rights, (2)environmentalism, (3) health concerns, (4) religious beliefs, and (5) a simple liking for the taste of vegan food. There is some overlap between these categories, of course. For example, I took up veganism because I wanted to fight against the cruelty and injustice of animal exploitation but along the way I also found that veganism was benefiting my health and that if I was truly committed to making the world a better place for animals I had to also concern myself with preserving their natural environments. Lastly, I found that vegan food is super tasty yumm! yumm!

Still, even with the commonalities we do share we still have our differences even as vegans. For example, a religious vegan would likely be at odds with me since I am strictly agnostic and have no wish to partake in any sort of religion. If religion is part of your lifestyle then you and I won't be very compatible. Then you have the possible case of someone who only became vegan because they wanted to lower their cholesterol or some other health reasons. Unlike me, such a person would probably not be very interested in the plight of circus elephants or the killing of baby seals in Canada, the gruesome deaths of dogs in Korea and China, the killing of whales and dolphins by the japanese, the so-called bullfights in Mexico or Spain, etc... All some of the dietary vegans are interested in is that their vegan diet helps them to improve their health and lengthen their lives. So again, someone who is merely a dietary vegan would not be a good match for me because I believe veganism is a moral philosophy and not just a way of eating. I would imagine that many other vegans would have the same issues with a person who only belongs to one particular vegan faction and does not necessarily share some of the concerns and priorities that you might have.

[veganlaura]

I have recently become vegan (just over a year) my husband isn't vegan neither are my kids I feel so lonely. My best friend us vegan but so is her husband so I feel my like she can't relate