After my brother had moved out after college, away from my parents, he became a very strict vegan. In fact, he kind of rubbed off on me and I tried vegetarianism before I came to college and became a twig from it, but now I consume meat and dairy products. When I was a vegetarian, I was faced with many different situations where my dietary restrictions conflicted with American social norms. Whenever I had eaten at restaurants, I always struggled to find something to eat. Usually restaurants did carry vegetarian options, those options were very limited and usually I did not find them appealing. In America, the norm is to have a very meat-centric diet. Wherever you go, the main focus of the meal is the meat. This norm directly conflicts with vegetarianism and makes it difficult to sustain the lifestyle. However, although I am a not a vegetarian now, I feel that the social norms are changing to include vegetarians in the American lifestyle. In restaurants, for example, it is much easier to find a menu that includes many different tasty vegetarian options.
Vegetarianism as a growing social norm, is directly related to many different aspects of the meat industry, and the current social norms that are incredibly meat-centric. One of the reasons I chose vegetarianism is because of the livestock animal treatment. As it is depicted in the Meatrix video, animals are commonly treated very poorly, and with the current meat-centric social norms, the maltreatment of these animals is continuously conducted in factory farms and overlooked by the public. I believe to combat this, Americans need to severely change the way livestock production is allowed to occur in America. There needs to be strict laws that facilitate the maximum happiness for the animals, and the amount of livestock produced should not be of concern. Basically to sustain this, we would need switch from a meat-centric diet to a plant based diet. Additionally, to create a stable sustainable source of protein, I suggest the cultivation of insects as they are one of if the the greatest protein dense sources available for consumption. 
Hi, my name is Jessica. Here is my blog post if you’re interested: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/03/social-normssocietal-issues-jessica-moritz/. I can relate to you because years ago I tried being a vegetarian – and it was hard; I lost way to much weight and became really sick! I actually became vegetarian because of the way animals were treated. It was hard to see videos of animals being mistreated at farms just for food. Now, I have high food allergies so it is almost impossible to eat at restaurants because I don’t know exactly what is in the food. However, I do agree with you that more restaurants are opening up more food options for vegetarians and strict-diets, like me.
Hi Neil! While I’m not a vegetarian, I can see how frustrating it could be to not order anything at a restaurant. I work at an Italian restaurant and people always ask what the vegetarian options are and they often do not enjoy only having a menu of 3 dishes. One difference between us and our posts is that I am one of those people who disregard the poor conditions of animals. I know it sounds horrible, but I would rather have meat that had a bad life rather than no meat at all. This lifestyle could be an effect from the social norms that I grew up in. It was interesting to read the perspective of a student with a complete opposite opinion on things. Here’s a link to my post http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/04/nicolina-dimascia-chicken-nuggets-are-my-life/