PETA released a list of the 10 most vegetarian-friendly cities in our hemisphere!

1. Washington, DC
2. Portland Oregon
3. Albuquerque, New Mexico
4. Atlanta, Georgia
5. Seattle, Washington
6. Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada)
7. San Francisco, California
8. Los Angeles, California
9. New York, New York
10. Toronto, Ontario (Canada)

They aren’t extremely clear how they tally these results – do they count purely vegetarian restaurants or also figure in establishments that serve vegetarian meals in addition to meat dishes?

Interestingly enough, we recently found out that Washington DC is the only place in the entire country whose obesity rates did NOT go up.

Some of these cities are not a surprise at all.   Portland vegans famously celebrated their own Fakin’ Fest as the rest of the Portland citydwellers celebrated the decidedly non-vegetarian Bacon Fest.  San Francisco celebrates city-mandated Meatless Mondays, urging citizens to skip eating meat at least one day of the week.

Los Angeles also fits right in, with its chains of vegetarian restaurants like Real Food Daily and Native Foods and abundant Whole Foods locations.

To this blogger, Atlanta feels like the least likely city on the list – isn’t Atlanta also a great city for that most meaty of cuisines, BBQ?  Even the local vegetarians seem puzzled by their appearance on PETA’s post (check the comments).

Sound off!  Are you a struggling vegetarian in a small town? Can a list like this actually motivate you to move so you can have more freedom/choice with your diet?

Photo: ThinkQuest