"I noticed that a lot of this food is tinged with red or orange..."

This is kind of a sick comment, but I had to share since you reminded me about it with your observation:

I worked as a consultant for AmeriQual Foods for a little while...they're one of the main suppliers of MREs to the DOD. While I was there, I saw a dude accidentally cut most of his thumb off and bleed into a vat of food. A few of the workers SWORE that they still packaged the food and shipped it out...although, based on my experience with the company, I find that very hard to believe. It was probably just grim factory humor.

One of my best friends also worked at a company that supplied temp workers to AmeriQual. Not too long after 9/11, they had a scare because terrorists were supposedly trying to infiltrate their temp workforce (allegedly after finding the corporate address on MRE packaging that was improperly discarded.) I don't think anything ever came of it, but my friend was going crazy because of all the extra paperwork.

In the case of the Canadian meal, the image isn't really representative of the variety of meals that exist. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_Meal_Pack for the list of entrees in 2005.) Certainly meat features in the majority, but every soldier can expect a vegetarian meal with some frequency. Choosing her example meals, I think it's possible that the article's author was somewhat biased toward names like "Swiss steak with Spanish sauce" and away from pasta, baked beans and other commonly canned foods.

It's already been suggested that providing vegetarian meals is a logistical nonissue. (Canadian soldiers are also entitled to Kosher and Halal meals, and I can't imagine that that's uncommon.) But it's easy to imagine military professionals arguing the opposite. Logistics, tactics, and esprit de corps are used to justify several kinds of bigotry and obstinacy in Western militaries. It seems to me that, as a rule of thumb, legitimate military concerns do not easily justify lower standards of tolerance, human rights, or, (as Julien Assange will agree) openness. Canada has rejected at least two of these arguments experimentally by allowing openly gay service members (unlike the US) and by permitting women to serve in every trade (unlike the US and the UK).

How are vegetarian protein sources more expensive? Many are quite cheap (if sometimes bland). Most beans keep well and are easy to ship and prepare in bulk, which certainly suits the mess hall. I don't see how it'd be a huge logistics issue (compared to shipping/handling chicken, for example). I've never been in the military, but I've worked in a deli, and handling chicken sucks.

Also, the whole vegetarian "protein deficiency" thing has been pretty thoroughly debunked, unless you only eat potato chips. It's surprisingly difficult to eat a diet that won't give you at least a minimum of protein without dying from e.g. pellegra or beri-beri first. (Maybe not enough protein for hardcore bodybuilders, but certainly enough to live well.)

The vegan/vegetarian diet problem is very real, and it is not just protein. You can very easily miss out pretty severely on a lot of things just by cutting meat out of your diet (iron, for example), and you do have to work hard to make sure you maintain a balanced diet. I don't see this as a problem for MREs, as composition has been pretty well solved, and I doubt it makes it any harder to solve the perishable problem.

Eating a balanced diet isn't hard as long as you don't eat the same thing basically every day (i.e. fast food). I think it's probably a non-issue, except for (say) naive teenage vegetarians - it's only a problem if you cut out meat but don't replace it with anything. I've done my research - if you have specific examples to the contrary, I'm all ears.

I ate a vegetarian diet for seven or eight years, a vegan diet for a few months* along the way, and have had a primarily* * vegetarian diet for years since then. I give blood regularly (I'm AB+, a rare donor blood type), and I've never, ever, ever had a problem with low iron - it's usually been quite high. While that's only one data point, it seems consistent with what I've read about nutrition - problems mostly occur when people give up meat but still eat a rather monotonous diet. ("In other news: Eating nothing but twinkies and whiskey is bad for you...Film at eleven.")

* I'm a cooking geek, and was interesting where those constraints would lead me.

* * same, plus fish and occasional Italian and French/Vietnamese charcuterie (Bánh mì!), but I cook/eat vegetarian by default.

> I'm a cooking geek

hence, you should have no trouble. :)

I wonder how many people downvoting me even know what charcuterie is, let alone have done it. :)

Besides: Lentils, spinach, and broccoli have iron. How many vegetarians don't eat at least one of those regularly? (Other cliches: vitamin B-12 - Vegans might have a problem, vegetarians are fine. Calcium - "Dark green leafy vegetables". Do vegetarians eat those? Oh. Wait...do carnivores eat those?)

A vegetarian who eats fish is no problem at all. Impossible for the army, because fish is so finicky, but in terms of nutrition ANYBODY could rock a vegetarian + fish diet.

This is, of course, because fish is just a specific kind of meat, so nutritionally it's not vegetarian in the slightest.

For years I was a vegetarian + fish guy. I hate pork, my family boycotts lamb, and I didn't have a taste for beef. Nowadays I eat the token hamburger every few weeks, because I've noticed I feel a lot better for it.

We call you a "pescatarian".

It's more a problem of people just not eating stuff that's been slogged halfway across the planet and deposited into an active combat zone. So they try to supply menu items that'll get eaten.

That being said, there's usually a vegetarian meal in every box of MREs.

Fair enough. I bet a lot of soldiers probably want to eat something that reminds them of home, and dried beans probably rank alongside powdered eggs.