I've noticed that both veganism and vegetarianism are kind of met with scoffs in the community and I even heard someone say it was against the Word of Wisdom.
I'm vegetarian myself, and am still in the church for family reasons, and I do get scoffs when people find out. The most common argument I hear is "Why would god put animals on the earth if he didn't want us to eat them? Isn't it disrespectful to ignore his gifts?" Or something along those lines. I try to explain that I'm vegetarian for many other justifiable reasons, but usually they just walk away shaking their heads. That's my experience
12 Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;
13 And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.
Vegetarianism is a good, viable dietary option only, as Paul Twitchel pointed out, for those who have the enzymatic endowment for it. I believe an unwise application of it was one reason for the recent death of the pop star Prince. Most people don't have that endowment, or chemistry- one could perhaps interpret the story of Cain and Abel as a record of a new race, The Adamic, who unlike their predecessors, would eat meat. This can be cited as the beginning of the I'huan, or Warrior class of men- previously, following the Sacred People, or I'hin there wasn't meat eating. Nature has caused chickens to cause illnesses in humans, because we eat and harvest too much chicken. Generally speaking, we eat too much meat. Clairvoyant turkeys, enraged over what they've learned about the largescale slaughter of their kind, rampage certain areas- they are dangerous! The beef is not as good quality as it could be, due to the heavy use of beef in our society.
I got criticized by my dh/tdm about using meat daily because the word of wisdom says it is to be used only in times of famine or winter.
I have also been criticized by my Mormon sil for avoiding sugar---"all things in moderation"
What is sounds like to me, both from what y'all are sayin' here plus my experiences is that anything DIFFERENT is suspect.
About the Abel/Cain adamic race thing: biblically, God gave permission for people to eat meat after Noah's flood. Before that every seed-bearing thing was for food.
Vegan here. I went vegetarian when I was 13 and vegan when I was 18, and got a lot of weird looks both times (although I stopped attending church at the same time I went vegan). The bishop's wife was very frustrated with me, since she organized lots of games and activities involving food (for instance, bingo with candies that had gelatin), and I'd opt out of them on moral grounds. There was even one fear factor activity where someone brought live crickets for people to eat, which I sat out of (although I took the crickets home to feed to my pet lizard). When I was vegetarian she also had an argument with me about how "eggs aren't vegetarian," because she thought the chicken eggs you buy in a store are fertilized. Either that or she thought there isn't any difference between fertilized and unfertilized eggs, since she equated the eggs sold in stores with chicks. The bishop's wife was not very bright.
Veganism and, to a lesser extent, vegetarianism, are associated somewhat with environmentalism and progressive politics here. I think that's partly why I got such negative reactions. People also obviously didn't like if I pointed out their hypocrisy of not eating meat "sparingly." My ward sure loved their annual barbecues and dutch oven cook-offs.