The Vegetarian Society in Britain recorded twice as many telephone inquiries from members of the public in the first week of this month compared to the first week in January.
It also claims a 60 per cent increase in the number of hits on its website in a single day recently.
The Vegetarian Society of Ireland, which is independent of the British organisation, has received a significant number of letters and calls in response to its recent letter to the national press urging those concerned about BSE to take up a vegetarian diet, a spokeswoman has said.
The organisation's a.g.m. next month will hear a paper entitled "Food crises: Is vegetarianism the answer?"
While the calls and letters may be viewed as a measure of general concern about foot-and-mouth, combined with a natural curiosity about alternative diets and food sources in such a frightening environment, farmers are understandably reluctant to see them as the beginning of the end of the meat industry as we know it.
They continue to defend the quality of their produce and claim that recent moves away from red meat stem more from a "lifestyle shift" and the relative convenience of white meat than from fears about the quality and safety of beef.
By way of protecting its interests, the IFA is opposing proposals by the European Commission to cut extensive suckler cow beef production across the Continent, seeing a clear threat to Irish beef exports, which make up between 80 and 90 per cent of output.
Calling on the Commission to help restore confidence in the market, the IFA's livestock chairman, Mr Derek Deane, says it has a major responsibility to explain clearly to consumers that "all possible risks" have been eliminated.
An IFA spokesman says the public has seen more of the beef production line on television in recent weeks than perhaps anyone wants to, but this "is the reality" in every EU country. Ireland does not have intensive food-production to the extent that some people seem to believe, he says.
"People are working themselves into a lather of sweat about intensive animal production on large farms here. This is not the case."
While there was a decline in beef consumption after the first BSE scare in 1996, the market had recovered by last year, the spokesman says. He admits, however, that there has been a "huge loss of confidence" in Europe in beef due to the latest BSE publicity.
On the question of a more concerted move towards organic produce, the IFA does not believe there is consumer demand at present and says the public simply is not willing to pay a premium of up to 20 per cent for a "niche" product.
The IFA spokesman says the greatest challenge to farmers is not that consumers might suddenly become vegetarian or even that they might demand that all their beef was organically produced, but the ever more strict conditions and regulations imposed by multinational stores and major supermarket chains on suppliers.
IFA members will continue to defend the high quality and safety of their produce without hesitation, he says. "We can stand over it and Bord Bia and the Food Safety Authority can stand over it.
"Vegetarians are completely entitled to make their own choices, but meat, for people who choose to eat it, is a very valuable source of iron and protein and it's very valuable for the growth of children and adolescents. People like eating beef. We are carnivores."
Mr Pauric Cannon, development co-ordinator of Dublin Food Co-op, an 18-year-old organisation which trades in organic vegetable produce, believes that some farmers are beginning to question the idea of highly industrialised mass production and that consumer habits will shift in the coming years.
"Hopefully the fallout from this will be a more sane, humane and ecologically sustainable society," he said, "but if you go into Bewley's any morning of the week, you will still see people tucking into their fried bacon and black pudding." It looks as if the meat industry shouldn't be written off just yet.