GI Joe? That you?
Incidentally, the term “EVOO” gets on my fucking tits something chronic. But I think that’s more because I want to punch Rachel Ray in the face with a fist full of angry piranhas more than anything else.
My problem with her using “EVOO” is that she invariably says “EVOO” and then follows the expression with “that’s extra virgin olive oil”, thereby ruining any temporal benefit she obtained by using the acronym in the first place.
Now see, your eating mayo, and feeding piranhas Rachel Ray. Poor fish, covered in mayo residue then fed that 
She giggles like Betty Rubble, ever noticed that?
I shall do so henceforth.
The only correct pronunciation of mayonnaise is remoulade.
If you examine the history of its usage (instead of reacting without thinking), you’ll see that its frequency of use (in the U.S., at least) is closely (though not solely) tied with restaurant marketing, and this fact alone explains why suddenly a word that has existed for a millennium and a half should suddenly need a different form. (British usage, though, could have different influences, and that could explain a lot.)
If you compare occurrences of “veggie farm” vs. “vegetable farm” you can see this. Newspapers will occasionally use “veggie” for general use to save type face in headlines, but this doesn’t seem to have happened until the rise of the usage closely (but not entirely) tied to restaurant menus starting about 30 years ago.
And If “veggie” were a straightforward, transparent alternative to vegetable, we’d hear it used to for all connotations of vegetable, even referring to people who are on life-support, and I can’t find any instance of that except as deliberate irony.
You need to understand that language takes on a life of its own–you don’t own the words you say outright, however much this fact (apparently) makes you uncomfortable. Languages don’t just pop out new words without a reason, and a low frequency word like vegetable doesn’t call for a “contraction” any more than the word watermelon does. And most people don’t deliberate their word choice that much, so it’s not really that conscious. While I say the word is “stupid,” I don’t feel that people are “stupid” for using it–it’s just unfortunate that in order to accommodate this relatively new connotation, we somehow ended up with the patronizing diminutive morphology.
You are still full of bullshit. Just because people around you use the word in a particular, incorrect fashion, does not make the word inherently imbued with a particular meaning. The closest it comes, in every dictionary definition I can find is that it is “Sometimes used as a nickname (perjorative or affectionate, depending on tone) for vegetarians”. Woohoo.
It is JUST a contraction. Nothing more. You are reading too much into it and you’re looking like a fucking moron trying to justify something that is “I hate people contracting these words, for no particular reason other than it sets my teeth on edge” by trying to go “Oh no, it’s a patronising diminutive morphology used to imbue a certain healthy overtone to the word” It. Is. Not.
Comparing use of “veggie farm” vs “vegetable farm” in a google search comes up with references to all types of veggie farming, with a relatively even split percentage wise between whether it’s being used for a normal farm where vegetables are grown, vs a hippy-dippy organic farm. Sometimes even within reference to the same goddamn farm.
Articles regarding the nutritional values of “veggies” and “vegetables” do the same thing, switching out the one for the other on a pretty consistent basis.
Apart from the halfassed claims trying to justify an irrational dislike in this thread, I can find no evidence that “veggies” holds any connotation to trying to give an impression of being “healthier” than vegetables.
Incidentally, the first recorded use of “veggie” as a contraction of vegetable is apparently in 1955 according to the various online etymology sources I can find.