You are safe as long as the bears don't eat you.

Bears are omnivores and are attracted to just about any food (and even non-food). They'll smell and come after fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and so on. You're neither more nor less safe without meat.

Ha. Your husband is wrong. A bear sees no difference between "vegetarian human food" and "meatatarian human food." They're both delicious as far as the bear is concerned. Keep all food out of reach of bears. If you are in the backcountry (ie, you backpacked in), take a bear cannister or food safe. If you are in the front country (at a campground you drove to), pack ALL food into the car at the end of each night, along with all dishes and utensils used for prepping food. And, it goes without saying, make sure that your tent and sleeping area are considerably removed from your cooking/eating area. And NO FOOD IN TENTS. EVER.

One other thing: backpackers have been typically taught to hang their food, through a counterweight/pulley system. In some areas of the country, bears have become incredibly crafty at recognizing this as food and knocking it down. In areas where it's a real concern, use a bear vault to protect your food. Bear vaults may be required in some areas. See this link: http://www.rei.com/expertadvice/articles/bear+resistant+canisters.html

Finally, there's no real need to be afraid of bears. The ones we have in Washington are all foragers, so they mostly survive on berries, plants, grubs, etc. Bears are not hunters, and will not kill animals/people for food. (This is not true in Alaska, and may not be true in other parts of the country.) If you take all of the sensible steps to separate your cooking and sleeping areas, and lock up your food at night, even if a bear gives you trouble, it will go for your food, not you.

Other reading:

http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/living/bears.htm

http://www.gorp.com/camping-guide/travel-ta-camping-wilderness-skills-sidwcmdev_052970.html

When a friend of mine was a park ranger at a state park south of Yosemite, a bear took all the Powerbars out of his backpack and sat next to his tent, tearing them opening and eating them, whil my friend cowered inside. So, yeah, I don't think you're necessarily any safer. Put the food up high as planned. Or do that marshmallow thing Fnarf suggested. And have fun!

My twisted Logic would suggest that if you bring food that's only berries and plant type things and not meat of any kind, this would make your campsite less of a target ... however, I'd think it would make YOU more of a target, since your human flesh would then be representing the meat-family of foods, with nothing else to distract the bear (bacon! throw the bacon!!) if they've got, like, a need to have some protein / are on the bear-version of the atkins diet.

And they only smell the decomposing flesh in your guts AFTER they rip you open.

Bears have known to be attracted by the smell of everything from meat to hemorrhoid pads. Unless you're eating odorless styrofoam packing peanuts and never brushing your teeth, going meatless makes you no safer.

Still, you're asking smart questions, which puts you ten steps ahead. Nine times out of ten, the people whose food gets ganked are the people who didn't really think about bears much and didn't plan accordingly.

You can still have issues with Racoons with non meat items. I would suggest taking the big rubbermaid storage containers to keep the dry goods in as well. They snap shut which makes it difficult for animals to get into and it cuts down on the scents.