History of Veganism

Strict vegetarians: The origin of the English term vegetarian is unknown. The earliest known use is attributed to the actress Fanny Kemble, writing around 1839 in Georgia in the United States. The practice can be traced to Pythagoras in 6th-century-BCE Greece. Greek philosophers Empedocles and Theophrastus were vegetarians, as were Seneca the Younger, Ovid, Plutarch, Plotinus, Porphyry, and the Arab poet Al-Maʿarri. Their arguments were based on health, the transmigration of souls, animal welfare and the view, espoused by Porphyry in De Abstinentia ab Esu Animalium ("On Abstinence from Animal Food"), that if humans deserve justice so do nonhumans. Vegetarianism established itself as a significant movement in 19th-century England and the United States. There were ovo-lacto vegetarians, who avoided meat but ate eggs and dairy; pescetarians, who in addition ate fish; and dietary vegans, then called strict vegetarians, who ate no meat, nor animal related products. In 1813 the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley published A Vindication of Natural Diet, advocating "abstinence from animal food and spirituous liquors," and in 1815 William Lambe, a London physician, claimed that a vegan diet could cure a range of diseases from cancer and tuberculosis to acne. Sylvester Graham's meatless Graham diet – mostly fruit, vegetables, water, and bread made at home with stoneground flour – became popular as a supposed health remedy in the 1830s in the United States. Several vegan communities were established. Amos Bronson Alcott, father of novelist Louisa May Alcott, opened the Temple School in 1834 and Fruitlands in 1844 in Massachusetts. In England in 1838 James Pierrepont Greaves founded the Concordium, a vegan community at Alcott House on Ham Common. In 1843 members of Alcott House created the British and Foreign Society for the Promotion of Humanity and Abstinence from Animal Food, led by Sophia Chichester. Alcott House helped establish the British Vegetarian Society, which held its first meeting in 1847 in Ramsgate, Kent. An article in the society's magazine in 1851 discussing alternatives to shoe leather suggests the presence of vegans within the membership who rejected animal use entirely. The first known vegan cookbook, Rupert H. Wheldon's No Animal Food: Two Essays and 100 Recipes, was published in London in 1910. A vegetarian society newsletter in 1912 asked vegetarians to write in concerning egg and milk consumption, and reported on the arguments, concluding that the use of these products could not be justified. Coining the term vegan (1944): During a visit to London in 1931, Mahatma Gandhi – who had joined the Vegetarian Society's executive committee when he lived in London from 1888 to 1891 – gave a speech to the society arguing that it ought to promote a meat-free diet as a matter of ethics, not health. The consumption of eggs and dairy had become something of an issue within the society. There were regular discussions in its newsletter, the Vegetarian Messenger, about the treatment of cows and hens; it appears from the correspondence that many opponents of veganism came from within the vegetarian community. Lacto-vegetarians typically did not oppose veganism on moral grounds, and acknowledged the ethical consistency of the vegan position. However, they regarded a vegan diet as impractical, and were concerned that it might be an impediment to spreading vegetarianism if vegans found themselves unable to participate in social circles where no vegan food might be available. This became the predominant view of the Vegetarian Society. In August 1944 several members asked that a section of the society's newsletter be devoted to non-dairy vegetarianism. When the request was turned down, Donald Watson, secretary of the Leicester Vegetarian Society, set up a new quarterly newsletter, Vegan News, in November 1944, priced tuppence. He chose the word vegan himself. The first edition attracted over 100 letters, including from George Bernard Shaw, who resolved to give up eggs and dairy. The six members of the new Vegan Society held their first meeting in early November at the Attic Club, 144 High Holborn, London. World Vegan Day is held every 1 November to mark the society's creation. Vegan News changed its name to The Vegan in November 1945, by which time it had 500 subscribers. It published recipes, health news and a "vegan trade list" of animal-free products such as Colgate toothpaste, Kiwi shoe polish, Dawson & Owen stationery and Gloy glue. Vegan books appeared, including Vegan Recipes by Fay K. Henderson, and Aids to a Vegan Diet for Children by Kathleen V. Mayo. The Vegan Society soon made clear that it rejected the use of animals for any purpose, not only as food, and in 1951 it defined veganism as "the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals." In 1956 Leslie Cross, the society's vice-president, founded the Plantmilk Society to explore commercial soy milk production. As Plantmilk Ltd (later Plamil Foods) it began production in 1965 of one of the first widely distributed soy milks in the Western world. The first vegan society in the United States was founded in 1948 by Catherine Nimmo and Rubin Abramowitz in California, who distributed Watson's newsletter. In 1960 H. Jay Dinshah founded the American Vegan Society (AVS), linking veganism to the concept of ahimsa, "non-harming" in Sanskrit. According to Joanne Stepaniak, the word vegan was first published independently in 1962 by the Oxford Illustrated Dictionary, defined as "a vegetarian who eats no butter, eggs, cheese or milk."