Verified Vegan

"We can see quite plainly that our present civilisation is built on the exploitation of animals, just as past civilisations were built on the exploitation of slaves, and we believe the spiritual destiny of man is such that in time he will view with abhorrence the idea that men once fed on the products of animals' bodies"  Donald Watson, 1944 

The term ‘vegan’ is a relatively new one, coined in 1944 by a man named Donald Watson; it promotes the abstinence of all animal products. That means no: meat, fish, eggs, dairy, honey or any materials derived from the killing of animals such as silk or leather.

Veganism in modern society is looked upon as something of a cult; when I first found out about the movement several years ago I pictured dread-locked hippies dancing around fires, smearing fruit over each other’s faces and mating with goats. For some reason, that obviously appealed to me and I eventually made the transition myself.

Despite my pledge, I had never really taken the time to learn about the roots of veganism up until recently. What I thought was a modern food revolution had actually taken foundation years before, during the 18^th and 19^th centuries!

Spurred on by this discovery, I have started to dig deeper into the world of veganism and vegetarianism, especially focusing on their appearance and influence in literary texts. Several of these texts will be featured on this blog.