IVU was founded in Dresden, Germany, in 1908 which is not the most obvious location that we might think of today, so this is how it happened. According to the Vegetarier Bund Deutschland the first Dresden Vegetarian Society was founded...

While we were in Los Angeles recently, Hazel and I were privileged to stay at the home of our friends Zel and Reuben Allen. Zel has been writing great vegan cookbooks for many years, and between them they run the...

Some of those going to the 41st IVU World Vegfest in Malaysia, 2013, will have family and friends in Australia, and it’s very easy to get there from Kuala Lumpur, so you might like to go on down and see...

A few months back, the editor of Vegan Views magazine (a member of IVU) asked me if I’d like to do an interview about my blogs, and the e-book compilation of them: ‘World Veganism – past, present and future’. I...

Just before the 41st IVU World Vegfest, Malaysia, 2013, will be a Vegan Festival in India. Anyone thinking of making the stopover might like to see the one I went to in 2010 - that one was called a 'Vegetarian...

If you are thinking of making the trip to Malaysia next year, for the 41st IVU World Vegfest, October 3-9, 2013, you might be interested in some views of Kuala Lumpur from my visit a couple of years ago.  On...

I’ve been posting these blogs for almost three years now, putting up one a week on all sorts of things. The stats show some getting ten times more hits than others – but of course that doesn’t tell me how many people actually read them...

Two years ago I wrote these thoughts about where we’re going in promoting veg*ism worldwide – not necessarily what I think should happen, just what it appeared was already happening. I’ve updated a couple of minor points, otherwise it still...

For about the last 20 years I've bought my shoes from 'Vegetarian Shoes' in Brighton, a small city on the south coast of England. It was developed by the Victorians as a seaside escape from London, and now has about...

I’m writing this at about 33,000 feet, somewhere over the North Atlantic. The first major IVU visit to California is now over, next year we’re off to another first in Malaysia. San Francisco and Los Angeles were very different events...

I’m writing this from California. The first part of the 40th IVU ‘big event’, in San Francisco, is now over, and a lot of us are heading for Los Angeles for part two. For the last 104 years IVU has...

The first ever IVU World Congress/Vegfest to be held on the West Coast of North America is about to begin. We start in San Francisco from Friday, October 5, then down to Los Angeles for October 11-14. This will be...

I have absolutely no religious inclinations at all - which might have made me an odd choice for a speaker at a conference of the Christian Vegetarian Association UK (CVAUK) back in August 2010. As IVU Manager, I try to treat...

[updated for 2012] As a musician myself, I had often noticed that there seemed to be a lot of other veg musicians around. So a couple of years ago I did some historical research and put the results online. I...

Last week I had the opportunity to join the staff of the Vegetarian Society UK on their team-building day out, learning about foraging for food in the wild, then cooking it. As a trustee (board member) of the society it...

[updated September 2012] The main reason for the creation of the International Vegetarian Union, way back in 1908, was simply to help veg*ns in different countries communicate with each other.  This was done mostly by exchanging newsletters, journals and personal...

Last week I had the opportunity to drop into the Vegan Camp, which has run for a couple of weeks every year, in all parts England, Scotland and Wales, since 1981. This year it was near the Lake District in...

In October 2012 the 40th IVU World Veg Congress will join with the Vegsource Healthy Lifestyle Expo in Los Angeles, California. We’ll be in San Francisco for the SF Veg Festival the previous weekend – October 6-7 for that one, then a short...

[updated August 2012] The 40th IVU World Congress/Vegfest will be in California, October 2012 - starting in San Francisco, October 5-8, then on to Los Angeles Oct 12-14. The first IVU Congress was in Dresden, Germany, in 1908 and they've been held...

[updated August 2012] The word 'vegan' was invented in November 1944 by Donald Watson in England. But the origins are not how many vegans today might imagine. We know there were definitely groups of people in both Britain and America, as...