In 1850 a British vegetarian, living in India, wrote to a journal in England mentioning that his diet included ‘Graham bread’. Such was the worldwide fame that the American Sylvester Graham had achieved in his promotion of whole-wheat brown flour,...

Francis Newman was President of the Vegetarian Society (the original one in England) for about 12 years in the 1870s and 80s, and almost brought a dramatic change to the course of its history – if he had succeeded, the...

In 1875 Gustav Schlickeysen published a book called Obst und Brod - Eine Wissenschaftliche Diätetik – which was translated and re-published in New York, 1877, by M.L. Holbrook M.D. as: Fruit and Bread – a scientific diet. The front cover...

There were people who didn’t eat meat in Medieval Europe, and in Asia, but mostly for very different reasons to what we associate with veganism today. In the western world the time after the fall of the Roman Empire -...

John Frank Newton was a pivotal character in an extraordinary group of people who challenged almost every social convention of the rigid-minded early 19th century England. He was born about 1770 and was educated at Harrow, one of two leading...

Henry Salt died in 1939, age 88, five years before the invention of the word ‘vegan’, but for his last 55 years he clearly and consistently promoted animals’ rights, and what we now call ethical veganism. He wrote almost forty...

We seem to be getting an increase in those silly lists of ‘famous historical vegans’, nearly all just nonsense and wishful thinking.  I’ve seen some recently claiming Pythagoras, Plato, and many others from ancient Greece and Rome were vegans, blindly...

2011 was the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese calendar - but for IVU it was the year of the first ever veg congress in China. A brief look back at some international veg events of the year: The...

Lewis Gompertz (1783/4–1861) appears on the scene in 1824, at the age of 40, as the author of a significant book promoting an early prototype of what we now call animal rights and veganism; and in the same year he...

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned encouraging more restaurants to offer vegan meals, and was asked for some ideas about doing that. So here are just a few thoughts. The excuses: 1 – We’ve had no demand for it...

For the first time in its 103 year history, the International Vegetarian Union has a Latin American Chairperson - or chairman, chairwoman, or just chair, as you prefer: Marly Winckler from Brazil. In Portuguese these all translate as ‘Presidente’, though IVU...

For those who have been active in the veg movement for any length of time the above title must seem almost heretical - but it is actually an interesting question… Back in January 1995 I started the first website for...

We’re getting near the season of peace on earth and goodwill to all sentient beings. Well it would be nice to think that was what Christmas could be about . . . and even better if we could have that...

Below are some of my photos from the three days of my second visit to China, the first two at the first ever veg congress in that amazing country, in Hangzhou, then a brief visit to Beijing. There are a...

I'm writing this from the 5th Asian Veg Union Congress in Hangzhou, China.  Just a text summary for now, photos will follow next week as there are too many to sort through and no time here. The story so far...

World Vegan Day was on a Tuesday this year, so a lot of groups held their big events the previous weekend – and the last weekend of October is now becoming a worldwide vegan party. Some that we know about,...

There are always two main problems in researching vegan history in the 19th century – the word ‘vegan’ did not exist, and most of the records were published by ovo-lacto-vegetarians who avoided the contentious issue of eggs/dairy. So we have...

A story of convergence between a pop group and the International Vegetarian Union . . . 1957 July 6 - the centre of Woolton village has changed little since the day when John Lennon, 16 going on 17, and Paul...

In September 1848 the pro-‘vegan’journal previously known as The Truth Tester was renamed as The Vegetarian Advocate. The editor and publisher, William Horsell in London, was also the first Secretary of the one-year-old Vegetarian Society, but this was a privately...

Dr. William Lambe did his groundbreaking work on the vegan diet 200 years ago, whilst living in London, but his roots were in the countryside, where he grew up and eventually retired. The biography I put online last week mentioned...