Gandhi is not the first name that vegans might think of as helping to launch the movement, and yet he did, on November 20, 1931, in London to be precise.  He didn’t call it ‘vegan’ of course, but it wasn’t...

 “Do you have anything vegetarian?” “Yes, do you eat fish?” “No, vegetarians don’t eat fish.” “Some vegetarians here eat fish.” “No, some people eat fish and unfortunately call themselves vegetarian, but they could call themselves Martians if they like, it...

The man who invented the word ‘vegan’ in 1944 was very clear that this was a part of the vegetarian movement, and Donald Watson remained clear about that up to his death in 2005, at the grand age of 95....

Hazel and I are just back from a few days circular tour of southern England and Wales, initially to catch up with some friends and family, but inevitably I also took the opportunity catch up with the veg scene and...

My definition of an ovo- and/or lacto-vegetarian would be someone who deliberately and consistently chooses a diet of plant food plus eggs and/or dairy products, and sees that as their ideal diet. Not someone who occasionally goes in and out...

The photos below were taken whilst visiting veg*n events and friends around the world over the last few years, I thought I'd put them in as some liked the recent Skyscapes. I was born near the sea and grew up...

Last Friday Hazel and I were in a group of 15 sitting down to a vegan meal together. Nothing unusual in that you might think, but in this little corner of the world it was probably unique. This is livestock...

The photos below are from my visit to Xiamen, China in November 2009. This was for a Vegetarian Food Fair which ran for several days, and included an International Vegetarian Forum on one afternoon. For anyone interested in such matters...

Percy Bysshe Shelley, known as Bysshe to his friends, was the rock star of his day - glamorous, controversial, fought over by teenage girls, loathed by their parents, and died dramatically before he was thirty. At times he was also...

Skyscapes are like landscapes, but looking up of course. The photos below are all from my office window in the west of England, and all but one of them during 2010, so this is my review of the year. The...

Monday Nov. 29 - left England in the ice and snow, the first November snow for 17 years Tuesday Nov. 30 - arrived Dubai about 1.00am, met by Sandhya Prakash, IVU Middle East Co-ordinator, and taken to her home to get some...

The International Vegetarian Union celebrated its centenary in 2008, and if anyone had said to me then that in a couple years I would be speaking at international veg congresses in East Africa and the Middle East, I would probably...

The Jakarta IVU Congress last week was a huge success, one of the best ever, then some of us went on to the beautiful island of Bali. Thursday Oct 7 - flew from Jakarta to Bali on Air Asia, then...

The main part of the 39th IVU World Veg Congress in Jakarta, Indonesia, has now ended. So this is just a personal view of the last five days. I've had the privilege of staying at the home of Susianto, IVU...

[Updated October 2012] … or Indonesia, Malaysia or India… by the time this blog originally appeared I was on my five-week trek around all these countries, giving talks to many veg groups along the way, and then on to Africa...

In 2010 I joined the Board of Directors of the Vegetarian Society UK – the world’s oldest, founded in 1847, and still going strong today. Sadly I don’t get paid anything other than expenses - no doubt if I was...

The International Vegetarian Union is 102 years old, but it has achieved more in the last 6 years than the previous 96. This has been done by people in the developing world - where most of the world's population lives....

If we ask meat-eaters what they think 'vegetarian' means, most would probably say 'someone who does not eat meat' - but that is not at all how I see it. I'm a positive veg*n, I eat plant foods. I define...

The first people who called themselves 'vegetarian' were in fact vegan. This has now been established conclusively with resources not previously available. We have now shown that until 1847 *all* uses the word 'vegetarian' came from people associated with Alcott...

Last week was the biggest literary festival in the UK, at Hay-on-Wye, a small town just on the Welsh side of the border with England. It's held there every year because, despite having a population of only about 1,900, it...