Submitted by An Animal-Friendly Life

I originally wrote this piece for the Boston Vegan Association blog. Below I have repurposed it for AAFL. Where I still refer to my BVA constituency, insert yourselves!

In late 1944, before the end of World War II, Donald Watson and two dozen other “non-dairy vegetarians” formed the world’s first Vegan Society, coining the word “vegan” in the process. The group was formed expressly to draw a moral line in the sand and honor new visions for a society that would some day view “with abhorrence the idea that men once fed on the products of animals’ bodies.”

The urgent need for such a group, according to Issue 1 of The Vegan News, was “an obvious danger in leaving the fulfilment of our ideals to posterity, for posterity may not have our ideals.” Watson reminds me here of why I conceived of starting the BVA in the first place, and why I continue to press for other motivated individuals to take up abolitionist vegan advocacy.

“Did (William) Wilberforce wait for the ‘ripening’ of time before he commenced his fight against slavery?” Watson asked. Of course he did not. He saw injustice, realized his privilege to act, and worked tirelessly to end the slave trade. Watson saw the parallels between Wilberforce’s mission and his own: “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…”


Even back then–mind you, over 60 years ago–when eggs were in short supply due to the war, but lacto-vegetarianism was not too terribly uncommon (and factory farming was still around the corner), it was apparent that welfarism and vegetarianism fell short of the mark:

Mr J.W. Robertson Scott, Editor of “The Countryman”, has written to us - “I should be glad to hear what success you have in collecting non-dairy produce consumers. I have always felt that from the agricultural point of view the vegetarian occupies an illogical position, for just as eggs cannot be produced without killing cockerels, dairy produce cannot be economically got without the co-operation of the butcher.” The clarity by which vegetarians generally are seeing this issue is well represented by the result of a recent debate arranged by the Croydon Vegetarian Society, when the motion was carried almost unanimously ‘That vegetarians should aim at eliminating all dairy produce’.

Today we still confront the protestations of people who eat only organic, free range “meat” or vegetarians who don’t see a problem with egg and dairy consumption. This only makes our continuation of the Vegan Society’s work all the more important. After all, look how soberly they could look at the issues over six decades ago, when there was very little know about the health impact of eating an entirely plant-based diet!

While we know much more about nutrition now, it is ironic that we continue to deal with still other frustrations that they experienced:

We may be sure that should anything so much as a pimple ever appear to marr the beauty of our physical form, it will be entirely due in the eyes of the world to our own silly fault for not eating ‘proper food’. Against such a pimple the great plagues of diseases now ravaging nearly all members of civilised society (who live on ‘proper food’) will pass unnoticed.

Sound familiar? At least the viability of a vegan diet has now been recognized for 15 years by no less an authority than the American Dietetic Association.

Unfortunately, despite the monumental rise in factory farming and the annual worldwide slaughter of around 55 billion non-marine animals (and growing!), we do not receive significant support from other animal advocates on behalf of vegan advocacy. Vegan outreach remains a miniscule part of most national organizations’ budgets and, in many of the cases where dietary advocacy is employed, the recommendation is obscured by a call instead to vegetarianism, a position Watson called “a half-way house between flesh eating and a truly humane, civilised diet”.
As he suggested, it is up to vegans to lead the way, to help evolve civilization.

When we are confronted with nay-sayers who argue that veganism is scary and unpopular, remember that the anti-slavery movement was very unpopular when William Wilberforce took on the establishment, of which he was very much a part. If we don’t draw that line in the sand, as did Wilberforce, who will?

The time is now for us to build the foundation for a vegan world, one that sees animals as beings instead of property. That world grows a little closer each time we help someone to go vegan. Do not be discouraged if we cannot convince every person we come across in our lifetimes. Watson was wise indeed to advise us not to concern ourselves if we fail to convert others. Our job must be to advocate veganism. Only our audience can decide what they will do with the information we give them. 

I want to thank all of you who contribute to this vital work!

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