Editing Veganism (section)

==Origins==
{{Veganism sidebar}}
{{Cleanup rewrite|2=section|1=it is long, unfocused, and contains a lot of tangential information and trivia|date=January 2025}}

===Historical background===
{{further|History of vegetarianism|Vegetarianism and religion}}

<!--NOTE: The following is a selection of the most notable only. Every name needs a modern secondary source.-->
[[Vegetarianism]] can be traced back to the [[Indus Valley civilization]] in 3300–1300&nbsp;BCE in the [[Indian subcontinent]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bajpai |first1=Shiva |title=The History of India – From Ancient to Modern Times |date=2011 |publisher=Himalayan Academy Publications |location=Hawaii, US |isbn=978-1-934145-38-8 |oclc=1076542872}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Spencer |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Spencer |title=The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism |publisher=Fourth Estate Classic House |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-87451-760-6 |oclc=31934191 |pages=33–68, 69–84}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Tähtinen |first=Unto |title=Ahiṃsā: Non-violence in Indian tradition |date=1976 |publisher=[[Rider (imprint)|Rider]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-09-123340-2 |oclc=2637827}}</ref> particularly in northern and western [[ancient India]].<ref name="Singh2008">{{cite book |last=Singh |first=Upinder |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC |title=A History of Ancient and Early medieval India: from the Stone Age to the 12th century |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-81-317-1120-0 |oclc=818846242 |location=New Delhi |page=137}}</ref> Early vegetarians included Indian philosophers such as [[Parshvanatha|Parshavnatha]], [[Mahavira]], Acharya [[Kundakunda]], [[Umaswati]], [[Samantabhadra (Jain monk)|Samantabhadra]], and [[Valluvar]], as well as the Indian emperors [[Chandragupta Maurya]] and [[Ashoka]].<ref>For Valluvar, see Kamil Zvelebil, [https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA155 The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India] {{ISBN|978-90-04-03591-1}}, E. J. Brill, 1973, pp. 156–171.{{pb}}P. S. Sundaram, ''Tiruvalluvar Kural'', Penguin, 1990, p. 13. {{ISBN|978-0-14-400009-8}}{{pb}}A. A. Manavalan, Essays and Tributes on Tirukkural (1886–1986 AD) (1 ed.). Chennai: International Institute of Tamil Studies, 2009, pp. 127–129.</ref> The earliest recorded vegans, who predated the term "vegan" but were explicitly vegan as opposed to vegetarian, include [[al-Ma'arri]] (who predated the word vegan by a millennium)<ref name="vegan">{{cite web |title=Do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals |website=Humanistic Texts |url=http://www.humanistictexts.org/al_ma'arri.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010305091340/http://www.humanistictexts.org/al_ma'arri.htm#:~:text=do%20not%20desire%20as%20food%20the%20flesh%20of%20slaughtered%20animals |archive-date=2001-03-05}} In poem #14</ref> and [[Lewis Gompertz]].<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-10934|title=Gompertz, Lewis (1783/4–1861), animal rights campaigner and inventor|last=Wolf|first=Lucien|last2=Marsden|first2=Ben|editor1-first=Ben|editor1-last=Marsden|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/10934|access-date=2020-04-22}}</ref>

The term 素 (sù) is the most commonly used word for "vegetarian" or "vegan" in China. This character is first seen in bronze inscriptions from the [[Western Zhou|Western Zhou Dynasty]] (1027–771&nbsp;BCE), though it is likely older.  It originally meant "undyed silk", but evolved to refer to simplicity more generally, and then to the humble diet of the poor, and then to [[Buddhist]] diet which requires abstinence from meat and animal products.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How do you say "vegan" in Chinese? |url=https://www.chinavegans.org/news/how-do-you-say-vegan-in-chinese| author=China Vegan Society}}</ref>  The Buddha stated that monks could eat meat so long as they had no reason to believe the animal was killed in order to feed them.<ref name="welch">{{Cite book |last=Welch |first=Holmes |url=https://archive.org/details/practiceofchines0000welc/page/112/mode/2up |title=The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900-1950 |date=1967 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-69700-3 |page=112 |oclc=39088631}}</ref> In [[Theravada]] countries, monks given meat while begging were permitted to eat it; however in China monks did not beg, and dietary restrictions on meat eating predated Buddhism.<ref name="welch"/> By itself, the term does not distinguish between vegetarian and vegan diets, and has many other meanings.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chinese character translation |url=https://www.zihuzhe.com/index.php?m=content&c=content_s&a=view&id=2466&isen=1}}</ref> In modern Chinese the terms 纯素 (chún sù, "pure vegetarian/vegan") or 全素 (quán sù, “totally vegetarian/vegan”) are used to mean 'vegan', especially when referring to non-food vegan goods, and 纯净素 (chún jìng sù, "pure Buddhist vegetarian/vegan") is used to refer to the Buddhist diet, which is more restrictive than the vegan diet.<ref>{{cite web | title=Why do many Chinese vegans and vegetarians also abstain from garlic and onions? |url=https://www.chinavegans.org/news/ask-mang-why-do-many-chinese-vegans-and-vegetarians-also-abstain-from-garlic-and-onions| author=China Vegan Society}}</ref> Initially centered on abstaining from meat, this concept evolved to include the exclusion of all [[Animal product|animal by-products]], such as clothing, household items, and medicinal remedies, and extends to doing no harm in thought or action towards all sentient beings, natural habitats or ecosystems.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greenwood |first=Gesshin Claire |title=Just Enough Vegan Recipes and Stories from Japan's Buddhist Temples |publisher=New World Library |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-60868-583-7 |oclc=1078971986}}</ref>

Greek philosophers associated with the practice include [[Empedocles]], [[Theophrastus]], [[Plutarch]], [[Plotinus]], and [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]], along with the Roman poet [[Ovid]] and the playwright [[Seneca the Younger]].<ref name="Dombrowski1984">{{cite journal |last1=Dombrowski |first1=Daniel A. |date=January 1984 |title=Vegetarianism and the Argument from Marginal Cases in Porphyry |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=141–143 |doi=10.2307/2709335 |issn=0022-5037 |jstor=2709335 |pmid=11611354}}{{pb}}
Daniel A. Dombrowski, ''The Philosophy of Vegetarianism'', University of Massachusetts Press, 1984, 2.</ref> The Greek sage [[Pythagoras]] may have advocated an early form of strict vegetarianism,<ref>{{cite book |last=Kahn |first=Charles H. |author-link=Charles H. Kahn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GKUtAwAAQBAJ&q=Pythagoreanism&pg=PA72 |title=Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans: A Brief History |date=2001 |publisher=Hackett Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-87220-575-8 |oclc=46394974 |location=Indianapolis, Indiana and Cambridge, England |page=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cornelli |first1=Gabriele |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p0ihjZufKncC&q=Pythagoreanism&pg=PA50 |title=In Search of Pythagoreanism: Pythagoreanism as an Historiographical Category |last2=McKirahan |first2=Richard |date=2013 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-030650-7 |oclc=851970297 |location=Berlin, Germany |page=168}}</ref> but his life is so obscure that it is disputed whether he ever advocated any form of vegetarianism.<ref name="Zhmud">{{cite book |last=Zhmud |first=Leonid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=of-ghBD9q1QC&q=Pythagoras |title=Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-928931-8 |oclc=764348689 |location=Oxford, England |pages=200, 235 |translator1-last=Windle |translator1-first=Kevin |translator2-last=Ireland |translator2-first=Rosh}}</ref> He almost certainly prohibited his followers from eating beans<ref name="Zhmud" /> and wearing [[Wool#History|woolen garments]].<ref name="Zhmud" /> [[Eudoxus of Cnidus]], a student of [[Archytas]] and [[Plato]], writes, "Pythagoras was distinguished by such purity and so avoided killing and killers that he not only abstained from animal foods, but even kept his distance from cooks and hunters".<ref name="Zhmud" /> One of the earliest known vegans was the Arab poet [[al-Maʿarri|al-Ma'arri]], famous for his poem "I No Longer Steal From Nature". ({{c.|973|1057|lk=yes}}).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Margoliouth |first1=D. S. |date=15 March 2011 |title=Art. XI.—''Abu'l-'Alā al- Ma'arrī's Correspondence on Vegetarianism'' |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1428642 |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=289–332 |doi=10.1017/s0035869x0002921x |jstor=25208409 |s2cid=163229071}}</ref>{{efn|name=Gelder2016|"[Al-Maʿarri's] diet was extremely frugal, consisting chiefly of lentils, with figs for sweet; and, very unusually for a Muslim, he was not only a vegetarian, but a vegan who abstained from meat, fish, dairy products, eggs, and honey, because he did not want to kill or hurt animals, or deprive them of their food."<ref name=Gelder2016>Geert Jan van Gelder, Gregor Schoeler, "Introduction", in Abu l-Ala al-Maarri, ''The Epistle of Forgiveness Or A Pardon to Enter the Garden'', Volume 2, New York and London: New York University Press, 2016, xxvii. {{ISBN|978-1-4798-3494-5}}</ref>}} Their arguments were based on health, the [[transmigration of souls]], [[animal welfare]], and the view—espoused by [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]] in {{lang|la|De Abstinentia ab Esu Animalium}} ("[[On Abstinence from Eating Animals|On Abstinence from Animal Food]]", {{c.|268|270|}})—that if humans deserve justice, then so do animals.<ref name="Dombrowski1984" />

=== Development in the 19th century ===
[[File:Fruit lands Alcott house, 2015 2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|alt=photograph of Fruitlands|[[Fruitlands (transcendental center)|Fruitlands]]; a short-lived vegan community established in 1844 by [[Amos Bronson Alcott]] in [[Harvard, Massachusetts]]|left]]
Vegetarianism established itself as a significant movement in 19th-century Britain and the United States.<ref>James Gregory, ''Of Victorians and Vegetarians'', I. B. Tauris, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-84511-379-7}}</ref> A minority of vegetarians avoided animal food entirely.<ref name="MedicalTimes" /> In 1813, the poet [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] published ''[[A Vindication of Natural Diet]]'', advocating "abstinence from animal food and spirituous liquors", and in 1815, [[William Lambe (physician)|William Lambe]], a London physician, said that his "water and vegetable diet" could cure anything from tuberculosis to acne.<ref>James C. Whorton, ''Crusaders for Fitness: The History of American Health Reformers'', Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014, 69–70: "Word of these cures of pimples, consumption, and virtually all ailments in between was widely distributed by his several publications&nbsp;..."{{pb}}
[[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38727 ''A Vindication of Natural Diet''], London: F. Pitman, 1884 [1813]; William Lambe, Joel Shew, [https://books.google.com/books?id=E9anzEClAaYC ''Water and Vegetable Diet''], New York: Fowler's and Wells, 1854 [London, 1815].</ref> Lambe called animal food a "habitual irritation" and argued that "milk eating and flesh-eating are but branches of a common system and they must stand or fall together".<ref>Lambe 1854, 55, 94.</ref> [[Sylvester Graham]]'s meatless Graham diet—mostly fruit, vegetables, water, and bread made at home with [[stoneground flour]]—became popular as a health remedy in the 1830s in the United States.<ref>Andrew F. Smith, ''Eating History'', New York: Columbia University Press, 2013, 29–35 (33 for popularity); Whorton 2014, 38ff.</ref> The first known vegan cookbook was [[Asenath Nicholson]]'s ''Kitchen Philosophy for Vegetarians'', published in 1849.<ref>[https://www.vegansociety.com/about-us/further-information/key-facts "Key facts"]. The Vegan Society. Retrieved 12 July 2023.</ref>

Several vegan communities were established around this time. In Massachusetts, [[Amos Bronson Alcott]], father of the novelist [[Louisa May Alcott]], opened the [[Temple School (Massachusetts)|Temple School]] in 1834 and [[Fruitlands (transcendental center)|Fruitlands]] in 1844,<ref>Hart 1995, [https://books.google.com/books?id=hvmfshZxPf0C&pg=PA14 14]; Francis, ''Fruitlands: The Alcott Family and their Search for Utopia'', 2010.</ref>{{efn|In 1838 [[William Alcott]], Amos's cousin, published ''Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men and By Experience in All Ages'' (1838).<ref>William A. Alcott, [https://archive.org/details/vegetabledietas01alcogoog ''Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men and By Experience in All Ages''], Boston: Marsh, Capen & Lyon, 1838; [https://archive.org/stream/vegetabledietass00alco#page/n5/mode/2up ''Vegetable Diet''], New York: Fowlers and Wells, 1851.</ref> The word ''vegetarian'' appears in the second edition but not the first.}} and in England, [[James Pierrepont Greaves]] founded the Concordium, a vegan community at [[Alcott House]] on [[Ham Common, London|Ham Common]], in 1838.<ref name="Latham1999p168">J. E. M. Latham, ''Search for a New Eden'', Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1999, 168.</ref><ref>Gregory 2007, 22.</ref>

===''Vegetarian'' etymology===
The term "vegetarian" has been in use since around 1839 to refer to what was previously called a vegetable regimen or diet.<ref>Rod Preece, ''Sins of the Flesh: A History of Ethical Vegetarian Thought'', Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2008, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uMnubkF5HjAC&pg=PA12 12] {{ISBN|978-0-7748-1510-9}}</ref> Its origin is an irregular compound of ''[[vegetable]]'' and the suffix ''[[wikt:-arian|-arian]]'' (in the sense of "supporter, believer" as in ''[[wikt:humanitarian|humanitarian]]'').<ref>{{Cite web |date=2005 |title=Definition of Vegetable |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vegetable |access-date=4 May 2024 |website=Merriam-Webster}}</ref><ref name="VegetusMyth">{{Cite web |last=Davis |first=John |date=1 June 2011 |title=The Vegetus Myth |url=https://www.vegsource.com/john-davis/the-vegetus-myth.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180318213259/https://www.vegsource.com/john-davis/the-vegetus-myth.html |archive-date=18 March 2018 |access-date=18 March 2018 |website=VegSource |quote=Vegetarian can equally be seen as derived from the late Latin '{{lang|la|vegetabile}}' – meaning plant – as in {{lang|la|Regnum Vegetabile}} / Plant Kingdom. Hence vegetable, vegetation – and vegetarian. Though others suggest that 'vegetable' itself is derived from 'vegetus'. But it's very unlikely that the originators went through all that either – they really did just join 'vegetable+arian', as the dictionaries have said all along.}}</ref> The earliest known written use is attributed to actress, writer and [[abolitionist]] [[Fanny Kemble]], in her ''Journal of a Residence on a Georgian plantation in 1838–1839''.{{efn|Fanny Kemble (''Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838–1839'', 1839): "The sight and smell of raw meat are especially odious to me, and I have often thought that if I had had to be my own cook, I should inevitably become a vegetarian, probably, indeed, return entirely to my green and salad days."<ref>Fanny Kemble, ''Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838–1839'', Harper and Brothers, New York, 1863, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WaFiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA197 197–198].</ref>{{pb}}

Another early use was by [[Charles Lane (transcendentalist)|the editor]] of ''The Healthian'', a journal published by [[Alcott House]], in April 1842: "To tell a man, who is in the stocks for a given fault, that he cannot be so confined for such an offence, is ridiculous enough; but not more so than to tell a healthy vegetarian that his diet is very uncongenial with the wants of his nature, and contrary to reason."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100709210135/http://www.ivu.org/history/england19a/healthian.pdf ''The Healthian''], 1(5), April 1842, 34–35.{{pb}}
{{Cite web|url=https://ivu.org/history/vegetarian.html|title=History of Vegetarianism: Extracts from some journals 1842–48 – the earliest known uses of the word 'vegetarian'|last=Davis|first=John|publisher=[[International Vegetarian Union]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180318223303/https://ivu.org/history/vegetarian.html|archive-date=18 March 2018|url-status=live|access-date=18 March 2018}}{{pb}}{{Cite web|url=https://ivu.org/history/kemble.html|title=History of Vegetarianism: Extracts from some journals 1842–48 – the earliest known uses of the word 'vegetarian' (Appendix 2 – The 1839 journal of Fanny Kemble)|last=Davis|first=John|publisher=International Vegetarian Union|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180318222547/https://ivu.org/history/kemble.html|archive-date=18 March 2018|url-status=live|access-date=18 March 2018}}{{pb}}
John Davis, "Prototype Vegans", [https://issuu.com/vegan_society/docs/the-vegan-winter-2010/24 ''The Vegan''], Winter 2010, 22–23 (also [https://web.archive.org/web/20110928044045/http://www.vegansociety.com/feature-articles/prototype%20vegans.pdf here]).</ref>}}

=== Formation of the Vegetarian Society ===
{{further|Vegetarian Society#History}}
[[File:Northwood_Villa,_Ramsgate.png|thumb|Northwood Villa; the site of the 1847 Ramsgate conference where the Vegetarian Society was founded.]]In 1843, members of [[Alcott House]] created the [[British and Foreign Society for the Promotion of Humanity and Abstinence from Animal Food]],<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Axon|first=William E. A.|author-link=William Axon|date=December 1893|title=A Forerunner of the Vegetarian Society|url=https://ivu.org/history/societies/britfor.html|url-status=live|magazine=Vegetarian Messenger|location=Manchester, England|publisher=[[Vegetarian Society]]|publication-date=December 1893|pages=453–55|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180224100639/https://ivu.org/history/societies/britfor.html|archive-date=24 February 2018|access-date=24 February 2018|via=International Vegetarian Union}}</ref> led by [[Sophia Chichester]], a wealthy benefactor of Alcott House.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Latham |first1=Jackie |title=The political and the personal: the radicalism of Sophia Chichester and Georgiana Fletcher Welch |journal=Women's History Review |date=September 1999 |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=469–487 |doi=10.1080/09612029900200216 |pmid=22619793 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Alcott House also helped to establish the British [[Vegetarian Society]], which held its first meeting in 1847 in [[Ramsgate, Kent]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grumett |first1=David |last2=Muers |first2=Rachel |title=Theology on the Menu: Asceticism, Meat and Christian Diet |date=2010 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-18832-0 |page=64 }}</ref> ''[[The Medical Times and Gazette]]'' in London reported in 1884:

{{blockquote|There are two kinds of Vegetarians—one an extreme form, the members of which eat no animal food products what-so-ever; and a less extreme sect, who do not object to eggs, milk, or fish. The Vegetarian Society&nbsp;... belongs to the latter more moderate division.<ref name=MedicalTimes>"International Health Exhibition", ''The Medical Times and Gazette'', 24 May 1884, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2rdXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA712 712].</ref>}}

An article in the Society's magazine, the ''Vegetarian Messenger'', in 1851 discussed alternatives to shoe leather, which suggests the presence of vegans within the membership who rejected animal use entirely, not only in diet.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080630114643/http://www.ivu.org/history/renaissance/words.html "History of Vegetarianism: The Origin of Some Words"], International Vegetarian Union, 6 April 2010.</ref> [[Henry S. Salt]]'s 1886 ''A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays'' asserts, "It is quite true that most—not all—Food Reformers admit into their diet such animal food as milk, butter, cheese, and eggs..."<ref name="salt">{{Cite book|title=A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays |last=Stephens |first=Henry Salt |author-link=Henry S. Salt |date=1886 |page=57 |chapter=5: Sir Henry Thompson on "Diet."|title-link=s:A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays }}</ref> Salt also argued that the primary objective of the vegetarian movement should be to eliminate meat, while contending that dairy and eggs are also unnecessary and could be phased out over time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of Vegetarianism - Henry S. Salt (1851-1939) |url=https://ivu.org/history/salt/dairy.html |access-date=2024-07-22 |publisher=[[International Vegetarian Union]]}}</ref>

=== Development in the 20th century ===
[[File:Gandhi LVS 1931.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|alt=photograph of Gandhi and Salt|[[Mahatma Gandhi]], [[London Vegetarian Society]], 20 November 1931, with [[Henry S. Salt]] on his right{{efn|[[Mahatma Gandhi]], address to the [[Vegetarian Society]], 20 November 1931: "I feel especially honoured to find on my right, Mr. Henry Salt. It was Mr. Salt's book 'A Plea for Vegetarianism', which showed me why apart from a hereditary habit, and apart from my adherence to a vow administered to me by my mother, it was right to be a vegetarian. He showed me why it was a moral duty incumbent on vegetarians not to live upon fellow-animals. It is, therefore, a matter of additional pleasure to me that I find Mr. Salt in our midst."<ref name=Gandhispeech/>}}]]

[[Charles William Daniel|C. W. Daniel]] published an early vegan cookbook, [[Rupert H. Wheldon]]'s ''No Animal Food: Two Essays and 100 Recipes'', in 1910.<ref name="Leneman1999">{{cite journal |last1=Leneman |first1=Leah |title=No Animal Food: The Road to Veganism in Britain, 1909–1944 |journal=Society & Animals |date=1999 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=219–228 |doi=10.1163/156853099X00095 }}</ref> The consumption of milk and eggs became a battleground over the following decades. There were regular discussions about it in the ''Vegetarian Messenger''; it appears from the correspondence pages that many opponents of veganism were vegetarians.<ref name="Leneman1999" /><ref name="WatsonAutumn1965" />

During a visit to London in 1931, [[Mahatma Gandhi]]—who had joined the [[London Vegetarian Society]]'s executive committee when he lived in London from 1888 to 1891—gave a speech to the Society arguing that it ought to promote a meat-free diet as a matter of morality, not health.<ref name=Gandhispeech>{{Cite magazine|last=Gandhi|first=Mahatma|author-link=Mahatma Gandhi|date=20 November 1931|title=The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism|url=https://ivu.org/news/evu/other/gandhi2.html|url-status=live|magazine=EVU News|type=Speech|location=London, England|publication-date=1998|volume=1998|issue=1|pages=11–14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310000343/https://ivu.org/news/evu/other/gandhi2.html|archive-date=10 March 2018|access-date=9 March 2018|via=[[International Vegetarian Union]] and London Vegetarian Society}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Wolpert |first1=Stanley |title=Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-515634-8 |pages=21–22, 161 }}</ref> Lacto-vegetarians acknowledged the ethical consistency of the vegan position but regarded a vegan diet as impracticable and were concerned that it might be an impediment to spreading vegetarianism if vegans found themselves unable to participate in social circles where no non-animal food was available. This became the predominant view of the Vegetarian Society, which in 1935 stated: "The [[lacto-vegetarian]]s, on the whole, do not defend the practice of consuming the dairy products except on the ground of expediency."<ref name=Leneman1999/>

=== ''Vegan'' etymology ===
{{external media
| image1 = [https://web.archive.org/web/20190528030736/http://www.ukveggie.com/vegan_news/vegan_news_1.pdf ''The Vegan News''], first edition, 1944
| image2 = [https://www.ivu.org/congress/wvc47/delegates3.jpg Donald Watson], front row, fourth left, 1947<ref>[https://www.ivu.org/congress/wvc47/card.html "11th IVU World Vegetarian Congress 1947"], [[Stonehouse, Gloucestershire]], [[International Vegetarian Union]].</ref>
}}

In August 1944, several members of the [[Vegetarian Society]] asked that a section of its newsletter be devoted to non-dairy vegetarianism. When the request was denied, [[Donald Watson]], secretary of the Leicester branch, set up a new quarterly newsletter, ''The Vegan News'', in November 1944.<ref name=WatsonInterviews>{{Cite interview|last=Watson|first=Donald|subject-link=Donald Watson|interviewer=George D. Rodger|title=Interview with Donald Watson|url=https://www.vegansociety.com/sites/default/files/DW_Interview_2002_Unabridged_Transcript.pdf|format=PDF|type=Transcript|publisher=The Vegan Society|date=15 December 2002|access-date=13 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314041736/https://www.vegansociety.com/sites/default/files/DW_Interview_2002_Unabridged_Transcript.pdf|archive-date=14 March 2018|url-status=live}}<!--Abridged version found in ''The Vegan''-->{{pb}}{{Cite interview|last=Watson|first=Donald|interviewer=George D. Rodger|title=24 Carrot Award: Donald Watson|type=[[e-Zine]]|url=https://www.vegparadise.com/24carrot610.html|magazine=Vegetarians in Paradise|volume=6|issue=10|date=11 August 2004|access-date=13 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314034642/https://www.vegparadise.com/24carrot610.html|archive-date=14 March 2018|url-status=dead|quote=I invited my early readers to suggest a more concise word to replace 'non-dairy vegetarian.' Some bizarre suggestions were made like 'dairyban, vitan, benevore, sanivore, beaumangeur', et cetera. I settled for my own word, 'vegan', containing the first three and last two letters of 'vegetarian'—'the beginning and end of vegetarian.' The word was accepted by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' and no one has tried to improve it.}}</ref> The word ''vegan'' was invented by Watson and Dorothy Morgan, a schoolteacher he later married.<ref name="VeganSociety2014">{{Cite web |title=Ripened by human determination. 70 years of The Vegan Society |url=https://www.vegansociety.com/sites/default/files/uploads/Ripened%20by%20human%20determination.pdf#page=5 |access-date=14 February 2021 |website=[[Vegan Society]] |page=3 |quote=Watson and his wife Dorothy came up with the word 'vegan'}}</ref><ref name="Davis2016"/> The word is based on "the first three and last two letters of 'vegetarian{{'-}}" because it marked, in Watson's words, "the beginning and end of vegetarian".<ref name="WatsonInterviews"/><ref>{{cite news|last=Lowbridge|first=Caroline|date=30 December 2017|title=Veganism: How a maligned movement went mainstream|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-40722965|url-status=live|work=[[BBC News]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314050438/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-40722965|archive-date=14 March 2018|access-date=14 March 2018}}</ref> ''The Vegan News'' asked its readers if they could think of anything better than ''vegan'' to stand for "non-dairy vegetarian". They suggested ''allvega'', ''neo-vegetarian'', ''dairyban'', ''vitan'', ''benevore'', ''sanivores'', and ''beaumangeur''.<ref name=WatsonInterviews/><ref>Donald Watson, [https://issuu.com/vegan_society/docs/the-vegan-news-no.-2-february-1945 ''Vegan News''], February 1945, 2–3.</ref>

According to [[Joanne Stepaniak]], the word ''vegan'' was first published independently in 1962 by the ''Oxford Illustrated Dictionary'', defined as "a vegetarian who eats no butter, eggs, cheese, or milk".<ref>Stepaniak 2000, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6Ia5eZIlgLUC&pg=PA3 3].</ref>

=== Founding of The Vegan Society ===
The first edition of ''The Vegan News'' attracted more than 100 letters, including from [[George Bernard Shaw]], who resolved to give up eggs and dairy.<ref name="WatsonAutumn1965">Donald Watson, "The Early History of the Vegan Movement", [https://issuu.com/vegan_society/docs/the-vegan-autumn-1965---21st-anniversary-issue ''The Vegan''], Autumn 1965, 5–7; Donald Watson, [https://issuu.com/vegan_society/docs/the_vegan_news_1944 ''Vegan News''], first issue, November 1944.</ref> [[The Vegan Society]] held its first meeting in early November at the Attic Club, 144 [[High Holborn]], London. In attendance were [[Donald Watson]], [[Elsie B. Shrigley]], Fay K. Henderson, Alfred Hy Haffenden, Paul Spencer and Bernard Drake, with Mme Pataleewa ([[Barbara Moore (vegetarian activist)|Barbara Moore]], a Russian-British engineer) observing.<ref name="Farhall1994">Richard Farhall, [https://issuu.com/vegan_society/docs/the-vegan-autumn-1994---50th-anniversary "The First Fifty Years: 1944–1994"], iii (full names of members on following pages), published with ''The Vegan'', 10(3), Autumn 1994, between pp.&nbsp;12 and 13.</ref> [[World Vegan Day]] is held every 1 November to mark the founding of the Society, and the Society considers November World Vegan Month.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vegansociety.com/take-action/campaigns/world-vegan-month|title=World Vegan Month|publisher=The Vegan Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314051539/https://www.vegansociety.com/take-action/campaigns/world-vegan-month|archive-date=14 March 2018|url-status=live|access-date=14 March 2018|quote=Every November we celebrate World Vegan Day and World Vegan Month, as well as the formation of The Vegan Society.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://vegconomist.com/fairs-and-events/sponsored-post-plant-based-alternatives-take-centre-stage-at-fffhi-returning-to-amsterdam-nov-23-24/| title = advertising framework for featured article, cites all of November as World Vegan Month. The Vegconomist. Accessed 11/1/2021.| date = 29 October 2021}}</ref>
[[File:Barbara Moore (1961).jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|alt=photograph of Moore in 1961|[[Barbara Moore (vegetarian activist)|Barbara Moore]] attended the first meeting of [[The Vegan Society]] as an observer.<ref name="Farhall1994" />]]
''The Vegan News'' changed its name to ''The Vegan'' in November 1945, by which time it had 500 subscribers.<ref>[https://issuu.com/vegan_society/docs/the-vegan-no.-5-november-1945 ''The Vegan''], 1(5), November 1945; for 500, [https://issuu.com/vegan_society/docs/the-vegan-autumn-1994---50th-anniversary ''The Vegan''], 10(3), Autumn 1994, iv.</ref> It published recipes and a "vegan trade list" of animal-free products, such as toothpastes, shoe polishes, stationery and glue.<ref>For an example of the vegan trade list, [https://issuu.com/vegan_society/docs/the-vegan-summer-1946 ''The Vegan''], 2(2), Summer 1946, 6–7.</ref> Vegan books appeared, including ''Vegan Recipes'' by Fay K. Henderson (1946)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Vegan Recipes by Fay K. Henderson|url=https://www.happycow.net/blog/vegan-recipes/ |access-date=2021-05-01|website=Ernest Bell Library|date=July 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Henderson |first=Fay Keeling |title=Vegan Recipes, etc. |year=1946 |publisher=H.H. Greaves |location=London |oclc=559462905}}</ref> and ''Aids to a Vegan Diet for Children'' by Kathleen V. Mayo (1948).<ref>[[Joanne Stepaniak]], ''The Vegan Sourcebook'', McGraw Hill Professional, 2000, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6Ia5eZIlgLUC&pg=PA5 5]; ''The Vegan'', Autumn 1949, 22.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mayo |first=Kathleen |title=Aids to a Vegan Diet for Children |oclc=14663134}}</ref><!--add breast-milk group-->

The Vegan Society soon made clear that it rejected the use of animals for any purpose, not only in diet. In 1947, Watson wrote: "The vegan renounces it as superstitious that human life depends upon the exploitation of these creatures whose feelings are much the same as our own".<ref name=Cole2014p203/> From 1948, ''The Vegan''{{'}}s front page read: "Advocating living without exploitation", and in 1951, the Society published its definition of ''veganism'' as "the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals".<ref name=Cole2014p203>{{cite book |first1=Matthew |last1=Cole |chapter={{-'}}The greatest cause on earth': The historical formation of veganism as an ethical practice |pages=203–224 |chapter-url={{Google books|vQNgAwAAQBAJ|page=203|plainurl=yes}} |editor1-last=Taylor |editor1-first=Nik |editor2-last=Twine |editor2-link=Richard Twine (sociologist)|editor2-first=Richard |title=The Rise of Critical Animal Studies: From the Margins to the Centre |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-10087-2 }}</ref><ref name=Cross1951>{{cite journal |first1=Leslie |last1=Cross |url=https://www.ivu.org/history/world-forum/1951vegan.html |title=Veganism Defined |journal=The Vegetarian World Forum |volume=5 |issue=1 |year=1951 |pages=6–7 }}</ref> In 1956, its vice-president, Leslie Cross, founded the Plantmilk Society and in 1965, as Plantmilk Ltd and later [[Plamil Foods]], it began production of one of the first widely distributed [[soy milk]]s in the Western world.<ref name=Mather1986>{{Cite interview|last=Ling|first=Arthur|interviewer=Harry Mather|title=The Milk of Human Kindness|url=https://www.veganviews.org.uk/vv37/vv37arthurling.html|work=Vegan Views|volume=37|issue=Autumn 1986|date=Autumn 1986|access-date=14 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314052519/https://www.veganviews.org.uk/vv37/vv37arthurling.html|archive-date=14 March 2018|url-status=live}}{{pb}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.plamilfoods.co.uk/news/arthurling|title=Arthur Ling, Plamil|publisher=[[Plamil Foods]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314053315/https://www.plamilfoods.co.uk/news/arthurling|archive-date=14 March 2018|url-status=live|access-date=14 March 2018}}{{pb}}"The Plantmilk Society", ''The Vegan'', X(3), Winter 1956, 14–16.</ref>

=== Spread to the United States ===
The first vegan society in the U.S. was founded in 1948 by [[Catherine Nimmo]] and Rubin Abramowitz in California, who distributed Watson's newsletter.<ref>Stepaniak 2000, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6Ia5eZIlgLUC&pg=PA6 6–7]; Linda Austin and Norm Hammond, ''Oceano'', Arcadia Publishing, 2010, [https://books.google.com/books?id=B51SjziDRGQC&pg=PA39 39].</ref><ref name="AVS50">{{Cite magazine|last=Dinshah|first=Freya|year=2010|title=American Vegan Society: 50 Years|url=http://www.americanvegan.org/AV1001.pdf|url-status=dead|magazine=American Vegan|series=2|publisher=[[American Vegan Society]]|location=Vineland, NJ|volume=10|issue=1 (Summer 2010)|page=31|issn=1536-3767|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722213651/http://www.americanvegan.org/AV1001.pdf#page=31|archive-date=22 July 2011|access-date=14 March 2018}}</ref> In 1960, [[H. Jay Dinshah]] founded the [[American Vegan Society]] (AVS), linking veganism to the concept of ''[[ahimsa]]'', "non-harming" in [[Sanskrit]].<ref name="AVS50" /><ref>Stepaniak 2000, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6Ia5eZIlgLUC&pg=PA6 6–7]; Preece 2008, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uMnubkF5HjAC&pg=PA323 323].</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.americanvegan.org/history.htm|title=History|publisher=American Vegan Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140827105211/http://www.americanvegan.org/history.htm|archive-date=27 August 2014|url-status=dead|access-date=14 March 2018}}</ref>