History of Veganism

Thousands of years ago, people in the Indian subcontinent followed the concept of vegetarianism along with the belief that inflicting pain on animals is morally unjust. Around the same time in Greece, Pythagoras advocated for benevolence among species, even humans. The first time a vegetarian/vegan movement appeared in the mainstream was in 1847 when a vegetarian society was formed in England. A few years later, the American Vegetarian Society was formed. But it was not until 1944 that the term vegan was coined by Donald Watson as he wanted a word to describe those who did not eat dairy and eggs. When he started his newsletter about veganism “Vegan Society”, he had 25 subscribers whereas at the time of his death in 2005, there were 250,000 vegans in England and 2 million in the USA.