Where are all the vegetarians in our history books – especially the vegetarian women? Part of the problem in tracing our plant-based past is that the word “vegetarian” wasn't even used in the United States until around 1850. And no one was writing about women, like vegetarian pioneer Ellen G. White!
But in early 2020, journalist Avery Yale Kamila, long-running author of the Vegan Kitchen column in the Maine Sunday Telegram newspaper, discovered a clue from 1838 which unearthed 300 years of buried vegetarian history in Maine, all of which is excluded from Maine’s history books. She went on to create the Maine Vegetarian History Project. Avery shares about the (unintentional but real) veg history scrub, what it was like growing up on organic Sunshine Farm where the cruelty of animal ag was indeed never kept in the dark, and her experience of being served a friend named Fifi for dinner one night. (She did not eat her.)
Resources:
Vegan Kitchen Column, Maine Sunday Telegram: https://www.pressherald.com/foodanddining/vegan-kitchen/
Maine Vegetarian History Project: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/maine-vegetarian-history-project/
Diet for a New America by John Robbins: //www.amazon.com/Diet-New-America-Choices-Happiness/dp/193207354X
Living the Good Life by Scott and Helen Nearing: https://downeast.com/history/living-the-good-life/
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners: https://www.mofga.org/
The Vegetable Diet by William Alcott: https://www.amazon.com/Vegetable-Diet-Sanctioned-Experience-Antiquarian/dp/1449423140
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander: https://www.amazon.com/Arguments-Elimination-Television-Jerry-Mander/dp/0688082742
The “perfect personality” for staying whole-food plant-based: http://www.wholefoodplantbasedrd.com/2015/01/can-your-personality-affect-your-ability-to-get-healthy/
Vegetarian Historian Rynn Berry: https://responsibleeatingandliving.com/favorites/rynn-berry-vegetarian-history/
No Meat Required by Alicia Kennedy: https://www.amazon.com/No-Meat-Required-Cultural-Plant-Based/dp/0807069175
The Vegetarian Crusade: Adam Schrpintzen: https://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-Crusade-American-Movement-1817-1921/dp/1469626527
The Vegan Museum resource guide: https://veganmuseum.org/resource-guide-1
Documentary, Peaceable Kingdom: https://www.peaceablekingdomfilm.org/
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