Veganism: Then and Now…A Brief History

When I shared the story of my journey of turning to vegan, some of my friends thought \”veganism\” is a brand new concept. When I started to dig in to trail the history and it\’s origin, I came to know that it was first coined by Donald Watson in 1944 in the United Kingdom. That was the moment when he established the \”Vegan Society\” in the UK. Initially he meant, vegans are the people who abstain themselves from consuming milk and various milk products. But by May 1945, entire concept was changed. People included non-consumption of meat and other animal products in veganism.

In 1951, the society introduced a doctrine, where they declared humans should not eat or kill animals. But the popularity increased after 2010, when vegan restaurants and stores started opening worldwide. Interestingly vegetarianism can be traced since Indus Valley Civilisation (3300 – 1300 BCE). In the Indian subcontinent, people used to grow their vegetables and used to consume. They used to tame animals like cows, buffalo , sheep, goats and so on along with the family. That\’s why people used to consume their tamed animals\’ milk almost everyday. Nowadays, people are consuming vegan food due to:

• Body weight problems
• Other health problems
• Animal protection
• Environment
• Taste and easy availability of vegetables

In the UK, supermarkets are keeping updated vegan products as the food options are wider and can be consumed by all. Waitrose introduced all types of vegan products at their more than 130 stores in the UK. In Iceland, sales of the vegan food items increased by 10%. Even food brands from McDonalds to KFC, they are also trying to attract vegans by keeping vegan fries in their menu.

These days due to Covid19, many customers are demanding for vegan food. People are avoiding eating animal flesh as it might carry some sort of virus. Previously, SARS virus, bird flu, swine flu, monkey flu and many other viruses affected human race badly. Studies also showing that part-time vegans might also turn to full-time vegans very soon. People are getting benefits that\’s why they are spreading their experiences. I hope my readers also got some idea about the history of veganism.