For my speech class, I got to inform my audience about how veganism developed conceptually. I was mainly inspired by an article about POC erasure in mainstream veganism (recommended read, linked below). I also spoke about the people behind the original vegan word in Britain.
The reactions/questions from my classmates were good, i.e. I answered that any foods can be veganized and how I would like veganic, sustainable food systems.
Here is my speech outline. This blog is edited lightly (and may be a vlog).
I spoke about the history of veganism through the religious influence in vegetarianism, the word vegan, and how people view it today. This isn’t something commonly taught in schools, and I want to enlighten you all about it.
First, the origins:
The concept was not western, but it was religion-based, otherwise.
Eastern religions like Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism all advocate abstaining from eating animals and animal products in some form because of the belief systems centered around nonviolence, or ahimsa, as it is called in Sanskrit.
These ideologies and traditions had flourished in communities of color for centuries contrary to what mainstream veganism is, according to a Thrillist article by Khushbu Shah.
People who follow Rastafarianism, engage in a way of eating know as Ital, stemming from the word "vital." The diet, encouraging plant-based unprocessed meals, was developed in the 1930s in Jamaica, and is believed to have evolved from Hindu traditions brought over with indentured Indian servants.
The Black Hebrew Israelite community, which was established in the late 19th century, also adheres to a strict vegan diet, believing it to be the secret to eternal life (Shah).
2. The word vegan came about in 1944, when a British woodworker, Donald Watson, along with his wife Dorothy coined the term vegan from the beginning and end of the term “vegetarian”. It's symbolic.
The word was more specific to separate vegetarians who ate animal products from those who did not.
In an interview, he also explained his view of participating in cruelty: “if these butchers and vivisectors weren't there, could we perform the acts that they are doing? If we couldn't, we have no right to expect them to do those things on our behalf.” (Also, he had spent time at his uncle's farm and realized the hypocrisy of eating animals there.)
I am not particularly religious myself and neither was Watson, who was an agnostic. But religion is a useful tool, as he said that in practice, “the essential element in the Christian religion - [is] compassion.”
Donald Watson was vegan for over 60 years, vegetarian for over 80, and died at 95 in 2005.
3. People are vegan because of their support for animal rights and animal liberation. Nowadays, it has become an urgent issue for the massive amount of animals on farms, trillions+ of lives taken to feed billions, and the impacts it has on human health and the environment.
Admittedly, industrial agriculture and even, rights and laws are western ideas.
So the vegan movement is ever-growing as activists claim that animal rights is a social justice issue. Animal rights, such as the banning of animals in the circus, is becoming reality, and hopefully, history.
I can be vegan, atheist, non-violent, Asian American, anti-speciesist at the same time. And that makes me so unique, I might be in a history book one day. Or write a book(s). ;)
Originally delivered as an informative speech.
By the way, I got an A+, and my instructor is vegan. Not because of my speech--it was announced on the first day, though, and it encourages me to openly speak on it. :)
Sources:
“Interview with Donald Watson - Vegan Founder.” by George D. Rodger, Donald Watson - Vegan Society Founder, 15 Dec. 2002, www.foodsforlife.org.uk/people/Donald-Watson-Vegan/Donald-Watson.html.
Shah, Khushbu. “The Secret Vegan War You Didn't Know Existed.” Thrillist, Thrillist, 26 Jan. 2018, www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/vegan-race-wars-white-veganism.