On this day in vegan history · September 24, 1941
Linda McCartney Is Born
The photographer who watched lambs play in a field from her kitchen window one Sunday in 1975, looked down at the leg of lamb on her plate, and never ate meat again.
The facts
- Born
- September 24, 1941, in Manhattan, New York
- Turned vegetarian
- 1975, with husband Paul, after watching lambs from their farmhouse window
- Founded Linda McCartney Foods
- 1991, launched at London's Savoy Hotel with a range of frozen meat-free meals
- Died
- April 17, 1998, age 56, of breast cancer
Linda Eastman was born in Manhattan on September 24, 1941, and built a career as a rock photographer before marrying Paul McCartney in 1969. In 1975 the couple gave up meat after watching young lambs playing in a field from their farmhouse window, then looking down at the joint on their own plates. It stuck: in 1991 she put her name on Linda McCartney Foods, a range of frozen vegetarian meals built to sit on ordinary supermarket shelves rather than in a health-food aisle. She spent her later years backing PETA, the Council for the Protection of Rural England, and the League Against Cruel Sports, and died of breast cancer in 1998 at age 56.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.
Paul McCartney, recalling the decision he and Linda made together to stop eating meat
Source: PaulMcCartney.com
Why it still matters
Linda McCartney Foods showed a mainstream supermarket chain would stock a meat-free range at real scale, years before 'plant-based' became a shelf category any grocer expected to carry.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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