1944-1959
1944-1959
In November 1944 a handful of people who thought dairy was still a half-measure split off, started a newsletter, and coined a word. Within seven years they had turned it from a diet into a principle: the end of animal exploitation, as far as is possible and practicable.
- 1944
November 1944
The Word Is Coined
In the first issue of a new quarterly, a small group that had split from the Vegetarian Society named itself, and named a diet.
our diet will soon become known as a VEGAN diet, and we should aspire to the rank of VEGANS.
Donald Watson, The Vegan News, No. 1, November 1944Watson credited the word to himself and the founding members; Dorothy Morgan, his wife, is often cited as a co-coiner. The exact founding day is not recorded, only the month.
Source: Gentle World (reproducing The Vegan News, No. 1) - 1944
November 1944
Why a Halfway House Would Not Do
Watson argued that dairy-vegetarianism still rested on killing, so a clean break was the honest position.
Source: Gentle World (reproducing The Vegan News, No. 1)lacto-vegetarianism is but a half-way house between flesh-eating and a truly humane, civilised diet
Donald Watson, The Vegan News, No. 1, November 1944 - 1949
1949
Cross Names the Principle
Five years in, the young society still had no agreed definition. Leslie Cross supplied the principle that would anchor it.
Source: The Vegan Society, Historyit was as late as 1949 before Leslie J Cross pointed out that the society lacked a definition of veganism
Leslie J. Cross, The Vegan Society - 1951
Spring 1951
Veganism, Defined
The society set out its object in one sentence, shifting veganism from a diet to a principle about the emancipation of animals.
Source: International Vegetarian Union (IVU), World Forum archive (archived)The object of the Society shall be to end the exploitation of animals by man
Leslie J. Cross, 'Veganism Defined', The Vegetarian World Forum, Spring 1951 - 1954
November 22, 1954
America Gets a National Humane Society
Journalist Fred Myers and four colleagues founded the National Humane Society, the organization that grew into the Humane Society of the United States, one of the largest animal-protection groups in the world.
Source: Wikipedia, Humane Society of the United StatesThe original organization was founded in 1954 by journalist Fred Myers and Helen Jones, Larry Andrews, Marcia Glaser and Oliver M Evans.
Fred Myers, Helen Jones, Larry Andrews, Marcia Glaser, Oliver M. Evans - 1958
August 1958
The Law Says Slaughter Must Be Humane
The first federal law on how food animals die made humane handling official United States policy. It bound only plants selling to the government at first, and poultry were left out entirely, a gap that stands to this day.
Source: Wikipedia, Humane Slaughter ActNo method of slaughtering or handling in connection with slaughtering shall be deemed to comply with the public policy of the United States unless it is humane.
Humane Slaughter Act, 7 U.S.C. 1902
Frequently asked
When was the word vegan coined?
The word vegan was coined in November 1944, in the first issue of The Vegan News, by Donald Watson and the founding members of the UK Vegan Society. The exact day is not recorded, only the month.
Who invented veganism?
The word is Donald Watson’s, from 1944. The practice is far older: people ate plant-based on moral grounds for at least 2,500 years before the word existed, from Pythagoras to the 1800s vegetarian societies.
Who founded the Vegan Society?
The Vegan Society was formed in November 1944 in London by a small group led by Donald Watson that had split from the Vegetarian Society. Leslie Cross gave veganism its defining principle in 1949 and 1951.
This history is still being written.
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