3rd century BCE · inscribed royal edicts
Record type: InscriptionAśoka: public measures for living beings
Aśoka's inscriptions describe restrictions on animal sacrifice, a reduction in killing for the royal kitchen, care for animals, and protection of certain species. These were concrete public measures, but the surviving edicts do not justify describing the empire as wholly nonviolent or universally vegetarian.
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Early Buddhist textual tradition · compilation dates uncertain
Record type: TextBuddhist non-harming — and the limits of dietary claims
The Dhammapada speaks against killing or causing others to kill. Yet MN 55 sets out conditions under which monastics may accept food, explicitly distinguishing an animal killed for the recipient from other cases. An ethic of non-harming cannot be simplified into a claim that every early Buddhist followed a vegetarian diet.
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Ancient Jain tradition · text dating debated
Record type: TraditionMahāvīra and the Jain discipline of non-harm
The Ācārāṅga Sūtra preserves teachings about avoiding injury to living beings, including animals and small forms of life. The tradition associates this discipline with Mahāvīra; the surviving textual history is later and cannot be equated with a verbatim record of his lifetime.
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Late 1st–early 2nd century CE · approximate
Record type: TextPlutarch — On the Eating of Flesh
In two surviving rhetorical discourses, Plutarch challenges the killing of animals for food. The texts criticize the suffering inflicted on living beings but do not prove the author's lifelong dietary habits.
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3rd century CE · composition date uncertain
Record type: TextPorphyry — On Abstinence from Animal Food
Porphyry's four-book treatise argues for abstention from animal food, combining contemplative discipline with arguments about justice and the capacities of animals. His comments on sacrifice elsewhere are not fully consistent.
Sources and works
11th century
Record type: PersonAbu al-Ala al-Ma'arri
Centuries before the word 'vegan' existed, al-Ma'arri argued in Arabic poetry and letters against eating animals or taking milk, eggs and honey. Scholars have documented his concern for animal suffering alongside ascetic and health-related motives. The modern dietary label is only an approximation.
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1615
Record type: PersonYunqi Zhuhong
Zhuhong argued against taking animal life in writings that also challenged slaughter for food and ceremonies. Scholarship traces these ideas through his early-seventeenth-century works and their later reception in Japan. The cited writings establish public teachings, not the details of his private lifelong diet.
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Early 19th century
Record type: PersonShabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol
Shabkar (1781–1851) wrote influential Buddhist teachings against eating animals and urged compassion for sentient beings. The modern English collection Food of Bodhisattvas (2004) presents his arguments, but it is a translation of older writings, not a book issued during his lifetime.
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1867
Record type: PersonVallalar (Ramalinga Swamigal)
In 1867 the Tamil reformer Vallalar articulated Jeeva Karunya Ozhukkam, a discipline of compassion that joined feeding hungry people with refusing to harm animals. His writings treated practical care for living beings as more important than empty religious ritual.
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1883
Record type: PersonHoward Williams
Williams assembled generations of arguments about the humane treatment of animals in The Ethics of Diet (1883). This living archive takes his historical method as its starting point, without claiming to be an authorised new edition.
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1886
Record type: PersonHenry S. Salt
In A Plea for Vegetarianism, Salt argued for a humane approach to food. His writing later influenced Gandhi's moral understanding of vegetarianism.
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1891
Record type: PersonAnagarika Dharmapala
A scholarly biography describes vegetarian eating as part of Dharmapala's chosen religious discipline, alongside study and meditation. He helped found the Maha Bodhi Society in 1891 and promoted Buddhist education across borders. Vegetarian practice is documented, but no exact date of adopting it is established by these sources.
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1892
Record type: PersonLeo Tolstoy
In The First Step, Tolstoy presented the rejection of violence against animals as a practical starting point for moral self-improvement.
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1894
Record type: PersonAnnie Besant
In a lecture published in 1894, Besant argued for vegetarianism through a theosophical understanding of responsibility toward living beings. She also discussed cruelty involved in producing food, connecting spiritual beliefs to public food reform.
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1898
Record type: PersonGeorge Bernard Shaw
In a January 1898 reply, Shaw turned the usual question around: why should a vegetarian have to defend not consuming animals? His public stance linked everyday food choices with criticism of cruelty.
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1908
Record type: PersonEmarel Freshel (M. R. L. Sharpe)
Her Golden Rule Cook Book (1908) brought humane concerns into practical vegetarian cooking and criticised the suffering caused by food production. Freshel later founded the Millennium Guild (1912), connecting nonviolence, animal protection and social reform. Her wider animal-free ambitions predated the modern term vegan; the historical dietary label here remains vegetarian.
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1908
Record type: PersonLi Shizeng
In Paris, Li explored soy food production and developed a scientific case for vegetarian eating. Historical accounts date his own adoption of vegetarianism to around 1908 and describe his involvement in Chinese reform and work-study circles.
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1910
Record type: PersonWu Tingfang
After his diplomatic career, Wu promoted vegetarianism and temperance as part of a modern approach to public health. In 1910 he helped establish Shanghai's Society of Rational Diet and Hygiene, linking dietary reform to the city's emerging civic culture.
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1918
Record type: PersonKenji Miyazawa
In a 1918 letter, Miyazawa described turning away from eating animals, while candidly admitting occasions when he ate fish. His later story Vegetarian Festival explored vegetarian ideas and social conflict through fiction. His changing practice should not be simplified into lifelong strict veganism.
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1924
Record type: PersonSadeq Hedayat
After witnessing the violent killing of a camel, Hedayat became vegetarian and wrote Human and Animal (1924), followed by The Benefits of Vegetarianism (1927). His Persian-language arguments challenged cruelty and brought vegetarian thought into modern Iranian literature.
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1929
Record type: PersonLü Bicheng
Lü connected Buddhist nonkilling and vegetarian ethics with international animal-protection debates. Representing China at the 1929 Vienna conference, she argued against slaughter itself rather than limiting reform to reducing cruelty. Her work crossed literary, religious and diplomatic worlds.
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1929
Record type: PersonYinguang
Yinguang promoted abstention from animal killing and vegetarian living, and supported modern innovations intended to reduce animal-derived consumption. A 1929 essay examined animal-free soap and the practical challenges of bringing it to market.
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1931
Record type: PersonMaria Lacerda de Moura
The Brazilian anarchist writer connected feminism, pacifism and concern for animals. Her 1931–1932 books criticised vivisection and treated respect for nonhuman life as part of a wider critique of domination, according to Brazilian academic studies.
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1931
Record type: PersonM. K. Gandhi
Gandhi described how a family vow and inherited practice were later joined by a conscious moral commitment, strengthened by Henry Salt's book.
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1944
Record type: PersonDonald Watson
Watson helped establish The Vegan Society in 1944, extending the rejection of animal exploitation beyond meat to dairy and other animal products.
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1954
Record type: PersonAlbert Einstein
A letter dated March 30, 1954 describes a diet without meat or fish. Earlier correspondence records moral discomfort about animal flesh; it would be inaccurate to label him a lifelong vegetarian.
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1962
Record type: PersonRukmini Devi Arundale
A leading advocate for humane treatment of animals and vegetarianism, Arundale served as an International Vegetarian Union vice-president from 1955. She became the founding chair of India's Animal Welfare Board in 1962, linking personal principles to national institutions.
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1962
Record type: PersonSatish Kumar
Raised in a Jain vegetarian family, Kumar connected nonviolence toward animals with nonviolence toward people. In 1962 he embarked on a peace pilgrimage, choosing to keep his dietary convictions even when dependent on strangers for food.
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1964
Record type: PersonRuth Harrison
Harrison's Animal Machines (1964) documented conditions in intensive animal agriculture and helped make farm-animal welfare a public issue in Britain. Her book is a foundational investigative source, even though the bibliographic record does not establish her own dietary practice.
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1965
Record type: PersonBrigid Brophy
On 10 October 1965, Brophy published The Rights of Animals in The Sunday Times. Her essay and later writings offered an early modern challenge to the assumption that human use of animals needs no moral justification.
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1970
Record type: PersonJiddu Krishnamurti
Asked about his food at a 1970 public talk, Krishnamurti said he had never eaten meat or fish. Instead of recommending that listeners imitate him, he challenged them to examine their own habits and motives — a distinctive approach to dietary choice.
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1970
Record type: PersonRichard D. Ryder
In a 1970 Oxford leaflet, Ryder introduced the term speciesism, drawing attention to discrimination based on species membership. His 1975 book Victims of Science examined animal experimentation, adding an influential ethical vocabulary to public debate.
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1971
Record type: PersonFrances Moore Lappé
Her 1971 book Diet for a Small Planet challenged the waste and inequality built into resource-intensive food production. Lappé later described her own approach as 'plant- and planet-centered', preferring that wording to a rigid dietary identity.
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1973
Record type: PersonDick Gregory
Gregory, known for civil-rights activism and comedy, adopted vegetarianism in 1965 and turned food and fasting into a public topic. His 1973 book Dick Gregory's Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat introduced dietary reform to a wide audience.
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1975
Record type: PersonLinda McCartney
Linda and Paul McCartney made a joint decision to stop consuming animals after confronting the connection between farm animals and their meals. Linda later brought vegetarian cooking to a wide public through books and food products.
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1975
Record type: PersonPaul McCartney
McCartney recounts that he and Linda reconsidered their meals after watching lambs playing outside their farm while eating dinner. Compassion prompted their shared decision; decades later he also campaigned for reducing the environmental burden of animal agriculture.
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1975
Record type: PersonPeter Singer
After learning about intensive animal farming, Singer stopped eating animals in 1971. Animal Liberation (1975) made the moral status of farmed animals a major topic in contemporary philosophy. He now describes his own approach as 'flexible vegan', rather than strictly vegan.
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1980
Record type: PersonIsaac Bashevis Singer
The Nobel-winning writer described his vegetarianism as an ethical choice rather than a health regimen. In a 1980 interview he spoke directly about the moral inconsistency of condemning violence while supporting it toward animals.
Sources and works
1981
Record type: PersonAlex Hershaft
A Holocaust survivor, Hershaft described a 1972 encounter with conditions at a slaughterhouse as a turning point. In 1981 he founded Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) and later spent decades speaking about nonviolence toward humans and animals.
Sources and works
1983
Record type: PersonMary Midgley
Midgley's Animals and Why They Matter (1983) challenged simplistic boundaries between humans and other animals. She examined sentience, moral communities and the risk of assuming that only human interests count; the cited records document the ideas, not her personal diet.
Sources and works
1983
Record type: PersonTom Regan
Regan traced his own change of diet to reading Gandhi while studying pacifism and the Vietnam War. His 1983 book The Case for Animal Rights argued that animals have inherent value; he and his wife later moved from vegetarianism to veganism.
Sources and works
1985
Record type: PersonCésar Chávez
A leader of the United Farm Workers, Chávez connected nonviolent organising with compassion for animals and publicly promoted vegetarianism. Contemporaneous reporting confirms that he remained vegetarian in 1985, while colleagues later recalled his efforts to persuade others.
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1985
Record type: PersonMorrissey
As the Smiths' singer, Morrissey helped put animal suffering at the centre of popular music with the 1985 album Meat Is Murder. In an interview he traced his vegetarianism to childhood and his mother's influence in the anti-hunting movement.
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1986
Record type: PersonDada J. P. Vaswani
In 1986, Vaswani initiated a campaign marking 25 November as Meatless Day, inviting public commitment to compassion and nonviolence. In later interviews he explained why he avoided animal-derived food and stopped drinking dairy milk because of conditions in intensive farming.
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1987
Record type: PersonJohn Robbins
Robbins's Diet for a New America (1987) connected animal suffering, nutrition and the environmental costs of food production. In a later first-person interview he described eating an almost entirely vegan diet while arguing for informed choices rather than merely telling readers what to eat.
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1987
Record type: PersonMoby
Moby dates his veganism to Thanksgiving 1987. He has described an earlier encounter with a rescued animal as the moment he began to see the moral connection between caring for one animal and the lives of others.
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1990
Record type: PersonCarol J. Adams
In The Sexual Politics of Meat (1990), Adams connected the treatment of animals with cultural ideas about gender and power. Her own writings describe vegan practice as a response to exploitation and as an everyday expression of compassion.
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1992
Record type: PersonIngrid Newkirk
Newkirk co-founded PETA in 1980 and authored Free the Animals in 1992, using writing and campaigns to challenge animal exploitation. After 45 years as PETA's president she became its founder and principal in August 2025, rather than continuing as president.
Sources and works
1992
Record type: PersonSônia T. Felipe
Felipe helped introduce academic animal and environmental ethics in Brazil beginning in 1992. Her books and teaching examined animal use and ethical abolitionism; a 2021 scholarly interview describes her as vegan for more than two decades.
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1993
Record type: PersonPaola Cavalieri
With Peter Singer, Cavalieri co-edited The Great Ape Project (1993), challenging strict human-only boundaries of moral and legal concern. The volume gathered arguments for extending basic protections to great apes; the bibliographic evidence does not establish Cavalieri's personal diet.
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1994
Record type: PersonGeorge Guimarães
Guimarães says he became vegan in 1994 and later helped develop public vegan nutrition and animal-rights organising in Brazil. He founded VEDDAS in 2006; his first-person account distinguishes early health motives from his later emphasis on animal ethics.
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1995
Record type: PersonCoretta Scott King
King connected the struggle for civil rights with wider nonviolence and justice. According to a 2021 PETA historical profile, she adopted veganism in 1995 and viewed concern for animals as a continuation of her commitment to social justice.
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1997
Record type: PersonGail A. Eisnitz
Eisnitz's Slaughterhouse (1997) presented testimony from workers about conditions inside industrial facilities, linking animal suffering with worker safety and oversight. Her investigation later influenced other advocates; the book's subject is not evidence of a particular personal diet.
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1999
Record type: PersonJ. M. Coetzee
Coetzee's The Lives of Animals (1999) uses fiction and philosophy to challenge readers' moral distance from animal suffering. In a separately documented 2003 interview he explicitly confirmed that he was vegetarian, distinguishing his own practice from his fictional characters.
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2000
Record type: PersonAna María Aboglio
Aboglio co-founded Ánima in Argentina in 2000 and wrote Veganismo: Práctica de justicia e igualdad, presenting veganism as a practice of justice rather than merely a menu preference. Her work brought abolitionist animal-rights arguments into Spanish-language legal and public education.
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2000
Record type: PersonPramoda Chitrabhanu
With Pravin K. Shah, Chitrabhanu compiled The Book of Compassion (2000), urging Jain communities to reconsider dairy use in light of animal suffering. The freely accessible collection connects ahimsa with practical reform in ceremonies and daily life.
Sources and works
2000
Record type: PersonPravin K. Shah
Shah co-compiled The Book of Compassion in 2000 alongside Pramoda Chitrabhanu. His educational work brought questions about dairy production, animal suffering and nonviolence into Jain community discussions, particularly among North American audiences.
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2001
Record type: PersonStella McCartney
Raised vegetarian, McCartney founded her fashion house in 2001 with a declared refusal to use leather, fur or feathers. Her work shows how concerns about animals can influence not only a person's meals but also product design.
Sources and works
2003
Record type: PersonFrancisco Vásquez Neira
Vásquez Neira co-founded AnimaNaturalis in 2003 to make information and organising about animal rights accessible in Spanish. The organisation describes him as vegan out of compassion; in his own twentieth-anniversary account he reflects on how public campaigns grew from a small online project.
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2003
Record type: PersonLeonora Esquivel Frías
Esquivel Frías co-founded AnimaNaturalis in 2003 and helped build Spanish-language campaigns and education about animal rights and vegetarianism across Ibero-America. Her public intellectual and organisational work is documented; the cited sources do not establish her personal dietary category.
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2003
Record type: PersonSérgio Greif
Greif's 2003 book presented ways to replace the use of living animals in education and argued that humane teaching should take the moral status of animals seriously. The author's biographical account in that edition describes vegetarian practice from childhood and a transition to veganism in 1998. He also wrote about food, research and animal ethics.
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2004
Record type: PersonNina Rosa Jacob
The founder of Instituto Nina Rosa moved from vegetarianism toward veganism and developed humane education. She initiated the 2004 documentary A Carne É Fraca, which connected everyday food choices with their consequences for animals and the environment.
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2006
Record type: PersonCarlos Naconecy
Naconecy was already vegetarian when he encountered Peter Singer's arguments, which helped him develop a philosophical framework for animal protection. His 2006 book Ética & Animais brought several competing ethical approaches into a Brazilian-language introduction.
Sources and works
2007
Record type: PersonThich Nhat Hanh
In 2007 the Vietnamese Zen teacher led his Plum Village communities toward vegan eating, explicitly linking the practice to reduced animal suffering and a smaller environmental footprint. His decision joined compassion, mindfulness and practical ecological action.
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2008
Record type: PersonGary L. Francione
Francione developed an abolitionist theory of animal rights arguing against the property status of sentient beings. His books Animals as Persons (2008) and Why Veganism Matters (2021) articulate veganism as an ethical obligation rather than a dietary fashion.
Sources and works
2009
Record type: PersonAlicia Silverstone
Silverstone described becoming vegetarian at eleven after confronting the inconsistency between protecting some animals and eating others. Her book The Kind Diet (2009) later introduced a broad audience to vegan cooking and environmental arguments.
Sources and works
2009
Record type: PersonJian Yi
Making the documentary What's for Dinner? in 2009 led Jian Yi to vegetarianism and to public work on animal farming, health and the environment. He went on to establish the Good Food Fund and build dialogues about China's changing food system.
Sources and works
2009
Record type: PersonJonathan Safran Foer
In Eating Animals (2009), Foer described repeated attempts at vegetarianism and the difficulty of aligning meals with his values. Rather than present himself as perfectly consistent, he investigated the practices of intensive animal farming and the choices available to families.
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2009
Record type: PersonNatalie Portman
Portman has said she became vegetarian as a child out of empathy for animals. Reading Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals prompted her in 2009 to stop consuming eggs and dairy; she later helped bring the book's investigation of factory farming to the screen.
Sources and works
2010
Record type: PersonA. Breeze Harper
Harper edited Sistah Vegan (2010), a collection exploring how Black women's experiences connect animal ethics with food access, health, race and gender. Her research helped challenge the idea that a single cultural story can represent all vegan thought.
Sources and works
2010
Record type: PersonDavid Bilchitz
Bilchitz argued in a 2010 legal article that South Africa's transformative constitutional ideals raise questions about the standing of nonhuman animals. He has since worked on animal-law reform and constitutional protection; the sources do not establish his personal diet.
Sources and works
2010
Record type: PersonKwame Anthony Appiah
In his 2010 essay How the Future Will Judge Us, Appiah identified industrial animal farming as a practice future generations may condemn. The essay makes moral progress itself an object of historical inquiry; it is not evidence that Appiah follows any particular diet. Born in London and raised in Ghana, his intellectual career spans Africa, Europe and North America.
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2010
Record type: PersonMelanie Joy
In Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows (2010), Joy introduced the public to 'carnism', a framework for examining why societies treat different animal species differently. Her work connects food habits, invisibility of violence and psychology of social change.
Sources and works
2011
Record type: PersonSteve Jobs
Biographer Walter Isaacson documented Jobs's changing dietary experiments, including vegetarian, fruit-focused and sometimes vegan regimens. Their stated context involved spirituality, control and personal health beliefs; they must not be confused with documented animal-rights advocacy or evidence of medical benefit.
Sources and works
2012
Record type: PersonAngela Davis
In a 2012 conversation with Grace Lee Boggs, Davis spoke publicly about being vegan and linked the suffering of farmed animals to wider questions of commodification and justice. She connected care for other species to her longstanding work on human liberation.
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2012
Record type: PersonPhilip Wollen
After witnessing conditions at an industrial slaughterhouse, the former banker reconsidered his diet and later became vegan. His 2012 public debate speech brought his arguments about animal suffering, compassion and global food justice to a wide audience.
Sources and works
2012
Record type: PersonSharbel Balloutine
In 2012 Balloutine published an Arabic-language book about veganism, ethics and human relations with animals and the land. He later described lectures, peaceful public campaigning and efforts to make animal ethics accessible in Arabic.
Sources and works
2013
Record type: PersonAris LaTham
In a 2013 first-person interview, LaTham recounted becoming vegetarian in the 1970s and moving toward an entirely raw vegan diet. Through Sunfired Foods he taught Caribbean-inspired plant-based cooking and helped broaden its public visibility.
Sources and works
2013
Record type: PersonDesmond Tutu
In the foreword Extending Justice and Compassion to The Global Guide to Animal Protection (2013), Tutu argued that injustice toward other sentient animals deserves serious ethical attention alongside injustices suffered by people. His public position is documented by the publisher; the cited sources do not establish his private diet.
Sources and works
2013
Record type: PersonT. Colin Campbell
Campbell's Whole (2013) argued for whole-food plant-based nutrition and examined how dietary research is interpreted. In first-person accounts he described gradually changing his family's diet from the late 1970s to a nearly fully plant-based approach around 1990.
Sources and works
2014
Record type: PersonBryant Terry
Terry's Afro-Vegan (2014) reconnects plant-based cooking with food traditions of the African diaspora. He advocates for a healthy, fair and sustainable food system; the cited publisher description documents the work without establishing the strictness of his own present diet.
Sources and works
2015
Record type: PersonKai Horsthemke
Horsthemke's Animals and African Ethics (2015) critically examined moral traditions, anthropocentrism and how animals are considered within African ethical thought. His research brings a philosophical perspective shaped by teaching and scholarship in South Africa.
Sources and works
2015
Record type: PersonLuisa Mell
Mell used her television visibility to draw attention to abandoned animals and the ethical implications of food. She founded Instituto Luisa Mell in 2015; in interviews she describes vegan living as part of a commitment to animal protection and environmental consistency.
Sources and works
2016
Record type: PersonAngela Jelita Richardson
In a first-person 2016 interview, Richardson recalled becoming vegetarian after seeing footage of caged chickens, briefly interrupting that practice, and later becoming vegan after learning more about the dairy and egg industries. Her frank account shows how beliefs and practice develop over time.
Sources and works
2016
Record type: PersonHsing Yun
Hsing Yun wrote Buddhism and Vegetarianism, a handbook distinguishing dietary practices, the taking of life and compassion. His booklet is directly documented; the cited publisher page does not independently establish his personal daily diet, so we do not infer one.
Sources and works
2016
Record type: PersonMatthieu Ricard
Ricard wrote A Plea for the Animals (English edition, 2016), arguing that concern for animal suffering follows from compassion. In his own 2016 essay he recalled giving up eating animals around age twenty under the influence of a Buddhist teacher and ethical reflection.
Sources and works
2016
Record type: PersonNicola Kagoro (Chef Cola)
Kagoro founded African Vegan on a Budget in 2016, developing accessible plant-based food education grounded in Zimbabwean cooking. Her work challenges the idea that vegan meals must be expensive imports and connects culinary traditions with ecological concerns.
Sources and works
2016
Record type: PersonYuval Noah Harari
Harari said that research for Sapiens confronted him with the treatment of animals in modern agriculture and led him to adopt a largely vegan diet. He has openly acknowledged flexibility, making a blanket claim of strict veganism misleading.
Sources and works
2017
Record type: PersonAph Ko
With her sister Syl Ko, Aph Ko wrote Aphro-ism (2017), essays that link black feminist thought, animal ethics and critiques of exclusion within social movements. Their work helped widen the vocabulary of contemporary vegan philosophy.
Sources and works
2017
Record type: PersonBillie Eilish
In an early 2017 interview, Eilish said she had grown up vegetarian and had switched to veganism a few years earlier. She linked that choice to concern over the treatment of animals rather than treating it only as a celebrity lifestyle trend.
Sources and works
2017
Record type: PersonJane Goodall
Goodall wrote that learning about the suffering of farmed animals led her to stop eating animals. Later interviews described a strongly plant-based diet while acknowledging the practical limits of strict veganism during travel.
Sources and works
2017
Record type: PersonÓscar Horta
Horta's Un paso adelante en defensa de los animales (2017) presents accessible arguments against speciesism and examines suffering in farmed and wild animals. He also co-founded Animal Ethics, developing multilingual educational resources.
Sources and works
2017
Record type: PersonSyl Ko
Syl Ko co-authored Aphro-ism (2017), examining how categories of race, species and power shape moral thought. Her work asks readers to reassess conventional boundaries between human and nonhuman beings.
Sources and works
2018
Record type: PersonChristine M. Korsgaard
Korsgaard's Fellow Creatures (2018) argues that sentient animals should be treated as ends rather than mere tools. In a 2019 Harvard interview, she explicitly described having been vegetarian for more than forty years and adopting veganism more recently.
Sources and works
2018
Record type: PersonLewis Hamilton
Hamilton publicly linked his move toward a vegan diet with concern about animal cruelty, the climate and personal health. By 2018 he was openly promoting vegan meals and received a PETA UK award for his advocacy.
Sources and works
2018
Record type: PersonOri Shavit
Shavit moved from restaurant criticism into vegan advocacy, helping restaurants add plant-based dishes and writing accessible cookbooks. Her My Vegan Kitchen (2018) brought this experience to readers beyond specialised activist circles.
Sources and works
2018
Record type: PersonSam Altman
Altman wrote in 2018 that he had been vegetarian since childhood. Separately, he has reflected on how future societies may reconsider the ethics of eating animals.
Sources and works
2018
Record type: PersonXuxa Meneghel
The widely known Brazilian presenter spoke in 2018 about choosing an animal-free diet after learning more about animal exploitation. She later continued to use her public visibility to discuss animal suffering and vegan living.
Sources and works
2018
Record type: PersonZülâl Kalkandelen
Kalkandelen has written on vegan ethics, abolition of animal exploitation and nonviolence. Her books include Veganism: Morality, Politics and Struggle (2013, co-written) and Vegan Revolution and Animal Liberation (2018), bringing these arguments into Turkish-language public debate.
Sources and works
2019
Record type: PersonArnold Schwarzenegger
Schwarzenegger appeared in The Game Changers (2019) and publicly questioned the marketing claim that strength requires eating animals. He reported reducing his animal-product intake substantially, but explicitly said he was not strictly vegan.
Sources and works
2019
Record type: PersonFabiola Leyton
Leyton's 2019 book Los animales en la bioética examines how animal interests are treated at the boundaries of anthropocentric bioethics. Her work contributes a Latin American philosophical perspective; the reviewed sources do not establish her personal dietary practice.
Sources and works
2019
Record type: PersonGreta Thunberg
In a September 2019 interview, Thunberg explicitly said she avoided animal products for ethical as well as environmental and climate reasons. Her diet was one part of broader changes in travel, consumption and advocacy.
Sources and works
2019
Record type: PersonKhaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal
The Saudi investor publicly described an evolution from health-motivated dietary changes to concern for animal treatment and sustainability. In a 2019 interview he discussed promoting vegan food in regional hospitality and backing alternative-food ventures.
Sources and works
2019
Record type: PersonMarta Tafalla
Tafalla's Ecoanimal (2019) explores how aesthetic attention to other living beings can change human attitudes toward nature and animals. Her later writings address ecological crisis, veganism and rewilding, expanding the cultural dimensions of animal ethics.
Sources and works
2019
Record type: PersonNovak Djokovic
At Wimbledon in 2019 Djokovic said he eats plant-based but dislikes being called 'vegan'. He connected the practice to recovery and wellbeing; in a later first-person interview he also mentioned environmental sustainability.
Sources and works
2020
Record type: PersonCheng Yen
In a 2020 teaching published by Tzu Chi, Cheng Yen urged vegetarian eating not as a display of virtue but as a way to refrain from slaughter and cultivate compassion. Her own words are documented; a specific personal dietary history is not inferred from this teaching alone.
Sources and works
2020
Record type: PersonJoaquin Phoenix
During his 2020 Academy Awards speech, Phoenix used a global stage to challenge the treatment of dairy cows and their calves. He has described veganism as a commitment extending beyond food to the use of animals in clothing and everyday products.
Sources and works
2020
Record type: PersonMena Massoud
Known for his film roles, Cairo-born Massoud launched Evolving Vegan and published a cookbook in 2020 to make plant-based cooking more accessible. His public project documents advocacy for the cuisine; precise personal dietary boundaries or original motives are not established by the book profile.
Sources and works
2020
Record type: PersonSeb Alex
Seb Alex helped establish the Lebanese Vegans Social Hub in Beirut in 2020 with workshops, documentary discussions and public education on animal rights. He also founded the Middle East Vegan Society to develop culturally relevant Arabic-language vegan advocacy.
Sources and works
2020
Record type: PersonTomi Makanjuola
Makanjuola founded The Vegan Nigerian to adapt familiar Nigerian dishes without animal products. In a first-person 2020 interview she described both health concerns and opposition to animal exploitation as reasons for adopting veganism.
Sources and works
2021
Record type: PersonJoanne Lee Molinaro
Molinaro began The Korean Vegan blog after adopting plant-based eating in 2016. Her 2021 cookbook combines Korean recipes with immigrant family stories, challenging the assumption that Korean cuisine cannot be made vegan without losing cultural identity.
Sources and works
2021
Record type: PersonLella Misikir
Misikir told an Ethiopian newspaper that she became vegan in 2016 because harming animals for food conflicted with her commitment to nonviolence. Her public discussion draws on local food culture rather than treating veganism as an entirely imported idea.
Sources and works
2022
Record type: PersonAcharya Prashant
Prashant publicly argues that spiritual reflection must affect how people treat farmed animals. PETA India named him its Most Influential Vegan of 2022, citing his outreach about animal suffering, food choices and ahimsa.
Sources and works
2022
Record type: PersonEd Winters (Earthling Ed)
Winters built a large public audience through discussions, speeches and online videos about animal ethics. His 2022 book This Is Vegan Propaganda addresses ethical, environmental and health arguments while encouraging readers to examine the reasons behind everyday food choices.
Sources and works
2022
Record type: PersonJack Lekishon
A Maasai community leader in Kenya, Lekishon explained in 2022 interviews why he adopted veganism and began supporting plant-based meals in schools. His work links animal protection, local education and environmental conservation.
Sources and works
2022
Record type: PersonRG Enriquez-Diez
Through Astig Vegan and her 2022 book Filipino Vegan, Enriquez-Diez demonstrates how Filipino dishes can be made without animal products while preserving local flavours. She explicitly includes compassion, health and environmental awareness among the reasons for her work.
Sources and works
2023
Record type: PersonMartha C. Nussbaum
In Justice for Animals (2023), Nussbaum used her capabilities approach to argue that animals have claims to justice beyond welfare alone. She discusses industrial agriculture, habitats and human duties; the publisher's book profile does not document her personal diet.
Sources and works
2024
Record type: PersonMajeed Suhuyini
Suhuyini grew up in a family involved in animal slaughter and later became vegan. In a 2024 recorded interview he described using filmmaking, online food stories and public communication to make vegan ideas accessible to young audiences in Ghana.
Sources and works
2024
Record type: PersonPamela Anderson
Anderson has used her public visibility to advocate for animals and released I Love You: Recipes from the Heart (2024), a collection of plant-based recipes. Her long-standing advocacy is documented by PETA, while the publisher confirms the cookbook's date and contents.
Sources and works
2025
Record type: PersonPavel Durov
In a 2025 interview, Durov said he generally eats seafood and vegetables and stopped eating red meat because of how it made him feel. His stated reasons focus on health and self-discipline.
Sources and works
2026
Record type: PersonDaniela Amodei
In an October 2026 interview with Walter Isaacson, Daniela Amodei recalled becoming vegetarian when she was young and said her older brother Dario adopted the practice afterward. The remark documents their personal history, but does not specify her original dietary motivation.
Sources and works
2026
Record type: PersonDario Amodei
In the same 2026 interview, Daniela Amodei stated that Dario became vegetarian after she did. The conversation provides a first-hand family recollection, not an independently dated record of his present diet or the reason he adopted it.
Sources and works
2026
Record type: PersonKenneth Odhiambo
Odhiambo founded the Sondu Vegan Support Group in 2022 to teach locally available plant-based cooking and growing methods. In a 2026 interview he explained that he first adopted veganism for health reasons and later became an advocate for animal rights and veganic farming.
Sources and works
2026
Record type: PersonRachel Kabue
Vegan since 2012, Kabue founded the Vegan Society of Kenya and helped develop food education, school lunches and animal rescue. In a 2026 interview she emphasised that familiar Kenyan staples already provide a foundation for accessible plant-based eating.
Sources and works