The 2019 Edition of Canada’s Food Guide: A Vegan Perspective

Hello everyone! I recently wrote a blog post that was published on the Vegan Society blog. The post is titled "The 2019 Edition of Canada's Food Guide: A Vegan Perspective". I hope you find it interesting!

Public History Assignment: Ottawa Earthlings March 2016

By Carolyn Harris

Hello everyone!

I am currently taking a public history course in university, and one of my assignments is to write a blog post on a story, event, or object from my own life that I feel is worth preserving in an online exhibit for future public history students. The event that I have chosen is the 2016 Ottawa Earthlings March!

Photo posted by Savannah Greene on Facebook (not taken by me).

The event

On September 3, 2016, I attended Ottawa’s first annual Earthlings March, which is a peaceful protest that aims to raise awareness about animal rights issues and to call for an end to animal exploitation. Earthlings Marches were started by the animal liberation group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) and have taken place in dozens of cities around the world—from Montreal to London, and from Tel Aviv to Kharkiv. The idea behind using the word “Earthlings” is that all humans and animals are sentient beings who live on the Earth together. Different species though we may be, we all have the right to be free from abuse and exploitation. The word “Earthlings” also is used by the documentary of the same name, which is about the horrors of factory farming.

Ottawa’s march, which was organized by the Ottawa Animal Defense League, started with some speeches by Ottawa-based activists in front of dozens of participants who gathered in Confederation Park. Then, holding signs and chanting, we marched through downtown Ottawa, including past Parliament Hill and the Chateau Laurier. The march lasted for about an hour.

Photo by Carolyn Harris.





Speeches before the march. Photo by Carolyn Harris.



Our chants

These chants were presumably written by (an) animal rights activist(s) involved in the march (but not me).

Freedom for all,

Photo by Carolyn Harris.

Justice for animals!

Humans and animals

We are all equal

No more oppression,

Animal liberation

For the rabbits and the foxes and the mink and the pigs

No excuses

Let the animals live!

For the lambs and the cows and the birds and the fish

No excuses

Let the animals live!

 Not just for Cecil

 Not just for Harambe

We want justice for all animals!

Not just for dogs, not just for cats, no

We want justice for all animals!

Stop exploitation

Meat abolition

One struggle, one fight

Human freedom, animal rights

The march certainly got a lot of attention from passersby, and some onlookers filmed us with their phones as we walked by. Some march participants handed out leaflets to passersby, and/or put animal rights stickers on telephone poles along the route.

Why does this story need to be remembered?

Amazingly, even though dozens of us were there (and we made a lot of noise, believe me!), there was absolutely no coverage of the march by mainstream media. A quick Google search done months later reveals that the only online documentation of what happened at this event is on Facebook, in one YouTube video (published by one of the activists who was there), and on my vegan advocacy blog in a previous post.

Despite the lack of interest by the media, this story is one that needs to be remembered. The 2016 Ottawa Earthlings March is significant because it was the first of its kind in Ottawa, and furthermore, it is representative of the modern animal rights/vegan movement in 2016-2017. The movement has been changing its message to demand an end to the slaughter (instead of merely suggesting that animals have rights), and it is increasing in its reach like never before. Veganism is becoming more mainstream through increased vegan food selection in grocery stores and celebrity figures adopting a vegan diet. It is quite likely that in fifty years’ time, mainstream Canadian society will see animal rights as an important social justice issue.

Did you know...?

Regardless of what will happen in the future, though, remembering this march would be of interest to public history students because it captures a sense of the new direction in which this movement is headed. Fifty years from now, they will be able to compare the movement as it will exist in their time to how it was in 2016-2017.

The fact is, the history of the animal rights/vegan movement is rarely told in museums and exhibits around the world. But as the author of my public history textbook points out, when repositories accept contributions from the public, this can “allow repositories to ‘actively document those whose voices have been overlooked or marginalized’ (SAA 2011). Public engagement might contribute to limiting historical silences in collections” (Cauvin 46).

Through documentation, the memory of this event will not fade into oblivion quite as quickly as it otherwise would, and with luck, future historians will give it attention when they are writing the history of the animal rights movement/the history of Ottawa.

Canada 150 and Canada’s national identity

When talking about Canada’s national identity, animal rights and veganism do not usually come to most people’s minds. But, although vegans and animal rights activists are still the minority in Canada, our stories are nevertheless worthy of being told.

Besides, I maintain that the animal rights movement is already in line with Canadian values. Canada generally stands for respecting others’ right to live and be free. When one considers the sentience of non-human animals, it becomes apparent that we must respect animals’ rights, too.

Walking past Parliament Hill. Photo by Carolyn Harris.

 

Closing thoughts

Most importantly, this story needs to be remembered for the billions of animals who are killed every year for human tastes and profit. When we remember this march, we are also remembering the animals.

Photo posted by Savannah Greene on Facebook (not taken by me).

(Please note: The first and the last photos in this blog post were downloaded from someone else's post on this event's Facebook Event page. All the other photos are Copyright Carolyn Harris 2016.)

The Origins of the Word "Vegan"

Have you ever wondered how (and when) the word “vegan” came into existence?

With veganism growing in popularity these days, some people might think that veganism is a new invention, but in fact, vegetarianism has been practiced for thousands of years; although we don’t know how many vegetarians in the ancient times were vegans, we know for sure that veganism has been practiced since at least the beginning of the 1800’s. The word “vegan” first appeared in 1944, upon the founding of the Vegan Society in the United Kingdom.

The word “vegetarian” (which I will discuss in another post) goes back to around the 1830’s. At this time in Britain, “vegetarian” meant essentially what we mean when we say “vegan” today—that is, one who abstains from animal flesh, milk, eggs, and all other animal products.

Upon the founding of the Vegetarian Society in Great Britain in 1847, however, the Vegetarian Society, in an effort to accommodate those of their members who still consumed dairy and eggs, decided that a vegetarian diet would be defined as a diet that excluded meat, but included milk and eggs. This became a point of controversy within the Vegetarian Society, especially in the first half of the 1900’s.¹ Eventually a group of “non-dairy vegetarians” suggested that a section of the Vegetarian Society’s journal be devoted to a form of vegetarianism that excludes all animal products. However, the committee of the Vegetarian Society “decided that the full energies of the Society must continue to be applied to the task of abolishing flesh-eating, and that any such Group [of non-dairy vegetarians] would, therefore, be freer to act as an independent body.”²

And so, in November 1944, such a group was formed, although it didn’t have a name in the beginning. The first issue of The Vegan News (The Vegan Society’s original newsletter) was single-handedly written and produced by Donald Watson, a teacher of woodwork and the secretary of a local vegetarian society. On the second page of the newsletter, he wrote,

“WANTED—A NAME.

We should all consider carefully what our Group, and our magazine, and ourselves, shall be called. “Non-dairy” has become established as a generally understood colloquialism, but like “non-lacto” it is too negative. Moreover it does not imply that we are opposed to the use of eggs as food. We need a name that suggests what we do eat. and if possible one that conveys the idea that even with all animal foods taboo, Nature still offers us a bewildering assortment from which to choose. “Vegetarian” and “Fruitarian” are already associated with societies that allow the “fruits” (!) of cows and fowls, therefore it seems we must make a new and appropriate word. As this first issue of our periodical had to be named, I have used the title “The Vegan News”. Should we adopt this, our diet will soon become known as a VEGAN diet, and we should aspire to the rank of VEGANS. Member’s suggestions will be welcomed. The virtue of having a short title is best known to those of us who, as secretaries of vegetarian societies have to type or write the word vegetarian thousands of times a year!”²

In the second issue of The Vegan News, Watson noted that the word “Allvega” had been suggested by members Mr. and Mrs. G. A. Henderson (and they had suggested “Allvegan” as the title of the magazine). “It was from this that the word Vegan was taken,” Watson wrote, “and recently Mr and Mrs Henderson have written stating that they prefer the shorter version.”

The word “vega” had, indeed, already been used by vegetarians prior to 1944. In a history of the Vegan Society written in 2014, it is suggested that the Hendersons’ suggestion was inspired by a contemporary vegetarian restaurant in London that was called the Vega. (The original Vega restaurant had been in Cologne, Germany. After the owners had to flee from Germany, they opened up their new restaurant in London.)¹

Despite Watson’s preference for the word “vegan”, No. 2 of The Vegan News still included other ideas from those who had written in with their own suggestions. One person suggested that the society call itself “the Total Vegetarian Group (T.V.G.)”; another said that the magazine could be called “The True Vegetarian”. For the word that the non-dairy vegetarians would use to refer to themselves, the following suggestions were made: Neo-vegetarians, Dairybans, Vitans, Benevores, Sanivores, Beaumangeurs, or Bellevores, although these suggestions do not appear to have been taken very seriously.

In an interview in 2004, Donald Watson said, “I settled for my own word, "vegan", containing the first three and last two letters of "vegetarian" -- "the beginning and end of vegetarian." The word was accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary and no one has tried to improve it.”⁴

It is also the second issue of The Vegan News that Watson clarified how the word vegan is pronounced: “Veegan, not Veejan.”

By the time No. 3 of The Vegan News was published, the word “vegan” had truly been adopted, as evidenced by the use of the name, “The Vegan Society”, at the top of the front page; and by the following sentences, also found on the front page:

“VEGANISM          is the practice of living on fruits, nuts, vegetables, grains, and other wholesome non-animal products.

VEGANISM           excludes as human food: flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey; and animals’ milk, butter, and cheese.

VEGANISM           aims at encouraging the manufacture and use of alternatives to animal products.^”5

Later, the definition of veganism would be further refined. The most current definition of Veganism—as defined by the Vegan Society—was agreed upon in 1979. According to this definition, veganism is

"A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals."

Nowadays, in 2017, millions of people around the world refer to themselves as vegans. May this just and compassionate way of life continue to spread around the world!

Sources:

1. The Vegan Society, Ripened by Human Determination, 2014.

2. The Vegan News, Number 1.

3. The Vegan News, Number 2.

4. Vegetarians in Paradise, “24 Carrot Award”. 11 August 2004. http://www.vegparadise.com/24carrot610.html

5. The Vegan News, Number 3.

6. The Vegan Society, “Definition of veganism.” https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/definition-veganism