Ana Hanger

Veganism is not just a way of eating, but it is a philosophy people live by in order to exclude “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.” In 1806, when the earliest concepts of veganism were formed with the help of Dr. William Lambe and Percy Bysshe Shelley. They believed that eggs and dairy were not important to their diet. Veganism is an extreme form of vegetarianism that was officially formed in Nov. 1944 by Donald Watson who met with other non-dairy vegetarians to discuss their lifestyle and felt that a new word was required to describe them. They wanted something crisper than ‘non-dairy vegetarians’ so they settled on ‘vegan’ shrinking the word ‘vegetarian’ to the first three and the last two letters.  Donald Watson said, “This is the beginning and end of vegetarian.” Veganism wanted “to seek an end to the use of animals by man for food, commodities, work, hunting, vivisection, and by all other uses involving exploitation of animal life by man” because they felt that too many animals were being abused due to humans eating them or using their harvests. Sophomore Bekah Ford said, “I’ve been a vegan for nearly two years now. I’ve seen a lot of different examples of how badly animals are treated, and it keeps me on the right path.” Keep Reading