The end of the XX – beginning of the XXI century can be noted as a time of rapid growth of interest in vegetarianism throughout the Western world. The reason for this is the strengthening of ties with Eastern cultures, where vegetarianism is the traditional way of eating for a large part of the population, as well as the growth of the so-called “diseases of civilization”, the reasons for which, according to many researchers, lie in the way of eating imposed on people by the urban way of life, and the transformation of food into an industry. In addition, human concern about the environment and the future of the planet, as well as the rights of animals that serve as food for humans, has increased more than ever.
In total, according to a 2010 study, the number of people who have given up eating meat is 1.45 billion, and another 75 million face the choice of vegetarianism. This is about 21.8 % of the world’s population (Wikipedia data). An impressive figure, isn’t it?
Of course, this figure was mainly due to the large number of residents of eastern countries, where vegetarian food is traditional for a large part of the population. So, in China, about 5% of the population profess Taoism (as well as vegetarianism), in India – about 40% of the population adhere to a vegetarian diet due to religious beliefs. India was the first to develop and implement mandatory labeling of food products, both vegetarian and containing ingredients of animal origin.
However, in the Western world, the number of people inclined to a vegetarian diet is growing rapidly. According to a Harris poll (USA), about 5% of Americans consider themselves vegetarians – about 16 million people. About one in ten of them called themselves vegans. In Britain, the number of vegetarians has increased by 360 % over the past 10 years – to half a million people. In some countries, this number is much lower, but there is a tendency to increase the number of people who limit their meat consumption.
But even if their numbers are relatively small, vegetarianism is not a new phenomenon in the West. In fact, anthropologists believe that our ancient ancestors were mostly vegetarians and ate roots, nuts, and mushrooms. Previously, it was believed that Neanderthals ate mainly meat. However, in 2012, anthropologists, using the latest methods of studying bones and other archaeological finds, came to the conclusion that most of the diet of ancient man was made up of plants. Of course, our ancestors ate meat from time to time, but the extraction of meat was dangerous and time-consuming. The main diet of Neanderthals was plants.
This does not mean that people did not need meat. A 2012 study based on the structure of the ancient human skull suggested that human evolution may have occurred solely due to a high-calorie diet that could be provided with meat, rather than plants. As one anthropologist researching this question put it: “I know it sounds terrible to vegetarians, but it’s meat that has made us human.”
Four thousand years ago, the ancient Egyptians also made their food choices not in favor of fish and meat, but in favor of cultivated cereals (wheat, barley). This may seem strange, given the location of the Egyptian civilization on the banks of the largest river Nile. But researchers attribute this to religious reasons: cows, sheep, pigs, and geese were considered sacred animals in ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians not only ate meat rarely and in exceptional cases, they also disapproved of wearing animal skins and feathers.
A thousand years later, in Ancient Greece, the high culture and spirituality of Hellenic society also pushed some of the ancient Greeks to abandon meat. The mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, whose theorem on the isosceles triangle is known to us from school, probably adhered to the strictest vegetarian diet (today he would be considered a vegan). Pythagoras was the author of a philosophical concept that equated the right to life of man and animal. Human ethics, according to Pythagoras, should not allow the sacrifice of animals, as well as the taking of their lives, in order to maintain the life of another being.
There are legends, described by Ovid, that Pythagoras prevented a man from beating his dog, suggesting that it was the dog that would be possessed by the soul of this person after death, and also forced the fisherman to let go of the fish caught in the sea. Pythagoras, ostentatiously sacrificing bread baked in the form of a bull to the gods instead of a bull, can be considered one of the first defenders of animal rights. He equated the killing of animals with the killing of a human being or with war. This famous philosopher had many followers during his lifetime and in all subsequent times, and the meat-free diet was called “Pythagorean” until recently.
The followers of Pythagoras, starting with his contemporaries Aristotle, Seneca and Ovid and ending with famous figures of the XIX-XX centuries, such as Leo Tolstoy, Ben Franklin and others, called themselves “Pythagoreans” and refused to kill animals and eat meat.
The word “vegetarian” first appeared in England in 1847, when the first European society of people who practice the rejection of meat and adhere to the “Pythagorean” diet was formed. In the 60s of the XIX century, two vegetarian societies appeared in Germany, in 1894-in Sweden, in 1899-in France. In 1850, the American Vegetarian Partnership appeared in New York (USA).
The American vegetarian partnership lasted a very long time. Later, many famous Americans became members of this partnership, such as Lucy Stone, who fought for women’s rights, playwright Bernard Shaw, John Kellogg, health promoter and inventor of cornflakes. On the basis of the Vegetarian Association, the American Vegetarian Party was created, which nominated its candidate for president in 1964.
In 1971, the American writer and food policy researcher Frances Moore Lapp published the book “A Diet for a Small Planet”, in which she advocated a vegetarian diet not for ethical or moral reasons, but because the cultivation of plant products has less negative impact on the environment than the production of meat. The next author who had a huge impact on the vegetarian movement was Peter Singer, who wrote the book “Animal Liberation” in 1975.”These two books have become bestsellers and original programming works for the vegetarian movement in the Western world, while at the same time defining vegetarianism as an attempt to save the world from hunger and humanism.
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