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Thread: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

  1. #1
    gertvegan's Avatar
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    Question When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    When, where ...... did you first hear the word vegan ?

    I can't really remember, I guess it was in the uk veggie mag or summut only 4 - 5 years ago.

  2. #2
    MzNatural's Avatar
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    About the same time I learned about Macrobiotic. That was about 10 or 11 years ago.

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    PinkFluffyCloud
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    Someone I met an AR demo told me they were Vegan. I was already a Vegetarian, but didn't really know exactly what a Vegan was, so I picked his brains and it all made sense to me!

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    I was transferred from our main office to our satellite office and everyone kept telling me about some weird woman who was like me that worked in the satellite office. I was ovo-lacto vegetarian at the time. I had talked to her on the phone once to ask a question and she was really rude so I wasn't looking forward to meeting her but we did meet and she told me all about being a vegan and started giving me all sorts of literature and restaurant recommendations. I still think she is a crazy, rude, lunatic but at least she's another vegan!

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    i heard it on the peta website that i was looking at whilst watching the video "meet your meat" that a friend sent to me, on december 16th 2003. from that minute on, i was vegan!
    "you dont have to be tall to see the moon" - african proverb

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    veganblue's Avatar
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    In "The Teenage Vegetarian's Survival Guide" where vegan made so much sense but initially living at home and with few resources was difficult to maintain for longer than 6 months. Things are different now
    "if compassion is extreme, then call me an extremist"

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    I don't know - As long as I can remember, I have always known what a vegan was...I am sure there was a time where I heard it for the first time, but I cannot remember. My cousin was a vegan for a while, but she got sick because she could not absorb B12. She still can't (she is lacto-ovo now) and even struggles absorbing her booster shots.

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    ♥♥♥ Tigerlily's Avatar
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    I heard of it a few years ago. I had known about vegetarians but when I found out about vegans, I thought they were crazy. I remember even telling myself I'd never be vegan but it's crazy. Hahaha. Times have changed!

  9. #9
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    i think i first heard it around the time i went veggie, some 12 or 13 years ago. i was learning more about plant-based diets, but didn't know any vegans and the internet wasn't around then, so i didn't have much info on veganism. the UK Vegetarian Society was kind of dismissive of vegans at the time i seem to recall.

    i vividly remember when i told my parents i wanted to be veggie my dad said, "as long as you don't want to be a vegan - that's just weird!!!" that's the first time i actually remember hearing the word.

    now i love the word - vegan vegan vegan vegan vegan

    BTW gert it's 'hear' not 'here' LOL
    'The word gorilla was derived from the Greek word Gorillai (a "tribe of hairy women")'

  10. #10

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    I first heard it when my friend said she was vegan... and I was like, you're a what? lol

  11. #11
    Lilac Hamster
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    Mine is even longer ago than IlFromaggio's (I guess you loved cheese before you were vegan?).

    I had already gone vegetarian (1981) and joined the Vegetarian Society, BUAV and League Against Cruel Sports, I think it was in 1982 that I first read someone saying they were a vegan, I seem to remember it was a piece in the BUAV magazine "The Liberator", where the office staff of the BUAV were introducing themselves, some of them said they were vegan and I did not know what it was and actually I think I might have even phoned up the BUAV and asked or somehow made it a point to find out what a vegan was because I was intrigued and I'd never heard of it before. I was a pretty poor example of a veggie still at that time because I still ate loads of biscuits and jellies with animal fat and gelatine in them but I knew I wanted to be vegan eventually. I went vegan finally in 1984.

    Lesley

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    I first heard it on Ready Steady Cook when I was about 11 and Mystic Meg came on. I thought vegans were the wrongest cast of people on earth but I was beign told that at the time by my parents and she did cast a very bad picture of it.

    The second time I thought about it was when "next of Kin" sitcom was on BBC and I at once admired and scorned the extremist vegan grandaughter

    Vegan entered my life firmly after turning vegetarian and I met a lovely vegan girl who is now my best friend and there was a Vegan Society approved vegetarian restaurant in town and then I discovered vegan Society and vegan ice cream and I read Optimum Nutition Bible which I interpreted as almost having nothing bad to say about veganism...

    Now look at me!!!

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    i guess it was around the time that i became one
    please could you stop the noise? i'm trying to get some rest from all the unborn chicken voices in my head.

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    Lilac Hamster-

    It must have been hard to be a vegan back in 1984??
    "Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends". ~ George Bernhard Shaw.

  15. #15
    Lilac Hamster
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    Wow, nearly a year since I was on this thread, and so sorry I have not been on this forum much for ages, but I feel this is worth responding to, even almost a year later!

    Kriz, in answer to whether it was hard to be vegan in 1984, I have to say no it was not really all that hard once I had decided I was determined to see it through although it is even easier now.

    I can't imagine how hard it was for people who were vegan very long ago like Donald Watson and Arthur Ling who both passed away recently. I heard Arthur became vegan as early as 1926 and in comparison being vegan in 1984 surely was easy indeed, even without soya cheese on the market at the time.

    I always feel a bit surprised that people think it would have been very hard being vegan in 1984, with the animal rights movement gaining in popularity rapidly at that time, I got involved in lots of groups and got to meet lots of vegans and vegetarians, and never really found it at all difficult. Really to me it feels like it was not all that long ago, not like a completely different world the way it must have been in the 1940s when the Vegan Society was founded. Most people knew what a vegetarian was in 1984 even though I had to explain veganism to a few people.

    Lesley

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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    well the first time i ever heard it, i was really young, but at the time i didn't understand the lifestyle or anything else about it...i really found out about veganism when i first went veg, when i still had no intention or desire, of really doing it...then a couple years after that, i really found out about it as i became more active in being environmentally concious... i can't remember if there was anyone that i really learned it from though...
    Peace Love Surf.

  17. #17
    vegan pizza! thecatspajamas1's Avatar
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    I think I first heard the word over a year ago when one of my friends became vegan. It's possible that I had heard it before. I don't remember even paying much attention to it when it happened. I didn't really know anything about it. What luck that within a year I would be vegan myself!

  18. #18
    snaffler's Avatar
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    A hard one to remember but I think it was some time ago I was reading some information sent through by the Campaign Against Leather & Fur. It was a long time ago I can not recall the time or date
    Go confidently in the direction of your dreams

  19. #19
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    I was about 8 and my (much) older sister was telling my mum about a 'crazy' vegan performance artist. She was basically taking the piss out of this guy but although i'd never have admitted it to her, i thought he sounded really interesting!
    My turn of mind is so given to taking things in the absurd point of view that it breaks out in spite of me every now and then.

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  20. #20
    Pilaf
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    When I bought Moby's album "Play" back in 99. I did some research online and discovered he was a "vegan". Didn't think much of it at the time. It would be another six years before I turned.

  21. #21
    Michael Benis's Avatar
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    Around 75-76 at the Vegan Cafe in London. They had the old Vegan society leaflet on milk there. I was veggie at the time and went vegan on the spot. Lovely people, as well. Cat, Keith, Richard and Sue are the names I remember. Also Marijke and Kevin (I think). With Malcolm Horne they also started The Vegan Newsletter which not long after became Vegan Views. Henry, who I met on a sort of group outing, was the first fruitarian I ever met.

    I ended up cooking and serving and washing up with them for a while before I went to university.

    Does anyone know where they are now? The only one I've heard about is Malcolm, who organised the camp for several years, I think, and recently moved to Wales...

    Cheers

    Michael

  22. #22
    Hippy Scum Plunder Bunnie's Avatar
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    I was like, 10 and watching Jonovision on CBC and they had people on talking about it.
    "You'd better take care of me lord, otherwise you're gonna have me on your hands" - Hunter S. Thompson

  23. #23
    coconut's Avatar
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    When I bought Moby's album "Play"
    Yeah that's the first time I remember coming across the word vegan. The essay in the album sleeve is really good, I can't believe it didn't make an impression on me the first time I read it. Like everyone else whenever I thought of a vegan I got the image of a pale, stick-thin person. Shows how much I knew

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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    lol, coconut, i had the same thought when i used to think of vegans... i always thought of skinny unhealthy ppl, sitting around like hippies eating carrots, now i know differently...although i have turned into quite a bit of a hippy
    Peace Love Surf.

  25. #25
    Knolishing Pob's Avatar
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    I used to hang around with a vegan hunt sab sometimes in Sheffield from 1990. I think I knew about vegans before that, though.

  26. #26

    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    the first time I heard the word vegan... hhmmm...
    It should have been about two years ago, I was already a vegetarian but I had never heard about vegans before. There ain't much information about the topic here...
    At first I rejected the idea, "why that" I thought, but after a while I met some vegans in the Running of the bulls who gently explained it to me, and it made sense to be so I decided to take a chance

    Paz y luz
    "Nuestras vidas comienzan a apagarse el día en que permanecemos impasibles ante lo que de verdad importa"
    :rolleyes: www.greenpeach.org :D Vegan forum for Animal Liberation - /Spain /

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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    Quote toma_Paella!!!

    Paz y luz
    what a nice way to end ur post!
    Peace Love Surf.

  28. #28

    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    I love you guys...
    "Nuestras vidas comienzan a apagarse el día en que permanecemos impasibles ante lo que de verdad importa"
    :rolleyes: www.greenpeach.org :D Vegan forum for Animal Liberation - /Spain /

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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    After I had already become a vegetarian I read it in a book that described macrobiotics, raw food, fruitarians, etc

  30. #30
    Lilac Hamster
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    Michael Benis, hi some of the longtime vegans in London Vegans might know about the people you knew in the 70's. Peter Despard and Rose King are people that spring to mind and who would probably remember that long back, so they might know what happened to those other people. I used to go to London Vegans a lot in the late 80's to early 90's and I am sure there were people who knew the Vegan Cafe several years before. I don't go back quite that far myself, only went vegan in 1984, and was not in the London area until late 87. Glad to see I'm not the only oldie on here, I wonder if anyone has compiled a comprehensive history of the vegan movement yet? That would be interesting.

    Lesley

  31. #31
    Michael Benis's Avatar
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    Hi Lesley,

    thanks for the suggestion. Do LV have a website?

    I agree a history woulod be a very good idea, especially while we still have access to the friends of the first-generation vegans who have recently died.

    Cheers

    Mike

    PS: Just re-read that. It sounds awful! Hopefully you know what I meant....

    PPS: I just found the website! The Net makes it so much easier to find people, doesn't it? I'm sounding older and more senile by the minute.....

  32. #32
    sugarmouse
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    i think i first heard it hwen i was working with folk selling 'The Big Issue'
    in leeds.

  33. #33
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    I heard about it in my first year of university when I joined the juggling club. The president and her friends were vegan, and I went over to her house to help bake cookies and squares for the bake sale. They showed me how to bake with soymilk and egg replacer, but I brushed off their help and made chocolate chip cookies with milk chocolate chips, milk and eggs and refused to try their creations. My how I've changed
    "Man can do as he wills, but not will as he wills" - Arthur Schopenhauer

  34. #34

    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    I first heard the word "vegan" in 1991 when I was walking with a couple vegetarian friends to the supermarket and one of the friends claimed to be vegan. I asked what "vegan" meant and the friend said that it was not eating eggs or dairy. Once we got to the supermarket the friend ordered an egg roll from the Chinese take-out. Since I knew egg rolls not only had eggs, but also had ham I quickly dismissed this "vegan" thing as bunch of hooey. As a vegetarian I considered ham and eggs meat, and I couldn't understand why this "vegan" claimed to be a vegetarian. (I was also shocked months earlier when my other friend was eating eggs. I never understood why some "vegetarians" didn't consider eggs meat.) My "vegan" friend insisted that egg rolls didn't have eggs or ham in them. If my friend wasn't a Doc Martin wearing, egg roll eating psudovegan I would have converted that night rather than taking more than a year to figure out what veganism really was. When I did go vegan the egg roll eater had completely stopped being a vegetarian and knowingly tricked me into eating something containing anchovies. The other friend was still vegetarian, but said veganism was too extreme. A few years later the vegetarian friend did become a vegan.
    The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men. —Alice Walker

  35. #35

    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    First time I heard Vegan word on Yahoo Chat, when there was one Vegan/Vegetarian user room. There I met one Canadain Vegan boy of 20 years old Vegan boy.

    Manish Jain

  36. #36
    driftingAway piggy's Avatar
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    i've known the word ever since i can remember, i'm sure i must have learnt it from my mom. she's very open to the veg*n way of life, even though she is omni. I remember her talking to me about vegetarianism when i was 5 or 6 or even earlier
    Piggy

  37. #37

    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    I was in high school when my older sister introduced me to veganism. I may have heard the word in middle school, in fact I probably did, but didn't know much about it, other than it was a strage lifestyle my sister had. I've been vegan ever since....10 years now
    Robert Cheeke
    "Let yourself be silently drawn by the strong pull of what you love" -Annonymous

  38. #38
    Tiggerwoo
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    I think I've always known what a vegan was, right from when I was a kid, wish I had been a vegan as a kid though too!

  39. #39
    Viva Vegan! Romac's Avatar
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    about 18 years ago from a hippy chick in toronto that i thought was a dipshit. She had 3 kids from 3 different guys, but none of them were around, her head was a mess, her life was a mess, and she was a vegan. i'd look at her and think "whatever she is, i want to be the opposite"

    very bad first impression of the word vegan to say the least.
    Viva Vegan!

  40. #40
    Pilaf
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    I heard Moby was a vegan. Well, in fact, the entire sleeve of his 1999 platinum album Play was pretty much a treatise on veganism.

  41. #41
    Vote VBB veganbikerboy's Avatar
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    when at college, a girl i knew of had passed out and they had to call an ambulance. It turned out that it was a food deficency, she had turned vegan but had not researched it and had lived for over three months on beans on toast!! i always thought she was a weirdo unfortunatley she went back to meat.

    for many years i thought that all vegans are weirdo's, and i am still trying to collect evidence to prove the contary but it's hard work

    About 4 years later i met another girl that was vegan, and had an answer for everything! including vegan food, other than beans on toast

  42. #42
    mango woman
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    I have been trying to think of my answer for this for a while now. I couldn't figure it out! but now i think i've got it:

    When my mom was going through the divorce she thought it necessary for my sisters and i to get those "big brother big sisters" people.. and i got a girl named Misty. i think she was in her early twenties at the time, and i was probably 14 or so. I remember thinking that she was just the coolest, she was always cooking weird new foods with me and we'd do all sorts of fun stuff like go camping, or biking etc. really wholesome active stuff. I remember then one time the conversation came up about how she doesn't eat meat and [at the time i hadn't even gone vegetarian yet] she just kind of said that she was a "vegan" and didn't eat anything from an animal. After that though, we didn't really talk about it much, it was just somethign i looked forward to when i'd hang out with her. I think probably about a year after knowing her i went vegetarian, and it was nice having her to talk to about how my mom was really angry and wouldn't allow it etc. She was pretty impressed by the vegetarian conversion too, and it was nice to have at least one person who agreed.

    Eventually we went our separate ways after we both were like 4 years older, and i really haven't heard from her since. I've tried to get a hold of her before in attempts to possibly meet up for some vegan cuisine or something [cooking with her was so fun], but i haven't had much luck yet. I'd love to tell her that i've gone vegan too. I look back and realize that she was probably a big influence on me, whether it seemed obvious at the time or not.. maybe crazy subliminal stuff.

    Maybe some day i'll run into her again, that'd be really neat.

    So there's my cute little story. lol.

  43. #43
    purrr..! DoveInGreyClothing's Avatar
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    At school in a textbook in English class, teaching us about animal rights issues. I must have been about 11. I went vegetarian shortly after, my mum freaked enough at that! Now I do my own cooking it's all good!
    It is a monstrous thing to do, to slay a unicorn...you have slain something pure and defenceless and you will have but a half life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips.

  44. #44
    Yst
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    Quite possibly first in association with the Canadian punk band Propagandhi. But on a larger scale, merely in association with punk culture in general, wherein there were a number of vegan bands which had a chance to be relevant to me in the '90s.

  45. #45
    Cake Fairy Cherry's Avatar
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    When I was about 11. I went to a big 50th birthday party, and was sitting opposite a young woman (she was probably about 20 but was older than my sisters and seemed quite grown up) who said she was vegan and was broadcasting it to everyone. She then tucked into the mayonnaise! I remember thinking that veganism must be the sort of thing you did for show, and also remember thinking how awful it must be not having cake! (I didn't know about vegan cake )

    I remember saying to people when I was about 18 or 19 'I'm vegetarian but I'm never going to be vegan, that would be far too extreme!" - how embarrassing.

  46. #46
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    Default Re: When, where did you first hear the word vegan ?

    Through Daniel John's mouth years ago.

    I used to be so crazy about him.

    He did influence me alot but I went indie too many years ago to even care.

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