‘Go Veg’: Identity, Lifestyle, and Culture, 1970–2015

Abstract

This chapter discusses vegetarian and vegan lifestyle activism. Ethical vegetarianism was central in Peter Singer’s philosophy, and lifestyle activism defined what it meant to be a dedicated activist. Although it was regarded as one of the most practical and effective ways to challenge animal exploitation, vegetarianism was for a number of years promoted in conventional ways and lacked the resources and dedication that characterised other important campaigns. By the late 1980s, veganism, at first conceptually and then practically, was viewed as the ultimate ethical lifestyle. Within a few decades, vegan lifestyle activism grew as a creative and prominent campaign of the animal movement. With the passage of time, a definable and visible cosmopolitan vegetarian and vegan subculture emerged across Australia.