Vegan Studies Research Articles

Nutritional analysis of vegan recipes: From social media to plate.

The study aimed to determine the nutritional composition of vegan recipes shared on the Instagram social media platform and to compare these ingredients with their non-vegan/omnivorous versions. Turkish and English vegan recipes of meatballs (n = 53), burgers (n = 12), pizza (n = 15), pasta (n = 38), cake (n = 58), and cookies (n = 52) were obtained from Instagram. They all met the criteria of being shared as #vegan labeled, presented detailed information about ingredients, and only included plant-based ingredients. Afterward, non-vegan/omnivorous recipes (n = 228) were determined as equivalent to the vegan recipes in each food group, and a total of 456 recipes were evaluated. The amounts of macro- and micronutrients per 100-gram serving were obtained by the Nutritional Data System (BeBiS). According to the outcomes, the most significant differences in nutritional composition were found between vegan and non-vegan meatball recipes. The levels of cholesterol and B12 were significantly lower in English vegan recipes of meatballs, pasta, cake, and cookies compared to their non-vegan versions (p < .05). Consuming different vegan foods throughout the day could provide complementary nutrient intake and sustainable optimal health. Nevertheless, recipe-based updates could be an innovative approach in future vegan studies. In addition, analysis of vegan recipes could be considered to modulate vegan supplementation programs.

Dino Fix

In this essay, I combine ecofeminism, critical animal studies, and vegan studies to analyse the depictions of dinosaurs in a vegan picturebook, Robert Neubecker’s Linus the Vegetarian T. Rex. Because picturebook dinosaurs, like the titular Linus, can mobilize the intense “conceptual interest” in dinosaurs found among young children, I argue that a co-reading of Linus can help initiate conversations and facilitate learning about difficult “adult” concepts, such as evolution, extinction, and the Anthropocene, in children primarily but not limited to ages four to six. As compared to largely anthropocentric mainstream children’s literature, a vegan picturebook like Linus can also intervene in early childhood education before children are socialized into dominant anthroparchal ideologies that normalize the consumption of animals and contribute to global warming; moreover, it can promote positive attitudes toward science and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. Due to its ambiguous and open-ended messaging, as well as its imaginative approach of enlivening dinosaur fossils at a natural history museum, Neubecker’s Linus arguably encourages an ethical stance toward living nonhuman animals and thus offers a blueprint for “a picturebook for the Anthropocene”: challenging the more obviously reductive instrumentalist depiction of dinosaurs in mainstream children’s literature; raising awareness about the climate crisis by promoting veganism and vegetarianism while also interrogating gendered assumptions about plant-eating; and combating sexist and adultist attitudes toward science education.

"Friends, not food": Depictions of Animals in Vegan Picturebooks

Abstract: Like mainstream children's literature, vegan picturebooks teach children fundamental cultural messaging about food, what (or whom) to eat or not to eat. In doing so, many of these books use some iteration of animals as "friends, not food" to recalibrate the human-animal relationship. Such framing of animals as "friends" or "food" is integral to telling the truth about animal use and consumption by humans, but it can also be problematic because it risks reducing ethical veganism to a dietary practice alone, rather than a holistic philosophy and praxis of animal empowerment. To expose the realities of animal consumption, moreover, some vegan picturebooks include graphic depictions of cruelty to animals, which may not be age-appropriate for younger readers. Informed by critical animal studies (CAS) and vegan studies, this paper analyzes two discursive strategies found in popular vegan picturebooks: encouraging empathy through interspecies similarities ("friends") and foregrounding the impact of what we eat on humans, animals, and the environment ("food"). Vegan picturebooks are selected from recommended lists on vegan blogs, and their popularity is qualitatively analyzed based on reader feedback in online customer reviews. The conclusion reflects on the broader influence of vegan picturebooks on younger readers, provides more context for their focus on animals as food, and considers whether a gentler message of interspecies compassion and an aspirational, rather than identity-based, veganism might be more persuasive in spreading veganism, given its potential to reach vegan allies and other non-vegans.

The “Cruel Absurdity” of Human Violence and Its Consequences. A Vegan Studies Analysis of a Pandemic Novel

This article teases out what a Vegan Studies theoretical framework can offer a literary analysis of a selected pandemic novel, “The Fell” (2021), by Sarah Moss. Pandemic fiction accommodates texts from a wide range of genres, and these types of literary texts have seen a resurgence in the wake of the spread of the corona virus. While literary engagements with pandemics have often been relegated to the realms of dystopian science fiction, our current realities have shifted to such an extent that they can now comfortably be read alongside more realistic fictional representations of contemporary societies. The causal relationships between anthropocentric abuse of the environment in general and of animals in particular, and pandemics have been energetically contested in the media and in scholarly disciplinary fields ranging from Virology to Critical Animal Studies. The argument that I will develop is that Vegan Studies is a theoretical rubric with unique and salient generative capacity and that it allows for the emergence of fresh and necessary insights when we start unpacking how to make sense of pandemics through fiction. I will use Moss’s novel to anchor and illustrate my argument in favour of the value of Vegan Studies in these discussions.

Using Critical Animal Studies to Read Climate Change Fiction: Literary Reflections and Provocations

This article utilises the conceptual and theoretical tools of critical animal studies to expose and interrogate the terminological lapses and possibilities in selected contemporary climate fiction novels. These novels are My Days of Dark Green Euphoria (2022) by A. E. Copenhaver, Bewilderment (2021) by Richard Powers, and Stay and Fight (2019) by Madeline Ffitch. I argue that the terminological slipperiness that confronts anyone attempting to talk about and imagine other animals in respectful modes of engagement signals more than the inadequacy of our scholarly lexicons. Rather, these gaps reveal deeply problematic epistemological and ontological assumptions about other animals and our responsibilities towards them. The selected primary texts offer me an anchor in which to ground my argument that much greater levels of nuance and complexity are demanded of us when we read representations of other animals through the lens of critical animal studies. I conclude by exploring how Eva Haifa Giraud’s theorisations of entanglement and ethical exclusion move the conversation about other animals forward in richly generative ways. I argue that the selected novels allow readings that reach far beyond simplistic, anthropocentric understandings of the more-than-human world. Finally, I suggest that vegan studies opens up new spaces in interactions with cultural texts, and that this emerging framework and reading modality brings into stark relief both the challenges and the opportunities that continue to shape our ways of being part of a world where the human animal is not the only one worthy of respect and care.

About the Authors

About the Authors

Human Violence and Eating Animals: Reading Gaétan Soucy through the lenses of Animal and Vegan Studies

This essay examines vegetarianism and the treatment of animals in Gaétan Soucy’s L’Immaculée Conception and Music-Hall! as part of an innovative commentary on violence among humans. The novels’ unconventional use of zoomorphism and anthropomorphism in establishing animal sentience and agency places the animal at the center of moral inquiry in order to denounce violent anthropocentrism. By drawing from leading theorists of animal and vegan studies, this essay demonstrates that in Soucy’s works, animals and minority human groups are depicted as sharing a common aggressor: patriarchy and its numerous avatars. By highlighting a number of parallels in the narratives between animals and human victims of male aggression, this study brings to light the novels’ denunciation of the meat processing industry and the consumption of meat as perpetuating a divisive social order that victimizes not only animals, but also women, children, and the poor. In contrast, the narratives proffer respect for animals as the ultimate anti-violent gesture. By extension, vegetarianism presents as a critical, self-reflexive consciousness and a deep ethical awareness that breaks with patterns of violent behavior at the foundation of Western civilization.

Vegan food geographies and the rise of Big Veganism.

Veganism is the subject of an increasingly diverse body of social scientific research, yet it remains relatively understudied in geography. Meanwhile, contemporary cultural commentaries note how veganism has gone mainstream, with critics warning of veganism’s corporate nature – expressed in the rise of what we term ‘Big Veganism’. We argue that food geographers are well placed to examine these trends. We first review vegan studies work beyond geography that examines and critiques the mainstreaming of veganism. We focus on literature that explores multiple contested modes of veganism, veganism as praxis in place and the rise of corporate veganism as useful foundations for geographers to build on, particularly in light of currently unfolding developments in vegan cultures and practice. Taking this work forward, we identify four conceptual traditions from research in food geographies – following foodways, alternative food networks and the cultural and material politics of eating – to develop a ‘vegan food geographies’ programme that aims to advance critical geographic work on veganism and the emerging implications of its contemporary mainstreaming.

Вклад Шопенгауэра в развитие движения в защиту животных

The article analyzes the contribution made by Schopenhauer to the development of the move­ment for the protection of animals. The author reconstructs some details of Schopenhauer’s interaction with the founder of the first German societies for the protection of animals Ignaz Perner. The article discusses the criticism of the Cartesian worldview and Christian morality proposed by Schopenhauer, with which Schopenhauer associates the lawlessness of animals that was relevant for his era. The article critically reconstructs some of Schopenhauer’s judg­ments regarding the reflection of the status of animals in language, in the Bible, and in legis­lation. The author compares the status of animals in Schopenhauer’s philosophy and in classi­cal German philosophy on the example of Kant and Hegel. The article discusses the criticism of Kant presented by Schopenhauer for “idolatry of reason”, on the basis of which Kant, fol­lowing Descartes and Christian morality, continues to be in error regarding the existence of an ontological gap between man and animals. The article gives a detailed reconstruction of Schopenhauer’s doctrine of animals, including the idea of the animal kingdom as one of the stages of objectification of will, the interpretation of the aesthetic image of animals and the creative drives of the animals themselves, and the justification for the need for compas­sionate behavior towards animals. The article criticizes the widespread perception of Schopen­hauer as a vegetarian, and provides Schopenhauer’s own arguments about the necessity of eating meat. The article discusses Schopenhauer’s doctrine of animals in the context of modern animal and vegan studies. The article concludes that Schopenhauer was the first European philosopher to offer a popular theoretical justification for the need for an ethical at­titude towards animals, which formed the basis of the animal welfare movement in Germany.

Haunted by the specter of the animal other : reading beyond the human in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series

This article offers a close literary analysis of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels through the theoretical rubric of Critical Animal Studies. I demonstrate how animals haunt the texts and how serious and respectful scholarly engagement with the specter of the animal other allows fresh insights and ways of thinking to emerge. As the analysis develops, I deploy the conceptual tools of Vegan Studies to suggest that meaningful multispecies relationships require us to devise radically innovative terminological, epistemological and ontological frameworks. The questions that arise when reading beyond the human in these novels create pathways that allow us to take some tentative steps towards a world that is more just for animals and more reflective of the "love" most people profess for the animals with whom they share their lives and homes. This article is an interrogation of literary representations and the assumptions that are embedded in those representations, a provocation to read beyond the human and a political plea for a more just world for all members of our societies. As a necessary first step, I argue that we must, at the very least, "see" the animal other when we read.

Vegan diet in young children remodels metabolism and challenges the statuses of essential nutrients

Vegan diets are gaining popularity, also in families with young children. However, the effects of strict plant‐based diets on metabolism and micronutrient status of children are unknown. We recruited 40 Finnish children with a median age 3.5 years—vegans, vegetarians, or omnivores from same daycare centers—for a cross‐sectional study. They enjoyed nutritionist‐planned vegan or omnivore meals in daycare, and the full diets were analyzed with questionnaires and food records. Detailed analysis of serum metabolomics and biomarkers indicated vitamin A insufficiency and border‐line sufficient vitamin D in all vegan participants. Their serum total, HDL and LDL cholesterol, essential amino acid, and docosahexaenoic n‐3 fatty acid (DHA) levels were markedly low and primary bile acid biosynthesis, and phospholipid balance was distinct from omnivores. Possible combination of low vitamin A and DHA status raise concern for their visual health. Our evidence indicates that (i) vitamin A and D status of vegan children requires special attention; (ii) dietary recommendations for children cannot be extrapolated from adult vegan studies; and (iii) longitudinal studies on infant‐onset vegan diets are warranted.

Vegan Studies as Ecofeminist Intervention

On November 5, 2019, 11,000 scientists from 153 countries declared a climate emergency, and their report presents in stark terms the nature and certainty of the crisis, providing six paths forward, one of which focuses on agriculture: “eating mostly plant-based foods while reducing the global consumption of animal products . . . can improve human health and significantly lower GHG emissions” (Ripple et al. 4). We have been given a plan to help us mediate this crisis, but what will it take for us to act on it, or, for that matter, to discuss the “animal question” in ways that are not predicated on vitriolic fear and willful disdain of plant-based consumption? In this essay, I offer a vegan studies approach as a theoretical and lived ecofeminist intervention in a political moment characterized by environmental uncertainty, overt racism, misogyny, and anti-immigrant policies that have become conflated with the presumed threat veganism poses to an increasingly authoritarian present.

Through a Vegan Studies Lens: Textual Ethics and Lived Activism. Edited by Laura Wright

Through a Vegan Studies Lens: Textual Ethics and Lived Activism. Edited by Laura Wright

Animals Australia and the Challenges of Vegan Stereotyping

Animals Australia and the Challenges of Vegan Stereotyping

Being a Bad Vegan

Being a Bad Vegan

Weganizacja akademii i nowa humanistyka, czyli o weganizmie w kontekście badań literacko-kulturowych

Weganizacja akademii i nowa humanistyka, czyli o weganizmie w kontekście badań literacko-kulturowych&#x0D; Zaproponowane przez autorkę pojęcia „weganizacji akademii” i „wegańskiego zwrotu” odnoszą się do rosnącego zainteresowania badaczy – literaturoznawców, kulturoznawców, filozofów czy też psychologów – weganizmem postrzeganym zarówno jako praktyka jak i filozofia. Artykuł omawia historię tego zainteresowania oraz skupia się na kulminacyjnym momencie w historii naukowej refleksji nad weganizmem wyznaczonym przez publikację przez Laurę Wright The Vegan Studies Project. Food, Animals and Gender in the Age of Terror, monografii, która tworzy fundamenty dla studio nad weganizmem. Artykuł podejmuje próbę określenia specyfiki studiów nad weganizmem w kontekście studiów nad zwierzętami, ekokrytyki i ruchów na rzecz zwierząt oraz miejsca, jakie zajmują na mapie współczesnej humanistyki ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem wprowadzonej przez Ewę Domańską koncepcji humanistyki prefiguratywnej. Widziane w tym ujęciu studia nad weganizmem mogą stać się platformą debaty na temat możliwości stworzenia alternatywnej wizji przyszłości.&#x0D;

Faux-meat and masculinity: The gendering of food on three vegan blogs

This study explores the relationship between gender and veganism through a critical analysis of food-based discourse on three vegan blogs. As many researchers note, there is a strong association between meat and masculinity in North American society (Nath, 2011; Rothgerber, 2013; Rozin, Hormes, Faith &amp; Wansink, 2012; Ruby &amp; Heine, 2011; Sumpter, 2015). While some researchers argue that the practice of veganism inherently challenges traditional gender norms (Adams, 2015; Potts and Parry, 2010), in these blog posts there is little room for alternative gender performativity. Drawing upon critical feminist and vegan studies literature, and previous discourse analysis of food blogs, this research examines the intersections of gender and food through the practice of veganism. Furthermore, it analyses how the association between meat and masculinity is applied in the gendering of vegan food. I argue that the gendered discourse of vegan food on these blogs reinforces, rather than challenges, traditional gender norms through the use of tropes describing “carnivorous men” and “manly meals” with hopes of satiating male appetites.

Speciesism Party: A Vegan Critique of Sausage Party

This article provides a critical vegan reading of the comedy animation film Sausage Party (2016), directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan and starring Seth Rogen and Kristen Wiig. Such a reading is situated within an emerging vegan studies framework (Wright 2015) that is sensitive to the reproduction of unequal power relations between humans and other species, but also how those power inequalities intersect with intra-human power relations along the lines of gender, sexuality, “race,” age, class, different experiences of embodiment and so on. Sociologist Erika Cudworth argues that “[w]e need as full an analysis of social intersectionality as we are capable of,” so that the critical focus remains on “relational systems of power” (Cudworth 2015: 101). Cudworth (2011) also introduced the concept of anthroparchy, to signify the human domination of nature, with “nature” including but not limited to other animals. In that context, Sausage Party perpetuates anthroparchy, in so far as it normalizes the consumption of “animal products” for the audience. Those consumption practices are dependent on systems of production that are implicated in major environmental crises (Twine 2010), including mass extinctions, climate change, deforestation, water pollution and water scarcity, which might be summed up by Michael Fox’s (2000) term “ecocide.” Cudworth (2014) argues that a relational system of power comprises both ideas and beliefs as well as contextually embedded social practices. In this article, we argue that Sausage Party provides an exemplary case study in the cultural reproduction of such an intersected relational system of power. It celebrates ecocidal, oppressive consumption practices at the same time as it reproduces ideas and beliefs, or social norms, of unequal relations between species, between genders, between the differently abled, and so on. This may be made clearer by situating the critique of Sausage Party in the context of recent research that may be broadly construed as operating within a vegan studies framework.

Introducing Vegan Studies

According to a Memorandum of Association of the Vegan Society, to be vegan is to ascribe to 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. A 2006 estimate placed the number of vegans in the United States somewhere around 1.7 million, and with “vegan movement organizations counting their membership in the tens of thousands, there are arguably more practicing vegans in the USA than there are members of vegan organizations” (Cherry 156). Furthermore, since 2006, the number of vegans in the UK rose by 360 percent (Quinn). As an identity category and a lifestyle, veganism constitutes a subject position that allows for environmentally responsible consumer choices that are viewed, particularly in the west, as oppositional to and disruptive of a capitalist system that is largely dependent upon big agriculture. Furthermore, veganism has become increasingly visible via celebrity endorsements and universally acknowledged health benefits, and veganism and vegan characters (as well as tacit vegan politics1) are increasingly present in works of art and literature in ways that insist upon their recognition as worthy of ecocritical inquiry. To that end, this special cluster on Vegan Studies offers four essays that theorize vegans and veganism within the context of environmental literature and film.

The Eyes of That Cow: Eating Animals and Theorizing Vegetarianism in James Joyce’s Ulysses

At the end of the nineteenth century more than half of Ireland’s entire land surface was being used for the raising of livestock, most of which was transported through Dublin on its way to England to be slaughtered and eaten. The same period saw the development of a new social phenomena of vegetarianism amongst Ireland’s intellectuals and literary figures. This article focuses on James Joyce’s portrayal of livestock, meat and vegetarianism in Ulysses, examining how the novel engages with the politics of cattle raising, the emergence of industrialized animal slaughter and the ethics of meat eating at the turn of the twentieth century. Attending to the ways in which Joyce both historicizes and theorizes the lives of animals and the production of meat, this article places Ulysses in dialogue with recent writings on animal ethics by Jacques Derrida and J. M. Coetzee and the emergence of what is being termed “vegan studies” to suggest a vegetarian reading of Joyce’s novel.