First things first, I use the term hippie with love. I was born in the 60’s and even though I was a little late to that party, I did catch the tail end of it. In fact, I saw the Grateful Dead (or offshoots thereof) around 50 times from 1983-1995. (And I still enjoy a good Dead cover band!)
Let’s turn the clock back to 1975. I had the great good fortune of attending sleepaway summer camp.
My counselor was vegetarian, and she had containers filled with nuts and seeds in our cabin. At the time I assumed that was all she ate. Maybe it was, but I doubt it. It was likely just her snacks. But I didn’t understand why she ate bird food. Nuts and seeds. In Tupperware containers.
So that’s the type of person I assumed was a vegetarian. No one else I knew was.
In college, inspired by the book, Animal Liberation, I attempted to be vegetarian for a bit, but I wasn’t committed. Little by little after college I stopped eating meat, then fish and I was finally a vegetarian. That took years!
I met a few vegetarians along the way, and in 2015 joined Vegan Toastmasters. Most of the members were vegan and while they were accepting of me still being vegetarian, I wasn’t ready to take the plunge. I left Vegan Toastmasters for a couple of years and then rejoined in 2019 which coincided with me going fully vegan.
By that point in my life, I knew a lot of vegans and I would say that most of them have no idea who the Grateful Dead are. Or if they do, it’s not their thing.
Now there are vegan actors and actresses (A-listers!), musicians (Moby just produced a wonderful new film called A Punk Rock Vegan Movie!), athletes, famous chefs, doctors and millions of regular non-hippies.
There are political, social and moral reasons why hippies may have chosen vegetarianism and veganism back then. And many of those reasons still stand. Increasingly, regular people (like you and me) are choosing compassionate ways to eat and spend our dollars. And we are learning about the health benefits of a whole food plant-based lifestyle.
Choosing to be vegan or eat plant-based can be for everyone. It is no longer difficult to find plant-based foods or learn how to cook them. (We even started offering cooking classes to make it easy and accessible for everyone!)
Plant-based food is no longer bird food or rabbit food. It’s nutritious and delicious and bountiful and the best way we can move our planet and her inhabitants forward with grace.
PEACE