Veganism around the world

I have wanted to know more about veganism in different cultures (because I'm a vegan myself). When I tried to research this topic, I ran into an article that alleges that veganism is a less than sustainable life style because there is no evidence that any great culture has ever been vegan.

It is quite clear that many societies in Africa, India, and elsewhere consumed vegetarian diets. Although there is no evidence that these cultures avoided all use of animals as food, surely the survival of these long-lasting societies argues for the rejection of meat in the diet as a quite healthy and productive way to live.

I don't accept the conclusion of some writers that the absence of historically vegan societies brings the value of veganism into question. It is my understanding that cultures and people can evolve over time. Happily, consciousness can increase. More Hindus today are beginning to practice vegan diets. They have come to the realization that reverence for the cow should include not consuming its milk.

Traditional societies probably lacked our current ability to pick and choose from a wide variety of food staples. No hunter-gatherer society had the information that exists today about the merits of a plant-based diet. I would assume that people who grew their own food in subsistence farming were quite able at least to prevent the contamination of their water and the meat.

Occasionally, I hear someone say that he or she can't go on a vegan diet for cultural reasons. I think most ethnic, traditional cuisines can be modified by the truly motivated into a vegan, but tasty version of the original. Again, it has to be an individual decision.

-Johanna