VegetarianMuseum.com

VegetarianMuseum.com Press

The Fruits of Vegetarianism
By Gail Ciampa, Food Editor
Providence Journal

When Karen Iacobbo joined the ranks of vegetarians in 1982, she had no idea how much history had gone before her.

"I just figured some California hippies in the '60s were the first vegetarians," she said.

She'd figured wrong, she discovered as she researched the subject for a new book she wrote with husband Michael Iacobbo, Vegetarian America: A History (Praeger $39.95).

In fact, several vegetarians were among those who traveled to America on the Mayflower, honoring Bible verses in Genesis which said to eat only herbs and vegetables.

Religion and social reform were as important as health concerns to many of the pioneers in the vegetarian movement, quite a few of whom lived in New England.

The Iacobbos, of Glocester, share the fruits of their historical work not only in the book but also in an online museum, www.vegetarianmuseum.com. They also present a slide-show lecture for events like the Rhode Island Vegan Awareness group's Thanksgiving feast.

The book required extensive research which included diving into the archives at the Providence Public Library, the John Hay Library at Brown University, the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass., and Harvard University's Schlesinger Library.

What they found was that there's no lack of people to talk about when discussing accomplished vegetarians.

Consider A. Bronson Alcott, whom Iacobbo calls the original leader of the New England Transcendalists (and father of Louisa May). Back in the mid-19th century, he was an advocate for abolition, women's rights, civil disobedience and animal liberation.

"He believed vegetarianism was the basis for all reform," said Iacobbo, "not just the taste of the day."

There were also those who suggested what is now commonly believed to be true: that a plant-based diet is more likely to promote health than disease, and that eating a lot of animal protein is linked to chronic disease.

That list would include Sylvester Graham, whom Iacobbo considers the father of vegetarianism in the United States. A Presbyterian minister and Massachusetts native who married Sarah Earle of Compton, R.I., in 1826, he left the church in 1830 to take up the cause of temperance -- he was convinced alcohol was harmful to both body and soul.

Graham became an orator lecturing on the subjects of health and diet, expanding his expertise to address the issue of preventive health during the cholera epidemic of 1832. He believed that meat was a stimulant, irritating the body to the point it would break it down, and thought the way farm animals were confined and fattened made their flesh harmful to people. He believed that God provided raw foods from the plant kingdom, and that they were best for people to consume.

Graham decried the use of "superfine" flour, saying it caused stomach distress. He thought only whole-grain breads should be eaten.

"He didn't know the word 'fiber,' " Iacobbo said. But that's what he thought was best for a person's health.

"The butchers and bakers wanted him hurt," she said. But because of the cholera epidemic that people so feared, he had an audience ready to try his ideas.

THE IACOBBOS describe Graham and Alcott as the "first wave of vegetarians."

The second wave came with John Harvey Kellogg. Under his guidance, the Battle Creek Sanitarium developed about 100 health foods, including breastfast cereals containing no meat.

His name still graces store shelves today on all those Kellogg's cereals.

Until that time, people were eating breakfasts full of meat and grease, said Michael Iacobbo. "He took matters into his own hands and came up with the breakfast cereal."

Today, America is in its third wave of vegetarianism, starting with that counterculture movement in the 1960s and '70s that Karen Iacobbo wrongly thought began it.

The movement "has never been on a straight line," she said. "It progresses and then goes back, like a wave."

"Young people seem more accepting of vegetarianism," she said, although when she gave up meat in 1982, her family and friends weren't critical but accommodating.

THERE SEEM TO BE extremes within the movement today.

There are vegans, who eat no animal products at all, including butter and milk.

Then there are the flextarians, who call themselves vegetarians most of the time but not all. On holidays they might eat the family's roasted turkey, for instance.

Iacobbo worries about what vegetarian will come to mean if the definition strays too far. "It's a good idea to identify with being vegetarian, but you don't want the word diluted," she said.

Michael Iacobbo says motivation is the key to sticking to the vegetarian lifestyle. Highly motivated individuals, such as those who believe their body is a temple, or those who think it unethical to eat animals, won't want to stray from the vegetarian course.

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Autumn, a 1573oil painting by Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo,is in the collections of the Louvre, in Paris. The first vegetarians in America came over on the Mayflower.