evidence, anthropologists have not discovered any
primitive societies in the past or present whose mem-
bers maintained good health and consumed a purely
vegetarian diet. All contemporary indigenous groups
that are healthy include fish or dairy products in their
diet, and most eat meat, even if only in small amounts
or on rare occasions.Religious vegetarianism
Religious belief is the oldest historical motive for
vegetarianism. Hinduism is the earliest of the world’s
major religions known to haveencouraged a vegetarian
lifestyle. As of the early2000s, Hinduism accounts for
more of the world’s practicing vegetarians—70 percent—
than any other faith or political conviction. Different
Hindus, however, explain their commitment to vegetari-
anism in different ways. Some associate vegetarianism
with the doctrine ofahimsa, or nonviolence, which for-
bids the shedding of animal as well as human blood.
Others believe that animals have souls, and that those
whokillthemwillacquirebadkarmaandsufferintheir
next reincarnation. Last, some Hindus believe that their
gods will not accept nonvegetarian offerings.
The Jainreligion, which is an ascetic offshoot of
Hinduism that began in the sixth centuryBC,requires
followers to adopt a vegan diet; they may also not eat
roots because to do so kills the plant. Most Jains fast on
holy days and at other times throughout the year, as they
believe that fasting strengthens self-control as well as
protecting the believer from accumulating bad karma.
In ancient Greece, the followers of the philoso-
pher and mathematician Pythagoras (c. 582–507BC)
practiced an ascetic lifestyle that included a vegetarian
diet and abstaining from animal bloodshed, including
sacrifices to the Greek gods. Neoplatonist philoso-
phers of the third and fourth centuriesADrevived the
Pythagorean notion that vegetarianism helps to purify
the soul. As a result of the association of a plant-based
diet with Pythagoras, European Christians in the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries who practiced vege-
tarianism were often called Pythagoreans.
Mainstream Christianity in both its Eastern and
Western forms has never made year-round vegetari-
anism mandatory for laypeople; however, there is a
long tradition of monastic vegetarianism going back
at least as far as the Desert Fathers in the third and
fourth centuries AD. In addition, many Christians
abstain from meat during certain seasons of the
church year (Lent and Advent). One reason for vege-
tarian diets in some of the monastic orders is the belief
that eating meat increases temptations to anger and
violence. Another reason, found more commonlyamong evangelical Protestants, is the interpretation
of Genesis 1:29 and other Bible passages as meaning
that God originally intended humans to be vegeta-
rians, and that God wants his present-day followers
to be responsible stewards of the earth. The Christian
Vegetarian Association (CVA), which welcomes
Roman Catholics as well as mainstream and evangel-
ical Protestants, was founded in 1999.
One Christian denomination that was formed in
the United States in the nineteenth century, namely the
Seventh-day Adventist Church, has expected its mem-
bers to be vegetarians since its beginning. Members of
the church have been studied by the National Insti-
tutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Insti-
tute (NCI) since 1960. NIH findings indicate that
Adventist men live on average seven years longer
than men in the general population, and Adventist
women eight years longer than their non-Adventist
counterparts.
Many members of New Age groups, as well as some
atheists and agnostics, practice vegetarian or vegan life-
styles out of respect for nature or for the earth, even
though they would not consider themselves religious in
the conventional sense.Environmental vegetarianism
The application of scientific methods to agriculture
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries also allowed
people to calculate for the first time the cost to the
environment of raising animals for meat. As early as
the 1770s, the English clergyman William Paley had
already urged a vegetarianlifestyle on the grounds that
an acre of land used to raise fruits and vegetables could
support twice the number of people as an acre used to
graze animals. A common ethical argument for vegeta-
rianism in the early 2000s is that 40% of the world’s
graingoestofeedanimalsraisedformeatratherthanto
feed people, and that world hunger could be eliminated if
even half this grain could be redistributed to undernour-
ished populations. According to the North American
Vegetarian Society (NAVS), 15 vegans can be fed on
the same amount of land needed to feed one person
consuming a meat-based diet.Animal rights vegetarianism
Commitment to a vegetarian diet as a way to
reduce the suffering of animals—sometimes called com-
passion-based vegetarianism—emerged during the
mid-nineteenth century, a period that also witnessed
the foundation of the first groups devoted to animal
welfare. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cru-
elty to Animals (RSPCA) was given its charter byVegetarianism