Lecture 27: Romantics, Vegetarians, Utopians
The Vegetarian Society was offi cially founded in 1847, which is
when the word “vegetarian” was coined. Vegetarians at this time
supported their position with the latest scientifi c fi ndings and with
religion. Justus von Liebig—probably the fi rst person we could call
a nutritional scientist in the modern sense of the term—discovered
through his research that animal protein is not fundamentally
different from vegetable. (In fact, animal proteins have the complete
range of amino acids, and plants don’t.) They also had support from a Swedish Christian philosopher and
mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg, who among his pantheistic ideas
believed that meat eating is the most visible symbol of our corruption
and fall from grace and is the source of evil in the world. Giving up
these foods, and alcohol, was a kind of gradual spiritual cleansing.Utopian Socialism
Mixed into this bizarre melee of ideas was another strand of thought
that is usually called utopian socialism. Food reform had always
been a major part of utopian thought. The utopians ate communally,
consuming simply prepared, nutritious meals. They all took two-
year turns at farming. They did eat meat, but they made criminals
butcher any meat. More believed that getting used to killing
animals would desensitize a person to killing in general, so only the
degenerate people do it. In the 19th century, utopian socialists tried to create real societies
based on utopian principles. There were real utopian experiments.
They set up communes in which all of the inhabitants would have
the same amount of wealth, would live communally, and share all
tasks equally. Robert Owen built a small community called New Lanarck, which
was basically a textile mill—except that it was set in a beautiful, rural
place and kept meticulously clean. The workers in the factories had
control over how much and what they made. Owen’s assumption was
that if you put people in decent surroundings and treat them well,
they would work hard, succeed, and turn out to be good people.