Vegan organisations around the globe
The Vegan Society - the oldest society dedicated to promoting veganism, the Vegan Society was founded on 1 November, 1945, by Donald Watson, Elsie "Sally" Shrigley and 23 others. Their good work includes:
- publishing literature on vegan recipes, nutrition, animal welfare, vegan-friendly restaurants, etc.
- having staff give talks and presentations at events across the UK
- sponsoring UK veggie events
Vegetarians' International Voice for Animals (VIVA!) - based in Stokes Croft, Bristol, with a branch office in Poland, VIVA! is an animal rights organisation, first founded by Juliet Gellatley in 1994. Its vast amount of work on promoting a plant-based lifestyle and animal welfare includes:
- carrying out undercover investigations in factory farms across the UK, exposing animal cruelty to the masses
- publishing literature on vegan recipes, nutrition, special diets for people with diabetes, the plight of farm animals
- organising training workshops for future school speakers to speak about veganism in schools
- organising veggie roadshows in various cities across the UK, which feature vegan food stalls, talks, cookery demos, vegan clothing and footwear stalls, and much more
VIVA!'s patrons include Heather Mills, Martin Shaw and Paul McCartney.
Address: 8 York Court, Wilder Street, Bristol BS2 8QH
The International Vegetarian Union
Kind Green Planet - a non-profit US-based organisation founded by Mary Max dedicated to educating people about healthy, humane, eco-friendly living through grassroots film screenings and workshops, activism and lifestyle coaching, and community programs in the US. Marisa Miller Wolfson, filmmaker and director of Vegucated, has been the public face of Kind Green Planet since 2003, and has been running the associated Vegan at Heart 30-day newsletters. These newsletters are in the format of 5- to 10-minute missions each day that take the vegans at heart - people who are vegan-curious or want to be vegans but find it hard to be full-time vegans- a step closer to becoming vegans.
Recently Vegan at Heart has been superseded by the Vegucated challenge newsletter program - in which you can choose to go vegan either cold turkey for 30 days, or gradually in 30 days. And in both ways, you'll keep receiving newsletters in your inbox until the Vegucated team run out of ideas...