
Clara
Barton
Famous for nursing countless injured, sick and dying
patients, she also played a very important role in establishing the Red
Cross in the United States. Additionally, she participated in the
women's suffrage and anti-slavery movements. Even though she was exposed
to war and witnessed great carnage and death, she lived until the age of
ninety.
Jane Goodall
One of the world's leading
conservationists and primatologists, she became a vegetarian after
reading a book called Animal Liberation in the 1970s. Because she
travels so much, she does eat some animal products like dairy milk,
cheese and eggs, when she can't find other foods.
Susan B. Anthony
She was not only a pioneer in
the women's suffrage movement, she also campaigned against slavery. She
lived to the age of eighty-six, but did not witness the the passage of
the bill that gave women the right to vote.
Aung San Suu Kyi
She is a pro-democracy activist
who has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One of her quotes about
human rights is, 'Human beings the world over need freedom and security
that they may be able to realize their full potential.' (Source:
Brainyquotes.com)
Rosa Parks
Parks played an instrumental role in
the civil rights movement, and is well known for her activism around the
world. In a magazine called The Crisis a 1996 article documented her
vegetarian background, 'I have been a vegetarian a few years. I grew up
in rural Alabama and we did not eat a lot of pork meat. When I was young
I couldn't eat fresh meat. It made me kind of sick. I was not in the
practice of eating a lot of meat. We had peach, apple, plums. We would
go into the woods and pick blackberries. It was not hard at all for me
not to eat meat.' (Source:
Google.books.com)
Cesar Chavez
He was a farmer, labor leader and
civil rights activist who worked tirelessly to help get better working
conditions for field laborers, and end discrimination. The niece of
Cesar Chavez said this of her famous uncle's diet, 'Cesar was a vegan.
He didn't eat any animal products. He was a vegan because he believed in
animal rights but also for his health. Growing up I was always
surrounded by vegetarians and vegetarian meals were always an option.'
(Source:
Google Books) When he passed away, she decided to follow his
non-meat eating ways to show respect for him.
Thich Nhat Hanh
He is a Buddhist monk, author,
poet and peace activist. He has spoken openly about how a vegetarian
diet is a way of practicing non-violence and environmental conservation,
'If we look deeply, we will see that eating can be extremely violent.
UNESCO tells us that every day, 40,000 children in the world die because
of a lack of nutrition, of food. Every day, 40,000 children. And the
amount of grain that we grow in the West is mostly used to feed our
cattle. According to a recent report, of all the agricultural land in
the U.S., 87% is used to raise animals for food. That is 45% of the
total land mass in the U.S.' (Source:
Lunarfeast.org)
'When whites bombed our home in Montgomery, Alabama, I was in the home
with my infant daughter. We could have been killed, but I refused to give in
to fear, because I had a wonderful role model, my father, Obadiah, who, like
Martin, was one of the most fearless men I ever met.' (Source:
TheWashingtonPost.com)
'She also annoyed the royal family by refusing to take part in hunting
expeditions. She could not condone the hurting or killing of animals.'
(Source:
EuroVeg)