George D Rodger is a vegan pioneer from Scotland who has been active in the Vegan
Society since the early 1990s. But you will find it best explained in his own
words.
“I believe that the best way to 'evangelise' for veganism is through
food.” George D Rodger
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| GDR, 2008, at that time Chair of Council of the Vegan Society |
CK: Could you please let people know a
bit about yourself? Since when have you been vegan? And when were you active in
the Vegan Society, and in what roles?
GDR: Around 1980 I became
concerned about the environmental effect of animal-based food production and
became a meat-reducer. After a year or
two I realised I was hardly ever eating meat, fowl or fish, and so I declared
myself a vegetarian and joined The Vegetarian Society of the UK. Even at that time I realised that true
vegetarianism was veganism and I was soon consuming very little in the way of
dairy products (except I found cheese particularly hard to give up!).
In 1992, after about ten years as a
vegetarian, I finally declared myself a vegan and joined The Vegan
Society. I had just been granted early
retirement from teaching on a pension I could just about survive on; I was
looking for ways to usefully occupy my time and decided to become active in either
The Vegetarian Society or The Vegan Society, having had previous experience of
committee work in various clubs and societies.
So I studied both of their magazines and attended the Annual General
Meeting (AGM) of each of them. I also
attended the annual Vegan Camp run by John Strettle of Newcastle and made many
friends there some of whom are still friends of mine to this day. (I was at the Vegan Camp every year for about
eight or nine years, in different parts of the UK countryside.)
I soon formed the impression that The
Vegetarian Society was run by a fairly closed group and I could make very
little contribution, whereas The Vegan Society looked as though I could be
useful to it. So in 1994 I stood for
election to the Vegan Society Council of Trustees and was elected (if I
remember rightly the number of candidates was equal to the number of
vacancies!).
At my first few Council meetings, there
was always one agenda item carried forward – a project proposed by Louise
Wallis, who had stepped down from Council at the same time as I joined it; that
was the creation of a multilingual book, The
Vegan Passport, briefly explaining veganism, for use by travellers. I offered to take on Louise’s project, and
Council agreed to that. I advertised in The Vegan for offers of translations
from members who were bilingual or multilingual. I expected we might get maybe 12 or so
languages, in fact we got 37! After the
book was published for a first time, I kept it active as an ongoing project;
the last edition I compiled had about 70 languages! (Since I stood down from Council, the entire
book has been revised, using professional translators.)
I was off Council for a while when I
failed to be re-elected after my first three year cycle (Friends blamed me for
being too truthful in my Candidate Statement!
I said I was vegan for environmental reasons, but most of those who
voted were probably primarily believers in animal rights and did not like that
I did not mention animal rights. In
fact, there is no contradiction between these two positions – it is possible to
believe in both!), but I was co-opted when a vacancy arose, and was re-elected
at the following AGM. Thereafter, I was
re-elected every three years, when I stood down by rotation.
After a few years on Council, I was
elected Chair of Council and served as such for several years; which included
relocation of the offices from St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, to the Jewellery
Quarter, Birmingham; also the recruitment of several Chief Executive Officers
(CEO). (Some of them did not stay with
us for very long!) During one spell
between CEOs, I lived in Hastings for several months and did my best to cover
the CEO function. The only area I
managed to cover with anything like efficiency was the important Trade Mark
(TM) business, which led to me having a particular interest in TM matters for
the rest of my time on Council.
After relocation to Birmingham, I was
directly involved in recruiting a Head of Business Development, which covered
TM business among other things, and convinced Council to appoint George Gill,
who went on to do a great job as Head of BD, and is now the very efficient CEO
for the Society. After a few years of
the Society’s time in Birmingham, I stood down as Chair, but continued as an
ordinary Trustee for a few years. When I
stood down as a Trustee in 2015, I had served a total of 19 years on
Council. (I jokingly remarked that you
get less than that for murder!)
I have made many good friends through my
involvement with The Vegan Society and meet up with some of them when I visit one
of the large national Vegan Festivals. I
am now a life member of both The Vegetarian Society of the UK and The Vegan
Society.
During my time as a Trustee, The Vegan
Society’s staff numbers increased greatly, supported by a similar growth in
finances. Since standing down from
Council, I have attended each AGM, as much as anything just to see old
friends.
It has been a great privilege and source
of satisfaction for me to have been deeply involved in the running of The Vegan
Society during a time of great expansion and increase in influence. (Which in fact is still ongoing!)
CK: How did it come about that you did
the long and famous interview with Donald Watson in 2002?
GDR: While The Vegan Society was still
based in Hastings, with Richard Farhall as CEO, each year the staff always sent
Donald Watson a birthday card (he was born on 2 September 1910), and invited
him to visit the office at 7 Battle Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, but he always
politely declined the invitation, saying that the cost of his travelling to the
office would be better spent in promoting veganism.
When I became a Trustee, I had to travel
between my home in Aberdeen and the Council meeting venues, (usually in London
rather than Hastings). Sometimes I
travelled by train, sometimes by car, when I could easily make a small
diversion to Keswick, where DW had lived since 1951. So I asked if I could call on him on the way
home from a Council meeting, and he agreed.
I was Chair of Council at that time.
When I did visit DW (aged 92!), he turned
out to be excellent company, and well looked after by his daughter Janet, who
lived next door. I asked if I could
interview him, and he agreed, so we fixed a date for me to visit again, with my
portable tape cassette recorder. When I
got home after the interview I made a transcript and posted a printout of it to
DW, to check its accuracy. He made very
few corrections, and I applied them to the printout [original interview, transcript from 2002: PDF; alternate link]. The original tape cassettes and a final
transcript are archived at the [Vegan] Society’s office in Birmingham. I believe they have all now been digitised.
DW was still pretty fit for his age, both
mentally and physically, when I interviewed him. I understand that he did deteriorate in his
last year or two before dying at the age of 95 on 16 November 2005. So I caught him just in time!
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| GDR, at a vegan festival in Birmingham, 2009 |
CK: In your interview with Donald Watson he
mentioned that “Veganism always had an effect on my social life”, and when you
asked him “What do you find most difficult about being vegan?”, he replied:
“Well, I suppose it is the social aspect”. Do you know if his family, i.e. his
wife and daughter/children, were also vegetarians or vegans?
Donald Watson mentions his childhood
family, but I have never read much about his wife, Dorothy Watson (née Dorothy
Morgan), who seems to have helped coin the word “vegan”, or about his
daughter/children.
GDR: Dorothy
Watson died in 1994. I know very little
about her except what DW said in my interview, and what his daughter Janet said
at the funeral of DW in 2005, which I attended.
Janet was their only child, born in 1947, died in 2013. As far as I know, the family were all
vegan. According to Janet, it was
Dorothy and Donald who jointly invented the word “vegan”. That must have been before the meeting of “The
Magnificent Seven” in the Attic Club rooms, Holborn, London [1944], which
founded the Society, as Donald used the title “Vegan News” for his
duplicated newsletter. He did invite (in
that newsletter) suggestions for a better name for “non-dairy vegetarian”, and
received a few suggestions, but none of these suggestions caught on and the
term “vegan” stuck.
CK: As a follow-up question, would you
agree that “it is the social aspect” that is the hardest part about being
vegan? From what I know you have always been very active in organizing social
events for vegans.
GDR: It used to
be a serious obstacle, but has gradually become less so. Even when I went vegan in 1992, it was easy
to be vegan at home, cooking for oneself, but difficult when eating out. It is now relatively easy, at least in large
cities/towns, like Aberdeen. Glasgow is
now particularly vegan-friendly, the vegan capital of Scotland, if not the UK!
CK: Have you ever
used the Vegan Passport yourself in a foreign country?
GDR: I have never needed to depend on the Vegan Passport myself when travelling
abroad, although I always took the current edition with me. I remember one year, early 2000s, I was
staying at a small country hotel in Bavaria and all I could have for dinner every
evening was Kartoffelsalat! Fortunately, it was very nice
Kartoffelsalat! Travellers/tourists have
sent me some stories about the usefulness of the VP, but I don’t remember any
stories worth mentioning.
CK: The importance
of supplementing vitamin B12 had been known to the Vegan Society
since quite early on (I assume the 1950s). But it seems to me that in the 1990s
(or possibly already the 1980s) this topic was neglected a bit, and many vegans
(even readers of The Vegan magazine) ended up with a vitamin B12 deficiency. Do
you think this observation is accurate?
GDR: I have heard that some of the early vegans
died of the consequences of vitamin B12 deficiency, but I know of no
records of that. Vitamin B12
was not identified until 1948, and it was only in 1959 that it became possible
for it to be produced in large quantities.
From then on, The Vegan Society has always recommended vegans to ensure
adequate intakes, either as supplements, or in fortified foods.
I believe that the Plamil Company included
B12 as an ingredient of their plant milk from the beginning. Vegans who developed B12 deficiency
were probably not following the advice of The Vegan Society, but I have no case
knowledge. Personally, as a vegan I have
always used soymilk containing B12; I also take The Vegan Society’s
own Veg 1 daily supplement, as “dietary insurance”; it contains iodine, selenium, vitamins D3,
B2, B6 and B12, and folic acid in recommended
(EU NRV) amounts or in excess of recommended amounts (1000% in the case of B12
!). In truth, I consume far more B12
than my body requires!
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| GDR, 70th birthday party, 2010 |
CK: You’ve
mentioned the environmental argument for veganism. In your experience would you
say it’s quite rare that vegans give environmental reasons as their primary
motivation for being vegan? And what about
environmentally-friendly products that are not animal-friendly? For example,
someone might raise and slaughter (and eat) their own rabbits in their garden,
without any terrible consequences for the environment, but obviously not very
nice for the rabbits. Would this be objectionable for “environmental vegans”?
GDR: Most vegans I know personally are
what I call “cuddly animals” vegans! I
know that some vegans do keep rabbits – as pets. (Personally, I don’t think pet-keeping is very
vegan, but I’m probably in a minority!)
I know of vegans who keep rescued hens, and have problems in disposing
of the eggs without eating them themselves; (the easiest answer is to give away
(or sell?) the eggs to non-vegan friends or neighbours).
CK: Another
question about the environmental argument: There are some animal
ethicists who hold the view that the environment is not
necessarily worth protecting at all, as nature itself is a terribly cruel place
– much crueller even than humanity – and that humans instead should find ways
to transform the environment to make it less cruel. Is that something you could
agree with or find logical to some extent?
GDR: It is true that nature is cruel,
although many dewy-eyed vegans have no awareness of that, but to suggest that
humanity should transform the environment to “make it less cruel” is a bizarre
concept and shows total ignorance of how ecology works. The environment is very well worth
protecting, as we are ultimately dependent upon it! Humanity has already greatly modified the
environment, through hunting and fishing, livestock farming, crop farming,
mining etc, mostly to the detriment of the environment rather than its improvement. The biggest danger to the world environment
is overpopulation (of humans), and its consequences.
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| GDR, in the grounds of the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Germany, 2016 |
CK: Any more
words of wisdom for the scattered vegans of the world in every corner of the
planet? Any secret keys to vegan happiness?
GDR: The environmental case for veganism
is certainly gaining traction. The health
case for at least certain kinds of vegan diets, such as that recommended by The
Vegan Society, is also becoming stronger every year. I believe that the best way to “evangelise”
for veganism is through food. (I do not
believe that many people are converted by videos of slaughterhouses, etc.) Aberdeen’s Bonobo Café provides 100% vegan food and drink and attracts a
wide range of customers (predominantly young, cosmopolitan, and female-biased,
all of which are, to me, good things!) not all of whom are vegan, but the
non-vegan customers learn that vegan food can be as attractive and satisfying as
meat and dairy produce and makes the prospect of going vegan less off-putting. By the way, Bonobo is thriving as a business,
although limited by the size of their premises; they sometimes have to turn
away sit-in customers at busy times and have a large take-away trade.
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| GDR, at Bonobo Café in Aberdeen, 2019 |
CK: I somehow feel like the interview
would not be complete without asking a question about Scotland. Apart from
Bonobo Café in Aberdeen and the vegan metropolis of Glasgow, do you have any
more Scottish recommendations for wanderlust-filled vegans?
GDR: Cities like Edinburgh and Dundee have
good catering for vegans, small towns are a bit hit or miss. “Touristy” areas generally have some sort of
vegan café. I recommend the use of the
excellent website “Happy Cow”, which covers the
entire planet – even Scotland. When I
checked, it had over 1200 entries of cafes, restaurants, shops, guesthouses, etc,
all over Scotland. (Over 650 for Austria,
over 1000 for Switzerland, over 5300 for Germany.)
CK: Thank you very much for the interview!