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French Vegetarian Society

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French Vegetarian Society
Founded1882
TypeVegetarian organization
FocusVegetarianism
Location
OriginsSociéte Végétarienne de Paris
Area served
France
Key people
Jules Grand (president)

The French Vegetarian Society (also known as the Vegetarian Society of France) was a vegetarian organization, formed in 1882 by G. Goyart. The aim of the Society was to "propagate vegetarianism and assert the benefits of any order it presents."[1]

History

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In 1880, Abel Hureau de Villeneuve founded the Sociéte Végétarienne de Paris (Vegetarian Society of Paris), in Paris.[2][3] The Society had its own journal, La Reforme Alimentaire. The original Society merged into the Sociéte Végétarienne de France (Vegetarian Society of France) in 1882, which was organized by Goyart.[2][4][5] In 1883, a criticism of the Vegetarian Society of France was that some of its medical members were omnivores, not vegetarians and were prescribing meat to their patients. The Society dissolved in 1884 and became the Société pour la Reforme Alimentaire which advocated an omnivorous diet.[6]

In 1885, meetings in Paris were undertaken to form a new vegetarian society. Baron Emile Tanneguy de Wogan (1850–1906) was assigned presidency.[7] Copies of his vegetarian pamphlet La Vie à Bon Marché were given to the working class.[7] There was no further reports of the society until four years later. In 1899, president Jules Grand reconstituted the Sociéte Végétarienne de France with thirty initial members.[2] Membership consisted of doctors, industrial workers, lawyers and soldiers. Their members were dedicated vegetarians but they also allowed associate members to join.[2] Their officers were located at Boulevard de Strasbourg in Paris.[6]

In 1906, the Society had 800 members and collaborated with the Belgian Vegetarian Society on their journal, La Reforme Alimentaire.[8] Ernest Nyssens, from Brussels, was editor of the journal.[4] Historian Ulrike Thoms has noted that "its membership actively sought to influence the population through the dissemination of magazines, tracts, pamphlets, and public lectures, so the society was more publicly present than the small official membership lists suggest."[8] Elisée Reclus' essay Le Vegetarisme (On Vegetarianism) was published in La Reforme Alimentaire, 1901.[9]

During the early 20th century, physicians such as Fougerat de David de Lastours, Eugène Tardif, André Durville, Gaston Durville, and Albert Monteuuis were members of the Society.[10] In 1909, the Society reported having 1,175 members.[10] The Society published La Reforme Alimentaire every month until it ceased in 1914.[4] The Society published the Bulletin de la Société végétarienne de France (Bulletin of the Vegetarian Society of France) from 1916 to 1920.

After the decline of the Society, new food reform groups emerged. Jacques de Marquette, a member of the Society formed his own vegetarian group in 1912 which became known as the Trait d'Union, a naturist society.[11] The Trait d'Union gained support in the 1920s and opened the first vegetarian restaurant in Paris.[11] Paul Carton who had been a member of the Society since 1909 formed the Société Naturiste Française (French Naturist Society) in 1921.[12]

Selected publications

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The Society published the following books:[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Société végétarienne de France". Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e Crossley, Ceri (2005). Consumable Metaphors: Attitudes Towards Animals and Vegetarianism in Nineteenth-Century France. Peter Lang. p. 241-257. ISBN 0-8204-7175-5.
  3. ^ Puskar-Pasewicz, Margaret. (2010). Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-313-37556-9
  4. ^ a b c Fenton, Alexander. (2000). Order and Disorder: The Health Implications of Eating and Drinking in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Tuckwell Press. pp. 209-226. ISBN 978-1862321175
  5. ^ Brauer, Fae. (2015). Becoming Simian: Devolution as Evolution in Transformist Modernism. In Fae Brauer; Serena Keshavjee. Picturing Evolution and Extinction: Regeneration and Degeneration in Modern Visual Culture. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-4438-7253-9
  6. ^ a b "The first French Vegetarian Societies - 1878-1884". International Vegetarian Union. 2023. Archived from the original on June 1, 2023.
  7. ^ a b "History of the French Vegetarian Societies". International Vegetarian Union. 2002. Archived from the original on May 20, 2024.
  8. ^ a b Thoms, Ulrike. (2017). Of Carnivores and Conquerors. In Elizabeth Neswald, David F. Smith, Ulrike Thoms. Setting Nutritional Standards: Theory, Policies, Practices: French Nutritional Debates in the Age of Empire, 1890-1914. University of Rochester Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-58046-576-2
  9. ^ Clark, John P; Martin Camille. (2004). Anarchy, Geography, Modernity: The Radical Social Thought of Elisée Reclus. Lexington Books. p. 171. ISBN 0-7391-0805-0
  10. ^ a b Lummel, Peter. (2016). Food and the City in Europe since 1800. Routledge. p. 222. ISBN 978-0-7546-4989-2
  11. ^ a b Baubérot, Arnaud (2015). Histoire du naturisme: Le mythe du retour à la nature. Presses universitaires de Rennes. pp. 219–248. ISBN 978-2-7535-2303-6.
  12. ^ Ouédraogo, Arouna P. (2001). "Food and the Purification of Society: Dr Paul Carton and Vegetarianism in Interwar France". Social History of Medicine. 14 (2): 223–245. doi:10.1093/shm/14.2.223. PMID 11695355.
  13. ^ Translated by Fred Rothwell as A Scientific Investigation into Vegetarianism. London: John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, 1922.
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