| | by admin | | posted on 10th July 2025 in Power to Protest | | views 51 | |
For many in the peace movement, the decision not to eat animals is rooted in a belief that nonviolence must extend to all living beings — beginning with what we put on our plates.
Since the earliest days of organised peace campaigns, many activists have linked their opposition to war with a wider ethic of compassion. Just as they have stood against nuclear weapons, militarism and imperialism, so too have they questioned the everyday acts of violence that often go unnoticed — including the killing of animals for food.
Vegetarianism and veganism have long been present in peace circles. Among Quakers, pacifists, anarchists and campaigners for nonviolence, the kitchen has often been seen as a site of conscience. Food, like politics, is a daily practice — and for some, refusing to eat meat is a refusal to be complicit in the normalisation of harm.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), founded in 1958, has always brought together a wide spectrum of activists — pacifists, socialists, Christians, anarchists, environmentalists and others united by a desire to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Within this broad coalition, the idea that peace must be lived out in everyday choices found fertile ground.
At CND-organised marches and demonstrations, particularly during the resurgence of the movement in the 1980s, food was more than just sustenance. Vegan and vegetarian meals were often prepared in mobile kitchens and shared freely. At Aldermaston marches, Greenham Common, and countless sit-ins, protest food became a symbol of the alternative society that activists hoped to build — one based on mutual aid, care, and nonviolence.
The Peace News camps, supported by CND and other disarmament groups, often modelled low-impact, meat-free living. Recipes were exchanged, communal meals were cooked from donated or foraged ingredients, and the ethos of “living the peace” extended to every part of daily life — right down to what was in the stew pot.
Mahatma Gandhi, whose philosophy of satyagraha deeply shaped twentieth-century peace activism, viewed vegetarianism as integral to his spiritual and political life. He saw it not only as a religious or health decision, but as part of his commitment to ahimsa — the principle of non-harming. Many in the Western peace movement, including those in CND, adopted similar views, inspired by Gandhi’s emphasis on consistency between means and ends.
This influence was visible in the moral tone of many CND supporters who saw the arms trade, animal exploitation, and environmental destruction as part of the same interconnected system. The personal was political — and what one ate was as much a political act as carrying a placard or marching on Parliament.
Throughout the 1980s and beyond, peace camps at Greenham Common, Faslane, and Molesworth demonstrated how food could be an act of resistance. Meat-free meals were shared around campfires, cooked on stoves made from scrap, and served in communal spirit. These kitchens were about more than sustenance: they were part of imagining a different world — one not dependent on violence, domination, or the industrial slaughter of life.
CND women’s groups, in particular, helped cultivate a culture of care that included ethical sourcing, nonviolence to animals, and ecological concern. The food served at actions often reflected this — cruelty-free, plastic-free, and shared freely. For some, it was their first encounter with vegetarian or vegan food, often prepared with warmth and intention.
The peace movement increasingly embraced an ecological awareness that sees all forms of life as interconnected. Nonviolence now extends beyond human society to the planet itself. Factory farming, environmental destruction, and climate change are increasingly recognised as forms of systemic violence — and food choices are one of the most direct ways individuals can respond.
Animal liberation groups and peace activists have often worked side by side, united by the belief that justice must include the voiceless. For some, veganism is not a diet but a discipline — an everyday act of protest against cruelty and exploitation. It is a way of refusing to normalise the taking of life and a reminder that peace is not merely the absence of war, but the presence of compassion.
“Peace begins in the kitchen” became an informal slogan for many activists — a recognition that great changes start with humble acts. Choosing what to eat, and how to eat together, is a form of quiet revolution. Around kitchen tables, in protest camps, and at community gatherings, food without violence has been a seedbed for dialogue, solidarity and new possibilities.
It is not universal, nor universally agreed upon, but for many in the movement for peace, refusing to kill for food is part of the wider refusal to kill at all. It is not merely symbolic — it is deeply practical. Peace, they insist, must be lived, not just declared. And it often begins with what is on the plate.