Salad Days: Punk and Veganism

“We Are the Living Graves of Murdered Beasts” George Bernard Shaw

“When the price paid is the life of something else/No More” Youth of Today

The punk movement has been attached to- and associated with- numerous political and social causes from feminism to anarchism, housing justice and trans rights to anti racism and anti colonialism. And we can also throw animal rights and wider environmental issues into the mix, a stance that is often characterised by the adoption of a meat-free diet and lifestyle.

There are certain enclaves of punk that are quite strongly associated with vegetarianism and veganism- the anarcho-punks of the 1980s/90s (Crass, Chumbawamba etc) and large swathes of the US hardcore movement, particularly those bands that swirled around the straight edge movement in the 1980s.

This is yet another aspect of punk culture (or part of it) that has a rich tradition in philosophical thought. Vegetarianism and veganism is expanding- people are turning to meat free diets and reducing the carbon footprint from the meat and dairy industry. The fact it is a growing choice now may lead to the misconception that this is a relatively new phenomenon, something that is trendy and based on relatively modern ideas of the intersection of animal rights, ecology and health. Certainly there are some more pro-meat influencers who espouse the idea that our ancestors lived on meat-based diets (hence this is a natural diet for a human to have) and that this meat rejection is more of a modern indulgence started by some hippies and trendies in the 1960s. But I’m sure you will not be surprised to know that they are woefully ill informed. Vegetarianism and veganism have long philosophical, medical and social traditions dating back to ancient times.

For this post, we are going to look at the philosophical origins of this idea, drawing a connecting line between ancient thinkers like Pythagoras and the rambunctious punk crews of 1980s America.

Are You With Me?

Youth of Today formed in 1985 in Connecticut by Ray Cappo and John Porcelly and were quickly one of the more influential hardcore bands in the North East of US. The band were resolutely straight edge (see our post on straight edge to learn more about what sXe-ers believe) which in basic terms meant they espoused a clean-living lifestyle that eschewed drugs, alcohol and in their interpretation of the tenet, also embraced meat free living.

On their 1988 LP ‘We’re Not In This Alone’, the band featured the track ‘No More’ which in just over 2 minutes  set out their stance that a just, caring society could not be one that eats animals:

“So callous to this crime we commit
Always stuffing our face with no sympathy
What a selfish, hardened society”

And vocalist Cappo defiantly declares that more and more people are seeing this truth and deciding an alternative lifestyle is possible:

“Our numbers are doubling in 88
Cause the people are starting to educate
Themselves their friends and their families
And we’ll have a more conscious society
And are you with me?”

Along with bands like Gorilla Biscuits, Judge, Cro Mags and 7 Seconds, Youth of Today were a prominent voice in punk that talked about the positives of intentional, spiritual, disciplined or alternative living which in many cases included (but was not exclusive to) vegetarianism or veganism.  And what may be relatively commonplace now across society, back in the 1980s this message was relatively novel as Cappo told Kerrang magazine in a 2019 interview:

“We were into clean living and high thinking, and that became our message. Now, self-betterment and self-help are very in vogue, and everybody’s a vegan. Back then, you couldn’t find a health food restaurant or a veggie burger anywhere.”

Of course, Youth of Today and their contemporaries are not the only punks to be open about their veganism. X Ray Spex frontwoman Poly Styrene was a vegetarian and her band performed songs about the exploitative and damaging impacts of rampant capitalism and consumption- something that often forms part of the argument for vegetarianism as a way to break that consumption cycle.

The anarcho-punk movement made animal rights and protecting the natural world a key part of the politics in what was an overtly political subgenre of punk. Bands like Crass linked the oppression of animals as part of an overall system of domination and exploitation and expressed solidarity with all living things and supported their freedom from violence. Chumbawamba started out in 1982 as an anarchist collective in Leeds, adopting a vegan lifestyle and advocating for animal rights.

Canadian punk band Propagandhi also espouse veganism and eco-conscious and harmonious living via their lyrics. In an interview with Peta Australia, band member Chris Hannah of explained why he went vegan:

“I think I had just seen too much brutality as a kid: chicks stomped flat at a hatchery, gophers skinned alive, frogs who had their legs pulled off and were left to die, deer hanging from the rafters in garages and bleeding out into buckets, pigs and cows destined for slaughter who were clearly in distress. I lived out in the country for many years as a kid, and for me, the endless procession of unnecessary violence towards non-human animals became too much. I felt like I had to at least symbolically withdraw my support from the industries that profit from this violence, so I stopped eating animal products.”

Never Mind the Punks, What About the Ancient Greeks…

So, punks and activists in the 20^th century really spread the word and advocated for people to think about how they feed themselves and their families the impact they have on the planet. But this tradition goes back a long way. A loooooooong way.

Philosophers as far back as the sixth century BC were vegetarian and, by the first century AD, the diet had become a hallmark the philosophy of Plato. Yes, THE Plato.

Another oldie-timey philosopher- Porphyry of Tyre- wrote a pro-vegetarian work in the third century AD, ‘On Abstinence from Animal Food‘, which was written in the third century AD. Pythagoras (yes the triangle guy) advocated for a meat free diet and became so famous for it that until the word vegetarian was invented in the 1840s, vegetarians were called “Pythagoreans.”

So although there were some high profile, Ancient Greek celebs talking about abstaining from eating meat, their reasons were not the same as we would likely hear people give nowadays.

Pythagoras for example, believed in reincarnation so his opposition to chowing down on animal flesh is what if this cow is actually your dead Uncle Dave reincarnated? There is a famous anecdote in which Pythagoras stops someone from beating a puppy because he hears the voice of a human friend in its cries.

Beyond that, Pythagoreans and other notable thinkers were concerned with optimum physical health and felt it was a moral duty to keep yourself well and healthy. In support of this idea, Porphyry of Tyre claims that doctors recommend a meat-free diet to cure illness, and points to the apparently many examples of people who have been healed by adopting a vegetarian diet.

There was also some discussion around whether animals feel pain and whether that should give us pause, but this was normally an argument based around whether animals are capable of rational thought, rationality being seen as necessary to be aware of your own suffering rather than just an instinctual reaction to a painful stimuli.

Rationality and carefully constructed arguments would come to be an integral part of how the enlightenment dealt with issues around ethics and morality. Founder of modern utilitarianism Jeremy Bentham famously remarked that “the question is not, ‘can they reason?’ Nor, ‘can they talk?’ But, ‘can they suffer?’”

Through the Enlightenment, vegetarians used science to make the case for vegetarianism arguing that our primeval diet would likely have been herbivorous and based on fruits and vegetables. This was based on observations on human teeth, how the digestive system breaks down meat and the health impacts of a meat-heavy diet. Three of Europe’s most important early seventeenth-century philosophers – Descartes, Gassendi and Francis Bacon – all advocated vegetarianism. With big hitters behind it and rational, science-based arguments being expressed in public, it became quite a significant movement.

And people were concerned with animal suffering. Ethical movements and philosophies around the enlightenment prided themselves on empathy and having sympathy and being able to make higher-level choices about how we live and not needing to give way to baser instincts and appetites.

In fact, the welfare of animals and the impact of eating meat on human health has been discussed and written about for millennia. Eastern religions, particularly Hinduism, Jainism and some branches of Buddhism, have the longest track record in this area.

Fast forward to the modern day, with the cumulative wisdom of Plato, Descartes and the anarcho punks in our collective heads, and an animal product free lifestyle is more popular than ever. According to ONS figures from 2018, 4.5% of the UK population have a vegetarian or vegan diet. In 2025, collaborative research by YouGov and Veganuary calculated that approximately 25.8 million people globally tried veganism in January 2025. In 2021, a global survey by NSF found that 88% of food industry practitioners said that they expect demand for plant-based products to increase. 74% said they thought consumers choose plant-based for a healthier lifestyle and 60% believed it’s to be more environmentally friendly.   And taking steps to reduce our meat consumption can be a lot easier than we think- for a daily meat-eater, a 30% reduction means just two meat-free days a week. And the benefits of taking this step will be felt globally- the 2021 National Food Strategy Report stated plant-based proteins produce 70 times less greenhouse gas emissions than an equivalent amount of beef, and use 150 times less land.

Salad Days Are Here Again

Musician Moby- who was ensconced in the punk movement in New York in the 1980s and played in various punk bands himself- has been a passionate advocate for veganism for years, even producing a documentary about the links between punk and veganism with his feature film ‘Punk Rock Vegan Movie’. Speaking in an interview to promote the film he talks about how he was inspired to make the lifestyle change back in the mid 1980s:

“I went vegetarian in 1984 because, back then, I thought vegetarianism was radical enough. You know, I thought just giving up meat, chicken, and fish was going to be enough because, like many people, I didn’t know that producing milk and eggs, especially on an industrial level, is actually worse because the animals are being kept alive, and they’re being tortured. So, the book that really inspired me—and in the mid-80s, there wasn’t much information—was “Diet for a New America” by John Robbins. That was the one that made me realize I can’t just be a vegetarian; I have to be a hundred percent vegan”.

When telling the story of society’s developing attitudes towards including animal products in our everyday lives, punk will be part of the narrative, such is the strength of the relationship between this philosophy and the punk music movement. And not just in terms of musicians who happen to be vegetarian/vegan but those who are fully fledged advocates for the lifestyle and using their platform and songs to speak of the ills of the animal product industry.

 And this has had a lasting legacy that goes beyond the mosh pit of a Youth of Today gig. We spoke to Jason Wittenberg- curator of the Minneapolis Music History Bluesky page and long term vegan punk- about how bands like Youth of Today had a tangible impact on how he saw the world:

“I discovered punk around 1985 and it has been an integral part of my life ever since. Like many thousands of others, the Sex Pistols were a huge influence early in my punk journey. Then I gravitated toward bands like Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, and Verbal Assault. Youth of Today really got my attention with the “We’re Not in This Alone” LP in 1988. I thought it was a solid record from beginning to end, but no song had a greater impact on me than “No More,” with its message of compassion toward animals. As someone who cared about animals, the lyrics to that song made so much sense to me, and the song helped me to make the connection between my love of animals and my own habits.  Around the same time, I attended a lecture by Tom Regan, a philosopher who wrote “The Case for Animal Rights.” It all clicked! I stopped eating meat in ’88 and went vegan in ’93. Decades later, I’m still vegan, with “HERBIVORE” tattooed across my chest. While veganism seems extreme to most people, it seems like such a pragmatic option to me. I can choose to avoid contributing to so many problems by being mindful of what I consume”.

And on that note, our potted history on punk and veganism concludes. Were you influenced to be vegetarian or vegan because of punk? If so, what bands or songs were you really compelled by? What is the modern day punk/animal rights crossover like and where does it fit in? Let us know in the comments!