History of vegetarianism

History of vegetarianism from wikipedia.

The earliest records of (lacto) vegetarianism come from ancient India and ancient Greece in the 6th century BCE.[12] In both instances the diet was closely connected with the idea of nonviolence towards animals (called ahimsa in India) and was promoted by religious groups and philosophers.[nb 1] Following the Christianisation of the Roman Empire in late antiquity, vegetarianism practically disappeared from Europe.[14] Several orders of monks in medieval Europe restricted or banned the consumption of meat for ascetic reasons, but none of them eschewed fish.[15] It re-emerged during the Renaissance,[16] becoming more widespread in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1847, the first Vegetarian Society was founded in England;[17] Germany, the Netherlands, and other countries followed. The International Vegetarian Union, a union of the national societies, was founded in 1908. In the Western world, the popularity of vegetarianism grew during the 20th century as a result of nutritional, ethical, and more recently, environmental and economic concerns.