Avery Yale Kamila, CODE RED
1 media/Web Tilly Laskey photo:Avery Yale Kamila at CODE RED opening copy_thumb.jpeg 2023-05-06T02:23:41-07:00 Avery Yale Kamila 3cf65a52bc0722e4bf4fd30dc423f4969da02217 42394 2 Tilly Laskey photo/Avery Yale Kamila at the Maine Historical Society's CODE RED exhibition next to one of the panels she wrote. plain 2023-05-06T02:27:47-07:00 20230316 180340 20230316 180340 Avery Yale Kamila 3cf65a52bc0722e4bf4fd30dc423f4969da02217This page is referenced by:
-
1
media/History column headlines.jpg
media/History column headlines.jpg
2023-02-09T02:29:49-08:00
Maine Vegetarian History Project
129
Historical recovery
image_header
2024-04-11T08:50:30-07:00
Maine Sunday Telegram
Avery Yale Kamila
Maine’s vegetarian history runs deep through time, yet the story of this plant-based past remains ignored and untold within the state’s conventional historical record. Since 2020, I've been engaged in the Maine Vegetarian History Project to recover this lost past. My work to unearth this history has revealed a wide range of vegetarian people and events going back at least 300 years. These include intriguing vegan meals eaten in Maine hundreds of years ago and details of the state’s lengthy involvement in the worldwide vegetarian movement, which stretches back through time more than 2,500 years. My research suggests many other American states have as-yet untold vegetarian histories waiting for researchers to recover. Often, the history of vegetarianism is incorrectly categorized as a "fad" or a "diet." But vegetarianism is neither a fad nor a diet but rather a social change movement that seeks to modify the human relationship with animals. Like other social change movements, such as civil rights and feminism, mainstream interest in vegetarianism waxes and wanes throughout history. Scholars have referred to these upswings in mainstream vegetarian interest as health reform cycles, clean living cycles, or food protest cycles. We're living in one right now. However, even when mainstream culture ignores vegetarianism, vegetarians continue to be active and the social movement continues to exist. The Maine Vegetarian History Project aims to uncover this buried past within the geography of a single state and contextualize it within the broader movement. I welcome calls, emails, and messages from those working to unearth buried history, who have information to share about Maine's rich vegetarian past, or anyone else interested in this project.Talks
Vegetarianism & The Good Life, July 30, 2023, 4 p.m., talk by Avery Yale Kamila, Good Life Center Summer Speaker Series, The Good Life Center, 372 Harborside Road, Brooksville, Maine.
Read about the presentation, which explored The History of Vegetarianism & The Good Life, in this report from the International Vegetarian Union.
300 Years of Vegetarianism in Maine, June 21, 2023, 6:30 p.m., talk by Avery Yale Kamila, Harrison Village Library, 4 Front St., Harrison, Maine.
300 Years of Vegetarianism in Maine, April 18, 2023, 7 p.m., talk by Avery Yale Kamila, Buxton-Hollis Historical Society, 100 Main St., Buxton, Maine.
Watch a video of Avery Yale Kamila's presentation of 300 years of Maine vegetarian history for the Buxton-Hollis Historical Society.
300 Years of Hidden Vegan & Vegetarian History in Maine, talk by Avery Yale Kamila, Maine VegFest, October 29, 2022, Portland, Maine.Exhibitions
America's Hidden Meals: The History of Vegetarianism in the U.S., an online story map exhibition that went live Dec. 10, 2023, hosted by The Vegan Museum, Chicago, Illinois. https://veganmuseum.org/vegetarian-history-in-the-us Avery Yale Kamila was one of four curators who co-wrote the exhibition.
CODE RED: Climate, Justice & Natural History Collections, March 17-December 30, 2023, Maine Historical Society, 489 Congress St., Portland, Maine. https://www.mainehistory.org/all-exhibitions/code-red/ Exhibition advisor Avery Yale Kamila wrote two wall panels about the connections between climate, animal agriculture, and pathogenic disease.
View the panels online:
Eating lower on the food chain, https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/3278/page/5201/display?popup=1
Vegetarians and Zoonosis, https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/3279/page/5202/display?popup=1Publications
The Vegan Museum historical vegetarian research guide, 2022, compiled by Avery Yale Kamila. The museum hopes the guide will aid others in researching U.S. vegetarian history, where past scholarship has been scant. veganmuseum.org/resource-guide-1
Maine's Hidden Vegan & Vegetarian History: Learn the secret plant-based past excluded from the Pine Tree State's official history, by Avery Yale Kamila. Xpress Copy (Portland, Maine), 2022. Available for the sale at the Maine Historical Society bookstore, 489 Congress St., Portland, and in select library collections, including the Maine Historical Society's Brown Library, the Portland Public Library's Portland Room and the American Antiquarian Society library in Worcester, Massachusetts.
"A Brief Vegetarian History of Maine," by Avery Yale Kamila. Maine Community Cookbook, Volume Two, Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz, ed. Islandport Press (Yarmouth, Maine), 2022. https://www.islandportpress.com/product-page/maine-community-cookbook-volume-2News coverage of the project
- Friendly Fire: Historical links between violence & eating animals, WMPG radio, April 10, 2024
- Diet & Riot: Vegetarianism in Maine with Avery Yale Kamila, Mainely History podcast, Feb. 17, 2024
- Vegan Action: Maine Veg History, Vegan Journal, Issue 4, 2023
- The History of Vegetarianism & The Good Life, International Vegetarian Union, Aug. 11, 2023.
- The oft-invisible history of a movement that didn't even have a name! Journalist Avery Yale Kamila on Maine's scrubbed veg history, women, farm girl life, and being served a friend for dinner, Vegan Posse podcast, May 26, 2023.
- Speaker series addresses life in troubled times, Penobscot Bay Press, May 25, 2023.
- Free Research Guide to U.S. Vegan History Released by The Vegan Museum, Vegan Magazine, Dec. 24, 2022.
- Free research guide to U.S. vegan history released by The Vegan Museum, International Vegetarian Union, Dec. 10, 2022.
- Journalist and Historian Avery Yale Kamila, Vedge Your Best podcast, Oct. 25, 2022.
- Hidden vegan history in non-veg cookbook, International Vegetarian Union, Aug. 15, 2022.
- Vegetarianism in Maine in 1854, Vegetarian Resource Group, May 10, 2021.
- Vegetarian History, Main Street Vegan podcast, July 22, 2020.
- America's First Milk Was Vegan Milk, American Vegan Society, Nov. 14, 2020.
- Wabanaki Enjoying Nut Milk and Butter for Centuries, Atowi Project, Nov. 8, 2020.
Maine Sunday Telegram history columns
Open access versions of these columns are accessible from the top navigation menu
Nearly 150 years ago, a Seventh Day Adventist leader had a vision about vegetarianism. Maine Sunday Telegram (Portland, Maine) February 20, 2022.
Nearly 200 years ago, the lectures of a celebrity vegetarian visiting Portland caused a riot. Maine Sunday Telegram (Portland, Maine) June 27, 2021.
A 19th-century Portland newspaper an early advocate for a vegetarian diet. Maine Sunday Telegram (Portland, Maine) February 14, 2021.
Americans have been enjoying nut milk and nut butter for at least 4 centuries. Maine Sunday Telegram (Portland, Maine) November 8, 2020.
Exactly 45 years ago, Maine hosted a historic 2-week conference for vegetarians. Maine Sunday Telegram (Portland, Maine) August 16, 2020.
Embrace of vegetarian diets in Maine predates statehood. Maine Sunday Telegram (Portland, Maine) May 24, 2020.
A meat-free diet in Maine is nothing new. Maine Sunday Telegram (Portland, Maine) March 29, 2020.
Maine back-to-the-land leader Helen Nearing’s cookbook makes meatless eating simple. Maine Sunday Telegram (Portland, Maine) March 30, 2016.
Maine woman founded church, converted followers to vegetarianism. Maine Sunday Telegram (Portland, Maine) May 13, 2015.Contact information
Avery Yale Kamila
Maine Sunday Telegram newspaper column
Journalist & independent researcher
PO Box 4242
(Packages: 622 Congress St., #4242)
Portland, ME 04101
207-780-0915
avery.kamila@gmail.com
https://www.pressherald.com/foodanddining/vegan-kitchen/
Social Media links
www.instagram.com/averyyalekamila
www.facebook.com/averyyalekamila
www.linkedin.com/in/avery-yale-kamila-a964b020
https://beyondanimal.com/user/profile/view/AveryKamila
Ongoing funding for the Maine Vegetarian History Project has been provided by VegFund.
