Throughout human history, some people have chosen to abstain from eating meat – for ethical or religious reasons. But beginning in the mid-19th cen­tury, groups and organizations were formed in the West who identified themselves as “vegetarian”. With the establishment of Svenska Vegetariska Föreningen (SVF, or the Swedish Vege­tarian Society) in 1903, Sweden became part of this international movement. 

A central claim in this study is that the formation of vegetarian practices in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century should be understood as an expression of the emerging modern society. The purpose of this study, covering 1900–1935, is to contribute new perspectives and insights concerning vegetarianism in Sweden in the early 20th century. On the one hand, this study examines Swedish vegetarianism as a movement. On the other, attention is drawn to how closely connected it was to vegetarian movements on an inter­national level.

The main source material of this study is the Swedish Vegetarian Society’s member magazine Vegetarianen (the Vegetarian), and a variety of writings by Johan L. Saxon who was chair as well as the editor of Vegetarianen. The study shows that early 20th century vegetarianism was not just about excluding meat from one’s diet, it was also characterized by a variety of rules and restrictions. A key word in this is toxins. Meat was considered a toxin and therefore not to be consumed by humans, but it was far from the only toxin. Other toxins that a vegetarian must avoid were alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea and various spices.

The vegetarians’ self-perception, expressed in the examined sources, can be summarized as an understanding of themselves as the true core of several related movements, as vegetarianism also encompassed those endeavors. Vegetarians in this way related to the temperance, animal protection, and peace movements in the first instance. Vegetarianism was expected to imply the rejection of killing both animals and humans. As for the relation to the temperance movement, vegetarians understood meat and alcohol to be similar toxins: a vegetarian thus abstained not only from eating meat, but also from imbibing alcohol.