Food as Faith: Religious Rhetoric, Conversion Narratives, and Identity Formation in the Ethical Vegetarian Movement

• In Event: Rhetorical Studies of Public Culture and Social Movements

Abstract

In this paper, I examine vegetarianism as a religion by analyzing the religious rhetoric and conversion narratives that ethical vegetarians use to define themselves, create community, and persuade others. By analyzing narratives and survey responses that I collected nationally in 2004, I argue that vegetarians understand their conversion to this lifestyle as a “coming-to-the-light” religious awakening and that their conversion narratives share several essential rhetorical qualities with more traditional types of religious conversion narratives.

Author

• Patricia M. Malesh, University of Colorado