Table of Contents

Overview Preface Introduction: Eating Animals Is Bad for Health and the Environment 1. Preliminaries and Objections 2. Biological Theory 3. Great Apes and Other Primates 4. Early Humans 5. Modern Humans and Cultural Theory Conclusion and Summary: Crossing Over to Adopt a Vegan Culture

About the Author

Gregory F. Tague is a Professor in the Departments of Literature, Writing and Publishing and Interdisciplinary Studies and founder and senior developer of The Evolutionary Studies Collaborative at St. Francis College, New York, USA. He is also the founder and organizer of a number of Darwin-inspired Moral Sense Colloquia and has written numerous books, including most recently An Ape Ethic and the Question of Personhood (2020), Art and Adaptability: Consciousness and Cognitive Culture (2018), Evolution and Human Culture (2016), and Making Mind: Moral Sense and Consciousness (2014).

Reviews

"The Vegan Evolution makes a spirited case for abandoning the waste and risks associated with consuming animals and their products. Author Gregory F. Tague shows how insight can be gained through a new way of understanding human evolution – gene culture coevolution. The meat-eating behavior of many members of our species isn’t the result of the evolution of our genes. It’s due to evolution of our cultures. Tague then explains how populations might culturally evolve adaptive strategies that will make our descendants fit for the environments we will be part of."
Lesley Newson, Research Associate, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, and co-author with Peter J. Richerson of A Story of Us: A New Look at Human Evolution (2021). "What type of tomorrow do we want? asks Gregory F. Tague in The Vegan Evolution, a well-documented, carefully researched book that challenges our thinking—more importantly—our behaviors. I was fascinated by the wide-encompassing, holistic perspective Tague presents to the reader: while veganism is the core, he explores the multiple and complex connections of our food choices with our spirituality, what makes us human, and how we want to live on this earth. The Vegan Evolution is a book that helps us notice our contradictions and see alternatives for being who we really want to be."
Isabel Rimanoczy, author of The Sustainability Mindset Principles (2021), Convener PRME Working Group on the Sustainability Mindset."The Vegan Evolution: Transforming Diets and Agriculture is must read. Delving deeply into the biological and cultural evolutionary history of our species, Gregory F. Tague makes a compelling case for a rapid, collective move to vegan diets. He shows that widespread adoption of such would be both healthful for us and salvation for our planetary ecosphere."
David Steele, Executive Director, EarthSave Canada."The moral imperative of The Vegan Evolution supplants an assumed need to consume animals that itself rests on a vaguely evolutionary imperative that Tague wants to demolish. I admire his pluck, his interest in aggregating the range of sources he uses, and for practicing evolution without a license (so to speak). A pretty compelling look at how we think about what we eat."
Thomas Hertweck, University of Massachusetts, USA.