Peter Cox (author) - Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism

Cox initiated a number of major changes at the Vegetarian Society including a higher public profile, an expanded membership, vigorous ongoing debates with the Meat and Livestock Commission, the establishment of the Cordon Vert cookery school with television personality Sarah Brown, and a new magazine. Cox’s reforms were not universally appreciated and internal disagreements brought about his resignation, whereupon he founded and edited the short-lived magazine Today’s Vegetarian (Future Publishing) and, most importantly, was introduced to Paul and Linda McCartney by Chrissie Hynde, another pop singer and prominent vegetarian.

In 1986 Cox wrote a bestselling book entitled Why You Don’t Need Meat (Thorsons Publishers). It gained major public attention and won the Booksellers’ Association Award for the Best Non-Fiction Publicity Campaign of the Year. The book was essentially a polemic that presented the health, environmental and ethical reasons for a meat-free diet. An early appearance on BBC television’s “Wogan” was seen by millions of people and propelled the book to the no. 1 position on the paperback charts, selling 100,000 copies in the UK alone (it was subsequently published in the United States, France, Germany, Japan and many other countries).