American Vegetarian Party - Modern Efforts To Revitalize The Vegetarian Party

Modern Efforts To Revitalize The Vegetarian Party

The "Vegetarian Summerfest 2004" (the 30th annual conference of the North American Vegetarian Society) in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, held July 21-24, 2004, brought longtime peace activist and Green Party member Bob Auerbach to initiate efforts at organizing a new national political party under the name "Vegetarian Party." This effort continued at Summerfest for several years. However, unlike the American Vegetarian Party in the 1960s, which tended to be supportive of United States military action, the 2004 organizers of the new Vegetarian Party were opposed to war and supported nonviolence.

In 2002 and 2004, Auerbach ran as the Green Party Congressional nominee from Maryland's 5th district, and in the November 6, 2012, general election, Auerbach is again on the ballot as the Green nomineee for Congress in the 5th district.

Auerbach and others who sought to organize the Vegetarian Party in 2004 had not intended it to act as an electoral rival of the U.S. Green Party. One contemplated scenario was that the U.S. Vegetarian Party might work as part of a coalition within the Green Party and/or other third party organizations in order to support candidates in local and state elections. No current statistical evidence supports the notion that the U.S. Green Party might serve as an organizing mechanism for vegetarians or vegans in the United States.

Political parties in the United States are formally organized under state election laws, so it is unclear how active a new Vegetarian Party, organized as a national-level membership organization, could be electorally. Nevertheless, recurring discussion among vegetarians of running a presidential ticket mentions such candidates as Dennis Kucinich, who has committed himself to the U.S. Democratic Party.