Love Me, Love My Food

Canterbury University researcher Annie Potts coined the new buzzword “vegansexuality” in a paper published in May. Potts, a director of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies, surveyed 157 vegans and vegetarians on all aspects of cruelty-free living. She found that many vegans and vegetarians engage in “cruelty-free sex” by “rejecting meat-eaters as intimate partners”. The study has received comment from PETA founder and president Ingrid Newkirk, who sees vegan-to-vegan love as a missed recruiting opportunity. Says Newkirk in the New York Times, “When my staff members come to me and say: ‘Guess what? My boyfriend, now he’s a vegan,’ I say, half-jokingly: ‘Well, it is time to ditch him and get another. You’ve done your work; move on.'”