John Robbins (born October 26, 1947) is an American author, who popularized the links among nutrition, environmentalism, and animal rights.[1] He is the author of the 1987 Diet for a New America, an exposé on connections between diet, physical health, animal cruelty, and environmentalism. Robbins founded the organization EarthSave in 1988.
Robbins is the son of Irma Robbins and Irv Robbins, co-founder of Baskin-Robbins. He is of Jewish descent.[2] John graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1969, and received a master's degree from Antioch College, in 1976. Rather than following the ice-cream parlor legacy of his father, he left the company to seek a simpler life. He and his wife Deo were married on March 10, 1967.[3]Ocean Robbins, their son, is the founder of Food Revolution Network.[4]
In 1987 Diet for a New America was published. In the book Robbins links the impacts of factory farming on human health, the environment, and animal welfare, to make a case for a plant-based diet. A year later he founded EarthSave (see below).
He worked with PETA in 2002 to sue the California Milk Advisory Board over its 'happy cows' television advertisement.[5] The Milk Advisory Board won on a technicality.[6]
His 2006 book Healthy at 100, published by Random House, was printed on 100% post-consumer non-chlorine bleached paper, a first for a book from a major U.S. publisher.
Robbins is also on the advisory board of Naked Food Magazine, for which he is also a regular contributor of articles espousing a plant-based diet.
In 1988, Robbins founded EarthSave, an international, non-profit organization. The organization was born to channel the reader response to his Diet for a New America.[7] EarthSave did outreach to the non-vegetarian public, with information tables and vegetarian social activities such as vegetarian Thanksgiving potlucks, and activism on vegetarian, animal, and food system issues.[8]
EarthSave sponsored a youth-outreach group, YES (Youth for Environmental Sanity), which toured the country visiting high schools and raising awareness of the EarthSave message.[9]
EarthSave continues to promote healthy, environmentally sound food choices. As of January 2022, its head office is in Chatsworth, California.[10]
Earthsave Canada was established as a registered non-profit charity in British Columbia in March 1990.[11]
^"Frequently Asked Questions". EarthSave. Retrieved January 14, 2022. The EarthSave Foundation was founded in 1988 by celebrated author John Robbins. EarthSave was the direct result of the overwhelming reader response to the 1987 publication Diet for a New America.
^Boyer, Edward J.; Connell, Rich (November 25, 1994). "Southland, and Even 2 Turkeys, Give Thanks Holiday: Annual vegetarian event has live birds as guests. Elsewhere, observances are more conventional". Los Angeles Times. p. 1.
