The Way to Someone's Mind Is through Their Stomach: Vegans and Culinary Activism.

This article examines how young vegans in Santiago, Chile, use food-sharing practices as a form of activism to promote a society without animal exploitation. Drawing on three years of fieldwork, it highlights that vegans employ both face-to-face commensality (shared meals) and social media to present plant-based food as enjoyable and accessible, thereby encouraging non-vegans to adopt vegan practices without directly confronting them about animal suffering. The study identifies two main strategies: introducing familiar and flavorful vegan dishes to reduce prejudice and teaching culinary skills to facilitate the transition to veganism. The findings contribute to understanding veganism as a lifestyle movement where food functions as a pragmatic mechanism for socializing others into political ideas through everyday interactions, emphasizing practical engagement over ideological debate.