Publisher of Forbes Magazine Goes (Mostly) Vegan

Rich Karlgaard is the publisher of Forbes magazine—the standard-bearer of American business magazines. I was a Forbes subscriber for many years and loved it but finally had to DNR my subscription when it got too expensive. I especially loved Karlgaard's column in every issue—usually the first thing I read. His columns were fun, smart, honest, and betrayed a Renaissance mind that seem to be aware of almost everything happening in business and culture. He also spoke highly of his church and family life. He was even kind enough to respond to a couple of emails I sent commenting on his column. But I never imagined him being anything other than a meat-and-potatoes guy.

So when he wrote an extended post on his personal blog recently about going "mostly" vegan, I was really surprised: "In Praise of (Mostly) Vegan Diets." His reasons for making the change were health-based and he writes positively about the results. (He even became a road biker, another sign of his smarts. jk) From his description it sounds like he's eating 80-85% vegan (breakfast and lunch) and then eating whatever his wife has fixed for supper—but piling on the veggies and going light on the meat even at that meal.

I was duly impressed. This is a smart guy who looked at the nutritional evidence and decided it would be to his advantage to make a serious paradigm shift. In fact, in another blog post predicting 20 things we might see happen in the 2010's, he wrote . . .

1. Vegan Republicans
All-plant diets, proselytized so far mostly by PETA punks, Prius drivers, old hippies and Jack Lalanne, go mainstream. The Engine 2 Diet portends the future.

This "vegan thing" is gaining serious traction. I can't remember who it was, but "somebody now-dead but famous" (I think; it's one of those quotes I remember but not the source) wrote that the day will come when the human race looks back on our killing and eating animals with incredulity; wondering how we could ever have done that. That's not why Rich Karlgaard (mostly) stopped eating meat, but the net result is the same. I don't know if that will ever happen, but it's a happy thought.