| Georges Butaud | |
| Birth Date: | 6 June 1868 |
| Birth Place: | Marchienne-au-Pont, Belgium |
| Death Place: | Ermont, France |
| Occupation: | Anarchist and veganism activist |
Georges Butaud (6 June 1868 – 26 February 1926) was a Belgian-born French individualist anarchist and veganism activist. He advocated naturist anarchism and founded early vegan restaurants in Paris and Nice.
Butaud was born on 6 June 1868 in Marchienne-au-Pont, Belgium, to French parents. He founded a vegan colony with Sophie Zaïkowska in Bascon, near Château-Thierry.[1] Butaud and Zaïkowska eliminated all dairy products and sugar from their diet and consumed only plant products.[2] He founded Le Végétalien, a vegan journal.[1] The word végétalien was later termed vegan in English.[3]
Butaud with help from Émile Armand founded the La Vie Anarchiste journal.[4] In the 1920s, he contributed to the journal Le Néo-Naturien, which advocated a return to nature philosophy.[5]
Butaud wrote an article in 1922 defending Le végétalisme (veganism). In 1923, Butaud established a vegan restaurant Foyer Végétalien at Rue Mathis, Paris.[6] He also established another restaurant at Nice, in 1924. One could sleep there and conferences were also hosted.[6]
Butaud firmly opposed hunting and linked human cruelty to animals to the capitalist economic system that exploited the consumers of animal products.[7] He advocated a fruit and vegetable diet and believed that humans were meant to be herbivores that share their food sources; thus vegans were bound to be good communists.[7]
Butaud died on 26 February 1926 in Ermont, France.