Vegetarians Around the World: Map Making on R

By joanapinela, 10 October, 2024

Picture this: an endless list of names hosted on the outdated Alimentopia website. These names belonged to the subscribers of O Vegetariano- Naturista Mensal, whose stories and backgrounds were scattered across time and space, leaving behind small hints of who they were and where they lived. My task? To revive, to the best of my ability, their identities and try to piece together some of their lives to create an interactive map, pinpointing every single one.

The first challenge was somewhat daunting, albeit exciting: collect and organize the sparse data on 1027 people, all born in the early 19th century. The data I started with was minimal, including little more than their names, occupations, and the place where they lived at the time of the subscription. Very few had photographs of themselves and personal testimonies on the old website, so for the most part the great majority of the database was made up of blank slates. 

This is where the research work began.

With only a name and a location for most entries, my task was now to try to fill as many gaps as I possibly could, and gather biographical details such as place of birth and death date, nationality, occupation, accomplishments, and even photographs and wiki data links where possible.

This, of course, was a time-consuming process, because we’re talking about people born in the 19th century, whose records were often hard to track down with accuracy. To make sure that the information I got online pertained to the people I was looking up, I cross-referenced old municipal documents, national newspapers, and whatever other records were available to piece together the information that I needed.

After gathering as much data as I could- with the possibility of going back and being able to always look further- that’s when the visualization was a go. I imported the data into R and transformed it into a map that highlighted the geographical spread of all those people. While a considerable amount is located in Africa (75)  and Brazil (178), the overwhelming majority is located in Portugal (749).

For this visualization to be even more interactive as well as efficient for research, I used Shiny, a framework that allows us to create an easy-to-navigate interface. With this tool, anyone can now explore the subscriber list on a map, based on country of origin. 

Without a doubt, one of the most fascinating aspects of this project is to see these final results. These people represented a movement that we today might have considered to be niche back then, but the fact is that this “niche” movement spanned continents. It’s true that Portugal and Brazil mostly reflect the periodical’s subscriber base, but the presence of subscribers in India (1), Macau (1), São Tomé e Príncipe (25), Germany (1), Chequia(1) and Switzerland(1), hints at the global reach of the naturist and vegetarian community and movement, already in the 19th century.

What started as a simple request to pull subscriber names into a database, turned into an expansive and enriching historical, and technical, journey. Not only did this project involve careful research and data collection but it also entailed the use of digital tools like R and Shiny to present all this data in a meaningful way.

Still a work in progress- as there are still some bugs to fix on the map- but the highlight was truly to reveal newfound information on as many people as I could find and see the database come to life. 

Each pin on the map represents a life and story- one that I am proud to have helped uncover and share with others.

If you’re curious to learn more about the lives of these early vegetarians, the database is now available in the CETAPS Repository. Feel free to explore the map yourself and learn more about these remarkable people.

The aim is to further expand the database and we need your help gathering information about individuals who followed a vegetarian diet. Contribute here!