Should veganism be legally considered a religion?

LAST MONTH, a U.S. district judge turned down a request by three vegan prisoners at Rikers Island in New York to get vegan meals in prison. For now the three, charged with property damage and trespass at a demonstration against animal testing, are subsisting on peanut butter, crackers and potato chips.

In turning them down, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin said she did not question the sincerity of the inmates' religious beliefs, and that raises the question: Is veganism a religion? More exactly, does it deserve First Amendment protection similar to other religions under U.S. law?

First, it's important to note that although the word "vegan" was coined only 60 years ago, the basic concept is among humanity's oldest spiritual traditions. The Hindu principle of "ahimsa" - willful non-violence - appeared in scriptures a thousand years before Jesus. Two other ancient religions, Buddhism and Jainism, elevated ahimsa to a central position.

It's also worth noting that this belief system is not a mere philosophy - a way of making sense of the world intellectually - but a way of life that affects its adherents profoundly.

Gandhi, for example, grew up in a Jain-centered area, but did not adopt the principle of ahimsa until he became an ethical vegetarian. After that, he frequently referenced ahimsa in religious terms: "Non-violence is an active force of the highest order," he said. "It is soul force or the power of Godhead within us. "

We needn't look all the way to East Asia for the religious underpinnings of veganism, though.

The Rikers prisoners, all Jewish, argued that veganism was the purest articulation of their religious identity.

This makes sense when we consider the first mention of food in the Bible, Genesis 1:29, where God says, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. "

The God of the Hebrews first and foremost wanted mankind to live on fruits and vegetables. Even Christians are finding links to veganism, above and beyond Jesus' apparent links to the vegan Essene cult. If nothing else, Jesus' turn-the-other-cheek, love-thy-enemy ethic is deeply reminiscent of the precepts of ahimsa.

Reminiscence, of course, is not a legal argument: Even if vegans consistently live in an ethical way, is that enough to qualify as a religion? Common sense tells us that there should be some kind of deity, some higher power involved. However, when it comes to First Amendment protection, the Supreme Court says otherwise.

In two cases pertaining to conscientious objectors whose moral stance did not invoke a supreme being, the court specifically addressed this wider question: In United States vs. Seeger (1965), Justice Tom Clark wrote for the majority that "Some believe in a purely personal God, some in a supernatural deity; others think of religion as a way of life envisioning as its ultimate goal the day when all men can live together in perfect understanding and peace."

Clark cited Congress' "long-established policy of not picking and choosing among religious beliefs." And in Welsh vs. United States (1970), the court expanded the C.O. exemption to include "deeply held moral, ethical, or religious beliefs whether or not the individual calls them religious."

Vegans, who avoid any and all products of animal exploitation, including leather, are sometimes mocked for their "inflexibility. " But there's another, more relevant, term for this: devotion.

Not all federal prisons apply the "religious dietary practices" rule exactly the same; but it's clear that wherever kosher or halal meals are available, so should be vegan meals for vegans. If our prison system has any true rehabilitative goal, stopping inmates from pursuing a creed of non-violence seems ludicrous. *

Vance Lehmkuhl is the online editor of the Daily News.