Vegetarian Star

Photo Credit: Jill Fehrenbacher of Inhabitat

Peter Rojas is the co-founder of the popular tech blog, Engadget, which he later sold, along with other blogs, to AOL. He’s currently spending his days on RCRD LBL, a digital music site he created.

On Accidental Veganism
I became vegetarian when I was 15 or 16 in high school. I think in the early 90s there was a general upsurge in consciousness about issues related to environmentalism. That was my primary reason for going vegetarian.

Becoming vegan was a little different. I didn’t even know any vegans until I got to college. I’d eaten mostly vegan, but occasionally would have something not vegan, but vegetarian, at the dining hall on campus. [After awhile] I realized I had gone probably six months without eating anything that wasn’t vegan and I was like, “I think I’m going to keep doing this.” That was about 12 years ago. There isn’t anything about being a vegan, for me, that feels like a hardship at all. I don’t feel like I’m sacrificing anything.

I read your wife’s (Jill Fehrenbacher) blog over at the Inhabitat and she said one of her New Year’s resolutions was to stop giving in to non vegan sweets. Does it ever upset you when she eats non vegan and gives into the cookies?

It’s a tough life if you’re going to be really judgmental about other people. I tease her about it a little bit. And she’s actually been sort of off and on vegan for awhile. Let’s put it this way, if she would start eating meat, then I’d have a serious problem. I’d probability be really judgmental about that because when we got married she was a vegetarian. I’ve always encouraged her to continue to be vegan. But it wasn’t anything worth getting upset over. That’s not really the way I operate in the world.

A decade ago you had a job for a media planning agency which involved a lot of numbers and because of that, you felt  you didn’t do well. I found that to be a little strange, given the fact that you’re a techie and into gadgets. I kind of imagined someone who is into that as being a good number cruncher.

I’m much better about writing about technology and thinking analytically about technology and the industry and trends. The media planning job was, like, you have 50 thousand dollars to spend in this market and it was really about doing the kind of distribution of funds for ad buying.

It’s actually very different skill sets. Talking about technology and being able to be insightful about technology is very different than being good at crunching numbers.

When you look at Engadget and things that I’ve done, it’s really been about trying to humanize technology and thinking about technology as another form of pop culture and less about hard nose science and engineering.

On Being A Famous Role Model For Veganism
Even though I’m  known to gadget fanatics, I don’t have any delusions as to how well known I might be [to others]. I look at someone like Moby who obviously is very well known. And having him be a presence and spokesperson for vegans does have an impact that obviously I’m not going to have. 

(Joking)Would you ever consider getting naked for PETA?
I don’t think anyone would necessarily want to see me naked. I think I need to start going back to the gym before I do that.

Find out what famous vegans Peter admires, after the jump.

Food voyeurism
It’s hasn’t been that exciting because it’s so cold and I haven’t left the house very much. I cooked dinner and had vegan ravioli-I think it was Soy Boy. I’ll often have a smoothie during the day, chocolate almond milk ,rice protein powder and bananas. But the last 24 hours haven’t been that exciting.

Influential Vegans For Him
Glen Friedman, who’s a photographer. He’s someone that I’ve respected and he’s been very outspoken about his veganism. Or Ian MacKaye from Fugazi. When you’re young and you’re vegetarian and you’re compassionate about music, those tend to be the people that you really look up to and inspire you.

When you grow up in the 80s, you have this stereotype of musicians and rock stars as these completely decadent, irresponsible people. And when you meet people that are in bands coming out and saying they believe in personal responsibly and people doing the right thing and making decisions to try to make the world a better place, you’re kind of like, wow, I want to live my life that same way.

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