Senator Cory Booker, vegan since 2014. Photo: U.S. Senate, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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Most vegan celebrities can change a menu. Cory Booker can change a law. The New Jersey senator went vegan in 2014, sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee as its first known vegan member, and has repeatedly introduced a bill to phase out America’s largest factory farms. When people ask “is Cory Booker vegan,” the answer isn’t just yes. It’s yes, and he’s arguably the most consequential vegan in American politics.
He’s also the guy who, after delivering the longest speech in Senate history, broke his fast with pineapple and watermelon. We’ll get there.
QUICK ANSWER
Yes, Cory Booker is vegan. Vegetarian since 1992, fully vegan since November 2014. As of his record-breaking April 2025 Senate speech, national coverage still identified him as vegan, and there's no sign that's changed.
Last fact-checked: July 7, 2026
It started with Gandhi
Booker’s origin story is the most literary on this whole list. As a student at Oxford in 1992, he read Gandhi’s autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, and cut out meat to see how his body responded. Vegetarianism stuck. Research into animal welfare and the environmental toll of animal agriculture did the rest, and on Election Day, November 4, 2014, he ate his last non-vegan meal.
In his own words, via X: “Been a vegetarian since 1992 and vegan since 2014.”
He’s refreshingly honest about the unglamorous phase, too. He’s admitted to being “too much of a junk food vegan, empty carbs, sugar, fat” before shifting to whole foods, and he loves pointing out that Pringles and Skittles are technically vegan. Relatable.
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He reads Gandhi's autobiography, cuts out meat, and goes vegetarian. “My veganism started then,” he'd later say.
November 4, 2014: fully vegan
On Election Day he eats his last non-vegan meal and commits to veganism for good.
2019: the presidential run
He runs for president, widely tagged as a potential “first vegan president,” and introduces the Farm System Reform Act.
February 2021: the Ag Committee
He becomes the first known vegan senator on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, the body that oversees the food system, then reintroduces his factory-farm bill.
March 2023: the cultivated-meat tasting
He tastes GOOD Meat cultivated (slaughter-free) chicken, his first “meat” since the 1990s, and says “It tastes phenomenal.” Not vegan strictly, but a deliberate endorsement of a no-slaughter technology.
April 2025: the record
He delivers the longest Senate floor speech in history, 25 hours and 5 minutes, fasting beforehand. He breaks it with pineapple and watermelon. Coverage: “Booker, who is vegan…”
The bill that could actually matter
Menus are nice. Legislation is bigger. Booker’s signature effort is the Farm System Reform Act, which would place a moratorium on new and expanding large factory farms (CAFOs), require existing ones to stop operating at that scale by 2040, crack down on meatpacker monopolies, restore country-of-origin labeling, and fund voluntary buyouts to move farmers toward pasture-based and specialty-crop operations. He’s introduced it repeatedly since 2019.
That’s the difference between a celebrity vegan and a legislator vegan. One changes their plate; the other tries to change the system that fills everyone’s.
The one honest asterisk
We flag it because honesty is the point: in 2023 Booker ate cultivated chicken, meat grown from animal cells without slaughter. Strict vegans note that cultivated meat isn’t technically vegan, since its production starts from animal cells. But it wasn’t a lapse; it was a public bet on a technology that could end slaughter entirely. Every source dated after it still calls him vegan. Read it as conviction, not compromise.
Fact or fiction?
He broke a 25-hour Senate speech with fruit. Fact or fiction?
Fact. Pineapple and watermelon, his first food in over a day, after the longest Senate speech ever.
A Gandhi book made him give up meat. Fact or fiction?
Fact. Gandhi's autobiography, read at Oxford in 1992.
He wrote a bill to phase out factory farms. Fact or fiction?
Fact. The Farm System Reform Act, which would end large CAFOs by 2040.
Quiz: how well do you know vegan Cory?
Five questions, no cheating
1. What book inspired him to stop eating meat?
2. When did he go fully vegan?
3. What did he eat after his record 25-hour speech?
4. His anti-factory-farm bill is called the…
5. Which two junk foods does he note are technically vegan?
Is Cory Booker still vegan in 2026?
Yes. The April 2025 record-speech coverage confirmed it, no reversal exists, and his entire legislative brand is built on it. He’s vegetarian since 1992, vegan since 2014, and the rare politician whose diet is also his policy.
Photo: U.S. Senate, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Frequently Asked
FAQ - What readers ask
Fact or fiction?+
He broke a 25-hour Senate speech with fruit. Fact or fiction? Fact. Pineapple and watermelon, his first food in over a day, after the longest Senate speech ever. A Gandhi book made him give up meat. Fact or fiction? Fact. Gandhi's autobiography, read at Oxford in 1992.
Is Cory Booker still vegan in 2026?+
Yes. The April 2025 record-speech coverage confirmed it, no reversal exists, and his entire legislative brand is built on it. He’s vegetarian since 1992, vegan since 2014, and the rare politician whose diet is also his policy.
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