Rynn Berry makes a publisher feel good. The vegan raw-foodist and official historian of the North American Vegetarian Society is in Union Square three or more days a week—a fixture of the Greenmarket—selling, in his wry, scholarly way the hell out of his books. Rynn has carried his laden backpack and stood behind his fold-up table since 1994 suggesting to passers-by and shoppers that they may wish to peruse his tomes: Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes, Food for the Gods: Vegetarianism and the World’s Religions, Hitler: Neither Vegetarian nor Animal Lover, and the perennial favorite, The Vegan Guide to New York City. (Full Disclosure: I wrote the foreword to Hitler: Neither Vegetarian nor Animal Lover, and have known Rynn for almost as long as he’s been standing in Union Square.)


So, Rynn’s literally in a good position to reflect on the changes Union Square has undergone over the years. “It used to be very down-at-heel,” he says, “and it’s become increasingly gentrified. Most of the buildings were vacant and abandoned and are now filled with upscale stores.” Even the Greenmarket itself has changed. “It was more modest in 1994. There were fewer farmers represented.” And what about the customers to his booth? “Well, they were always lively,” he smiles. “But the interest today is more frivolous.” There’s much more traffic, he notes. However, “I sold more of the cerebral kind of books five or six years ago than I do now. Now I sell more vegan guides.” But that’s good, isn’t it? I say, reflecting on our mutual desire to spread the word about veganism. Rynn offers up a lapidary sigh. “The appetite for literature has declined.”

The Vegan Guide, which has now sold nearly 150,000 copies in ten years, itself shows how far veganism has come since Rynn he took over the guide from Max Friedman and Dan Mills in 1994. “There are now over one hundred entries for vegan/vegetarian restaurants. New York City is the best in the world for that. In 1994 I had to pad it out with veg-friendly places. Now I need only vegetarian/vegan places to fill a volume.”

Did he enjoy standing here, week in week out, in Union Square? He grins. “I enjoy the ethnic mix. There are a lot of tourists, and I can practice my French and Japanese.”

So, after compiling so much vegetarian history, and standing in the shadow of a statue of that great vegetarian activist, Mahatma Gandhi, who was Rynn’s own favorite vegetarian? “Leonardo,” he replies without hesitation, referring to the Renaissance genius and not the film star or Liberation Theologian. “A colossus of a human. They coined the term ‘Renaissance man’ for him. My favorite vegetarian, however,” he continues, changing the emphasis of the phrase, “is Pythagoras, who started it in the west and was first a philosopher. Being a vegetarian was a prerequisite to joining the Pythagorean order.”

What were his thoughts on Union Square today? “It’s become the crossroads of the world,” he replies. “It used to be Fifty-Seventh and Fifth. Because of the renovation, it’s become a place for outpourings of grief, such as it was after 9/11, commerce, protest. There is more diversity here than anywhere else in Manhattan: a union of races, political ideas, economic ideas.”

When he’s not selling books, Rynn is pouring over knotty problems in Ancient Greek and researching for his next book, The Fruits of Tantalus: a History of Vegan Rawfoodism and Fruitarianism. As with nearly all of his books, there will be recipes.