Jane Land
British activist and co-founder of Veganuary (2014), the global campaign that encourages people to try a vegan diet every January.
Jane Land is a British animal-rights advocate who co-founded Veganuary in 2014 alongside her then-husband Matthew Glover. The campaign invites participants to eat vegan for the month of January and has grown from a few thousand sign-ups in its first year into a global movement with tens of millions of pledges annually.
Origins
Land had been vegetarian for years and went vegan in 2013 after watching slaughterhouse footage. The couple noticed that “Movember” had successfully turned a month-long commitment into cultural shorthand for a cause, and wondered whether the same frame could lower the threshold for trying veganism. They registered the domain, built the first website themselves, and ran the inaugural 2014 campaign on a shoestring from their Cheshire home.
Leadership at Veganuary
Land served as co-director through the charity’s formative years, steering the tone of its communications toward non-judgmental encouragement — recipe emails, celebrity ambassadors, and corporate partnerships rather than confrontation. That editorial instinct is widely credited with Veganuary’s ability to reach audiences outside the existing activist base and to pressure mainstream food manufacturers and restaurant chains into launching January plant-based ranges.
Afterward
Land has since kept a deliberately low public profile while continuing to support animal-welfare and plant-based causes, letting the organization she helped build speak for the work.