At present simply by sending a request and an explanation of why you are interested directly or indirectly to Chris Clayton. There is no subscription fee or formal application form.

HVG is established as a Special Interest Group of the British Humanist Association but although membership of the BHA is encouraged you do not have to be a member, nor does it confer membership of the BHA for which there is a subscription fee. Membership of the Vegetarian Society and the Vegan Society are also encouraged.

Vegetarians and vegans are equally welcome and play an active part in the Group.

It is intended that the informal open approach to membership will be reviewed after about a year of operation, in readiness for the start of 2008.

In the first year our efforts are being focused on developing our internet presence and networking with other humanist / secular and vegetarian / vegan organisations. Links have already been established with the new Humanist Science Group for example. What happens next will depend largely on member preferences as numbers grow but vegetarian / vegan organisations do rather lend themselves to gatherings centered around eating (and talking) so we expect there will at least be informal meetings at vegetarian restaurants, there are some areas where this would already be a realistic possibility. It is likely that HVG will be found contributing to other humanist / secular and vegetarian / vegan events which as well as being more practical for us fits in with our wish to be supportive of other groups and in no way competing with them.

Membership may or may not remain quite small. However, if it grows significantly a greater variety of activities will become appropriate and realistic. Campaigning is going to be on the agenda, either by supporting existing campaigns or launching our own. Areas of likely interest include science, health and the environmental as well as ethical issues. We also intend to consider how we can involve people who do not use the Internet as a major means of communication.

The Humanist Vegetarian Group aims to promote humanism among vegetarians and vegetarianism among humanists. It aims to show that humanist ethics can point in the direction of vegetarianism, while not expecting all or even a majority of humanists to become vegetarians ----- although we can hope for this.

It also aims to provide vegetarians with an alternative to a religious or supernaturalist approach to life, and a community of fellow vegetarians who seek to base their life on reason and evidence.

We also recognise that people, humanists included, may be vegetarian for a variety of reasons other than ethics and the welfare of animals: health, environmental, economic, cultural, taste. We welcome all who support the principle of vegetarianism for whatever reason. Like many other vegetarian organisations it is also our aim to help people become and remain vegetarians by helping them to find information and advice, and to campaign for a more 'veggie friendly' society in areas such as consumer protection and business practices in the food and catering industries, public sector catering, etc.

As its name suggests, secular humanism is centered on the dignity and worth of people, it is about trying to lead a good life based on reason, without superstition and without supernatural gods or other supernatural authority. Sometimes it is referred to as a naturalistic approach to life, contrasting it with supernaturalism.

In the context of ethics HVG seeks to expand on an idea which already exists, that the concerns of humanism extend beyond our own species to all other animals. For example humanist moral philosopher Peter Singer has made the case for extending the concept of utilitarianism, 'the greatest good is the greatest happiness of the greatest number', to all species. Some of us may think in terms of 'animal rights' following the line of Singer, others may express themselves in terms of a 'duty' not to inflict unnecessary suffering on animals.

The basic definition given by the British Humanist Association is "Humanism is the belief that we can live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs. Humanists make sense of life using reason, experience and shared human values." Humanists are usually atheists or agnostics, in some cases deists and naturalistic pantheists. We have based HVG on the definitions provided by the BHA (and the Vegetarian Society) as a starting point. The word humanism has a variety of different meanings so for greater clarity some people add 'secular', 'scientific', 'Darwinian'. Secular Humanism is perhaps the most commonly used expression.

To start with we base our definition on that used by the Vegetarian Society (see below) but many members would go further, including for example avoiding all products requiring the direct killing of animals, such as leather or gelatine or fur; and vegans will go further still to any use of animal products whether or not it involves killing. On the other hand despite the definition below we have decided for the present at least to include fish-eaters or pescatarians as long as they are supportive of the vegetarian movement, understand that we do not accept fish-eating to be vegetarian and hopefully see themselves as on route to becoming fully vegetarian. We do not wish to be dogmatic in insisting every member is a 'perfect' vegetarian even if that were possible.

"We define a vegetarian as someone living on a diet of grains, pulses, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruits with or without the use of dairy products and eggs. A vegetarian does not eat any meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish or crustacea, or slaughter by-products." The Vegetarian Society.