Avery Yale Kamila | |
|---|---|
| Born | Westminster, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry |
Avery Yale Kamila is an American journalist/food writer and community organizer in the state ofMaine. Kamila has written avegan food column for thePortland Press Herald /Maine Sunday Telegram and its affiliated newspapers since 2009.[1] Kamila is ranked by polling firmYouGov as one of The Most Popular Columnists in America,[2]
Kamila was born inWestminster,Massachusetts in the 1970s and grew up on an organic farm inLitchfield,Maine that raised vegetables and pigs.[3] Her grandfather owned a dairy farm in the neighboring town. Kamila has said that she is haunted by the mother cows "moaning after their babies were taken from them within hours of their birth."[3] Kamila adopted avegan diet in 1991 after reading “Diet for a New America,”[4] while she was a freshman studying journalism atSyracuse University'sS. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.[5][6] She graduated fromState University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 1995 with a degree in Environment Policy and Management.[1][7] Kamila is married to Adam Hill[8] and they have a son.[9] She lives in Portland, Maine.
Kamila writes the Vegan Kitchen column for theMaine Sunday Telegram.[10][11] She previously wrote the Natural Foodie column and the Vegetarian Kitchen column for thePortland Press Herald inPortland,Maine.[12] At one time, she wrote the Society Notebook column for theMaine Sunday Telegram.[13]
A column Kamila wrote in 2018 about the lack ofvegan school meal options convinced[14] thePortland Public Schools to add hot vegan choices.[15] The column upset some readers. The district's superintendent endorsed the idea on Twitter. The national media coverage of the vegan school lunches in Portland cited them as part of a national trend.[16]
Kamila's recipe for pumpkin seed croquettes with shiitake mushroom gravy is included in theMaine Bicentennial Community Cookbook: 200 Recipes Celebrating Maine's Culinary Past, Present & Future, compiled and edited by Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz and published by Islandport Press.[17]
Kamila's reporting on Maine restaurants using thevegan veto vote to stay busy in the winter has been cited in other reporting.[18]
In 2020, Kamila created the Maine Vegetarian History Project and discovered 300 years of vegetarian history in the state of Maine.[19]
Victoria Moran interviewed Kamila on herMain Street Vegan podcast about Maine's vegetarian history. Moran said: "Recently, she’s been researching thehistory of vegetarianism in her home state and uncovered a rich past full of meat-free and plant-based eating that has been ignored and buried for more than 100 years." Kamila's research has uncovered information about Dr.Horace A. Barrows, Rev.Henry Aiken Worcester, and James Gower, born in 1772 and the great-great-great-great grandfather of Alaska Gov.Sarah Palin.[4]
TheAmerican Vegan Society said Kamila's history claims that nut milk is America's first milk because of the history ofplant milk making within theWabanaki tribal nations "shows how the historical record was unwittingly distorted to mask this proto-vegan tradition."[20]
She has written about the history ofSeventh-day Adventist prophet who was raised in Maine,Ellen G. White, and stated in 2022 that White's "lasting influence on vegetarian food in the United States continues today." In 2015,Loma Linda University said a profile Kamila had written about White's contributions to religion and health was an "example of the wider cultural recognition of Ellen White’s continuing impact on contemporary life."[21]
In 2023, she presented her research at The Good Life Center, which is the former home ofScott Nearing andHelen Nearing, who wrote the 1970 vegetarian bestsellerLiving the Good Life.[22]
In 2015, Kamila and Maggie Knowles co-founded a grassroots group called Portland Protectors.[23][15][24][25][26][27] In 2017, Kamila was featured as a speaker at the March for Science in Portland, Maine.[28] The group convinced the Portland City Council in 2018 to pass a strict pesticide ordinance that mandatesorganic lawns and gardens within the city.[29][30]