Honoring John Robbins: A Legacy Rooted in Ahimsa

      Ocean and John Robbins

Food Revolution Network

On June 11, 2025, the world bid farewell to one of its most courageous and compassionate voices John Robbins, bestselling author of Diet for a New America and a visionary advocate for a just, healthy, and sustainable world.

At Ahimsa Peace Institute, we deeply resonate with the values John championed throughout his life: nonviolence, ethical living, service to the greater good, and love for all beings. His journey from heir to the Baskin-Robbins empire to global leader in the Food Revolution was one of conscious sacrifice and spiritual awakening.

John gave up an inheritance of ice cream fortune to pursue a higher truth advocating for a plant-based lifestyle, environmental justice, and holistic integrity. Through his writings and the Food Revolution Network, co-founded with his son Ocean Robbins, he inspired millions to make more conscious choices about what we eat, how we live, and how we care for the Earth and one another.

John’s story continues to impact lives today. In a recent, deeply moving video, John and Ocean shared his diagnosis with Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS) a condition affecting many polio survivors decades later. In opening up about this little-understood illness, John offered clarity, healing, and profound insight in his final months yet another act of service.

What John leaves behind is not only a body of wisdom, but a legacy of love carried forward through Ocean Robbins and the global movement they helped shape. Through their work, the ideals of Ahimsa nonviolence in thought, word, and deed live on.

Veganism is Ahimsa in Action. John reminded us that peace begins with what we put on our plate, into our minds, and into the world.

We honor John Robbins not only for the life he lived, but for the love he gave, and the light he leaves behind.

Resources & Tributes:

John Robbins Health Sharing Video with Transcript (PPS)

Food Revolution Network

Seeds of Light & ABC Segment

Related Reflection:
 “A Table Without Suffering: Food Justice and the Practice of Ahimsa” by George Cassidy Payne