Changing Your Diet Can Help Save the Planet

Last year I researched and created a flyer called "Changing your diet can help save the planet." I was asked to do this by an environmental community group for a table at an event we were sponsoring. The reason they asked me to do it was because I brought it up as an issue during the large group meeting. The information being sought was ideas about what could be communicated to the public about the environment. I knew that even environmental activists were probably not comfortable with the food production issues. Because of this, I struggled with even bringing it up. But I felt strongly about it and decided to risk it. Many of them were concerned that people don't like to be told what to eat (including them). Somehow it seemed easier to tell people what to drive, how much energy to use etc. But, I spoke to the chairperson and she really did want me to pursue this and I told her I would try to be as factual and informational as possible without being strident. She liked it and we used it. 

Here is the result:

Spreading thanks for vegan items in restaurants

For a while now, I have been undertaking a small but (in my opinion) important activism to help farm animals. A few years ago, I was thinking about something I could do that would help the cause other than direct protest.
How could I encourage others to try veganism and show my appreciation to restaurant owners who have expanded their menu to include some vegan offerings or have shown willingness to make something vegan?


The plan went something like this:  I printed up some business size cards that I could hand out to a restaurant that ventured into taking the plant eaters as legit customers. My card looked like this:

A few years later, a friend of mine took a job with PETA and when I told her about my campaign, she gave me some cards that PETA had made up to do the very thing I was doing. At first, I was a little disappointed that my cool novel idea was not new at all, but I got over it. Now I just hand out both cards to the restaurant.

Once I started handing these out, the responses I got were so positive. From the waitress to the chef or manager, they were thrilled to get this. In one case, the chef came out to our table to thank us and chat a little about what we thought of each of his vegan items. And he brought us a full plate of some new ones he was going to offer.

At another restaurant on Hilton Head Island, there was a place that served sea food in one kitchen and all vegan in the other. We were pretty surprised to find such a place there. The waiter told us about all the different menu dishes that the vegan chef invented. In addition to the food we ordered, he also brought us out a few extra.

So, in closing, I encourage all of you to try this
out. It doesn't take a lot of time to create the cards or find a place either in a purse or pocket to carry them around. The more of us who are out there thanking businesses for offering vegan items, the more likely they will continue or add more.

Businesses need to make money to stay in business, so I think it is a worthwhile effort. AND you might even get some free cool food.

Not Eating Animals

Not Eating Animals

All those years I never thought of you

I used my knife and fork to cut up your cooked flesh

And put it in my mouth as if it was food

Why didn’t I ask how life was for you?

Why didn’t your life matter as much as mine?

Why was I ok with most of us paying others to kill you?

Why didn’t I ask why killing animals was even a job for someone?

Now that I know what happens to you – the conditions you live with,

               Your fear and pain, the male chicks immediately killed,

               The male calves ripped away from their mother to become

               ‘veal’ and the females to become suppliers just like their mothers.

               Pregnant pigs in gestation cages without room to move.

All of this slaughter and cruelty just so I can have a hamburger (a cow

               had to be killed and ground up), chicken nuggets (a chicken had

               to be slaughtered and sliced up), bacon (a pig had to be drained of

               blood and cut up), cheese (a cow was not allowed to be a mother to

               her newborn – her baby was meant for us, not her)

I could no longer ignore these things.

I have always loved animals and I feel compassion for those living among us

who are disadvantaged both human and non-human animals.

So, after much soul-searching and finding out what I could eat that would not

               Be part of the exploitation and cruelty to other species that

               Share this planet with us, I became a vegan.

Now when I see dairy products, all I can think of is the sadness the mother cow feels

               When her baby is ripped away so we can consume the milk, the cheese, the

Ice cream, the creamer meant for her baby.

When I see the pieces of meat in the grocery store, all I can see is the clever

               Packaging designed so that we won’t think about how that meat from a

               Cow, a pig, a chicken, a duck ended up on that grocery shelf.

I have seen the truth

I have acknowledged my ignorance

I can never go back.