Try Vegan!
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“Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Albert Einstein
letter dated 1950, quoted
in H. Eves’ Mathematical Circles Adieu, 1977
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There are lots of things each of us can do to make the world a better place. However, eating vegan is likely the most effortless—and enjoyable!—way to have a profoundly positive impact as often as every day.
As the many far-reaching effects of our food choices come
to light, interest in eating a vegetarian diet continues to
grow. Based on the results of a 2003 national survey by Harris
Interactive, the Vegetarian Journal estimates that
there are 5.7 million adult vegetarians in the United States.
So try vegan for your next meal!
Would you like some more help getting started?
Our FREE starter guide offers easy-to-follow recipes—including nondairy cheeses and mock meat—plus a vegetarian foods glossary and meal-planning tips. There’s also a list of
recommended resources, such as cookbooks and on-line/mail-order
stores that specialize in vegetarian products.
In addition, the booklet contains information that can help
you optimize your health on a vegetarian diet. A detailed
guide to specific nutrients is provided, with recommendations
on how much of each nutrient you should be getting and which
foods are good sources.
Vegan Outreach
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“True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to fore only when its recipient has no power.
“Humanity’s true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.
“And in this respect humankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.”
Milan
Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being,
1984
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Being vegan isn’t about being perfect or pure—
it’s about reducing suffering.
Instead of supporting the hidden cruelties of factory farms and slaughterhouses, we can each choose to act with compassion by boycotting animal agriculture.
Making humane choices is the ultimate affirmation of our humanity.
Over the course of a lifetime, one person’s food choices affect hundreds of animals. In order to prevent the most suffering, it’s important we each take an approach we can sustain. After reviewing these pages, some people may decide to go vegan immediately; others may choose to eat fewer animal products and explore more vegetarian meals.
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“Do we, as humans, having an ability to reason and to communicate abstract ideas verbally and in writing, and to form ethical and moral judgments using the accumulated knowledge of the ages, have the right to take the lives of other sentient organisms, particularly when we are not forced to do so by hunger or dietary need, but rather do so for the somewhat frivolous reason that we like the taste of meat?
“In essence, should we know better?”
Peter Cheeke, PhD, Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture, 2004
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Remember: Veganism is not an end in itself. It should not be thought of as a religious doctrine prohibiting a list of evil ingredients. Rather, veganism is best viewed as a tool for reducing suffering.
Vegan Outreach can provide you with copies of our brochures (Why Vegan?, Even If You Like Meat, and/or Compassionate Choices) to share with friends and family or to distribute in your community. Please see our catalog to order literature, as well as videos and other resources.
Our advocacy essays provide more ideas for outreach. And our free weekly email newsletter keeps members up to date with the latest
news and actions.
See our front
page or site
map for more information, or contact
us with questions!
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“I think everybody has the capacity to stop and think and say, ‘If I knew you,
I wouldn’t eat you.’
“And in some ways, it really is that simple.”
Tom Regan, PhD, NCSU Professor of Philosophy, from A Cow at My Table
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