Posts tagged as "Society"

Perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated role as John Coffey in the movie "The Green Mile," actor and muscle man Michael Clarke Duncan is now taking on a new role: animal advocate. 

In a new video released by PETA (embedded below), Duncan talks about why he decided to become a vegetarian three years ago, when he turned 51, and how his meat-free diet has changed his life.

Influenced by the video "Meat Your Meat" and the books Skinny Bitch and Skinny Bastard, Duncan says after learning about the process animals go through before ending up on our plates and how eating meat can harm our bodies, he "cleaned out his fridge" and decided to "try something new and exciting and different."

In the video he says, "The best thing about being a vegetarian for me, number one is I know I'm not harming any animals. The number two thing is increased strength. I'm a lot stronger than I was when I was eating meat."

Last week, we told you about how VegWeek 2012 (April 23-29) was a tremendous success: there were more VegPledge sign-ups, restaurant specials, events, and media coverage than ever before!

Well, the good news doesn't stop there. Although VegWeek may be over, we continue to receive inspiring feedback from hundreds of VegPledgers about how VegWeek gave them the jumpstart needed to keep standing up for animals, the planet, and their health every time they sit down to eat!

Here are a few stories we want to share: 

"I love animals and refuse to have them on my plate anymore. Thank you for the opportunity to take part in something that I plan to continue all my life. - Belinda Knowles

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"Thank you so much for the support during VegWeek. Your information has opened my eyes and helped me in the decision to go vegetarian. I look forward to learning more." -Michelle McPartland

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Though originally an observance of a Mexican military victory, Cinco de Mayo is treated in the U.S. as a wait-for-the-nearest-weekend food and beverage bash and celebration of Mexican foods and flavors. But despite all the salty, blended, or muddled margaritas and "hey there's at least one Spanish-language word on the label" beers, the true stars of Cinco de Mayo are the tapas.

Better yet, many delicious traditional and semi-traditional treats are already vegan or can be easily veganized by substituting veggie beef crumbles or award-winning non-dairy cheese. To get you started, here are some quick and easy serving ideas to help wow your guests—vegan and otherwise.

Trying one of these out or think you've got a better idea? Tweet us a pic (@TryVeg) and our staff's favorite as of Monday, May 7th at 9 a.m. EST will receive a free COK tee shirt!

Did you know that the egg industry designates May as National Egg Month in an effort to convince consumers to keep buying eggs after the Easter rush?

Most consumers are surprised to learn that despite the happy hen imagery you might see on cartons of eggs, behind virtually every “incredible, edible” egg sold in grocery stores today is a hen crammed inside a barren wire cage so restrictive, she can barely even move. Intensively confined for nearly their whole lives, these smart and social animals are rountinely treated as little more than mere egg-producing machines. This is the sad reality for more 250 million egg-laying hens in the US.

Egg-laying hens may not have a choice, but thankfully we do — we can crack the cruelty simply by choosing to leave their eggs out of our shopping carts.

On Saturday, April 28, I competed on behalf of Compassion Over Killing in the 10th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational (GCI) at the Pasadena Rose Bowl--and took home the trophy for 3rd place in the professional chef category!

The GCI is the largest sandwich cooking contest in the country, drawing in nearly 10,000 people every year - and this is the first time any awards have been given to vegan entries!

In addition to the competition itself, the event includes cheese-themed poetry, grilling demonstrations, a costume contest, and food trucks. With all the cheesy hoopla, the crowd is led to believe that cheese is something to celebrate, when in fact dairy products are incredibly harmful to animals, the planet, and our health. We entered this contest to represent vegan cheeses and demonstrate that the compassionate version of America's favorite sandwich not only tastes great--it might even taste better than the original!

Our fourth annual VegWeek wrapped up yesterday, exactly one week after Earth Day, and it was a resounding success! The weeklong celebration highlighting the many benefits and flavors of vegetarian eating included more Veg Pledge sign-ups, more restaurant specials in more states, more events from coast to coast, and more media coverage than ever before. 

Among the thousands of VegPledgers nationwide were nearly 30 elected representatives -- from U.S. Representative Barbara Lee in California to Mayor Josh Cohen in Annapolis, Maryland.

Additionally, VegWeek was officially recognized with Proclamations in Takoma Park, Md., Montgomery County, Md. and Santa Cruz County, CA. And in Marin County, CA, the Board of Supervisors passed VegWeek Resolution (Supervisor Susan Adams pictured here). 

Dozens of restaurants offered popular VegWeek Specials while various events helped bring people together. Highlights include: 

Last weeked, in celebration of Earth Day and to help kick off VegWeek (April 23-29), COK's volunteer team in Los Angeles hit the streets to hand out pro-veg literature and impossible-to-resist vegan food samples to show others that the best way we can protect the planet is by simply leaving animals off our plates.

Volunteers Stefani Aguallo and Melissa Rivera served nearly 300 pieces of Gardein’s savory all-vegan 7-Grain Crispy Tenders (along with Gardein coupons) to Whole Foods shoppers.

The response was great! “I can’t believe this isn’t really chicken, it’s so good! I’m definitely going to buy this!” exclaimed one woman. She, along with a number of others, came out of the store with Gardein in hand, having used the coupons they just picked up from us. Another customer was so excited about COK’s work and to see us sampling veg foods on Earth Day, she signed up to volunteer at the next event.

If you get the feeling that everywhere you go you're meeting new vegetarians, that's because people all over the US are increasingly turning to vegetarian foods to benefit their health, the animals and the planet. Which means that restaurants everywhere are also catching on—especially in Baltimore!

While Baltimore's small-town charm (despite being Maryland's largest city) lends it the nickname "Smalltimore," this city's restaurants and restaurant-goers are BIG into vegetarian food. You'll find dozens of eclectic cafes and popular eateries dishing out delicious meat-free fare to keep up with the increasing demand.

That's why we're excited to debut our new, 2012 edition of the Vegetarian Guide to Baltimore, a convenient tri-fold that is loaded with new veg-friendly restaurants and bakeries in Charm City. The handy pocket Guide is the companion to COK's website VegBaltimore.com which features hundreds of resources for eating out, dining-in, or ordering to-go.

Last Sunday, I had the privilege of attending a cooking class taught by the one-of-a-kind entertainer and educator Chef AJ and fitness guru John Pierre. Not only was I treated to many tasty samples and three original songs by "Chef AJ and the Kalettes" about the importance of eating veggies, Chef AJ showed off with a head stand demonstrating that yes, you can have this much energy eating plant-based foods.

In The Sexy Vegan Cookbook: Extraordinary Food from an Ordinary Dude, YouTube cooking sensation Brian Patton shares 100 vegan recipes that are failure-proof, flavor-filled, and most of all, fun: “My book is the ‘fun uncle’ of vegan cookbooks. Other books are like your parents—they want to make sure you’re doing the right thing, which is great. But isn’t it fun when whacky Uncle Glenn stops by and gives us something our parents don’t want us to have?”

Brian's unlikely career path to chef stardom started when he was unemployed, overweight, depressed, directionless, and living at his parents' house in Pennsylvania. He started watching a local access cooking show in his ample free time and thought, "I can do that!" And so he did.