Veganpalooza 2012

     I was able to listen to many of the interviews over five days at the Veganpalooza 2012 Vegetarian World Summit.  It was well worth my time.
     It was encouraging as most of the 32 speakers see hope for the future, that eating a plant-based diet is a rapidly growing (no pun intended) phenomenon. It is getting close, but may not be too late to save our planet.
     I'll skip the statistics about water usage, destruction of rain forests, animals killed, human lives lost to unnecessary disease....you've heard them all before; but here are some of the sound bytes I picked up:

Real men eat plants,  Real men are compassionate.  Men have to man up.  Women have to woman up.  Excuses are like belly buttons.  Everyone has one.---Rip Esselstyn

Being vegan changes you.  In becoming vegan you find your heart cracks open.  You no longer need the walls around your heart to protect you from the suffering of animals.  The blinders come off.

There is a huge vegan section at every grocery store.  It is called Produce.

A vegan plant-based diet is not a matter of deprivations.  It is a matter of abundance and joy.

What is good for our body is good for our soul, good for animals, and good for the planet.

Violence has three components:  perpetrators, victims, and bystanders or witnesses.  The bystanders have the most power to stop the violence.  With animal torture and suffering, 98% of humans are perpetrators.  2% (vegans) are bystanders who must become advocates for change.  (Dr. Will Tuttle)

Veganism is growing rapidly in popularity.  5% of the world are vegan or vegetarian.  Once we get to 10% or so we will reach a tipping point, as defined by Malcolm Gladwell as being the moment of critical mass.

The meat industry is like the old Soviet Union.  We will wake up one day and it will just be gone.  It is totally useless.  The stone age didn't disappear because we ran out of stones.  (Philip Wollen)

Folly is defined as acting against our own best interests.

Human health is not contingent upon animal suffering.

Flesh avoidance has been practiced for many centuries.  It is not new.  It was first mentioned by the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras around 500 BCE.


Vitamin B12 deficiency is common.  It is present in 40% of the adult population in general, not just in vegans.



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