NOTE FROM THE COORDINATORS
VEGAN TRENDS
As in all American trends, there appear to be signs both toward and away from a more vegan world. Our outreach booth at the American Dietetic Association Annual Meeting in San Diego was mobbed, though we were situated between a fish vendor and a fast food marketer.
Megan, a nutrition intern helping at the booth, said, “What was even more encouraging were the registered dietitians or other nutrition professionals who came by just to comment that they always pointed their patients, clients, and friends in the direction of the VRG website for information on becoming a vegetarian. They know that the information is invaluable with regard to beginning a vegetarian diet, or even improving upon a current lifestyle.” Thanks to Reed Mangels, PhD, RD; Catherine Conway, MS, RD; Bill Conway, MD; and Sarah Ellis, MS, RD, for staffing VRG’s booth.
We were pleased to see that the Corcoran Museum Restaurant in Washington, DC, had on their menu vegan items such as tomato and watermelon gazpacho, a warm spinach wrap with grilled veggies, and even vegan brownies. In a recent ad, Target offered coupons for (cruelty-free) Dr. Bronner’s peppermint liquid soap and Tom’s of Maine deodorant. And we greatly appreciate the scoutmaster who works for a butcher but went out of his way to buy Tofurky sausages for a vegan scout.
On the other hand, we were leading a discussion after a vegetarian movie with a somewhat pro-vegetarian audience, and it was intriguing to see how many people felt comfortable using animal products because of the promotion of locally grown and ‘humanely raised’ cattle and chickens. Whether you could really feed the whole country this way or why we choose to kill at all are still questions up for discussion. It will be interesting to see which choices people make in the long run.
When we printed our first typewritten newsletter in 1982, we never imagined that, 30 years later, more than 160,000 people would be coming to us for information each month (via our website). Though change can be hard sometimes, this change allowing us to reach so many more people was thrilling. With numerous questions about the future of the post office and increasing postage, as well as the common use of online communications, we’d appreciate it if you would answer this short survey. This is not for immediate action, but we are strategically preparing for the future.
- If information in Vegetarian Journal was only published online, I would continue to financially support the group and be a member.
- I would pay membership dues only if I continued to receive a print version of Vegetarian Journal.
Please send your answer to [email protected]/ or to
P.O. Box 1463
Baltimore, MD 21203
Thanks so much for your ongoing support.
Debra Wasserman & Charles Stahler
Coordinators of The Vegetarian Resource Group
