NOTE FROM THE COORDINATORS

Thank you to all the doctors, dietitians, and other readers who bought a quantity of Simply Vegan to give to their patients. If anyone would like copies to give out, you can order the book at http://www.vrg.org/catalog/.

Comedian Dean Obeidallah had an article about Congress and car salesmen being considered the most unethical of all professions in a national Gallup Poll. In questioning who is really unethical, Dean said, "Honestly, have you ever heard someone brag that their lawyer, accountant or financial planner was the most ethical, honest person they ever met? Unlikely. But I bet you heard people say things like 'My accountant is amazing at finding loopholes,' 'My broker gets me great returns on my money every year,' or 'My lawyer is a killer.' We want the meat, but we don't want to know how the calf is forced to live in a crate or how the lobster is boiled alive. We want tender veal, tasty seafood, lawyers who win cases and brokers who make us money. We want results. But when a poll comes around about ethics, we are all of a sudden holier than thou. We scoff at others' apparent moral bankruptcy. We joke about their lack of ethics. We convince ourselves that we are ethically superior to them."

You are the three percent who are vegetarian or headed in that direction. You are the one percent who are vegan or headed in that direction. That does make you different by truly acting on your beliefs, every day, at every meal. That's a big difference. But before we become holier than thou, we all know that we are imperfect and just trying to do better.

Thank you to our members and donors for working with us to create a better world. Thanks to Zel Allen for her creative vegan Filipino Cuisine and chef Nancy Berkoff for sharing tips on Cooking with Herbs. Kudos to Hillary Blunt and Aileen McGraw for showing us we can even be vegan while backpacking. It seems so long ago that we (Debra and Charles) had time to hike 400 miles while vegan on the Appalachian Trail.

For traveling of a different sort, Yasmin Radbod lets us know one can be vegan in China, though she points out typically people there are not vegetarian. Finally, thank you so much to Ed Coffin, RD, who shared his wisdom of co-packing vegan food products for all those budding entrepreneurs out there. Also, we greatly appreciate all the help Ed, Reed Mangels, Catherine Conway, and Whitney Blomquist gave us while doing outreach at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics annual meeting in Philadelphia. If you would like to volunteer at a VRG outreach booth, please drop Mary Herbranson a note at [email protected]. Thank you again for your support!