Note From the Coordinators

In the 1980s and early 1990s, The VRG hosted day conferences in Baltimore and New York City for 400 and 700 people. At that time, they were some of the largest vegetarian movement single day conferences. After 9/11, except for a few holdouts, it seemed for a couple of years vegetarian and animal rights activities were stalled, but then restarted. Today of course, we have VegFests sponsored by a myriad of groups across North America with thousands and even tens of thousands of attendees. If you haven't done so, you should attend one, whether in Boston, Toronto, Seattle, Washington D.C., Baltimore, San Francisco, Houston, Albany, or elsewhere. These extravaganzas are pumped up and made possible by committed organizers, social media, and all the new vegan related groups, business, and products. At most of the events, the longest lines by far are at the vegan dessert booths. Yum!

Each year, 10 dietetic interns come to our office for an in-service. Like at the VegFests, the greatest enthusiasm of course is the vegan food they are asked to bring and share with one another. We have a discussion each year about jobs they might take after graduation. Typically one of the interns is vegetarian, while the rest aren't. Almost always, the students have not thought about employment they would take beyond salary and interest, while the vegetarian almost always thinks of ethical considerations, and what fits within his/her moral concerns, whether it relates to health, animals, or the environment. It is fascinating how different a few people think than the majority. This is something to ponder. Guess we can toast to that with vegan Mac and Cheese.

It was a pleasure having Julia intern with us for a semester during her senior year for school credit towards her Sustainability and Environmental Studies minor. In this issue we share her great-grandmother's South Indian cuisine. Surprising to many people was that Julia's family was not vegetarian, though they were from India. She is now vegan for ethical reasons. Our Vegetarian Action piece in this issue is about Naijah Wright Brown whose career running Land of Kush vegan soul restaurant along with her husand has been about expressing her ethics and helping the surrounding community. Featured on our cover is a photograph by Nathaniel Corn and Rissa Miller. Nat participated on the vegan team in a Mudder Contest, which will be mentioned in a future issue. Running a sustainable and environmentally progressive photography business, Nat and Rissa expresses their ethics by their mission: Make Art, Save the Earth.

Thank you to everybody for all you do!