We are a community of animal advocates, educators, environmentalists, health practitioners and everyday folks who believe that moving toward a vegan diet is a central first step to becoming responsible world citizens and creating a sustainable, non-violent world. We host a community potluck, usually on the third Saturday of each month and another on the Thanksgiving holiday. We offer passionate and well-informed speakers for school or club events and a library of literature, including books, DVD's and videos on on animal issues, environmentalism and health.

About Veganism

Those who are unfamiliar with veganism often view it in negative terms, associating it with a list of products to avoid. But for most people, going vegan is an incredibly positive experience. Sure you give up a few taste sensations, but those are replaced with new, more interesting, healthier, and often much better taste sensations. You also re-gain access to your compassionate self and develop a deeper relationship with the universal desire to express kindness in all parts of life. Veganism embodies the Eastern philosophy of 'ahimsa', nonviolence toward and respect for all sentient beings. There may be nothing more powerful than veganism and 'ahimsa' to change our world for the better.

Going Vegan

When you seek out vegan products, try not to get frustrated. For the most part, our world doesn't yet cater to the ethical choice—but that is changing. Remember that veganism is also an organic form of everyday activism. Whenever you ask for a vegan option or product, you stand up for kindness and compassion. Although people around you may not respond right away, many will notice your choices and consider what you say about them. Some of the seeds you plant will bear fruit in days and years to come.

Be sure to get support for your veganism. Your friends and family might not be as understanding as you'd like. Some may even feel threatened by your new-found compassion. Most areas have veggie/vegan potlucks to connect with other vegans in your community. There are also many internet resources listed on this and many other fine websites. Remember that you are not alone! When you choose the non-violent path, new compassionate and caring friends will come your way! In the meantime, you can feel truly good about basing your life on kindness and compassion instead of turning your back on suffering. The spirit of the animals and the earth will walk with you from your very first step!

Diet and Health

Diet has a profound impact on our health and the health of the environment. Meat and dairy products are implicated in many of today’s most serious diseases. The likelihood of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis and many other illnesses, can be significantly reduced by the adoption of a plant-based diet. There is broad agreement among scientific and nutritional communities that meat and dairy products aren't necessary for optimal human health and that these products, in fact, generally increase the risk of serious disease. Please see our health page for more information.

Eating and Environment

Increasingly, it is also becoming clear that a plant based diet is far more environmentally sustainable than a diet based on animal products. Witness the tragic, wholesale decimation of millions of acres of rain forest for beef production. Thousands of ecosystems were lost with these rain forests and billions of animals were also killed (all so we can raise different animals and then kill them too!). Don’t forget it takes a staggering amount of water and energy to produce a pound of meat. And this just in: a meat-centered diet is a very significant source of greenhouse gases. A typical American meat eater’s diet causes about as much global warming as driving a gas guzzling SUV instead of a small passenger sedan! Please check out our environment page for more information.

Food Choices and Farm Animals

We humans are capable of great tenderness, yet we routinely accept the cruelty and violence that comes with choosing animal-based foods. In doing so we cause unimaginable suffering. Huge factory farms where meat, milk and eggs are produced, confine billions of sensitive, intelligent beings to a living hell. The very luckiest of these animals are merely murdered at the end of their unnaturally short lives. Most animals are routinely mutilated or branded in some way at birth or during childhood. Violent procedures like de-beaking, castration and tail docking, practices deemed so painful they are illegal in many countries, are routinely performed without anesthesia.

Animals are regularly given hormones to increase production, speed up growth and increase size. This often deforms, weakens or sickens the animals, sometimes making them unable to even support their own weight. Disease can run rampant in overcrowded cages and so antibiotics are administered regularly (this further dilutes the effectiveness of this class of drugs for human use). Many animals live their entire lives in cages so small they can’t even turn around. Animals are often beaten and tortured by underpaid, overworked workers. Many animals will never see the green leaves of a living tree, walk in a grassy field or feel the warmth of the sun on their body. Please see our animals page for more information.

What Next?

By choosing foods based on kindness and compassion instead of cruelty and violence we can be a happier, healthier people and build a more loving and sustainable world. The alternative, to continue hurting innocent animals, degrading the environment and risking our health simply doesn't make sense and is irresponsible as well. Adopting a plant-based diet can help us more deeply connect with our values, with nature, and with life itself.

Please explore the resources offered on this website and come to one of our community potlucks if you're in the north San Francisco Bay area.

Be as kind as you can be!

GO VEGAN!

“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.”

- Albert Schweitzer, The Philosophy of Civilization

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.”

- Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated... I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

- Albert Einstein

“Changing the way we eat - from a meat-based to a plant-based diet - is the single most effective thing we can do for our health, for animals, for the environment, for human rights, and for the creation of a nonviolent and compassionate world.”

- Colleen Patrick-Goudreau,

CompassionateCooks.com

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

- Martin Luther King