October Is...

... many things - my daughters' birthday month, breast cancer awareness month, but also Vegetarian Awareness Month. Yesterday was World Vegetarian Awareness Day. I have blogged a lot about this in the past, so let me just remind you that the purpose of establishing this awareness is to promote the joy, compassion and life-enhancing possibilities of vegetarianism (according to the North American Vegetarian Society which founded the day in 1977.)

Why is this important? Because a vegetarian diet --

• reduces of the risk of major killers like heart disease, stroke and cancers while cutting exposure to food-borne pathogens.
• offers a viable answer to feeding the world’s hungry through more efficient use of grains and other crops.
• saves animals from suffering in factory farm conditions and from painful slaughter.
• conserves limited freshwater, fertile topsoil and other precious resources.
• preserves irreplaceable ecosystems, such as rain forests and other wildlife habitats.
• and mitigates the ever-expanding environmental pollution of animal agriculture.

For those still not interested there's not much more to say other than to watch a few movies (like Earthlings and Forks Over Knives) and see if the information doesn't compel you to at least entertain the idea of eating a more plant-based diet. Maybe you could start with every Monday being meat-free, or maybe only one meal a day would include animal products. It's not as hard as you think and the benefits are great.