Prabhat Gautam has an amazing list of accomplishments.

He started Positive Television in 2003, wanting to inspire people to do more good in the world through watching celebrities talking about their causes and charities. About 90% of his work with Positive Television is related to veggie causes.

In 5th grade he learned about how many chinchillas are killed for one fur coat and felt it was very cruel; by high school he was a strict vegetarian. Later, he became vegan and learned about “the horrors of the factory farming system and will never go back. I’ve never been happier and healthier. When I play flag football or basketball with friends, I am always the person who has the most energy,” said Prabhat.

Prabhat helped establish Compassion Over Killing‘s presence in Los Angeles by launching its volunteer chapter, which has resulted in a full-fledged office with interns. Prabhat started and is on the Board of the LA Veg Society, which brings organizations together to work on large scale projects. They created the L.A. Animal Advocacy Leadership Council to unite all the local animal rights groups. He serves on the Board of Directors for Towards Freedom and on the Advisory Board for Compassion Over Killing.

“To be one of the leaders to help get this passed is by far one of my proudest moments as an activist,” said Prabhat.

He’s assisting VegVids.com to complie all animal rights videos onto one site. People will be able to find many undercover investigations, along with hundreds of presentations and recipes, on this ‘YouTube for vegans.’

The list continues:  he’s consulting on bringing Meatless Mondays into schools across California, and in L.A., on an upcoming vegan bar and the world’s first animal rights museum. Believing L.A. is the best vegan city in the country, he is working to connect the key people. He enjoys his city by dining at veggie restaurants including: Veggie Grill, Doomie’s Home Cookin’, Sun Cafe, and Native Foods.

If you own a veggie restaurant, please give this man a meal on the house for his nonstop efforts. He deserves serious recognition, and every city seriously needs someone with the drive and positive energy of Prabhat!

While it doesn’t compare to the abundance of vegetarian options in Los Angeles, New York or San Francisco, San Diego is becoming an easier place to find veggie food.

Compassion Over Killing and Animal Protection and Rescue League have teamed up and impress with their new brochure, “The Vegetarian Guide to San Diego.”

The Guide points out some new spots for finding grub that even longtime San Diegans may not be aware of. Alchemy Restaurant and Bar, for example, has a vegetarian tasting menu every Wednesday — a $25 farmer’s market three course dinner. Also try some vegan cream cheese at Big City Bagels, or chocolate cheesecake vegan cupcakes at Cups. Tao Restaurant has delicious Japanese and Vietnamese offerings, including homemade tofu.

COK and APRL are also putting together San Diego Veg Week, taking place Oct. 2-9. Last year over 500 people took a pledge to be vegetarian for one week, and this year the goal is to have 1,000 committed folks. Some local restaurants will offer deals that week, and several events are planned, from a veg shopping tour at Trader Joe’s to a cooking demo by Veg-Appeal. The week culminates in the Compassion Bash which features Dr. Neal Barnard of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

In other news, San Diego boasts several veg-friendly meetups, and new ones pop up often, like the Healthy Dinner Club which plans weekly visits to organic, vegan and vegetarian restaurants.

If you know of any other herbivorous happenings in San Diego, please leave a comment. I am always keeping an eye open!

Photo Credit – Keetsa.

Meier at a VegFest in Massachusetts

I had the pleasure last year of meeting and recently interviewing Erica Meier, Executive Director of Compassion Over Killing (COK).  Vegan for the last 15 years, Meier leads a team of staff and volunteers highly dedicated to helping animals.

COK is a powerful voice for farmed animals, from ending the egg industry’s misleading “Animal Care Certified” logo to launching a pro-veg ad campaign featuring 30-second commercials on MTV stations nationwide to successfully urging BOCA to become a 100% egg-free company, said Meier.

Most recently COK hosted Maryland VegWeek, officially recognized by government officials. Several lawmakers pledged to go vegetarian for a week.

COK is excitedly collaborating with other like-minded organizations like APRL, Vegan Outreach, and Mercy for Animals for various campaigns and projects. COK is based out of Washington DC which has had a recent explosion of vegan options.  A few places Meier suggests are Sticky Fingers Bakery, Java Green, Toscana Grill, Great Sage, My Little Bistro, The Vegetable Garden, and Bread & Brew.

“Now that summer is around the corner, I love shopping at my local farmers market for fresh fruits and vegetables, especially leafy greens like kale, chard, and mustard greens. And I’m also a fan of vegan meats, like Gardein, Tofurky and Field Roast, which are thankfully available year round!” said Meier.

Some favorites cookbooks are The Conscious Cook (by Tal Ronnen), Veganomicon (by Isa Chandra Moskowitz), and How it All Vegan (by Sarah Kramer). She also recommends COK’s  Easy Vegan Recipes.

Meier congratulates those transitioning towards a vegetarian or vegan diet for their positive influence on their health, the environment, and lives of animals raised for food. Vegetarian eating offers a wonderful opportunity to expand our palates, and meat-free options have never been more plentiful in restaurants and grocery stores across the U.S., said Meier.  She suggests encouraging a friend or family member to join you as you try new foods, or consider joining a local Meetup or Vegetarian Society to meet other vegetarians and vegans in your community.

L.A. Veggie Activists

A group of about 15 volunteers met on Feb. 20 to discuss their newly formed Advisory Board of Compassion Over Killing (COK) in Los Angeles.  Over lunch at SunPower Natural Cafe in Studio City and guided by Prabhat Gautam of Positive Television, they discussed online marketing,  outreach to restaurants and schools, fundraisers, and more.

Devin Murphy, a COK Board member, explained that in L.A. there was a vacuum — more outreach and focus on farm animal issues were needed. The group will build a strong vegan community by bringing people from different areas of L.A. into one place, and tapping into the existing vegetarian community that is not yet active.  They also want to connect people from different high schools, colleges, universities and meetup groups. The L.A. region has many vegetarian and vegan restaurants, but the Board plans to increase vegan options at non-vegan restaurants.

Kale Shakes!

They’d like to do entertaining video outreach that entices people with vegan and vegetarian foods rather than depressing factory farm footage.

As we finished our meal, we had fun talking with Ronald Jackson, one of the owners of SunPower Natural Cafe, open less than a year. Everything but two menu items can be made raw, and they make sure nothing tastes like being deprived, since the food is super flavorful, he said. Surprisingly, more than half the customers are meat eaters, and 25% of them follow the raw foods diet.

The waiter said people come from all over for the sweet kale shake.  It was an enormous serving rich with cashews, agave, and banana.  Jackson told us one customer came in 52 days in a row for that shake!

People enjoyed their veggie burgers and other meals too. SunPower Natural Cafe made a great meeting place for inspired veggie people to come together and create change.

Thankful for Tofurky

This year with vegetarian and vegan cuisine in the limelight, even a holiday strongly tied to a traditional turkey meal is being looked at through new lenses by Martha Stewart and NBC. With vegan recipes now widely accessible on the Internet and vegetarian cookbooks sprouting up all over, Thanksgiving has surprisingly turned into a rather enjoyable holiday for veggie people.

In San Diego we are very fortunate to have a wonderful vegan Thanksgiving event put on each year by Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL). Yesterday the Fifth Annual Turkey-Free Thanksgiving Potluck was bursting at the seams with over 200 enthusiastic people bearing delicious vegan dishes.

For dinner we feasted on not only the stuffing, salads, stir-fries, and such brought by attendees but also gobbled up vegan dishes donated by Tofurky (a great turkey alternative),  Pokez, Rebecca’s Coffee House,  zpizza, and other local businesses.

The minute the event volunteers brought out the dessert, a long line of excited people formed.  Thanksgiving favorites like apple, pecan and pumpkin pies were joined by many treats including muffins, Uncle Eddie’s Cookies, baklava, and raw, vegan ice cream donated by Tomberlies.

While eating, the crowd heard updates from Bryan Pease, who announced APRL’s plans to work more closely with Compassion Over Killing. Pease said this year people are more receptive to vegan ways, caring about cruelty to animals raised in factory farms, and that politicians are seeing issues they can no longer ignore.

The event also had entertainment, with Bob Green playing piano and Harmony Cohen-Wolff performing sacred belly fusion and firedance to songs that pay homage to animals.

My only complaint about the evening was that it went by much too fast!

Let Them Eat Veggies

From left: Kramer, Redcross, me, and Scott

Vegan and vegetarian cookbooks are all the rage now, but How it all Vegan, with 1/4 million copies sold, is one of the originals known for making vegan cuisine accessible and easy for newcomers. The book’s 10th anniversary was celebrated at a benefit held by Compassion Over Killing and Positive Television. Sarah Kramer, who co-wrote the cookbook with Tanya Barnard, was honored at the event held at 2HeadedHorse Production/Art Studio in Los Angeles, which has recently been hosting numerous vegan events.

Kramer’s sassy, down-to-earth personality shined as she autographed books and 2010 GO VEGAN wall calendars full of fun photographs. Many dedicated folks making their mark in the vegan world attended, including Shaun Monson who made the film Earthlings, Stephanie Redcross who markets vegan and vegetarian businesses via Vegan Mainstream, Carolyn Scott of Healthy Voyager,  and others.

After writing four vegetarian cookbooks, Kramer told the group she will pursue different projects. With mixed feelings, she discussed with the audience that which can’t be ignored — veganism is suddenly becoming a fad, and vegan and vegetarian cookbooks are everywhere, including the top 100 list on Amazon.com. Kramer is concerned the conversation is more about getting skinny than about helping the animals.

“Ellen’s talking about it and Oprah’s talking about it (veganism) – it’s freaking me out,” she said.

Still, the attendees enjoyed the company and inspiration of Kramer and others sharing the same passion, and dined on delicious vegan cuisine – some of it raw – provided by Veggie Grill, Happy Veggie, Cinnamon Vegetarian Restaurant, The Spot, and SunPower Natural Cafe.

Kramer Jokes with the Audience

My activism traces back to age four when I had a light bulb moment filled with compassion for animals and declared I would never eat meat again. In college, I founded an animal rights club, and later volunteered at EarthSave, founded by John Robbins of Diet for a New America fame. For years now I have been writing veg-friendly articles.

APRL's Compassion Bash, Sept. 2009

Here I sit — 35 years since that childhood turning point — excited about all the momentum building about vegetarianism and veganism worldwide. Proof of the dairy-free pudding is the abundance of global events taking place which motivate and educate both the curious and those who have been veggin’ out for a time.

Right in our own neighborhoods, people are hosting raw food potlucks and herbivorous happy hours, and many cities hold larger events filled with hundreds of people and expert speakers, with vegetarian restaurants and organizations participating.

International Vegetarian Union has been holding its Vegetarian Congress all over the world for over 100 years! The 2010 event is planned for Jakarta and Bali, and North America is said to be the site for 2012. During Thailand’s Phuket Vegetarian Festival, local residents of Chinese ancestry strictly observe a 10-day vegetarian or vegan diet for spiritual cleansing; one ritual is walking barefooted over hot coals.

California entices with its yearly Animal Rights Conference in Los Angeles, and The San Francisco World Veg Festival, which celebrates World Vegetarian Day with vegan speed dating, food demos, and lectures on everything from tempeh to ayurveda. San Diego comes to life with what is claimed to be the world’s largest celebration of Earth Day and the Compassion Bash put on by APRL, which this year featured speaker Erica Meier, Executive Director of Compassion Over Killing.

People wanting to meet other health-conscious folks and network with environmental, nutrition and spiritual gurus while feasting on delicious food might love to experience any of these events. VegNews and HappyCow are good places to start researching the festivities, along with Google.