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!

I grew up in Los Angeles and left just after high school, never looking back other than visiting loved ones. Recently, however, I have been enjoying a new side of L.A. through sampling regional vegan cuisine and attending events.

This weekend I had a great time at the Spork Foods West Hollywood Grand Opening Party, co-hosted by Rory Freedman of  New York Times #1 bestseller Skinny Bitch fame. Freedman is also the humble author of many other books and workout videos who has converted many people to veganism through exposing the horrors of the food industry and encouraging healthier eating.

Spork Foods, a vegan business run by two sisters, moved into the West Hollywood space less than two months ago, where they will host cooking classes and parties along with yoga, and offer their space to the vegan community. Upcoming projects include an October culinary trip to Italy and online cooking classes.

The Spork sisters and many other people I met at the packed event were friendly and active in the veggie community, including Lex who organizes the rapidly growing Los Angeles Vegan Drinks meetup, for which he assures drinks to be consumed are vegan by researching on Barnivore. Prabhat Gautam of Positive Television always has many exciting vegan events up his sleeve. Eco-friendly face painting (some avocado-based) by The Compassionate Clown Company was fun, and it’s nice to know they do not work fairs that exploit animals.

The food was of course a highlight — a tasty sundried tomato dip (pictured) and corn fritters with truffle aioli, followed by great Mexican chocolate almond bark and a vanilla spiced cupcake with whipped cocoa frosting. With a growing contingency of passionate people networking at events like this, vegan cuisine is not only becoming increasingly mainstream but more delicious.

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.