September - October News from
The Marin Vegetarian Education Group

There will be no newsletter in October because I will be away at the beginning of the month, so this newsletter includes events in September and October. Be sure to mark your calendar now for World VegFest on October 1 & 2 and R.S.V.P. asap for the September theater event.  Details below.

Allergies and Our Food Supply
Friday, Sept. 9 at 7 PM
Join GMO-Free Marin for a screening of a 20 minute TED video of author Robyn O'Brien talking about allergies and our food supply. A discussion about GMO foods will follow the screening.  Robyn O'Brien is the author of The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About it.  The screening will be downstairs at the First United Methodist Church of San Rafael at 9 Valley Drive (off Greenfield Ave.).  They ask for a $5 donation or pay what you can.  For more information, call Claudia at 454 9898.

Theater and Vegan PotLuck in San Rafael
Sunday, Sept. 18 at 3 PM
The Complete History of America (Abridged) is an hilarious comedy now showing at the outdoor amphitheater at Dominican College. Join with fun loving, food loving friends for a vegan pot luck afternoon picnic at 3 PM, followed by a performance of this rollicking show at 4 PM. There is open seating, so arriving by 3:00 ensures not only a vegan feast, but also the best seats in the house.  Thanks to Miyoko Schinner, we will pay only $25 per ticket (normally $35) for this afternoon performance.  R.S.V.P. by  Friday, September 16 to Miyoko: miyokoschinner@gmail.com  Your name will then be at the box office where you can pay for your discounted ticket and join the group in the theater.

Remember to dress appropriately for San Rafael's ever-changing weather. And please bring: A vegan dish to share with 8-10 others; your own plate, eating utensils, serving utensils, and a napkin.  If you have a padded stadium seat, it may make you more comfortable (or you can rent them for $2 at the show).

Thanks to Miyoko for organizing this event, and for teaching Alicia how to make that incredible, vegan cheese she served at last month's party! Watch this newsletter for news of Miyoko's new book, due out next year, so we can all learn how to do it!

Why We Come, Film Screening
Fairfax Library, Tuesday, September 20
From 7:00 until 8:30 PM at the Fairfax Library (2097 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., across from St. Rita's Church), there will be a screening and discussion of the film Why We Come on Tuesday, September 20. This moving documentary shares the inspiring story of Latin American migrants living in San Rafael as they explain why they left their homes to endure an arduous journey to seek a better life for their children.  This event is free, and filmmaker Buff Whitman-Bradley will be on hand to answer questions after the film. For more information, call the Fairfax Library at 457-5629. To see a clip from the film go to whywecome.org.   While not directly about food issues, so much of our food  is harvested by  people who have come north from  Mexico and Central America, that I  thought it was an important  film to see in order to better understand our Spanish speaking neighbors in Marin.  I saw it and loved it and highly recommend it.


World Veg Fest
October 1 & 2 in San Francisco
In honor of World Vegetarian Day on October 1, The San Francisco Vegetarian Society will be holding a two day VegFest  at the San Francisco County Fair Building, in Golden  Gate Park just off Lincoln at 9th Avenue.  This exciting celebration is from 10 AM to 6 PM on both Saturday, October 1 and Sunday, October 2. The suggested donation is $8, but if you arrive before 10:30 the admission is FREE.  On Saturday at 6:45 there will be a vegan dinner for $20 cooked or $22  raw. To sign up for the dinner, stop by the SFVS table in the main hall early in the day on Saturday. The dinner usually sells out before noon.

Now in its 12th year, the World Veg Festival features exhibitions and talks by some of the vegetarian world's most esteemed experts. Come hear The China Study author, T. Colin Campbell,  Dr. Michael Greger from the Humane Society of the United States, award-winning author Colleen-Patrick Goudreau whose new book - The 30 Day Vegan Challenge - has just been published (see review below), John and Ocean Robbins, and many more. 

There will be speed dating, cooking demonstrations, international cuisine to sample or buy, live entertainment, a children's corner, a VegHealth award ceremony, and, as always, many fabulous exhibitors and events competing for your attention. For more information, go to SFVS.org and click on the red apple on the left side of the screen.


The 30-Day Vegan Challenge
by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
Whether you have been a vegan for 30 years, 30 minutes, or never before, The 30-Day Vegan Challenge is the perfect book for you. In addition to answering every possible question that vegans are asked or ask themselves (Wasn't early man a hunter? Aren't humans designed to eat meat? Where do you get your calcium, protein, iron omega-3 fats?), the author includes thoughtful, inspiring, wise essays on issues that often arise for vegans. She addresses celebrating holidays, living in a family that does not want to eat the way you do,  how to live joyfully in a nonvegan world, and all those persnickety doubts that others foist on us when we choose to live a vegan life.

The 30-Day Vegan Challenge is so positive, uplifting, joyful and compassionate, that it would be difficult to read it and not want to improve your diet, regardless of how vegan or how "clean" it already is. . Brenda Davis, R.D. wrote the foreword and consulted, along with other experts, on all the nutritional advice in the book..

With beautiful photographs and eye catching color throughout the book, recipes accompany each chapter. And as enticing as the recipes are, the wisdom and kindness that saturate the book are its most alluring attribute.  The book is a warm and sincere invitation to be true to our deepest values. Toward that end, Patrick-Goudreau encourages us to pay attention to what really matters in our life and in the lives we affect. Like a supportive friend, she shepherds us through physical and emotional changes that may accompany dietary changes. She offers helpful advice for finding food while traveling; packing lunches for school or work; understanding and ending cravings; demystifying tofu; learning to digest beans; finding confidence and joy in social situations; weight control; and life after cheese. The 30-Day Vegan Diet is written with  a light, welcoming tone, and is an empowering enticement to live with integrity from our most life affirming and loving selves.  I wish I had had this book when I went vegan back in 1986. I am overjoyed to have it now to read and re-read, to share with others, and to feel that I have a compassionate and experienced teacher and partner on my vegan path.   There is no better way to share our values than to live them daily with health, confidence and joy. And there is no better book to help us do that than The 30-Day Vegan Challenge. Thank you, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau!

To hear the Colleen Patrick-Goudreau speak about The 30-Day Vegan Challenge, visit www.CompassionateCooks.com or attend the WorldVegFest. And whether or not you hear her speak, do buy a copy of this new, life affirming book. I will buy it back from you if you are not completely thrilled by it. Honest!

Radiance - New Vegan Restaurant in San Rafael
I don't know what's taken me so long to find out about this, but San Rafael has a new vegan restaurant. Radiance is located inside the Open Secret Bookstore at 923 C Street, between Third and Fourth Street in downtown San Rafael. The restaurant is casual, and you place an order at the counter before seating yourself. Healthy, tasty, beautifully presented vegan food is now available at Radiance which is open Wednesday through Saturdays from noon until 7 PM.  Radiance Plates and Yogi Bowls are among the simple offerings at this calm and welcoming space.  For more information, visit RadianceCuisine.com
Why Monsanto is Bad for Ending World Hunger
John Robbins has written a wonderful essay on the dangers of Monsanto's GMO seed technologies. Despite the company's expensive advertising and promotion budget, the truth about their products and the dangers of GMO food still find a way to the public's attention, thanks to writers like John Robbins. To read the essay go to  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-robbins/gmo-food_b_914968.html

Carnism
If you read the book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy, Ph.D., you already know that carnism is the invisible  belief system that conditions people to eat certain animals. Now, in addition to that brilliant book, there is a web site that enables us to understand carnism and to help promote the concept. Visit Carnism.com to learn more about this new name for the entrenched ideology that perceives eating certain animals to be  normal, natural and necessary.

A Well Fed World
At Summerfest in July I was delighted to learn about a food justice and animal protection organization that is helping to feed hungry people with health promoting, plant based foods.  A Well-Fed World has the dual mission of increasing health and food security in low income communities while reversing the expansion of global livestock consumption.  The group offers grants to grassroots organizations around the world that work to create change in their own communities.  At the policy level, A Well-Fed World works with social justice and governments to promote the benefits of sustainable, plant-rich food policies and to reduce global hunger, improve public health, conserve energy and protect the environment. "Feeding families, saving animals" are the goals of this terrific, caring and effective group. To learn more or to support their work, visit AWFW.org  Be sure to click on "Food" to read their "Top 12 Ways to Eat Green."

Health Extravaganza
December 23 - January 2
True North Health, home of Dr. Alan Goldhamer, Dr. Michael Klaper, and many other health providers and dietary experts, is offering a two week intensive they are calling a Health Food Extravaganza at their center in Santa Rosa this winter.  If you want to learn about dietary excellence, dine on three health promoting, taste bud pleasing meals a day, attend daily cooking and food prep classes, hear lectures on nutrition and lifestyle, enjoy fitness activities daily, and enjoy the company of others learning to clean up their diets and eat the best food nature has to offer, check out this event. The cost starts at only $139 per day per person, and the accommodations are lovely and comfortable. Special rates are available for families and those sharing a 2 or 3 bedroom suite.  For more information, call 707 586-5555 or visit www.HealthPromoting.com and click on the event from the list at the bottom. (For some reason the date posted with the information for this winter event is August 24, probably the day they announced it.)

New Web Site from Dr. Michael Greger
NutritionFacts.org
If you have enjoyed the entertaining and enlightening DVDs that Dr. Michael Greger produces each year based on his reading of all peer reviewed journal articles about nutrition, you will LOVE his new web site, www.nutritionfacts.org.  Here you can discover the myriad benefits of a plant based diet rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains.  Short video presentations make learning fun, and you can browse by topic to read about and listen to what interests you most.

Rick and Karin Dina
Dr. Rick Dina was the generous host of our meetings years ago when he worked in San Rafael. Now Dr. Dina and Karin Dina have a new web site that will catch you up on all they have been doing since they moved to the Mendocino area. Visit  rawfoodeducation.com to learn all that the Dinas have learned  and how they offer that great information to us. Congratulations to Karin and Rick for their ongoing success in keeping the world well educated, well fed and well nourished.


T. Colin Campbell's new
Plant Based Social Network
Dr. T. Colin Campbell's foundation has started a plant based social network. at TColinCampbell.ning.com  You will find live chat blogs, discussion boards and a monthly blog by Dr. Campbell himself. And if you have not yet read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, you are missing out on one of the most important books about health and diet to have been published in the last 100 years.  Go to TheChinaStudy.com to learn more about this groundbreaking book and its life saving information.

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