Jane and I had the opportunity to attend WorldFest 2008 yesterday. As you might expect, the weather was perfect, sunny and warm with just the slightest breeze. We arrived in time to hear Karen Dawn talk about her new book, Thanking the Monkey. She's promoting the book as a way to introduce animal rights issues to your non-vegan family/friends. It sounds like a worthwhile read!

Then it was off to the food court. We'd heard that the food would be all vegan, and we were excited by the prospect of being someplace with multiple vegan options. Jane headed straight for the Rahel Ethiopian restaurant booth. We don't get to their restaurant nearly as often as she'd like, so she didn't even want to consider looking at any of the other vendors. I had Indian food, something I'm always happy to indulge myself with. There were places serving Thai food, and others offering Samosas. Whole Foods had a booth selling Gardein Chicken sandwiches. Tofurkey also had a booth and they were selling a variety of different sandwiches. One of the vendors was making grilled sausage sandwiches which smelled delicious, and there was a raw food booth too. It was a vegan's dream... many food choices!

After we finished eating, we sat in on one of the talks, given by Lorri Bauston, of Animal Acres. She mentioned a number of reasons to go vegan, from animal welfare to environmental issues. She gave some horrific statistics about the impact factory farming has on the environment, and how much water is both wasted and polluted by agri-business. Nothing we hadn't heard before, but Ms. Bauston is an engaging speaker, and we enjoyed her talk.

There were a number of exhibitors at WorldFest, too many to talk about here. But there was information on everything from animal welfare, to environmental issues, to green energy solutions. We picked up a ton of literature to read, and talked to a few people. And, of course, there were shopping opportunities. We wound up buying Nutiva Coconut Oil and Hemp Protein Powder, which we haven't tried yet.

At one point we made our way back to the main stage to listen to some music. People were dancing, flowers were dancing, but the main stage was right next to the beer garden, so that might have had something to do with it! (Not really, there were two flowers wandering around the festival on stilts.)

The best part of the day was Gene Baur's talk on animal rights issues and factory farming. Gene Baur is the co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary, and author of Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food. I'm looking forward to reading this book, if it's written as well as Gene spoke yesterday, it will be a worthwhile read.

– We’re getting ready to close down our petition to Oprah, asking her to do a piece on factory farming. If you haven’t already signed, please consider doing so. We can all work together to make a difference.

I'm pretty excited... I stumbled across the "Go Green Expo" which will be taking place in New York and Los Angeles this year. Unfortunately for me, the site only has information on the New York Go Green Expo, and I live on the other coast! But, they are asking visitors to their site to check back for updated info on Los Angeles. The dates for the New York expo are April 26-27 at the NY Hilton.

Anyway, what is the Go Green Expo? It's basically a trade show which provides information on how you can leave a smaller environmental footprint.

Go Green Expo will feature hundreds of companies showcasing the latest earth friendly products & services, dozens of interactive seminars & speeches, an eco-film festival, an eco-fashion show and a variety of hands on demonstrations.

The expo will be divided into separate eco-pavilions including transportation, energy alternatives, home, green investing, organic food & wine, green office, health & beauty and a children's learning center.

It sounds like a wonderful idea, but in all this going green, I didn't notice anything about eating meatless. We know that a vegan/vegetarian diet has a significant positive impact on the environment; eating lower on the food chain requires less resources to produce food. Perhaps the veg*n aspect will be touched upon in the segment on organic foods, or perhaps I missed it when I skimmed through the program. Regardless, in my mind going green seems to go hand-in-hand with being vegan, so even if they don't touch on veganism at the Expo, it's probably still worth attending!

If only I had some other reason to be in New York in May...

The first annual Veggie Pride Parade will take place in Greenwich Village, NY on Sunday, May 18th. Appropriately enough, it begins in the old "Meat Packing District." The parade will even have floats! At the conclusion there will be a rally in Washington Square Park with live music, speakers, exhibitors, and contests. It all sounds like great fun.

The parade sponsors will be hosting two contests -- a Poster Contest and a Costume Contest. There are many categories, but my favorites include: Best poster, bacterial-contamination theme; Best poster, manure theme; Most-things-hanging-off-it costume; Most convincing costume—enough to make the meat eaters go veg; Best edible costume.

There will even be a veggie wedding. Penelo Pea Pod, the Veggie Pride mascot, will be getting married at 4pm, after the rally. (Although I can't tell if this is a real wedding or a stunt.) They do ask you to bring rice to throw at the happy couple afterwards, something I'd long believed was taboo. But according to Snopes.com, the people who confirm or refute urban legends, throwing rice is safe for birds, but potentially harmful to people who might slip and injure themselves on the hard grains of rice. But I digress...

This looks to be a very fun way to educate and introduce a large number of people to a vegetarian way of life. If you're in the NYC region and would like to help out, the Veggie Pride people are looking for volunteers. This page has a listing of all the things you can do to help out. I'm looking forward to seeing the videos afterwards.