Oprah’s Vegan Venture
Although we can't take credit for getting Oprah to try a vegan diet, Jane and I are pretty excited about the whole thing. I feel a little funny blogging about her so much, this is a vegan blog after all, not an Oprah blog (and I'm a guy -- next thing you know I'll be going to see "Sex in The City" and drinking Cosmos). But if Oprah espouses a cause, it takes off. And not just here. I believe I read that she's syndicated in 135 countries. And then there's the magazine and the radio shows, and she's got videos on YouTube... She's a veritable media mogul!
So, we've been following Oprah's blog. Aside from missing alcohol, she seems to be doing okay. She's exhibited surprise at how tasty some of the vegan alternatives are. Yay. I would expect that she'll do a follow-up show and our hopes are that she'll talk about how good the food was and how easy it was to eat this way. And if she's talking about these things, many other people will consider trying it for themselves.
One of the biggest criticisms I'm hearing is that Oprah is approaching this as a "cleanse" and not a change in lifestyle. She apparently wears mink eyelashes (huh?) and has a shoe fetish (presumably leather shoes). But I'm not sure that's something to condemn. She's on a path, who knows where it will lead. Jane and I started out on our vegan journey purely for health reasons. We were dietary vegans. I think Earthlings was the turning point for us, although I can't really put my finger on the actual time when animal welfare became the paramount reason we no longer eat animal products.
As for our petition, we submitted it to the Oprah site on May 22nd and got an auto-response confirming receipt of our email. We also received a second response on May 25th saying our mail was being forwarded to the producers of the Oprah Show. Since then, nothing. I don't expect Oprah to be influenced by us, nor do I expect her to be the next vegan star, but ut she's on the path, and that is more than we could have hoped for. Our wishes now, are that she'll continue to eat vegan and promote that to her viewers.
Related Information:
