Happy Earth Day, Vegecagoans!

If you are like my dear Vegecagoans and you live in a city, then you've seen Greenpeace activists (or employees, depending on how you want to look at it) on street corners asking for contributions. Because they induce at least a little feeling of guilt, you try to walk by as quickly as possible. You pretend to check your phone for text messages or you pretend the music you're listening to on your iPod is so awesome that you don't even notice that little Greenpeacer right in front of you, asking you to please just pledge a small percentage of your meager income to save the planet. For goodness' sake, it's the planet we're talking about!

I used to dread these encounters. And while I still would like to avoid having the Greenpeacers stop me at the corner just as the walk signal to cross turns on, I have a solid response to the inevitable "What are you doing for the environment?"

I'm vegan!

Even if I forget to recycle the plastic container from my soy yogurt, or someday when I'm a zillionaire I fly a gas-guzzling jet with a carbon footprint the size of a Brontosaurus, I can rest easy knowing that I am reducing my impact on our natural resources and minimizing my contribution to a giant cause of global warming: raising livestock. To simplify the message: if you eat beef, that cow had to eat a lot of plants (if you're lucky and he wasn't fed his brothers and sisters) and drink a lot of water before he made it to your plate. Why not take out the middle man (or middle cow, in this case) and eat the plants?

Please consider giving up meat or animal by-products at ONE meal today. And since I'm posting this after lunch, I guess that means dinner or 4th meal.

Just for fun...

Product of the Day: Liz Lovely Chocolate Moose Dragons. I know I should have started with a Chicago-area product, but this is probably the best cookie in the world. Behold: