Wednesday, 6 Feb 2002

BALTIMORE, Md.

Today, after responding to emails, glancing at faxes, looking at a grant request, and dealing with some government forms, I had to call the American Dietetic Association. The ADA is a professional organization representing the more than 50,000 registered dietitians in the U.S. To spread the word about vegetarian diets, we give a presentation each year at the ADA’s annual meeting — along with Coca Cola, McDonald’s, beef and pork producers, the trade association for MSG, and so forth. Last year, our presentation was about introducing vegetarian foods into institutions. This session helped encourage dietitians who work in places like colleges and hospitals to serve more vegetarian and vegan options.

The Vegetarian Resource Group would like to ensure that consumers and health professionals have adequate information about vegetarianism and related issues. This would mean being everywhere “the other side” is, but for time and budget reasons, that’s impossible. Just for us to attend one exposition costs about $7,000. For example, a 10-foot-by-10-foot booth at a medical conference can easily cost $1,500 to $3,000. And that doesn’t include the costs of a table, handouts, shipping, and so forth. The total isn’t much money to large industries, but for many nonprofit groups it is. So each day we have to make decisions about what we will and won’t do. You can’t do everything, and the most successful organizations know when to say no.

Each year during the American Dietetic Association annual meeting, we hold a vegan dinner at a local restaurant for dietitians, members, and the general public. Since this year’s meeting is in Philadelphia, I investigated several restaurants near the city’s convention center. After looking at a menu and discussing details with the restaurant, I’m ready to sum up all requirements in a letter and send a deposit check for the gathering, which will be held in October. I’ll pass on the info to our Vegetarian Journal and email editors so they can inform our members. During the summer, I’ll send out a mailing to dietitians and the local Philadelphia media. Because we’re always planning six months to a year ahead (and more), I often feel like I’m living in two different months at the same time.

Working with the restaurant in Philadelphia is an example of how you can bring about change by influencing businesses. This can be done by encouraging consumers to patronize companies that produce vegetarian, vegan, organic, or environmentally-friendly products, or otherwise act according to ethical or social beliefs. In order to help forge some of these bonds between responsible businesses and conscientious consumers (as well as to encourage businesses to produce more good products), we have exhibited at the annual meetings of the National Restaurant Association and the Food Marketing Institute.

In March, we are exhibiting at the Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, Calif. This trade show for the natural products industry is attended by 30,000 retailers, food product manufacturers, wholesalers, and media reps. At the Natural Products Expo, our foodservice advisor will be doing a book-signing and giving a presentation on how stores can meet the needs of vegans. I need to hunt down some food samples for her from vegan companies and arrange for them to be shipped to her in time for the presentation. I’ll start today by emailing companies to ask for the samples. Also today, I need to retrieve forms off the web and register our exhibit, plan for what we are going to ship to the show, and make sure we have our tables and chairs for the booth.

There are many organic exhibitors at Natural Products Expo, which is great for the environment. We know we are succeeding because so many large companies such as Kraft, ConAgra, and Kellogg’s have bought natural foods companies in recognition of how important the market it. It’s great that these companies can make more good products available to more people, but at the same time, many activists are looking closely at these companies’ other practices. Do you buy a good product from a company and thus encourage it to produce other good products? Or do you boycott it because of its other products and policies? Or do you only buy from small companies which can’t reach as many people? People have very different opinions about these issues, but our job is to present the choices and let our members and consumers act on their beliefs.