Friday, 8 Feb 2002

BALTIMORE, Md.

Today got off to a great start: I received notification that we’ve been awarded a grant, and also found out that we’ve gotten additional resources for our annual scholarship. This certainly relieves a lot of stress. Since there is no history of funding vegetarian organizations, obtaining money is difficult.

Notwithstanding the good news, I’d rather be hiking the Appalachian Trail today; it’s a beautiful day outside. But I remind myself that the reason the Vegetarian Resource Group is one of the few vegetarian advocacy groups to survive and thrive for over 20 years is that we stick to our work, even when it means putting responsibility over fun.

Part of our success also comes from figuring out what we can and can’t do. A president of one large vegetarian food company once told me that because the company still had trucks, it was still polluting, and thus “imperfect.” I’d say, do the best you can and don’t expect to be perfect. To quote Hillel: “If I’m not for me, who am I? Yet, if I’m only for me, what am I?” Pursuing an ethical career is a life-long adventure in figuring out the balance between those questions.

Almost all of our staff, volunteers, and supporters have an interest in making the world better. Vegetarianism isn’t really the end goal, but part of a larger view of our role in life. This makes our work very different and much harder than if we were just intent on one objective, such as convincing everyone to be vegetarian or vegan. But that was never the goal of the Vegetarian Resource Group. Its purpose from the beginning was not to convert people but simply to expose them to options and give them practical and scientific information so they could make their own choices.

Our approach is to be willing to talk to and work with the mainstream. Personally, I understand why people should shop in small stores run by collectives and buy from an organic farmer at a farmers’ market. But the reality is that most people shop in supermarkets and eat in restaurants. If you want people to be vegetarian (or buy environmentally friendly products), vegetarian food has to be available in those places. Moreover, people have to know about and buy these food items for stores to keep stocking them and restaurants to keep making them. If you convince someone to buy a veggie burger in a fast food restaurant (I know this makes most of you cringe), it will be easier to eventually convince them to buy an organic sandwich in a locally-owned cafe.

Since you are reading Grist, I know you want to make the world better. Do-gooders need all the laughs we can get, so I’d like to leave you with a good joke, but I’ll end on this serious note instead. Because activists can’t do everything, and are often met with criticism, it’s easy to burn out. Be supportive to others and to yourself. Remind yourself to laugh. Remember that you can’t solve all the problems in the world; you can only focus on the little pieces you’ve chosen to improve. It’s easy to be mean, destructive, and critical. It’s more challenging to work towards a better world. Thank you to all the readers who are doing this in their own important ways.