Though one recent poll suggests there are more than 7 million vegetarians/vegans in the U.S., it’s easy to feel isolated when you’re part of about 7% of the population.  One recent report  revealed that “a large majority of former vegetarians/vegans (63%) said that they disliked that their diet made them stick out from the crowd.”  That inspired CLAWtheory to give a big thanks to some of the awesome people, places, & things that make veg life better; so U-Turns was born.

The choice to go veg could be based on ethical, religious, environmental, nutrition, or other reasons, yet it’s easy to feel isolated if few people within your immediate circle of friends and family share your beliefs.  From grassroots activism, international campaigns to compassionate shopping, and more, CLAWtheory’s U-Turns is a shout out to some of our favorite resources.

Here is the first installment:

• COK (Compassion Over Killing) For 20 years, COK has been working to end animal abuse by promoting US Veg Week, hosting the DC VegFest, extensive outreach, direct action campaigns, and related projects supporting compassion for animals in agriculture.  COK, which began as a high school club, has grown into an amazing nonprofit advocacy group providing a national voice for farmed animals.
• Happy Cow – a hugely useful resource for anyone dedicated to promoting a healthy, compassionate, and sustainable lifestyle.  HappyCow.net has everything from tools to find veg friendly restaurants all over the world to newsletters, blogs, recipes, mobile app, and more.  You name it – they’ve got it!
• Meatless Monday is a global campaign (36 countries and counting) demonstrating how a relatively small change has the potential for big impact.  With individuals, organizations, restaurants, schools, college campuses, and municipalities participating, this movement provides an excellent platform full of tools, resources, recipes, and more –  easy to promote (wherever you are)!
  

• Mercy for Animals is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing cruelty to farmed animals and promoting compassion.   From individual choices to policies, MFA works tirelessly on the front lines of social change.  With groundbreaking undercover investigations, extensive legal advocacy, outreach, and education projects, MFA base been doing  that promote compassion.
• Pangea – Since 1995, Pangea has been the place to find ethically sourced vegan goods.  By offering a wide variety of all the latest products, the folks keeping shop here deliver a lot more than a Vegan Store- they bring an ethical sensibility to convenient, simple shopping whether you’re looking for vitamins, food, beauty products, clothing, books, or other cruelty-free essentials.
• SERV (Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians) : an interfaith organization dedicated to promoting a more humane, just, peaceful, sustainable world.  SERV provides important groundwork linking diverse spiritual perspectives to the moral case for veg life and provides helpful information on world religions and vegetarian living, essays, and other resources.
• VegNews is the premier vegan lifestyle magazine featuring inspiring stories, news, interviews, recipes, travel tips, advice, and other awesome veggie buzz! Read by more than 225,000 people in 38 countries- VegNews reminds us we’re in amazing company.
• VRG (Vegetarian Resource Group)  Nutrition, recipes, journals, advocacy tools, projects – VRG is a unique  nonprofit educational organization for individuals and institutions, designed to foster understanding and connect the dots between and among ethical, environmental, global hunger solutions, and health aspects of veg living.

Whether you are new to veg life or not, we’re happy to showcase this handful of distinctive resources – from businesses to nonprofit groups, we’re grateful for the unique contribution they each make.  Not only will you find loads of information and advocacy tools, you’ll discover they offer a great sense of community by bringing together a variety of resources, information, and networks that make the 7% crowd feel 100% connected.

Stay tuned!  CLAWtheory U-Turns will feature new geographic resources soon.