Meet the vegan girl next door as she explores the journey to veganism and beyond. Like many people, Christine just wanted to fit in and belong. And yet, how do you fit in when you don’t want to eat what everyone else is eating? Food can be a contentious topic—just like sex, money, and politics. In her memoir-in-essays, Christine explores navigating a true path for herself in a culture set up to use animal products at every turn. And then, just when she thought she had it all figured out, she married an environmentalist. Now faced with more big changes, Christine had to figure out how to thrive in the world as a vegan environmentalist.
Part memoir, part informative guide, Vegan Minded covers topics ranging from veganism to yoga to dating to climate change and to activism. Each topic circles back to looking at the world through a vegan lens. With heart and humor, this book tells a story of transformation, fortitude, and joy.
Vegan Minded will set readers on a path to their own transformation including steps you can take to change the world and leave your own legacy of compassion and stewardship.
5 Ways Vegans Can Change the World in 2024:
- Vote with your dollars. How we spend our money influences what companies sell. With every purchase and investment, we can vote with the animals and the planet in mind. Every time we buy something, we are telling that company we want more of it, so buy animal- and environmentally-friendly products. Consider buying locally and supporting small businesses too. Ultimately, buy less stuff. Every dollar we spend is a vote that says “do it again.”
- Write to your representatives. There are many animal welfare and environmental organizations that will alert you when a new piece of legislation is on the docket. Write to your representatives and ask them to vote to support your position. They work for you, after all. Register for action alerts. Sign petitions and join letter-writing campaigns through nonprofit organizations. Write to corporations also. Tell them what kind of products you want to buy.
- Take action at work. Get a job in the animal advocacy or environmental protection fields. We can also make our current job an animal or climate job by using our influence to change things at the office. For example, if you work at a school, hospital, or anywhere that serves food, ask for more plant-based options. If your job involves selling products packaged in plastic, seek out alternatives and campaign for your company to switch to ecofriendly packaging. You can also opt to donate a percentage of your income to help nonprofit organizations making a positive impact for animals, people, and/or the planet. Be sure to research the organizations you are interested in to see how they will spend your hard-earned dollars. Some organizations are more impactful than others. Check to see if your company offers a matching donation.
- Share vegan food with others. If you are already vegan, feed vegan food to everyone you know. Invite them over for dinner, take friends out to a vegan restaurant, host a potluck, or bring a vegan dish to share when you are invited to someone’s house. Normalize vegan food.
- Use your imagination. If we want to create a just world where we can all flourish—animals, people, and the planet, we are going to need to slow down and make time for imagining something different. The world we currently live in was once imagined and we can change the world using our creativity and resourcefulness, just like our ancestors did. Make time to daydream. It’s a necessary step toward changing the world and the systems that support it.
Christine Cook Mania is a writer, yoga teacher, and humane educator. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, two cats, and a dog, all three of which were adopted from shelters. Vegan Minded is her first book.
