Guest wordsmith Matt Ball writes:

Growing up, I was a big fan of Carl Sagan, and I dreamed of exploring the

universe, expanding the frontier of human knowledge and vision. I started my college to become a rocket scientist, with the plan of working for NASA.

But fate intervened on the first day of college when I met my roommate,

a big, strong guy, who was not shy about explaining his vegetarianism or

what hidden realities my eating meat supported. After a false start, I went vegetarian -- I simply found the cruelties of meat production too severe to continue to rationalize away.

Shortly thereafter, I met Jack Norris and started learning more about animal exploitation in this world. I decided I needed to do more than be a

vegetarian. With ten other activists, Jack and I held a three-day Fast for

Farm Animals in front of a Cincinnati slaughterhouse (three days being the amount of time farmed animals often go without food before slaughter). After the fast, Jack and I formed a group which eventually became Vegan Outreach, dedicated to preventing the most suffering possible.

You can order a free copy of our Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating at:

http://veganoutreach.org/starterpack/

(Guest wordsmith Matt Ball is co-founder and executive director of the non-profit organization Vegan Outreach.)

vegan (VEE-guhn) noun

       One who does not consume animal products.

adjective

       Made with no animal ingredients.

[Coined in 1944 by Donald Watson (1910-2005) to describe a "non-dairy

vegetarian"; formed from the first three and last two letters of the

word vegetarian.]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=vegan

 

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