"I am proud to say I have made the change. It is rather difficult since old habits die hard. Ever since Monday, I haven't had any meat, poultry, or fish!"

"Everything that you spoke about was the brutal truth that many have yet to learn about"

"I saw your lecture at MDC Kendall Campus as a part of my ethics class and I must say that I've turned my sights to try the vegan way"

"Today you gave a speech in my Critical Thinking class and I have been thinking about it all day"

"Just wanted to thank you for opening my eyes to this reality and just wanted to let you know you have made me into an official vegan starting today! "

EarthSave’s success is measured in such responses. Every time someone becomes convinced the Standard American Diet (SAD) is the tip of a nasty iceberg poised to sink our titanic civilization, vegans can feel less marginalized. The more people who play the Veggie card and travel the Via Organica, the more everyone else becomes aware of alternatives to epidemic bad health, ecological degradation and cruel, wasteful animal husbandry. We only have terrabytes of research, mountains of evidence to support our views, along with the moral high-ground, logic, practicality, spirituality and economic viability. Am I missing something?

Besides Gary, there is also author David Liss pushing our message in ‘The Ethical Assasin’. His murder mystery features college-bound Lemuel Atlick, who is drawn into the vegan lifestyle after witnessing a double murder. Victims are dumped into the waste lagoon of a Jacksonville factory hog farm as Melford Kean, eco-activist assassin, takes animal liberation philosophy further than the rest of us.

So where do we stand today? Michelle Obama publicly took her stand for healthy school food on Larry King Live, mainstream TV networks have aired shows on factory farming, organic gardens are popping up like edible weeds, VRG counted 9 million US vegetarians, major food manufacturers are falling over each other to market labels for ‘organic’ ‘vegan’ ‘whole grain,’ and hardly a week goes by without a green, veggie, healthful or eco-aware event in South Florida.

Me? I’m still looking for new, high-flying vegan super-heroes (VegGirl, VeganMan, VeggieDog) to bust up the Meatrix, open fur mink cages, empty fetid waste lagoons, drag eroded topsoil out of the Gulf of Missisippi, and somehow convince my friends and family to Go Vegan.

Until they arrive I’m excited about performances by The EarthSave Singers. We’ve got hot tunes like Junkfood Man, Keep The Animals Off Your Plate, Veggie Wonderland, As You Want To Be, Cows With Guns coming to a stage or street corner near you. Groupies are welcome!

What’s next? Maybe the debut of The Not Ready For Prime Rib EarthSave Players. Maybe more veggie stand up comics will crack us up over lingering sterotypes like: ‘Athletes need meat’ ‘Veg*ns don’t get enough protein’ or my personal favorite ‘People are not going to change their SAD lifestyle.’ And maybe everyone will become a member of EarthSave Miami.