I’ve just started reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s latest work, Eating Animals, and while I appreciate his diligent research and easy-to-understand writing style, I can’t read more than a few pages at a time and I dread picking it up again after a break.

I don’t disagree with his ideas and I like his writing so much that I’m sure I’ll read his other books. But I can only take so many sadistically, inhumanely slaughtered animals in one sitting. Mind you, these atrocities need to be revealed in order to be stopped, but I have to wonder if the vegetarian movement couldn’t use a little more feel-good patter.

Think about it: to non-vegetarians, a veg diet can appear to be a form of penance. Meat-eaters tend not to see what they can get from going veg, only what they have to give up. (Say, Catholics: remember no meat on Fridays? To many, a vegetarian diet is like permanent Lent. What a downer!)

I’m not saying that we should whitewash the catastrophic consequences of society’s reliance on animal agriculture. But we need to show the up side, too. Vegetarian food is wonderful, with lots of options, boatloads of taste, and none of the health consequences of an animal-based diet.

Perhaps, like me, you are surrounded by non-vegetarians at your job, your place of worship, or your leisure-time activities. For me, food is almost always part of these gatherings. I’ve opened more than a few minds by bringing ooey-gooey cupcakes and passing around my copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. How can you not love a book with a title like that?

Instead of saying that the cupcakes are vegan (the V word), I emphasize that they don’t have any dairy products, including eggs. This wins points with the cholesterol-counters and the allergy-prone. Sure, this approach amounts to backing into vegetarianism by other means, but it gets you in and that’s what’s important.

My friends who pass the cupcake phase then graduate to something like veggie chili and vegan cornbread. Believe it or not, I had the wife of a retired butcher asking me about Yves Ground Round after I served her tamale pie made with the product (which I didn’t announce until I was asked). I’ve also been pulled aside at gatherings and asked my opinion on the best brand of soy milk, the difference between silken and regular tofu, and where to buy psyllium husks. Instead of being that weird – and perhaps angry -- vegetarian, I’ve become a community resource.

I applaud stunts like the people who were giving away Tofurkys the day before Thanksgiving. I thoroughly enjoyed The Goode Family, a short-lived, prime-time cartoon that chronicled the antics of a left-leaning, vegetarian family. We need to be able to laugh at ourselves, to share what’s important to us with others without being preachy, patronizing, or punishing. It’s easier to surround yourself with people who already share your point of view but, in the long run, what does that really accomplish?

Remember, too, that it’s not a zero-sum game. If your words and actions cause someone to eat even one fewer meat-based meal each week, that’s something to celebrate. Lasting change is composed of many small, heart-felt actions. It’s not an all-or-nothing.

So fire up the barbie, throw on some tofu pups and reach out to your meat-eating friends in 2010.

-- Cynthia Marshall Schuman

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