VegWeek dares you to be meat-free

Illustration by SERENE LUSANO

The scene: a dinner party. The subject: a middle-aged man. His choice of conversation with an avowed vegan: veganism. He said he pretty much eats vegan most of the time, but occasionally craves a juicy hamburger. After his meat foodgasm, the vegan gave him a figurative high-five and encouraged him to continue with eating mostly plant-based and reap the health benefits. He could baby-step into it by pledging with the meat-free-week campaign VegWeek, which begins on April 18. Anyone can take the pledge at http://usvegweek.com, and competitive types can recruit others to outdo Moby on the leaderboard—yes, recording artist and vegan restaurateur (Little Pine in Silver Lake)—who is at No. 4 for most referrals at the time of this writing. Back at the dinner party, the man ends the conversation by telling the vegan he is going to help himself to the shrimp-on-ice hors d’oeuvres.