by staff & volunteers at Earthsave Canada

Over the past 10 years, Earthsave Canada has been privileged to host many brilliant and internationally renowned speakers, who have helped further our mission of promoting a shift towards a healthier, plant-based diet. We often hear from attendees that these talks were life-changing events, catalysts for their own shift towards greater health and an environmentally friendly and compassionate lifestyle. We are honoured to have played a small role in their transformation.

Mark your calendars for Taste of Health’s special 10th anniversary September 25, 26 and 27 at the Croatian Cultural Centre on Commercial Drive. For more information, visit tasteofhealth.earthsave.ca.

The following retrospective honours some of the inspiring speakers at the Taste of Health event over the last decade. May it give you a taste of the brilliance you can expect at this year’s gala and show. We look forward to seeing you there.

1999: Erik Marcus, author of Meat Market

“The typical North American diet puts us at war with animals, the environment, and even our own bodies.”

As publisher of Vegan.com, over the past decade Erik Marcus has spent the bulk of his time researching society’s food choices. In 1999, Marcus was invited to speak at Earthsave Canada’s Taste of Health event. While he was clearly at odds with the conventional wisdom of the time, subsequent developments have pushed it into the mainstream. At the 1999 event, Marcus made the following points: 1) Animals should not be factory farmed. 2) Meat, milk and eggs should be eaten rarely, if at all. 3) The most compassionate and sustainable diet does away with these foods entirely.

2000: Ingrid Newkirk, PETA founder and president

“It matters to me. I don’t know why; I didn’t choose it. It might be just purely that I can imagine myself going through exactly what they’re going through. And I want to stop it.”

She’s tough. She’s fearless. She’s driven. She’s a brilliant strategist. She’s perhaps the most famous animal rights activist in the world. Ingrid Newkirk is cofounder and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the largest animal rights organization in the world with more than two million members and supporters.

2001: Brendan Brazier, author of Thrive

“Throughout the last 14 years I have learned how to perform at a high level in one of the world’s most demanding sports, while exclusively on a plant-based diet.”

Brendan Brazier is one of only a few professional athletes in the world whose diet is 100 percent plant-based. He’s a professional Ironman triathlete, bestselling author on performance nutrition and the creator of an award-winning line of whole food nutritional products called Vega. He is also a two-time Canadian 50km Ultra Marathon Champion.

2002: John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America

“A reduction in meat consumption is probably the most potent single act individuals can take in the effort to halt the destruction of the environment and preserve our precious resources.”

In 1987, John Robbins launched the EarthSave Foundation in the US following overwhelming response to his book Diet for a New America. Earthsave Canada grew out of the excitement generated by John’s presentation in Vancouver in 1989. Widely considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on the dietary link between the environment and health, John is an international speaker and has frequently appeared on US television shows such as Oprah, Donahue and Geraldo. The standing ovation John received at the UN is a testament to his powerful, dynamic message.

2003: Dr. Neal Barnard, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

“More deaths have been caused by bad diets than by auto accidents, natural disasters and all the wars of the past century combined.”

Neal Barnard, M.D., is one of North America’s leading advocates for health, nutrition and higher standards in research. He has been the principal investigator or co-investigator on several clinical trials investigating the effects of diet on health. He is president and founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which promotes preventative medicine through innovative programs.

2004: Carol Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat

“People who eat animals are benefiting from a dominant/subordinate relationship, but our culture encourages invisibility of the structures enabling this, and invisibility of the animals hurt by this.”

In 1974, while walking to Harvard Square and thinking about all the vegetarian feminists of the nineteenth century, Carol Adams, a newly minted vegetarian, had the sudden insight that feminist politics and vegetarianism were connected. Her book, The Sexual Politics of Meat, published in 1990, arose from that revelation.

2005: Dr. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study

“As a taxpayer who foots the bill for research and health policy in America, you deserve to know that many of the common notions you have been told about food, health and disease are wrong.”

The idea of consuming a plant-based diet is coming of age and the scientific evidence is convincing. Not only can this diet prevent a high proportion of chronic degenerative diseases, it is now known that this same diet also cures these diseases. In addition, environmental problems can be greatly alleviated and the cost of health care substantially reduced. It is time that government informs the public about these profound benefits.

2006: Howard Lyman, author of Mad Cowboy

“As a fourth-generation family farmer in Montana for almost 40 years, I speak from a background of personal experience when I say that chemically based agricultural production methods today are unsustainable, and therefore ecologically disastrous.”

In 1996, former cattle rancher turned vegetarian and food safety activist Howard F. Lyman revealed to a national TV audience how the cattle industry potentially exposed Americans to Mad Cow Disease by feeding cows the remains of live animals, including other cows. His remarks resulted in his being named a co-defendant with Oprah Winfrey in the infamous “veggie libel” case. We are thrilled to welcome him again this year.

2007: Dr. Jonathan Balcombe, author of Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good

“Animals cherish their lives as we do, and our pleasure at their expense is a poor equation for life. We can do so much better.”

Biologist and author Jonathan Balcombe applies his expertise in animal behaviour towards changing the public’s perception of animals. As a writer and lecturer, he illuminates the chasm between what we now know about animals’ rich experiences of life and our current treatment of them. Respecting them is as important to our future as it is to theirs.

2008: Dr. David Pimentel, leading food sustainability expert

“We could reduce the fossil energy used in the U.S. food system by about 50 percent with relatively simple changes… Switching to a vegetarian diet would require one-third less fossil fuel than producing the current animal-based American diet.”

Learn how at Earthsave Canada’s Taste of Health event. With the awakening interest in the environmental consequences of our food choices, we are very excited to host former US Presidential Advisor David Pimentel, the world’s foremost expert on food sustainability and biofuels.