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At dinner, they're talking un-turkey

Those at a vegan Thanksgiving feast know the guest of honor doesn't have to wear feathers.

By ERIN SULLIVAN
Published November 24, 2006

Michelle LaFleur knows you ate turkey Thursday and are probably eating leftovers today. It's cool. It's fine. She's not going to try to guilt-trip you or anything. She used to eat meat.

LaFleur isn't judging you. She just wants to open your eyes. She wants you to see what she's seen - the documentaries showing animals fighting for their lives before being slaughtered. The videos showing animals' living conditions. She wants to give you literature and samples of vegan food and to invite you to dinners.

She sees you giving her that look. Wait, wait. She wants you to know she's not over-the-top.

"We're not just sitting there, passing around one carrot at a stark table like people think," said LaFleur, whose Pasco Vegetarian/Vegan Society hosted a vegan Thanksgiving dinner at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tampa on Thursday.

A vegan is basically a vegetarian who goes a few steps further. A vegan doesn't eat anything from animals - no milk, no cheese, no butter, no eggs, no gelatin. They don't wear leather, of course. Some don't use honey.

You'd think that leaves little else to eat.

Not so, at least, not the ones who showed up at the dinner Thursday. More than 100 came and brought dishes. The spread was ample. There were roasts of tofurky, of course, the famous turkey alternative made of tofu. Pumpkin pie. Cranberry and apple cobbler. Green and white bean casserole. Eggplant casserole. There were the staples -- sweet potatoes and baked pumpkin. And then, the more exotic: Senegalese Moringa leaf sauce with organic couscous.

"People look at me with the saddest puppy eyes and say, 'What do you do for Thanksgiving?'" LaFleur said. "I smile and chuckle and say, 'you know all the food you eat? The pies and casseroles? I eat all that.

'There's only one thing I'm not eating on Thanksgiving day. Turkey."

On the church patio Thursday, a few guys stood and chatted about karma, the sum of actions in this life that will come to bear in later lives. Clint Corfman, a vegan in Tampa, said all living things - animals, plants - can feel suffering. But the amount of negative karma in eating veggies is less.

"Science has proven that all living things do have some kind of consciousness," Corfman said.

Nick Epsilantis, a vegetarian living in Palm Harbor, surveyed the crowd. He liked it.

"Vegetarians and vegans tend to be all nice people," he said. "There's a live-and-let-live attitude."

LaFleur is tall and fit and works caring for the elderly. But she and her boyfriend, Roger McDowell, spend all their free time doing "outreach," which means setting up booths at carnivals, festivals, fairs, Wal-Mart parking lots. Like missionaries, they go wherever they feel they can reach the unchurched.

McDowell became a vegetarian after his dad had a heart attack. He wanted to get his cholesterol down. Then, as he learned more about the meat industry, saving animals' lives by being vegan became his cause.

"You can't unsee what you've seen," he said. "I saw the truth."

The two also work out like crazy. They say it's a myth that most vegans are sickly because they can't get enough protein.

"You feel like a million dollars," LaFleur said. "And it's very peaceful that no one is being harmed for your lifestyle."

LaFleur knows many people most likely will not be swayed from eating meat. That's okay. But she wants you to be understanding of those who choose not to. She says that, at holiday gatherings, vegetarians and vegans get picked on mercilessly. LaFleur feels pain for the animals on the table. Especially at Thanksgiving, where the holiday is focused on eating turkey.

"It's an emotional day," she said.

Erin Sullivan can be reached at esullivan@sptimes.com or (813) 909-4609.

[Last modified November 23, 2006, 22:49:10]