James Cameron is no stranger to award speeches. And the Oscar-winning director knows that when the world is watching, he has a great platform to make a difference. So when National Geographic bestowed its "Explorer of the Year" honor on Cameron for his solo dive to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench, Cameron used his acceptance speech to tell the roomful of explorers and scientists about one of his favorite subjects: eating vegan.

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"I've had an epiphany recently," he said. "I want to challenge all of you as people of deep conscience, people who are environment stewards of the earth and oceans…By changing what you eat, you will change the entire contract between the human species and the natural world."

Cameron urged his audience to research the benefits of plant-based eating and try it for themselves. "I felt like I was waking up from a long sleepwalk. I believe we are all sleepwalking off a cliff if we don't do this."

More and more notable thinkers of our time are advocating meat- and dairy-free meals. Former President Bill Clinton made headlines when he famously traded his McDonald's habit for plants. Bill Gates is funding researchers at Beyond Meat and Beyond Eggs to create healthier, environmentally friendly plant-based versions of animal products. And Twitter cofounders Evan Williams and Biz Stone are investing in a meat-free future.

Are you ready to join Cameron in promoting the future of food? Share our meat-industry exposé "Glass Walls" on Twitter and Facebook.

Lights, camera, veggies! With the Style Network's Tia & Tamera camera crew capturing every minute, Tia Mowry unveiled her new PETA ad to an enthusiastic crowd of family, friends, and, of course, fellow vegans.

The plant-themed rooftop party at the Bob Barker Building, PETA's L.A. headquarters, was replete with fresh flowers and delicious wraps, sandwiches, and salads from L.A.'s Veggie Grill—not to mention the ad itself, in which Tia wears an apron made of Swiss chard, snow peas, and lettuce leaves.

Tia—a mother who went vegan in part to make sure that she's healthy for her young son—explained why she was so excited to represent PETA and advocate going vegan: "I wanted to become a voice for my community. … I wanted to educate my culture about the benefits of becoming vegan. … The more you learn about the benefits of being vegan, the more you become alive and the more you become aware of why it's a really great decision. Not only am I helping myself, I'm helping the animals out there, I'm helping the environment. Going vegan—I feel great."

Catch the fun behind-the-scenes video from Tia's photo shoot, and join her in pledging to go vegan here. 

With one move, two grocery store chains may have spared thousands of pigs from a good deal of suffering. Foodland Super Market and Times Supermarkets on Oahu have announced that they will no longer sell meat from pigs who were shipped live to Hawaii from the mainland. In addition to the pain of having their throats cut and being scalded during slaughter, pigs who are transported across the ocean alive spend days aboard ships in cramped, filthy conditions and stifling temperatures. Many become sick and die during the arduous voyage.

The grocers' decision could spell the end for Oahu's only slaughterhouse certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and could end all live transport to Oahu. Slaughtering pigs shipped from the mainland is the bulk of business for Hawaii Livestock Cooperative's slaughterhouse. The facility has been struggling financially for a decade and surviving only with help from the government. The president of the slaughterhouse cooperative, Calvin Wong, said he isn't sure that it can sustain the latest loss of business, calling it "another nail in the coffin."

Want to add another nail to that coffin? Stop eating pigs.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

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Since discovering how much being vegan improved his health, former president Bill Clinton has been belting out praise for plants like he belts out jazz on the saxophone. A new CNN article traces his progression from hamburger-and-fry guy to commander-in-leaf.

Not long after he left office, Clinton's penchant for hamburgers, steaks, and other high-fat foods, coupled with a family history of heart problems, left the ex-president in need of quadruple-bypass surgery, followed by two stents three years later. "I was lucky I did not die of a heart attack," he told CNN.

After Clinton's second surgery, PETA sent him a vegan care package. Then, in spring 2007, PETA Vice President Dan Mathews was seated next to the former President at a dinner party in Las Vegas, and the two spoke at length about the health benefits and ethics of a vegan diet, which Clinton told Mathews had always intrigued him since his daughter Chelsea had been such an articulate vegetarian since she was 10. Mathews followed up by sending Clinton Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. After consulting with Dr. Esselstyn as well as Dr. Dean Ornish and Chelsea, Clinton decided to make the switch to a plant-based diet: "I essentially concluded that I had played Russian roulette .… So that’s when I made a decision to really change."

So began the era of Bill Clinton, vegan advocate and heart disease survivor. "All my blood tests are good, and my vital signs are good, and I feel good, and I also have, believe it or not, more energy," he says. We wondered who you think should be the next big political figure to get a smaller figure by going vegan? Will it be Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, Al Gore, or Sarah Palin?

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A fire that destroyed a single barn on a turkey farm in Richlands, North Carolina, killed 6,600 animals. The owners think that the electricity in the old building started the fire, which swept through the entire barn, burning to death every bird crammed inside it. The owners dug a mass grave for the bodies and intend to continue their turkey-farming business.

These birds died in a horrific way, but the future they faced wasn't much better. On turkey farms, thousands of birds are packed into dark, filthy sheds. Portions of their toes and beaks are cut off without any painkillers. They are genetically bred to grow as fast as possible, and many become crippled under their own weight. Turkeys are allowed to live just five or six months before they are shackled, have their throats cut, and are sometimes scalded alive in defeathering tanks—all to become a sandwich or centerpiece.

Don't let turkeys suffer and die for your next meal. Send for your free vegetarian/vegan starter kit today and enjoy the many benefits of a healthy and kind life.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Meet activist Nick Cooney! Nick is from Philadelphia and has devoted hundreds of hours to fighting the good fight for animals. There's no doubt that his hard work is making a difference, and we are thrilled to recognize him for his support of the animal rights movement.

Nick currently sponsors more than 20 vegetarian/vegan starter kit stands around Philadelphia and has spent countless hours promoting veganism by leafleting on college campuses and busy downtown street corners as well as on the Warped Tour and at other concerts and festivals. He raises awareness of the realities of animal agriculture and shows people that going vegan is one of the most effective ways to save animals (of course, with all the delicious vegan alternatives that are available today, it's also easy).

Oh, and that's not all. He also runs The Humane League, a nonprofit animal advocacy organization with offices serving the greater Philadelphia and Boston regions. Wait, there's still more. Nick also wrote Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change, which is a must read for all activists who care about any cause at all! PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk calls the book "mandatory reading for everyone with a good cause and a good heart," and it's getting rave reviews from everyone in our office.

So what do you say? Are Nick's endless efforts for animals enough to inspire you to take action too?

Written by Jessy Easton

I don't think this quite qualifies as a work perk: Starting next year, obese government workers in South Carolina will be able to get stomach-shrinking surgery through the state's health insurance plan. Lawmakers created the new "benefit" in order to combat the state's growing obesity epidemic.

While it's great that the government wants to help its employees slim down and live longer, such drastic and expensive—oh, and sometimes dangerous—measures just aren't necessary. The government can best help workers shrink their waistlines—and health care costs—by taking PETA's advice and encouraging employees to go vegan. Wouldn't you rather lose weight by eating great-tasting vegan food than by enduring a painful operation at taxpayers' expense?

Written by Heather Moore

Not long ago, we told you that celebrity chef Mario Batali was introducing special "Meatless Mondays" options at all of his 14 restaurants. Well, thanks to Freep.com, we get to meat meet up with Mario for a progress report: He says that he feels better as his diet becomes increasingly veggie-heavy. And he predicts that environmental concerns will prompt others to embrace a vegetarian diet. Oh—and he reveals that his own vegetarian cookbook is in the works.

Could Batali be channeling vegan chef Tal Ronnen? I'd love to think so, but one thing's for certain: Both Chef Mario and Chef Tal are inspiring countless flesh-loving foodies to think outside the T-bone.

Written by Karin Bennett

Dave Warwak, an art teacher at Fox River Grove Middle School in Illinois (and, if I'm not mistaken, a regular commenter on this here blog), has been dismissed from his classroom by the school after teaching his students about factory farming and the other forms of animal abuse that made him go vegan. Apparently, the school's principal ordered Warwak to leave the classroom after he showed his students photos of animals in factory farms and gave them the book The Food Revolution by Pulitzer Prize-nominated author John Robbins.

Let me go over that again, real quick. An Illinois principal just kicked out a teacher for talking to his students about veganism. Does that disturb anyone else as much as it does me? You can read PETA's letter to the school here. Unbelievable.

In the meantime, keep fighting the good fight, Dave. We're all 100 percent behind you.