by Eddy Bikales

I'm a vegetarian activist who doesn't carry placards, appear on radio talk shows, or even staff street corner tables (though God bless those who do!). No, I sit inconspicuously in my office, short hair and tie, quietly wielding my weapons of pen and telephone. But like the street corner activists, I've dealt the meat industry a very satisfying blow. I learned we vegetarians can, in fact, be carnivorously powerful. I've done it.

I didn't always believe it was possible. Soon after I gave up meat – partly in objection to animal slaughter – I felt disheartened to realize that my tiny refusal to eat the stuff probably wouldn't trickle back to the stockyards. In other words, no slaughterhouse would butcher one less cow or ten fewer chickens just because li'l ol' me had switched to tofu.

A dear carnivorous friend planned a vegetarian menu for her wedding reception just because I'd be there.

The ho-hum nature of how I discovered the vegetarian multiplier effect is also its beauty. I began working for a large church-related organization last April. Nineteen floors, two thousand employees, one cafeteria in the basement. I even tried eating there for the first week. Nice vegetables on the salad bar, but - day after day - not a single meatless entree.

And I'm a big eater.

So at the end of my three-month, new employee probation period, I put together a polite, one-page letter to the food service manager noting my unhappiness and afternoon hunger pangs - and suggesting a few meatless entree ideas. I "cc'd" the building superintendent and a colleague who I learned represents our unit on issues dealing with food service. 

Voila - it took all of ten minutes. When I placed a follow-up call to the food service manager the next week, he actually thanked me and said that on the basis of the letter he'd already devised plans to offer a daily vegetarian entree beginning the following week. He even read me the menu. Learning that fish isn't "vegetarian" seemed to cause him a little befuddlement, though he promised our aquatic friends wouldn't count in the future.

So today when I strut into the cafeteria, I watch foodservice dollop dish after dish of meatless entrees onto waiting trays. A hundred or more people enjoying meat-free lunches - meals that wouldn't have been available otherwise. It happens every day, whether I'm there or not: pound after pound, ton after ton, of meat not consumed. The vegetarian multiplier effect. (Sure, the vegetarian entree is sometimes quite eggy or cheesy, but on my moral scale that's a hell of a lot higher. And I know of at least one person in the building who has since gone vegetarian in part because it's now easier to do so, given the availability at lunch.)

Case #2: Trapped for a week in one of those hotels-as-islands-amidst-honky-tonk-sprawl in Stamford, Connecticut, I have no car. Afterward, I send the Sheraton management a little note decrying the fact that for those seven days the hotel restaurant menu offered but one vegetarian item - and it was out of stock all week! It didn't hurt to mention that I was conferencing there with a large organization, one whose business the Sheraton surely appreciates. I was delighted to quickly receive back a letter stating, "... We appreciate your comments and certainly will make the necessary changes to accommodate yours and other vegetarian needs in the future. We have expanded our menu to include grilled vegetables with hummus and pita, a variety of soups, entree salads, and pastas."

Case #3: After facing a similar conundrum at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado, and dealing with it in the same way, the management wrote, "... The next time you visit our facility you will find a better variety of vegetarian entrees." So now, long after I've passed through those venerable institutions, never to return, people order and eat vegetarian meals every day without seeing the silent hand that made it possible: a simple letter. Less meat used in these large institutional kitchens means a lot less meat ordered. The vegetarian multiplier effect in action.

Even if you don't work for a big organization, you can influence the restaurants you enter. Always, always make sure the waitstaff knows you're vegetarian. Even if it's listed on the menu, ask the maitre'd, the waiter, the owner: "Got anything good for vegetarians?" That way management is always aware that we're out there, and are far more likely to add more vegetarian items when devising their menus.

Finally, be sure all of your friends know how important vegetarianism is to you. Last year a dear carnivorous friend - without asking me - planned a vegetarian menu for her wedding reception just because I'd be there. Well, it turned out that I'd already made unbreakable plans for that weekend, so 200 guests forfeited their greasy steaks that night for some guy a thousand miles away. The multiplier effect strikes again.

We can do it. We can create an environment where its simple and safe to be vegetarian - where we have tempting choices wherever we go. And when it's easier to go without meat, millions more may join our ranks.

Try it. Just pick up your pen and watch the amazing vegetarian multiplier effect take charge.

Eddy Bikales is a video documentary producer for a major Protestant denomination. He lives in New York and Vermont.