City of Asheville, North Carolina, Proclaims Vegan Awareness Week

Set amid the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, Asheville, North Carolina, is known for its vegan-friendly fare, killer craft beer, and progressive attitude. Now, the city’s commitment to veggie eats is official — Mayor Esther Manheimer has signed a proclamation naming May 9 – 15 Vegan Awareness Week.

The document references lots of juicy info about why veganism is a smart choice, including the following:

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics finds well-planned vegan diets appropriate for all stages of life.
The largest longitudinal diet study of vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores concluded that vegans live longer lives with lower incidences of heart, disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer.
Plant-based diets can help reduce global warming.
Ashevillians have access to lots of vegan food options.

Other cities have signed similar proclamations, including Eugene, Ore., and Portland, Ore.

The idea for the proclamation was initiated by Joe Walsh, President Emeritus of the Asheville Vegan Society. The original draft included language about compassion for animals, though the city chose to leave that out of the final version.

“With Asheville being populated with such thoughtful and open minded folks, I believe that many people who aren’t yet vegan will choose to move in that direction when presented with fact-based information,” Walsh tells Latest Vegan News. “The Vegan Awareness Week Proclamation signed by Mayor Manheimer makes a strong case for plant-based eating! Though I would definitely add that compassion for animals is the number one reason that many choose to live a vegan lifestyle.”

Asheville’s week will include lots of vegan-focused events throughout the city, all leading up to Asheville VegFest on May 15th, an all-vegan festival hosted by the Asheville Vegan Society.

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Hannah Sentenac

A wizard of words, lover of all living things and vegan mac 'n cheese master, Hannah is the vegan girl behind bharmless.com. Her writing has appeared in Live Happy magazine, the Miami New Times, OneGreenPlanet.com, MindBodyGreen.com, FoodRevolution.org and numerous other publications and websites. She's obsessed with vegan pizza and crop tops, the holidays, and all things Los Angeles. You can reach Hannah directly at hannah@bharmless.com.

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View Comments

Mary says:

May 10, 2016 at 9:13 am

I have not been to Asheville but now I have to go! Sounds like a great, progressive place to live!

Jennifer B says:

May 10, 2016 at 12:42 pm

Mary, It's probably the most gorgeous city on this continent! If I had to move it would be to Ashville -no contest!

Ally says:

May 11, 2016 at 4:54 am

Animals are the only reason why a person calls themselves a Vegan. If you arent Vegan for the animals then the proper terminology would be to call your diet a plant based one. For Vegans it's not only what we eat but what we buy, wear and contribute to that defines us. P.S. No animals were hurt in the writing of this comment or any other time as well.