don't eat me for -- at least -- one day of the year. please!

The 25th annual Great American Meatout, a nationwide event orchestrated by the Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM), is Friday, March 20. Similar in premise to the Great American Smokeout, the Meatout is a day for people to kick their unhealthy addiction to meat. Various festivities are being held around the world on and around the 20th, but here are five simple ways you can commemorate the Meatout:

1. Go Vegan. The first one’s a no-brainer. If you still eat meat (that includes beef, chicken, turkey, fish, and other animal flesh), give it up for at least one day. Choose beans instead of beef, soy sausage rather than pork sausage, faux chicken over chicken flesh, and carrot sticks, not fish sticks. If you’re already a vegetarian—but not a vegan—make the 20th the day you make the switch from cow’s milk to soy milk and eggs to egg replacer. See VegCooking.com for tips on making the transition to a vegan diet.
2. Teach Your Classmates—And Your Teachers—About Veganism. Homework isn’t all bad if you’re a “vocal vegan.” If you have to write a report, make a presentation, or do any other type of school project, use the opportunity to incorporate information on factory farming, diet-related diseases, world hunger, or environmental issues in your assignment. PETA’s youth division, peta2, has a number of resources to help students spread the word.
3. Promote Veganism on Campus And In The Community. Leave leaflets about vegetarianism around campus, ask a local coffee shop to carry soy milk, set up an information table at a mall, library, or in the campus bookstore, or simply wear a shirt or button with a pro-vegetarian message.
4. Fight KFC’s Cruelty. Help convince meat-eaters to kick the KFC bucket. Organize a protest, write a letter to the editor of your school paper, display factory farm footage on your blog, or simply sign PETA’s anti-KFC petition. See KentuckyFriedCruelty.com for more information about KFC’s cruelty to chickens and what you can do to stop it.
5. Adopt A Farmed Animal. I know; money’s tight, but if you can spare a small donation to help care for a rescued farmed animal at Animal Place or another sanctuary, it would be meaningful way to honor the Meatout.

Whatever you do, please don’t let the day pass without encouraging at least one other person to go meatless. Have a happy Great American Meatout!