Is the human species on the verge of an epochal shift in belief and behavior? Is there a new movement underway— so new it hasn’t been named yet? Is there a common answer to seemingly unrelated crises: health care, housing, incarceration, systemic racism, income inequality, global warming, addiction, overdose, obesity, religious conflict, pollution, plastic accumulation and more?

Vegan thought leader John “Bad Ass Vegan” Lewis and Steve “Father of the Legal Cannabis Industry” DeAngelo will discuss the interconnections between the rise of plant-based diets, plant-based medicine/consciousness, and plant-based industry: how cattle, petroleum and other extractive industries accelerate global warming, and how the use of hemp based raw materials and consumption of plant based foods reduce it; how hemp can replace animals as a source of protein; how and why popular opinion on both cannabis and veganism remained out of touch with reality for so long; and how the rediscovery of plant based consciousness has opened minds and set the table for plant based diets— and vice versa. Do these interconnections point the way to a better future for humankind? Can these different threads be woven into a new tapestry of hope?

The discussion will feature examples from John and Steve’s personal and professional experiences, outlining real choices consumers can make today to reduce global warming and social injustice simply by changing their personal habits— without passing a law, or writing a business plan, or getting the approval of an investment committee.

The presentation will incorporate a call to action; a call to examine each of our individual lifestyles, a call to accelerate existing movements and trends— like cannabis reform, decarceration, and veganism— but to more precisely focus ourselves on their inter-relationships; to define ourselves as those humans who believe the time has come for a plant-based approach to caring for our most essential needs: our physical and mental health; our diets, our medicines, our sources of energy, industrial raw materials, and spiritual connection. 

Without having been named, a new movement is already underway: it is time to build a plant-based world.