FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
July 5, 2017
Contact: Joy Waters, Producer joy@PositiveMediaHawaii.com
HI on Veggies & Healthy Living at 2nd VegFest Oahu
Free Community Festival Inspires Healthier Diet and Delights Taste Buds
HONOLULU, HI — Hawaii’s 2nd VegFest Oahu is a free community festival celebrating plant-based, sustainable living, and will be held Saturday, September 2, 2017 from 12:00pm-5:30 p.m. at the Frank Fasi Civic Grounds near Honolulu Hale.
The event brings together almost 50 booths offering education, food, and entertainment, and was attended by 4000 people last year including Mayor Kirk Caldwell. Activities include: plant-based cooking demos by expert chefs, speakers on health and environmental topics, a unique collection of food entrepreneurs selling island-made vegan products and dishes hand-crafted to appeal to the local palate, movement classes, lots of free food sampling, interactive exhibits with healthy games, and continuous live music.
Festival Highlights: (full lineup on: VegFestOahu.com)
- Headlining Speakers: Keegan Kuhn, award-winning co-director of the documentary films Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret and What the Health, presenting “The Diet Conspiracy: Burying Science for Profit”. Leilani Munter, a vegan who Discovery’s Planet Green named the #1 eco-athlete in the world, and Sports Illustrated named one of the top ten female race car drivers in the world.
- Other Speakers: Dr. Irminne Van Dyken, a vegan surgeon from Queens Medical Center, presenting “10 Ways You Can Avoid My Scalpel” and Carmela Wolf, M.S.O.M., L.A.C., Wellness Manager at Down to Earth Organic and Natural, presenting “Eating the Rainbow: How to Use Whole Foods to Optimize Your Health”.
- Expert Chef Demos: Edgar Edge, Food Service Director of Down to Earth Organic & Natural, demonstrating BBQ Pulled Jackfruit and Butternut Slaw; Chef Mama T. Gonsalves, Executive Chef, Umeke Market, demonstrating Beluga Lentils over Seasoned Quinoa and Kimberly Oshita, Registered Dietician, Kaiser Permanente demonstrating Three Bean Salad.
- Food Booths: Down to Earth Organic & Natural, Peace Cafe, Umeke Market, Juicy Brew, Ke Nui Kitchen, India Cafe, Il Gelato, Sky Kombucha, ‘UluMana, Counter Culture, Rice Factory, Baker Dudes, Lani Sweets&Treats, and more. On-site dining highlights: Jackfruit Carnitos Tacos, Falafel Bar with International Flavors, Spicy Veggie Sushi Burrito, Tempeh Katsu, Mock “Chicken” Caesar Salad, Mushroom Tikka Masala, Pa’i’ai, Luau Stew, Nachos with Cashew Queso and much more.
- Musicians: Mike Love: Conscious Roots Reggae and one of reggae music’s rising stars. Paul Izak: Folk, Blues, Rock, Reggae. Jamarek: World, African, Latin, Dance. Quadrophonix: World, Indian.
“VegFest Oahu serves as an important hub for the rise of the plant-based movement in Hawaii and is designed to be a bridge builder that reaches out to everyone on a journey towards improving their health and the planet,” says VegFest Oahu Producer, Joy Waters, also founder of Positive Media Hawaii. “We offer inspiration and practical tools to make following a plant-based diet easier, and are building a supportive and engaged local community. Attending VegFest Oahu can create new attitudes and be someone-you-love’s tipping point towards adopting healthier habits.”
The lead sponsor for VegFest Oahu 2017 is Down to Earth Organic & Natural.
“In Hawaii where so many residents suffer from diet-related illnesses, VegFest Oahu provides a valuable service by calling attention to how people can attain better health through eating a plant-based diet. Additionally, a plant based diet is truly environmentally friendly and reduces global warming,” said Mark Fergusson, Down to Earth’s CEO. “We are proud sponsors of VegFest Oahu and we will provide strong promotional support to help ensure its success, as well as actively participate in the event by having a booth selling delicious vegan food from our renowned deli, present a cooking demo and health talk.”
Additional local sponsors include the Blue Zones Project by Healthways brought to Hawaii by HMSA; Kaiser Permanente “thrive”; Sustain Hawaii, ’Ekahi Ornish Reversal Program; Vegetarian Society of Hawaii; Natural Awakenings Magazine and The Naughty Vegan Studio.
About VegFest Oahu
VegFest Oahu launched in 2016 as a grassroots effort organized by an all-volunteer team and sponsored by a coalition of organizations that support a healthier Hawaii. The festival is a fun-filled opportunity for the public to experience the many benefits of choosing plant-based foods to increase and maintain good health, contribute to a solution for climate change and encourage compassion for animal welfare.
VegFest Oahu strives to showcase green, sustainable living and minimize waste by: requiring vendors to refrain from using single-use plastic packaging, requiring food vendors to use 100% compostable containers for on-site dining, avoiding all sales of water in plastic bottles and instead offering a free filtered water station. Read more about these initiatives on the VegFest Blog.
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VegFest Oahu Fact Sheet
Health Care Crisis
- 2009 estimated medical care costs, direct and indirect, for obesity among adults in Hawai‘i was more than $1 billion. Without effective interventions, half of adults in Hawaii are projected to be obese by the year 2030. 1.
- One in four adults in Hawaii is obese. 2.
- Hawaii has the highest rate of diabetes in the country. Cost of diabetes was $245 billion nationwide in 2012. Lifestyle changes in diet and exercise is the best treatment and prevention. 3.
- One in three children entering kindergarten in Hawaii is already overweight or obese. 4.
- More than 36% of adolescents and 38% of adults said they ate fruit less than once a day, while 38% of adolescents and 23% of adults said they ate vegetables less than once a day. 5.
- Higher animal protein intake is associated with mortality and replacing it with plant protein would decrease risk of death. Specifically a 3% increase in plant-protein is linked to 10% decrease in overall mortality. 6.
- Meat consumption is associated with obesity. 7.
- Unhealthy diets contribute to approximately 678,000 deaths each year in the U.S., due to nutrition- and obesity-related diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes. 8.
Rise of the Plant-Based Movement – Industry Trends
- Burger King and nine other restaurant chains, plus Walmart and Sam’s Club, set a goal to transition to a 100% cage-free egg supply by 2025. 9.
- Plant-based proteins are the most important trend in tech (beating out 3D printing, self-driving cars, mobile medical data, and virtual reality). 10.
- Bill Gates invested in Beyond Meat (now releasing a vegan burger that bleeds) and Pinnacle Foods acquired Gardein Inc, a plant-based protein protein brand. 11.
- Research firm, Mintel, estimates the 2014 sales of frozen meat alternatives were $460 million. 12.
- Fashion giant, G. Armani announced his company will no longer use fur starting in Autumn 2016. 13.
- New York Times food writer Mark Bittman couldn’t tell the difference between Beyond Meat plant-protein and real chicken in a taste test. 14.
REFERENCES
- Hawaii News Now, http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/29611447/program-for-blind-supports-healthy-eating
- Hawaii News Now, http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/23224841/study-1-in-4-hawaii-adults-are-obese
- University of Hawaii John A Burns School of Medicine study, http://khon2.com/2014/07/28/hawaiis-high-rate-of-diabetes-spurs-on-medical-school-study/
- State of Hawaii, Department of Health, http://health.hawaii.gov/physical-activity-nutrition/
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. State Indicator Report on Fruits and Vegetables, 2013. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Dept. of Health and Human Services; 2013. http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/downloads/State-Indicator-Report-Fruits-Vegetables-2013.pdf.[PDF – 4.51 MB] Accessed December 23, 2013.
- Journal of American Medical Association, Internal Medicine Journal study, 2016. http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2540540
- National Institute of Health, “Meat consumption is associated with obesity”, 2009. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697260/
- 2013 Journal of the American Medical Association, U.S Burden of Disease Collaborators (Murray CJL, et al.). “The State of US Health, 1990-2010: Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors”, vol. 310, pp. s178-s179.
9. Walmart press release, 2016. http://news.walmart.com/news-archive/2016/04/05/walmart-us-announces-transition-to-cage-free-egg-supply-chain-by-2025 AND WattAgNet report. http://www.wattagnet.com/articles/25770-major-restaurant-chains-switching-to-cage-free-eggs
10. Milken Institute Global Conference, Executive Director of Google’s parent company Alphabet, 2016. http://www.organicauthority.com/vegan-meat-is-now-the-biggest-trend-in-the-tech-industry/
11. Bill Gates Notes, https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Future-of-Food AND Pinnacle press release, 2014. http://investors.pinnaclefoods.com/investor-center/news-and-events/news-releases/news-releases-details/2014/Pinnacle-Foods-Inc-to-Acquire-Garden-Protein-International-Inc/default.aspx
12. CNN Money, 2016. http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/22/news/companies/beyond-meat-plant-burger/
13. Vogue Magazine, 2016. http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2016/03/22/giorgio-armani-reports-fur-free-collections
14. New York Times, Op-Ed Column, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/finally-fake-chicken-worth-eating.html
