UNSOLICITED LETTERS
FROM READERS OF DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA

John Robbins has received more than 80,000 letters from readers of Diet For A New America. In an attempt to convey the nature of the extraordinary response generated by Diet For A New America, the following is a collection taken from these letters. The list could easily have been hundreds of times as long:

"To say I felt touched by your book, Diet For A New America, would be an understatement. It evoked every emotion I possess... Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing this book and for caring for more than just yourself." (Elaine Mullo, Van Nuys, CA)

"I am more than touched by Diet For A New America...I can't stop talking about it. I can't stop being angry. I can't stop crying. Thank God for this book." (Nonni Casino, Plain City, Ohio)

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, for this beautiful, brilliant, helpful, loving book. I agree totally with the reviews that call this the most important book for our time. It is the key for the preservation of Life on Planet Earth and for the restoration of health and joy and beauty... Your personal story is an inspiration. You have been called out to bring a message of love and compassion and sanity that will help humanity to save itself from the pathway of self-destruction that it is now on... I pledge my support to you, and to distributing huindreds of your books... I will review your book from the platform to my congregation and make this recommended reading for everyone..." (Carolyn Michael, Minister, Long Island, NY)

"I have read with great adoration the work Diet For A New America. It is the most important book of my life. Congratulations to you, Mr. Robbins, and may God Bless You." (V.V. Gokhale, Sunnyvale, CA)

"I read Diet For A New America and was deeply touched." (Bill Kuhn, Marquette, MI)

"Let me say that I cannot remember when I have read a book which has more inspired, informed, moved and changed me than Diet For A New America. Here at SAVE, we would like to have Diet For A New America surgically implanted in everybody's brain." (Joe Higginbotham, SAVE, St. Albans, WV)

"I am a social studies teacher in a wealthy suburban community in upper New York State. Never has any book, including Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, ever affected me as has your Diet For A New America... I believe that if every American read your book, or in some other way became aware of your message, the world would change in so many positive ways." (Anthony Santo, Jr., Schenectady, NY)

"I purchased your book Diet For A New America in April. I can assure you it has changed my lifestyle completely... Not only do I feel wonderful, both physically and emotionally, but I am gradually losing the weight I need to lose, all without working at it or starving. I have manged to guide several people to your book...I could write pages about the changes in my life that have occurred since I read your book, but the purpose of my letter is to reassure you that you ARE making an impact, probably more of one than you'll ever be aware. Thank you." (Ellen Lockwood, Houston, TX)

"How can I read Diet For A New America and not be moved by the ethics and politics of eating? Thank you, John Robbins." (Elly O'Connor, Queens, NY)

"I just read Diet For A New America and felt I had to respond and thank you for enlightening me to so many things I have been so ignorant about. Your book is a beacon of information about nutrition and the mistreatment of livestock and the environment. Its light has already changed my eating habits and that of our family. My wife was also moved by the book. It has been a primary topic of conversation with friends and family for the past couple weeks. I've already given fives copies to friends as my first step in contributing to a more humane (is there a counterpart to that word as it applies to animals?) treatment of animals raised for food." (Jon Marquardt, Sacramento, CA)

"I want to thank you for the sacrifices you have made and the risks you are taking with your life. You have inspired me and helped with my personal empowerment to do and to stand up for those beings that can't speak our language. I am doing more... It is an excellent, sweeping and pointed work... I have bought 6 copies. Inside the front cover of the books I havd written this: 'The message of this book is ultimately one of hope. I have faith that you will read this, benefit from it, and pass it on so that others may share it. This book is not meant to be shelved. Its message should be shared. If you choose not to read this, please give it to someone who will.' (Becky Weheless, Seattle, WA)

"I was very touched by the message of Diet For A New America. All of my life I have been a lover of animals, appreciated the beauty of our earth and never consciously polluted my surroundings. I cried throughout Part One and as I read further I had an awakening... Thank you from the bottom of my heart." (Margaret Lunzman, Stockholm, NJ)

"I have just finished reading Diet For A New America and the impact was immense. Thank you for making me aware of so much and my personal impact on the very fragile earth." (R. Strull, Stateline, NY)

"I have always been very interested in environmental conditions. Upon reading Diet For A New America, I have realized that it is time to take an active role in preserving our earth and all forms of life." (Peg Callaghan, Torrance, CA)

"I have just finished a first reading of your book Diet For A New America and feel such a wide range of emotions that the only reasonable thing for me to do at this time is to express my deep appreciation for this great undertaking. The book is extremely well written and serves its function of informing us of the consequences of our food choices extremely well. All of the information is so valuable for so many reasons and in so many ways!" (Karine Herring, Carnation, WA)

"I have just completed reading your book Diet For A New America. I can't beging to tell you how deeply it has touched my life." (Bettie Gaylor, Astoria, NY)

"Diet For A New America has changed my whole attitude on many things... Thank you for writing this book and for caring. One person can make a difference in this world and I would like to help in any way that I can." (Carol Clark, Chicago, IL)

"After reading Diet For A New America it has changed my whole purpose of life. Please send me information on how I can order cases of this astoundingly useful book." (Mahn-Chi Foung, Santa Fe, NM)

"It's 11:30 PM and I am almost done with your book Diet For A New America... Your willingness to forego denial has changed my life. I am currently serving a fulltime mission for my church in North Carolina.. I love you for your courage. Thank you, thank you, thank you." (Laura, Raleigh, NC)

"Your Diet For A New America is one of the most powerful book I 've ever read. I have given away many copies and told scores of people about your wonderful work." (Paty House, Elizabethon, TN)

"I have just finished reading Diet For A New America. My life has been changed... We need help to save our earth, ourselves and our children... Consider me a footsoldier to help spread the word." (Paula Hoiland, West Linn, OR)

"Since I finished reading Diet For A New America, I have been unable to go passively on my way knowing all that I now do. I must help make a change! I have given away 15 copies of your book, and will continue to do so." (Laura Hasler, San Francisco, CA)

"I have just finished reading Diet For A New America. It is indeed a briliant piece of work. I am a teacher in a high school... I was thrilled by the information, and the way the book was written. It is, by far, the finest book printed in modern times." (Marg Dowling-McGrath, Sandwich, MA)

"I really wish I had words to describe the transformation I've undergone since first assimilating your tour-de-force, Diet For A New America...It confirmed everything my own body and psyche were telling me! It is a masterwork! I'm recommending it to everyone I care about. I recently published my first book, but Diet For A New America is what I'm telling people about." (Michael Belonghie, La Puente, CA)

"I've never written an author before, but I simply have to tell you how grateful I am for Diet For A New America. It was given to me "free" from someone committed to passing the message. I was extremely skeptical, but what an extraordinary argument you have made. Am I convinced? Let's put it this way. I want to order 50 books from you, and give them away to everyone I know." (Kealy Chandler, Tucscon AZ)

"I would like 100 copies of your astounding book, as I feel compelled to share this lifesaving message with everyone I know. Thank God for you and your work." (Shirley Rose, Los Angeles, CA)

"I have told all my children that if I give them no other gift in this life, if they read and understand and take heed of Diet For A New America, I will be at peace." (Julie Hainsworth, Detroit, MI)

Dear Mr. Robbins

I began reading your Diet For a New America on May 10, 2001. I have not eaten flesh since lunch the next day. I am a 50 yr. old woman, and I must say yours is one of two books that have, immediately upon reading, profoundly changed my life - at the behavior level. The other is The Seven Spiritual Laws for Success by Depak Chopra. And as I've talked to you mentally the past two weeks, and I've said I don't know how to thank you, I've heard your kind voice telling me that I did know. And I do. And I will. And I am. I am making a living amends by making new conscious food choices, and by being armed with the truth should anyone in my circle wish inquire about my changes.

I must say that this book was a difficult read, to say the least. I was angry, edgy, and I screamed and cried. So much of my family's pathology suddenly made sense. My early sexual development, my mother's osteoporosis, my daughter's high serum cholesterol level, my food cravings and lifelong struggle with obesity all can be related to our high meat consumption. By the way, in only two weeks, I'm feeling lighter, clearer mentally, have no more food cravings, I stand up straighter, and I've lost 6 pounds.

Recently, I've been blaming much of society's ills on the distance we now live "from the soil." I talked around it, but had no idea how far from the "soil" my own life was as a retail meat consumer in America. And it makes me cringe to think of what our charitable WIC program does to underprivileged kids when we fill them and their pregnant moms with saturated fats from dairy products a large percent of our population can't digest properly to begin with.

And you were right on when you said that we all shared a lingering sense of guilt over our meat laden diets. I recall my own denial a few months ago when I told my mom that I was in the mood for lobster, but I just didn't like being "that close to the killing" as to pick one out and have it steamed in the grocery store for me. I chose some "already killed" shrimp instead. I think killing the lobster in the store would have been more honorable than what I did, somehow thinking I was not culpable if I didn't see it happen.

My 78 yr. old mother sent me the book, by the way. She and my 82 year old Dad are changing their eating, too. And I will pass this on to my daughter. One woman at work has already asked to read it.

Thank you for your patient and understanding attitude about everyone's right to be where they are on this issue. I would get all charged up and angry as I read the truth, and then you spoke with such love and understanding, of the individuals from the end consumer all the way back to the meat producers. And I have to do the same with myself. I didn't know. I just simply didn't know. And my heart is broken when I pause to imagine what just my own extravagant and unlimited consumption habit has done to other lives. But now that I know, I have a responsibility. I will no longer consume more than I need to live. I can no longer eat meat when it costs what it does in terms of others' hunger, lives, habitat, rain forests, natural resources including water and nonrenewable energy resources, increased incidents of drug resistant disease exposure, and the cruelty to and suffering of truly tortured animals.

One thing that really sobered me, as if the entire book up to the end was not enough, was that legislation was passed in Texas that makes it against the law to publicly criticize the beef industry!? Gee, I thought I had some freedom of speech in this country. I would like to know more about this.

Oh, and I appreciate the literature that comes with EarthSave's VegPledge. I wish I'd had it a couple weeks ago when I started eating differently. I was totally unprepared for how threatened and offensive others would be by my making a change for myself. I just passed on meat... sort of quietly... and got lots of negative comments from my normally passive friends. Was actually pretty amazing. Why do we so fiercely defend our lifestyles if we do not know at some level that what we are doing is against our true natures?

I thank you for the information about how advertisers tell us what we need and how we buy into it. I've been disgusted with all ads since reading your book. A new one is of a couple of men peeking into a window... looks like they are there to see their new babies, but they are cooing about meat from Tom Thumb. How cute & pink it is. How disgusting it really is. And how I resent the sabotage and lies by the meat industry! There are meat ads everywhere! I had never noticed before. And ads for 49 cent hamburgers! If only everyone knew what they really cost.

Enough of preaching to the choir. I do have a funny for you. I have two 7 yr. old cats I adopted when they were 4. They have never been lap cats. One of them will sleep at my feet, but that is usually it. Since I began reading this book, Rusty has been right up in my face. He sleeps by my face. He was there with me when I was sobbing after a heartbreaking pig story. He clung to me, actually, the whole time I read this book, and both have been climbing a bit on me. My mother thinks I may smell different now that I'm not eating meat. She said some Eastern people have commented that those on Western meat diets smell offensive to them. Have you had any others whose animals have reacted differently after their diets changed? Could be smell, or could be he was sensitive to my emotionally intense catharsis. I did find it curious, though.

In summary, I thank you for the gift of your book, for the information and the gentle way you tell it like it is in a framework that allows us to embrace it with a minimum of shame or self blame for where we have been. I've heard from one family member, "But you haven't checked out the references. You have only heard one side." On the contrary, there is nothing to check out. I've heard the "other side" my entire life, but the veil has now been lifted. I am no longer a "Stepford Wife" of the meat industry. And there is something powerful and calming that resonates deep in the gut when in the presence of truth. I have absolutely no question about anything you have shared. Our only hope as a planet is that one by one, we are changing.

I thank you most for giving me the information I need to live a more honorable life.

Sincerely,

Carol B. Carter Lake Dallas, Tx