I came across something new and interesting—especially if you like movies (and who doesn't like movies?).

The first-ever Raw Food Film Festival will be held March 16-18th at MOA in West Hollywood, CA. Movies screenings will include:

• Breakthrough (about the Talifero family)
• Raw for 30 Days
• Not the Cooking Show
• Supercharge Me: 30 Days Raw
• Vegan 2 Raw Vegan
• Interview with Sergei Boutenko
• Living Foods
• Raising Children Raises Us
• Lelek
• Go Further

Other films will cover health topics such as natural birth, the dangers of factory farming, the pharmaceutical sales industry, and the effects of pharmaceutical drugs.

Looks like there will be speakers from various raw food restaurants, and raw vegan food for everyone. This is a unique idea.

Below you'll find a press release about the 2005 Organic Athlete Conference…

Vegan Athletes Flex Their Muscles
The OrganicAthlete Conference will highlight examples of successful vegan athletes.

In a recent interview, Olympic track star Carl Lewis, who was a vegan during his best years, says he believes that “most athletes have the worst diet in the world, and they compete in spite of it.” Members of OrganicAthlete’s “Vegan Pro-Activist” team are out to prove that a plant-based diet is the best diet for optimal health and performance, and that they can succeed at high levels in sports because they are vegan.

Many people are resistant about becoming vegan because of dietary myths like not getting enough protein, but elite vegan athletes and health professionals are participating in the 2005 OrganicAthlete Conference to dispel these myths. Scheduled for September 24th, the goal of the conference is to share information about the benefits of a plant-based diet. “At first other athletes told me I should really start eating meat,” says Brendan Brazier, a professional tri-athlete and vegan for six years. According to Brazier, those same friends now realize, based on his outstanding athletic example, that a vegan diet is optimal for high performance athletes.

The conference schedule includes talks from endurance athletes like Brazier and Christine Vardaros, a world class cyclo-cross racer, who has risen to the top of her sport as a vegan. But even in the protein-crazed sport of bodybuilding vegans are finding success. Kenneth G. Williams, a bodybuilder who placed 3rd at the 2004 Natural Olympia, and Charlie Abel, a raw vegan muscleman and personal trainer, will both speak at the event.

Leading nutritionists Dr. Doug Graham, Rozalind Gruben, Dr. Ruth Heidrich and Dr. Rick Dina will join the athletes in explaining the science of vegan nutrition. Dr. Graham, who has trained many Olympic caliber athletes, explains: “Every nutrient known to be essential for human health is available, in proper concentration, in plant foods. This is not so with animal-based foods, as there are many essential nutrients totally absent in them.”

The conference will be held at Sports Basement’s Presidio store. The $65 fee includes all educational seminars, food demos, training sessions, lunch and a gift certificate to Sports Basement. The World Vegetarian Day Celebration will be held the following day in Golden Gate Park.

More information about the OrganicAthlete conference. You can also call 707-360-8511 to find out more information about the event.

The raw food event listed below was published in The Beachcomber, a daily newspaper for Vashon Island and Maury Island in Washington (just outside of Seattle).

Enjoy Raw Food At The Village

The Village invites Islanders to join them for a raw food event at 5 p.m. Saturday, June 11. Guests should bring all the ingredients for one or two raw dishes, and then everyone will prepare the food together, share recipes and ideas about living food and then enjoy a shared meal.

The event is free to Village members. Non-members pay $2/person or $4/family. The Village is at 9412 Gorsuch Road. For more information, call Jessa Zimmerman at 567-5804.

Local Raw Food Update:

This morning, I stopped by the town farmers' market (not the one in the city) and picked up fresh, pesticide-free broccoli and sugar snap peas from the husband and wife that I met two weeks ago. The peas are great, and the broccoli goes nicely in salads. It's nice to have access to locally grown food.

Raw Food 5-Day Challenge:

Beginning on Monday, I will be participating in Frederic Patenaude's 5-day "Spring Cleanse." The guidelines of the cleanse (challenge?) are as follows…

• For 5 days, I will avoid all fats–eating nothing but fresh fruits and vegetables. "No fat" means not eating avocados, nuts, seeds, or oils.

• I will not use any condiments–just raw fruits and vegetables, eaten straight or blended in smoothies, soups, etc.

  [No problems here. I rarely ever use spices or sea salt.]

• For 5 days, I will not eat any dried fruits or dates.

[No problems here, either. I never eat dried fruit or dates. Too sugary, and dried fruit contributes to cavities and tooth decay.]

The challenge begins on Monday 5/30 and ends on Friday 6/3. Join me if you like. Simply make a comittment to the guidelines stated above.

The Raw Spirit Festival will be held during the weekend of May 20-22nd in Sedona, Arizona at Avalon Gardens (a 17-acre, organic garden farm).

The price seems reasonable ($75), and if you live close to Arizona, you should consider going. Looks like there will be some great speakers.

I would love to hear Hira Ratan Manek speak. He is a solar breatharian from India. Manek has lived on solar energy and water for 411 days while scientifically observed by medical teams.

David Wolfe and Gabriel Cousens will also be speaking. I've never been to Sedona, AZ, but it looks beautiful.

Since this blog is dedicated to everything related to raw foods, I'll start posting about upcoming raw food events…

Rawstock is an annual raw food festival that will be taking place from August 26th-29th, 2005, in Sebastopol, CA. I've never been to this festival, but supposedly, it's pretty good.

I'll sure you'll learn a lot about raw foods by attending. The entry price is $130-150, but they do offer a work/trade deal.

If you live in CA, you should look into this. At the very least, you'll be able meet other raw foodists, network, and learn new information.

I stumbled across a very interesting site about an all-raw 3,000 mile hike along the Continental Divide. The Raw Food Hike-A-Thon (created by Doug Walsh) wants to spread the message of raw food to the world and demonstrate that raw food can provide all the energy one needs for strenous activity (not to mention, just day-to-day living, which can also be pretty stressful at times).

Way to go Doug for coming up with such a unique idea to increase awareness of the benefits of raw foods. Learn more about what Doug ate on one of his past hiking trips.