It's time to help PETA select the "Sexiest Vegan Next Door" for 2013. Unlike that other annual sexy competition, the entrants in this contest aren't stars—although they definitely include some heavenly bodies,showing the world the health advantages of a vegan diet in the flesh.

And what's sexier than someone who not only cares about animals and the environment but also takes action to protect both of them?

So be sure to cast your vote today—and then come back on April 15 to help choose your favorites from the finalists! (And if you want to get ready to take part in the 2014 contest, here's how to go vegan in three simple steps.) 

PETA will consider three factors in selecting finalists and winners: votes, enthusiasm and attractiveness. Read the contest details for more info.

Musician and songwriter Russ Irwin clearly has talent to spare—in addition to his years as a keyboardist and backing vocalist with Aerosmith (and cowriting the band's 2012 hit, "What Could Have Been Love"), he has performed with many of music's leading acts, including Sting, Cheap Trick, and PETA fave Bryan Adams. 

Now, in an exclusive new video for PETA, Russ shows that he has plenty of heart and soul to match his musical skills as he relates how he chose to go vegan out of concern for animals, his health, and the environment: 

Russ' new solo album is titled Get Me Home—and you can bring home some of his style of compassion with your own free vegetarian/vegan starter kit from PETA.

Team PETA does it again! After losing last year by a scant half a point, PETA has reclaimed the crown in the Sixth Annual GlobalBee International Quiz trivia challenge sponsored by the Sister Cities of Newport News. Team PETA blew away the competition—which consisted of a field of 16 teams representing Hampton Roads–area colleges, high schools, civic groups, and other organizations—besting the second-place team by a comfortable margin of 13 points.

Team PETA members Emily Bowling, Chris Holbein, Hannah Schein, and Lauren Stroyeck aced the diverse topics, which included geography, cultural traditions, current affairs, and science. The team walked away with a handsome trophy, which will be engraved with Team PETA's name and kept proudly for a year.

Holbein attributes the team's success to its members' self-described status as news junkies but also gives a nod to their healthy vegan diets, which he says helps keep their arteries clear and their wits razor sharp.

Are vegetarians really smarter? According to a 2012 analysis of nine studies, eating lots of vegetables is associated with a lower risk of dementia and age-related cognitive decline. And a study by Southampton University linked a high IQ with being vegetarian after finding that schoolchildren who tested high on IQ tests were more likely to become vegetarian later in life.

Want to protect your health, animals, and the environment all at the same time? It's a no-brainer—go vegan. 

Are you still trying to cool off from the scorcher that was 2012? Scientists report that it was the hottest year on record for the U.S.—but instead of blaming Mother Nature, we can point the finger at ourselves. "It is abundantly clear that we are seeing [human-caused] climate change in action," according to Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

So PETA sent the greenest gals we know on a jaunt across Canada to show people how easy it is to go green—no bodypaint required. Since carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide together are the biggest contributors to climate change and raising animals for food is one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions and the single largest source of both methane and nitrous oxide emissions, going vegan has been called the "single most effective thing you can do" to combat climate change. 

People eagerly posed for pictures with the lime ladies, and they took home PETA's "Meat's Not Green" leaflets and copies of legendary animal and environmental advocate Paul McCartney's meat industry exposé, "Glass Walls." 

By simply opting for faux meats and dairy products over animal-based ones, we can make 2013 a lucky year for animals and help reduce climate change. And that's pretty cool.

After Canada's House of Commons passed a budget bill that strikes down several environmental protection laws, PETA's blue-painted supporters hit Ottawa's Parliament Hill to rock the government's world—almost literally—and to urge eco-conscious Canadians not to despair because they can still help save the planet by eating plant-based foods.

According to the United Nations, the meat industry is in large part responsible for some of the most serious environmental problems that we face today, including climate change. So even if you aren't daring enough to strip down to bodypaint (although if you are, let PETA know), don't feel blue—you can still help protect the Earth by choosing healthy, humane vegan meals.

In 2008, when PETA offered a $1 million incentive to anyone who could develop a marketable in vitro (lab-grown) meat, there were some who scoffed. Since then, research into in vitro meat has exploded—the  research, that is, not the labs—and the idea (along with PETA's offer) has shown up in The New Yorker and on TV shows ranging from Better Off Ted (R.I.P., Veridian Dynamics) to The Colbert Report.

Who's laughing now?

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Though no one has yet stepped up to claim the prize by the June 30, 2012, closing date, there has been so much encouraging progress that PETA has decided to extend the deadline until 2013. Several scientists appear to be getting close—the University of Missouri (Go, Tigers!) is a hotbed for in vitro meat research, for some reason—but if you think you can close the gap, get crackin'!

Even if you don't know a test tube from a champagne flute, you can help animals, your health, and the environment today by enjoying any of the delish vegan meats—from veggie burgers to faux hot dogs to chick'n nuggets—already in your grocer's freezer case. View or order PETA's free starter kit to learn more about meatless living!

Today marks the 42nd anniversary of Earth Day. To celebrate, PETA presents the top 10 surprising ways that helping save the planet saves animals, too:

10) Reduce companion animal overpopulation.

Most of the puppies that pet stores sell are trucked or flown hundreds of miles from puppy mills, creating a Great Dane–sized carbon pawprint. But animal shelters in every city are full of locally grown companion animals you can tuck into your Smart car before taking the short drive home.



9)   Sea yourself away from water pollution.

SeaWorld isn't just hard on orcas—it's also hard on the environment. The marine park was in a fine mess after it got hit with a fine for messing up San Diego's Mission Bay after violating effluent limitations numerous times.

8)   Make like Miss Piggy and love a frog.

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Ecosystems are being decimated by biological supply houses that catch huge numbers of frogs to be dissected. If you're a student or parent, urge your local school district to switch to a virtual dissection program instead. 

7)   Talk about the elephant in the room.

Ringling logs more than 25,000 miles every year dragging animals across the country chained in boxcars and trucks. Don't give the "cruelest show on Earth" your green until it goes green and retires its animals to sanctuaries.

6)   Make the skies friendlier.

Primates are torn away from their jungle homes and flown to the U.S. from as far away as China, Cambodia, and Indonesia to be used in experiments. Ask the few airlines that still transport primates to laboratories to stop—for animals and the planet.

5)   Be green, not mean.

We know that only mean people wear fur, and only ungreen people wear the toxic soup of chemicals that it takes to keep the fur from rotting off their backs—chemicals such as ammonia, formaldehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and chromates.

4)   Be good to your body: Be good to a bunny.

There are so many luscious body-care product lines out now that are made without harsh chemicals and without harsh animal tests that it's easier than ever to be a green goddess. Check out PETA's shopping guide for a list of cruelty-free companies. 

3)   Lime sludge and sulfides are not sexy.

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Neither are the other chemicals you'll find en masse at leather tanneries, such as formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and cyanide-based finishes. Wearing dried-up animal skin is all dried up.

2)   Take a shower. Please.

Meat production requires so much water that you save more water by not eating one 16-ounce steak than you do by not showering for six months. So by going vegan, you can help save the Earth and keep it a pleasant-smelling place.

1)   Pop open a cold one.

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Now that you've saved the Earth and animals, relax with a beer. If you recall PETA's notorious "Got Beer?" campaign, you know this beverage choice won't contribute to the massive climate change, exploitation of resources, and water and air pollution that the dairy industry is responsible for.

Spread the green! Share this post on social-networking sites and help other aspiring environmentalists go green for animals' sake.

The Lorax is what? The Lorax is whose?

The Lorax is property of late Dr. Seuss!

Yes, he is the Lorax who speaks for the trees,

Which factory farms will chop down as they please.

Now someone has taken the Lorax away

From the doctor's dear widow, or so people say.

OK, it's a statue—though that hardly counts

Since our planet still suffers in massive amounts.

The Lorax may speak for the truffula trees,

But the Amazon basin plants—who speaks for these?

It's meat and it's dairy—it's honey and eggs,

While the Earth hardly stands on its last pair of legs.

Buckets of chicken are bad like those big SUVs;

No cutlet's as lovely as truffula trees.

No more should the wild plants all be cut down

When tofu's available all over town.

So PETA has offered a bird figurine

To stand in for the Lorax, who's so pure and so "green."

We hope Mrs. Geisel will take in our bust,

Before piglets and chickens all crumble to dust.

For he is the Lorax—he'll yell and he'll shout

'Til all Earth's animals will run out.

You want to be friends with the air, Earth, and water?

Then simply go vegan—with son and with daughter.

P.S. For another take on Dr. Seuss and vegan living, check this out.

Do you know what you're seeing when you look at seafood? It seems that most of us don't. When Consumer Reports tested 190 different samples of fish from restaurants and stores, they found that more than 20 percent were being marketed as something other than what they actually were. A similar investigation by the Boston Globe found that as much as 48 percent of fish flesh is mislabeled.

The findings will no doubt dismay people who try to buy only species of fish that they think are sustainable. But "sustainable" is simply a marketing buzzword that the seafood industry likes to use. Eating any fish at all contributes to the decimation of the ocean's ecosystem.

© Alaska Fisheries Science Center

The massive nets and long-lines used by factory fishing trawlers are indiscriminate in what types of fish they catch, and fishers simply toss overboard the dead or dying dolphins, sea turtles, and other "bycatch" they don't want. Farmed fish such as salmon and sea bass are often carnivorous, so many pounds of wild fish must be caught to feed those on farms.

Whether the label on the package matches the fish under the cellophane, one thing we can be sure of is that the flesh we are eating came from an intelligent animal with a unique personality who did not want to be gutted alive or suffocated. If we can eat faux fish, such as Vegieworld's codfish, salmon, shrimp, and tuna, that tastes the same, is free of harmful toxins like mercury and PCBs, and doesn't claim any animals' lives, why not?

Written by Michelle Sherrow

I'm such a map geek that I study the road atlas for fun. But I was equal parts intrigued and disturbed by the latest map that I laid eyes on: Food & Water Watch's Factory Farm Map. This interactive online map shows which areas of the U.S. have the most animal factories, and it also allows you to filter the results by the types of animals who are raised and killed for their flesh, milk, or eggs.

Wherever they are, factory farms lead to animal suffering, environmental destruction, and a lower quality of life for everyone. We can help keep factory farms out of our communities by showing our friends and families the many benefits of going vegan and why everyone would be vegetarian if slaughterhouses had glass walls.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post