My Vegan Journey: Ray Cooper (vegan) and World Peace Chocolate

On today’s show, we meet Mr. Ray Cooper, an American vegan advocate and founder of the World Peace Vegan Chocolate campaign. He shares his story of being an activist and his unique way of promoting veganism. “We had backyard chickens, and they became pets. And so, after a while, I had an epiphany that I couldn't eat my chickens and love my chickens at the same time. And so, I decided to stop eating meat right then and there. So, I was a vegetarian for three years. And then I decided to become vegan after getting to know some vegan folks.”

After experiencing the fantastic benefits of the vegan diet, Mr. Cooper became a faithful vegan activist. “I do a lot of hiking, and I'm really in touch with how much energy I have. And when I dropped the dairy back about eight years ago, I had an incredible burst of energy. And I hiked a thousand miles (~1609 km) across Britain when I was 57. There's no question that I have way more energy on a vegan diet than I did when I was eating dairy. Dairy, I think, was the worst.”

Mr. Cooper brings along with him what he calls the World Peace Vegan Chocolate bar to run his advocacy. “The chocolate, it's actually a gift of vegan food as a prosperous message. And then that gives me the inroad to bring up the subject of veganism. In that short period of time that I have to talk to that person, I'm going to give them a gift, and it's going to be about animals. It's going to be about veganism, but it's going to be also packaged in a nice gift, and it's not going to make them feel uncomfortable.”

Mr. Cooper gives all the profits generated from selling World Peace Chocolate back to vegan advocacy. Mr. Cooper believes that animal-people are the moral agents of Earth, who stay to help humanity ascend to higher planes of existence. If we learn to live peacefully with them and cease their exploitation, they could help anchor us while we go through this transformation.