“There are 52 weeks in a year, so why not make at least one of them meat-free?”

Now in its 5th year, that’s the premise behind VegWeek, a “7-day celebration highlighting the many benefits of choosing vegetarian foods — for our health, the planet, and animals.”

It was launched by Compassion Over Killing, a nonprofit animal advocacy organization working to end animal abuse and promote veganism. Compassion Over Killing sees this as a “fun way to discover new and delicious meat-free meals.” But even if your city isn’t sponsoring an event, you can still celebrate and explore by cooking vegetarian meals from cookbooks or blogs, eat at a vegan or vegetarian restaurant, or watch documentaries like Forks Over Knives or Vegucated on veg living.

All week-long, there are events and participating restaurants in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

And my fellow Bostonians, Peter Singer will be speaking about animal liberation on Friday night at Boston University (Morse Auditorium) from 7:30-9pm. There will also be a screening of Vegucated at Smith College in Northampton  on Sunday night (oh Western Mass…my old stomping grounds!).

If you eat meat, pledge to go vegetarian. Already vegetarian? Go vegan for the week. Going veg helps animals, your health and the planet.

Americans consume 10 billion animals a year. Our food choices matter. We as consumers wield an enormous amount of power. So reducing the amount of meat you eat, even for a day or a week, impacts your health, the food industry, animals and the environment in a beneficial way. Eating vegetarian or vegan also makes us more aware of what we consume and put in our bodies.

But even if you eliminate animal products for 1 to 2 days a week, according to FARM you can:

• Spare 28 animals a year
• Preserves 770 square ft. of rainforest a year
• Saves 190,000 gallons of water a year

I’ve been a long-time fan of Meatless Mondays. Many people find overhauling their dietary lifestyle daunting. Or maybe they want to eat veg but don’t think they can have a great meal without meat. But Meatless Mondays and VegWeek allow people to try out vegetarian meals. People can “flirt” with vegetarianism or “lean into” it as vegan celeb Alicia Silverstone and vegan author Kathy Freston call it, without a huge commitment.

Need some tips to get you started?? Check out:

• 10 Tips for Going Vegetarian or Vegan

• Our Hen House’s Jasmin Singer & Mariann Sullivan at The Seed — Think Vegan: 10 Tips to Get You Started

• Stocking the Vegan Pantry

• 10 Myths about Vegans

If you sign up for the Veg Pledge, who knows? Maybe if you eat vegetarian or vegan for a week, you might extend it to another week and another. You just might feel so good you want to keep going.

Have you pledged to go veg?? Tell me how it’s going!