Patti Breitman is an advocate for animals and health, a writer and expert public speaker. She is a former food columnist for VegNews magazine and teaches cooking classes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives. Patti is the director of The Marin Vegetarian Education Group (www.MarinVEG.org), a project of VegNews network.  She is the author (with Connie Hatch) of How to Say No without Feeling Guilty, and (with Carol J. Adams) of  How to Eat like a Vegetarian Even If You Never Want to Be One.