Every stand-up comedian in the business knows you can get an instant laugh: just make a vegan the butt of your joke.

Every vegan kid knows he or she is not likely to get a good meat- and dairy-free meal in the school lunchroom and faces ridicule just for asking.

Vegans in some places have to buy their food by mail order or travel to other neighborhoods or towns. All this, even though we know meat is cruel, unhealthy, and a catastrophe for the environment.

And why are meat, dairy, and fish so heavily subsidized by so many governments around the world, especially in Europe and the United States?

Enter Veggie Pride Parade 2010, an event that is sure to bring meatless living and all of its issues a much-needed boost. Building on the overwhelming success of the 2008 and 2009 parades, this year's march through Greenwich Village, New York City, will be even more uplifting and spectacular than before for its participants.

Individually, one may be an animal-rights activist, another, an environmentalist, another, a person concerned with world hunger or his or her own health. But on Sunday, May 16, 2010, all will come together with one voice, one expression, of veggie pride.

Participants will be, as in past parades, encouraged to dress up in costumes and to wear sign boards announcing their pride in their vegan lifestyle. Local restaurants and vegan groups will be represented with banners and chants. PeTA's Chris P. Carrot and VivaVegie's Penelo Pea Pod, again, will lead off the parade to set the tone: Food brings joy when it is not derived from animals.

The procession will again begin, as in years past, at 12 Noon in the Olde Meat District (where 9th Avenue and Gansevoort Street intersect). It will culminate in Union Square Park (north end, across the street from Barnes & Noble) where parade marchers will be greeted by 40 exhibitors and cartloads of delicious free vegan food.

• A festival of music (Astrum Lux Lucis) and over a dozen speakers
• At 2:00 p.m., the winners of a costume contest will be announced
• Then, the "offspring" of Chris P. and Penelo Pea (children dressed as veggies and farmed animals) will be named
• NEW: An amplified "soapbox" forum will be set up at the opposite (west) end of the park for impromptu testimonials and other public address

Organizer Pamela Rice feels confident that the 2010 parade will indeed be bigger and better than in prior years. The crowds should easily reach several thousand when the parade reaches the park. Ms. Rice has said it before, but it bears repeating, "With this event people will see vegans and vegetarians come out from the shadows, once and for all."

Visit www.veggieprideparade.org for more information about every aspect of the event.