A Winning Message, and A Look Back

How we can expand our plant-based message, with 2025 reflections from Kim

I hope your new year is getting off to a great start. I look forward to sharing a few more thoughts on the plant-based movement in this newsletter, and you’ll also hear more from Kim, who will share some thoughts about the year that just passed. Below that is her recipe for the week.

This will be my last newsletter for a while focusing on nutrition. I’ve decided to expand my focus in 2026 in an exciting direction, which I’ll explain further in my next newsletter. For now, I’d like to return to the topic I started discussing last week—our movement’s messaging.

For most of our movement’s history, we have focused our message on the health benefits of plant-based nutrition. This was a good place to start, but I think it’s obvious now that this message is not enough to prompt the transformative movement required for building a plant-based world. (See my prior article titled, “Why Our Plant-Based Movement is Dying, and How to Bring It Back.”)

The reason can be found in the statistics we’ve seen in all of our work, including this publication. We have found over the years that women are more likely to proactively seek out health information, and that older people have greater concern for their health than their younger counterparts. These observations are also reflected in the reader surveys for this publication. Our surveys suggest that nearly 85-90% of our readers are women, and nearly three-quarters are aged 65 and up. Nearly 95% are aged 55 and up.

Kim and I love working with with folks who are seeking ways to improve their health. But if we are going to launch a transformative movement, we need to engage a more diverse group, and I think young people are especially important to our success.

As I have shared before, my father and I coauthored a book called “The Whole Truth” (slated for publication in June), and in this book, I talk in my section about the need to expand our message. Here is what I wrote about the role of young people in our movement:

Kim and I just welcomed our first grandchild, a beautiful boy. When we look into his eyes, we see innocence, manifested in his ability to see the world as it is, without bias. He spends all day exploring, in a constant state of wonder. Kim and I relish our time with him and think often about what his life will be like in the decades ahead. This motivates us to renew our efforts to live our lives with purpose, doing whatever we can to bring more healing into our world.

The innocence we see in the eyes of our grandson is a gift we all share early in life, but one we start to lose with the passage of time and the accumulation of experience. Fortunately, however, we retain some of this perspective into early adulthood, as the innocence of our childhood morphs into a more informed idealism. This more idealistic perspective is what I love about young people, who as a group often express great concern about social inequities, the lives of animals, and the state of our environment. They may not have the health concerns of older generations, but they often care deeply about these other issues.

Young people also have energy. As an older person, I can attest to the fact that life can wear you down. In our early years, we begin with a deep reservoir of energy, which combined with a more idealistic perspective, can motivate us to pursue bigger ideas for remaking our society. This is why young people are critical to the success of any mass movement, and why we must expand our plant-based message beyond health.

To engage young people, and to engage many other older folks, I believe we need to expand our message to address concerns about health inequities, animals, and the environment. I also think there is great opportunity in building an argument that would appeal to the faith community. All of this can be wrapped together in a coherent way via a more foundational message of building a kinder and more connected world—a message that should be communicated humbly and without judgment to help open peoples’ eyes to larger truths. Some of the tactics used to promote awareness of animal suffering and the degradation of our environment have been, in my view, too harsh. I think we always need to think about how to talk in a way that does not make other people defensive, because when this happens, the doors to larger understandings quickly shut.

With a more expanded and resonant message, I think we would have a better opportunity to win over more hearts and minds, and especially if we use strategies that empower leaders in local communities to help share this message. This is another whole topic I address in my section of The Whole Truth, and one that I’ll delve into in later issues when I talk about the idea of political wholism, and a related strategy for resolving partisan differences around a radically different, more transformative, bottom-up approach to resolving our problems.

I’ll stop here and hand over the rest of this newsletter to Kim, who will share her own thoughts about 2025 and another weekly recipe. I look forward to starting my new series of articles next week.

Until then,

Nelson

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Reflections on 2025, by Kim Campbell

Sometimes it feels like good therapy to slow down, look back on the year, and acknowledge the gifts we were given. Sometimes gifts don’t always appear as such on the front end, but with the passage of time, many of the challenges we face yield something positive if we are able to persist. I think I would put our recent moves into this category.

Moving

We moved over two years ago into the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina so we could host immersion retreats. We first moved to a location near an established conference center, then to our current location. Our last move happened in the middle of a last year’s very cold winter, which was probably the worst time of the year for a move. The first weeks were spent sorting, packing, unpacking, and moving furniture, all the while thinking about how we could downscale in the future.

Moving is not for the weak. We felt aches and pains that lingered longer than they used to, but we got through it and have made some wonderful friends here in Saluda.

Retreats

We hosted four retreats this past year, along with an anniversary weekend for friends. It was hard work and deeply meaningful. Nearly sixty beautiful people came through Saluda, and our experiences with them put fresh wind in our sails. While food, nutrition, and wellness brought us together, the conversations went far beyond the kitchen. I truly consider each person who came a friend and am so grateful for this opportunity to meet so many interesting people.

Cookbooks and Books

This year Nelson co-authored a book, The Whole Truth, with his father. He worked harder on it than he had expected, and as of today, it’s now in the publisher’s hands.

While he was writing, I returned to my creative side and started developing more recipes. Substack has become a meaningful place for us to share ideas, stories, and lessons gained from our long journey, along with new food concepts I’ve developed in my kitchen. I once promised myself I would never write another full cookbook, but I love producing these shorter e-books each month. January marks my third e-book, and my intention is to continue sharing 5-8 tested, delicious, healthy, and fun recipes each month. I may also throw in from time to time an old recipe that has proven to be popular and fits the theme of that month, but you’ll always have 5-8 new ones.

Videos and Happiness

I stepped away from cooking videos this year while we focused on moving, getting settled in, and our retreats. Nelson and I have been thinking about getting back into producing some video content, so we might have more to share about this later in the year.

For me, happiness is about becoming more present and worrying less about what I cannot change. Stress and anxiety have been long-time companions, but I am learning to set better boundaries with them. My hope for the year ahead is to move more, breathe more, pray and meditate daily, and enjoy the people and community around me right now.

Happy New Year, friends. I am so grateful you are here and look forward to staying connected throughout the year. Below is this week’s recipe.

Kim

Thai Tofu Wraps

These Thai-inspired tofu wraps are fresh, creamy, and full of bright flavor. Extra-firm tofu is gently crumbled and tossed with peanut butter, lime, and a touch of heat, then folded into whole-wheat wraps with crunchy vegetables. No cooking is required, making this an easy, satisfying lunch or light dinner that comes together in minutes.

Link to the recipe: https://plantpurecommunities.org/recipes/thai-tofu-wraps/