Vegetarian Star

Photo: Phil Cavali

Leilani Munter is an environmentalist and race car driver who races in both Indy Lights, the development league of IndyCar and ARCA, a development league of NASCAR.

Is anyone else in your family vegetarian?
As far as family members go, I have two vegetarian nieces right now. All three of my sisters have at one time been vegetarian and my sister Natascha was vegetarian throughout both of her pregnancies and during breastfeeding, which is interesting, because those are my two nieces that are now vegetarians. She told me that she had read that whatever you feed a child from zero to three is what they will crave for life. So she did not feed them meat and both of them are vegetarian by their own choice. Also, when I was a child, I never craved sweets, my mother told me that I always would refuse cookies and ask for parsley instead and to this day, I don’t crave sweet foods.

Is Craig (Leilani’s husband) vegetarian too? Did you have any eco features about the wedding?
Craig is not [completely] vegetarian but I would say he is about 95% vegetarian now. I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw him eat meat and we never, ever bring meat into our house. We had a small seaside wedding in New Zealand (where Craig is from) and we had an eco conscious cruelty free vegetarian meal. Our wedding invitations were printed by Green Field Paper on tree free paper that you can plant and wildflowers will grow!

You volunteered at a wildlife rescue and rehab center in college. What were some of the best parts about working with these injured animals?
The best part was when we were able to release them back into the wild, where they belong. Nothing is more magical than giving an animal its freedom. It is a truly beautiful moment.

In the future, do you see yourself being just as active and public with vegetarianism as you are with environmental issues?
Yes, I definitely would like to be just as active with promoting vegetarianism as I am with speaking out about environmental issues. They go hand in hand. [When] I give speeches on a regular basis, I am often discussing the environment and I always talk about the fact that the meat industry contributes more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere than all the planes, trains, cars, trucks, ships, and all other forms of fossil fuel based transportation in the world. Besides the obvious animal cruelty issues, going vegetarian can do wonders for our environment and for world hunger. Vegetarianism is one of the most important issues that is not talked about nearly enough. We hear a lot about alternative fuels and clean energy, but we need to be talking a lot more about our meat consumption. I know that it’s not realistic to think everyone in the world is going to become vegetarian, but if everyone could just start by reducing the amount of meat they consume, it would change the world for the better.

Learn about Leilani’s Eco-Dream team and her love for cooking with fake meats after the jump…

Food Voyeurism
I cook a lot with meat substitutes; if you look in my kitchen you will see vegetarian sausage links, vegetarian bacon, vegetarian chicken nuggets, vegetarian cold cuts, vegetarian corn dogs, vegetarian chicken filets, etc! I have turned lots of my meat eating friends onto these products as well. People are often very surprised by the meat substitutes and sometimes don’t realize they are not eating meat! I make a lot of salads as well. I love cooking!

Are there any vegetarian celebrities you admire? 
I’m not sure if Leonardo DiCaprio is vegetarian or not, but I admire all the fantastic work he is doing for the environment. If you haven’t seen his movie The 11th Hour yet, you should!

Last time I heard, you were in the process of assembling your “Eco-Dream Team,” and looking for companies to sponsor your car in each race and display environmentally aware advertising on the car. You also wanted to set up booths at the track so spectators could become more informed about being green. How’s that coming along in terms of companies signing up? What have been people’s reactions so far?
We are still in the phase of signing partners, but there has been a lot of interest from some fantastic companies so I am excited about the possibilities. I think since it is a very new concept that has never been done before, it will take some time to develop the project but once it’s up and running, I think it is going to be amazing.

I’ve read you have a cat named Pushkin. My cat loves carbs and any pizza crusts, crackers, bread, etc. I have to fight her for. Does Pushkin have any favorite veg human foods?
For some reason my cat has never liked human food. It’s not that I haven’t offered, but she makes it very clear that she has no interest!

What you feed a child from zero to three it craves for life? Yikes! Gotta relay that message to all these celebrity women who start craving (and giving into) meat during pregnancy. They’re scarring the children forever!

Possibly Related Posts:

• Meatless Mouthful–Stevie Wonder Says Vegan Helps His Good Looks And Planet
• Pamela Anderson Saves Water Alfred Hitchcock Way In PETA Ad
• Best Vegetarian Stories Of 2014
• Marco Antonio Regil Interview With Vegetarian Star–Part 2
• Marco Antonio Regil Interview With Vegetarian Star–Part 1