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On Monday, for the first time ever, Windsor Castle will host a vegan royal banquet. Take a moment to let that sink in. Windsor Castle has existed for 900 years, and it's just now getting around to throwing a vegan shindig. Oh, well. Better late than never.

Do we have leading U.K. climate-change expert Lord Stern to thank for this momentous occasion? Perhaps indirectly, but the true pioneer here is none other than Prince Philip (for you folks in the most far-flung colonies, he's the guy played by James Cromwell in The Queen).

Prince Philip's Alliance of Religions and Conservation is hosting a three-day interfaith conference at Windsor called "Many Heavens, One Earth: Faith Commitments for a Living Planet," which will be attended by leaders from the Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Daoist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Shinto, and Sikh faiths. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will also attend. Because they'll be talking about the ways in which religious communities can foster environmental protection, it only makes sense that they would dine on the most environmentally friendly (i.e., vegan) foods. Still, it's not every day that environmentalists actually put their money ethics where their mouths are, so this is a pretty big deal. Are you listening, Al Gore?

All the food at the three-day conference will be vegetarian, and most of it will be organic and locally grown. In case you aren't already jealous enough, here's what's on the vegan lunch menu at Windsor Castle: roasted pear salad with cobnuts and chicory, portobello mushrooms stuffed with artichoke and herbs, pearl barley risotto, and organic wine.

Yum—being a royal environmentalist tastes pretty good!

Posted by Alisa Mullins

As a Muslim living in America, I know what it is like to be in the minority. But a recent Pew Forum study suggests that Islam is making inroads toward the cultural mainstream.

According to the survey, one in four people worldwide is Muslim, and the countries with the largest numbers of Muslims might surprise you. India, for example, whose residents are mostly Hindus, is home to the largest number of Muslims outside Indonesia and Pakistan. Russia, China, and Germany also have large Muslim populations.

In an effort to reach out to the growing Muslim community, a new Web site, IslamicConcern.com, has just launched which includes hadiths —sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)—and quotations from the Qur'an and Islamic leaders about compassion for all of God's creation, including animals.

At IslamicConcern.com, people can learn about how modern factory farming techniques—such as branding animals, amputating their tails and castrating them without anesthetics, and burning off birds' beaks—seem to violate the Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) teachings to cause no pain to an animal before she or he is slaughtered. Animals raised for food are often fed the ground-up bodies of pigs, chickens, and cattle along with chicken excrement and other waste products. Many Muslims believe this is most probably haram (forbidden).

Even if you aren't a Muslim, I encourage you to check out IslamicConcern.com. You might be interested to learn how much Islamic teachings about kindness to animals have in common with Christianity, Judaism, and other major religions.

Posted by Mr. Hanif Akhtar, PETA Member

News flash: Virtually all scriptures encourage kindness and compassion. In any holy teachings—from the Bible to the Book of Mormon—you'll find language that encourages kindness to animals. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that there are ties between Mormonism and vegetarianism.

Considering that today is Pioneer Day (it's sorta like the Fourth of July, but only for Utah and … not on July 4), Chris Foster—founder of the group Mormons for Animals—is encouraging Mormons to practice kindness to animals in accordance with their faith.

"The Mormon doctrine is strongly pro-animal. And it's strongly opposed to any kind of cruelty to animals, including mistreatment and killing when it is not necessary," Foster told local media outlet KCPW. "Unfortunately, Mormon culture didn't quite live up to that." Might this be because some people still opt to eat animals, despite the endless array of non-animal alternatives that everyone in modern society has access to?

I could restate this all day, but here's the basic idea: be truly kind, not selectively kind.

Posted by Sean Conner