this is a great idea.  however one thing i'd be worried about is having a number of friends over who are not as "environmentally observant" as me in the hopes of getting them excited about it - but having them feel more isolated and turned off if they can't respond to many of the questions.

anyone who has a held a dinner like this - did you find this was a challenge?

either way i think i'll give it a go, and hope for the best! :)

I get my eggs from a farm that I have visited myself. The chickens are not debeaked and I was more than satisfied that they were living in good conditions. They seemed very happy to me.

Perfect point for this article - go meet the farmer that raises the eggs available to you! I recently visited a local farm that produces beef, lamb, chickens, and eggs. The laying hens were grazing away on a pasture in one of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen. They go inside their mobile laying-house for the evenings, where they are  actually locked in so that nocturnal predators like foxes and racoons can't get to them. And in the morning, doors open up and out they go. And of course, the eggs are super delicious!

I don't eat them either.  My family had a pet chicken but no desire to take the eggs, which were eaten by whichever rodent found them.  

I doubt that many people who might be inclined to eat eggs will take the trouble to always buy eggs from genuinely well-treated chickens.  I, for one, don't consider raising an animal for eventual slaughter to be very nice.  In fact, our chicken escaped such a place to come to our house.  We initially brought her back to her original home, but she would not stay there.

that treats chickens well. I found one where the chickens are cage-free and have tons of room in which to move around. Something that struck me was that, even though they had so much room and could go wherever they wanted (including into cubbies when they wanted to lay) the vast majority of hens all hung out in little groups. I remember writing at the time that they looked like teenagers hanging out at a mall. It also gave me an insight into the phrase "hen party" (a group of women hanging out together.)

The strangest thing about my trip to the farm was that many chickens decided to land on my head, shoulders, and arms, and to stay there for a while. I felt like a statue in a park, and my jacket was never the same, but I was happy to find a place where I felt that the chickens were treated kindly and with respect, and where they seemed perfectly happy in their chickenhood.

I would say that there is no reason to avoid inviting friends to an earth dinner, even if they may not currently be very active in addressing environmental issues.

First of all, they may not know anyone who is interested or involved in these issues, and they may be very interested in getting involved once they know of other people who are trying to incorporate environmentally friendly choices into their lifestyle. You know the old expression "What do you need? A personal invitation?" Well, for some people the answer is yes, yes they do. So give them one!

Secondly, it's important, I think, to invite people to examine what's happening both on a societal level and a personal one, but not to make them feel pressured or guilt-ridden. The pressure and guilt thing isn't really productive as far as I can tell. People have to want to make changes for positive reasons, not negative ones.

Third, change works best when it's incremental. I think that a nice thing to do would be to have an Earth Dinner where friends decide what one change they'll make to decrease their carbon footprint, and then have another dinner with the same friends two months later and see what worked, what didn't, and what the challanges -- expected and unexpected -- might have been.

If you are afraid that friends won't even consider coming to a dinner where the environment will be discussed, just invite them to a dinner where the bounty of the earth will be celebrated and appreicated, because the Earth Dinner is that as well.

Plus, many of the cards ask people to talk about their personal memories. People love to talk about themselves, so "stack the deck" so that most of the connection and memory cards are at the top of the deck and then work your way into the other categories slowly...

I am sure that no matter what you do, your dinner party will be fun and interesting.

Yes, if you do eat eggs (though I don't really think there is a need to), it's one of those products that you really should only consume if you've been to the source and seen for yourself whether the conditions are humane or not.  There's so much abuse, not to mention environmental damage, throughout the poultry industry, whether for meat or eggs.