Enewsletter

If people would just educate themselves about what goes into their mouths, I'm sure they'd change their eating habits. I don't think that anyone could go and visit a factory farm or a slaughterhouse and not become a vegetarian.
—Moby, in Teen People

• Requests and News
• Food Spotlight
• Feedback
• Feature: Latest Beef over Fries

Requests and News

Local Vegan Outreach Contacts

We have the preliminary list of volunteer contacts online. If you or your local organization would like to be added, please contact us – thanks!

National Day of Leafleting

The sign-up form for the September 17 event is online here.
The Deadline is September 3.

In the hot dog plant

Fish Futures

"'Farm fish usually doesn't contain much omega-3 at all. Only fish from the oceans contain many omega-3 essential fatty acids.' Essential fatty acids are not produced by the body and must be absorbed through food. The April study did not look at farmed fish, although Hu says 'previous studies have documented that.'"

Vegan Scientists Hard at Work

Food Spotlight

Previously we featured Lightlife's Gimme Lean. This issue, the spotlight is on Tofurky Deli Slices. These are amazing – not a single omnivore to whom we have offered samples has failed to be shocked. If people like Jeff Brenner (letter published in Time) would try foods like this, he wouldn't be so dismissive of the convenience of being veg!

Congratulations to Vegan Outreach member Sherrill Durbin for having the lead, drop-quote letter in the August 5 edition of Time!

Feedback

Thank you, too, for sending me the Vegan Advocacy pamphlet. Your essays are helping me to rethink issues of "extremism" and the spirit/intent behind my veganism.
ESB, Philadelphia, PA, 7/26/02

While showing Meet Your Meat, we distributed 1,800 Why Vegans at the Rib Fest. Looking around after each day, we only found six discarded copies.
LP, Minneapolis, MN, 7/31/02

I picked up your Why Vegan pamphlet at the Vans Warped Tour when it stopped in Fargo. I had no idea animals were being treated so poorly! I haven’t eaten meat or milk since. I probably would’ve continued to eat meat had I not read the truth. Please send me a Vegan Starter Pack and more Why Vegans to distribute.
ER, Burlington, ND, 7/31/02

Since we last wrote, Joe [Espinosa] leafletted again on Michigan Ave. on 7/24 and distributed 320 copies of Why Vegan. Today he did it again & handed out 380.
Marsha Forsman, Chicago, IL, 7/31/02

Feedback on "Building Bridges?"

I know a LOT of progressives, including people high up in the progressive ranks. Most of my friends are progressives. These are not people who ever see any of the campaigns and advertisements you discussed in "Building Bridges?" These "gonzo" actions are covered by People Magazine, the "Newsmakers" sections of the paper, talk radio, Entertainment Tonight, and so on. Since my friends don't see them, they aren't offended by them. But even if they did see the ads, they could make an evaluation of the case for veganism that wasn't the analysis of a 6 year-old ("Look what that vegan group did; I will now not go vegan"). Do we really think they're that stupid, that lacking in analysis, that they will write off an ethical argument because some who proffer it do things they find offensive? No, they write it off because, like society, they are speciesists.

Although we like to hope otherwise, progressives are still not much more approachable than the general public regarding animal issues – especially veganism. Many are less approachable.

In most instances, they are trying to mainstream their issue, and are not willing to be seen as even less "normal." I am NOT saying that we do things that are sexist, capitalist, etc.; these campaigns unsettle me because they are wrong. However, to say that media-friendly campaigns alienate others who would, otherwise, go vegan or embrace animal rights–the argument falls after about 1 second of consideration.
AN, 8/1/02

FEATURE ARTICLE

Excerpts from

Latest beef over fries

by Lynn Thompson
Seattle Times

When fast-food giant McDonald's announced in May that it would pay out $12.5 million to settle a class-action suit over its deceptive use of beef flavoring in its French fries, it was hailed by vegetarians and religious groups with strict dietary laws about eating meat.

Animal-rights activists say they're being excluded from the big payout in favor of vegetarian groups less outspoken in their criticism of McDonald's….

"We wanted groups that would have the most effect on the most people," said James Latturner, a Chicago attorney representing vegetarians in Illinois.

But the groups likely to receive money aren't exactly household names, according to a preliminary settlement list filed with the court last week.

One, the North American Vegetarian Society (NAVS) lists two full-time employees and an annual income of $292,480, according to federal financial records.

Bruce Friedrich, Director of Vegan Outreach for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal-rights group that has waged very public battles with McDonald's over the treatment of farm animals, said NAVS is "an excellent organization."

But it isn't one that makes a connection between eating meat and animal suffering, he said.

Another organization that doesn't show up on the tentative settlement list is Vegan Outreach, which publishes Why Vegan? a pamphlet Friedrich calls "the single most popular piece of vegetarian literature."

With more than 3 million copies distributed over the past decade [actually, a bit under 2 million -ed.], many of them on college campuses, Friedrich said Why Vegan? raises questions about the treatment of farm animals and environmental problems caused by agribusiness.

Like NAVS, Vegan Outreach is a shoestring operation with just two employees. One of them, Matthew Ball, said his group applied for settlement money. But he never expected a company built on Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets to pay for copies of a pamphlet which makes a moral case against eating meat, he said.

"If I were McDonald's, I'd give the money to the most benign, least effective organizations out there," he said.

Vegan Outreach is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the suffering of farmed animals by promoting informed, ethical eating. All donations are tax-deductible. Vegan Outreach POB 30865, Tucson, AZ 85751-0865