Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • October 4, 2006 | ||
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Notes from Vegan OutreachLink of the Week: Why Adopt a College?
By convincing just a few people every semester, you will be preventing the suffering of thousands of animals over their lifetimes. You will be creating a pocket of change that will likely extend out from those people. As the numbers grow, people who have given up eating animals will be much more likely to be sympathetic towards other animal issues, and this will increase political pressure in favor of animal liberation. At right, Ellen Green spends her day off leafleting the Pitt Panthers; photo by Matt Ball.
Products of the WeekChristy LaRose enthuses: "Sweet and Sara, Mexican Chocolate Marshmallows! I tried them at AR2006 and they are incredible! The perfect sweet, chocolaty snack after dinner." Beth Brettell nominates Fantastic Foods World Soups: "While they are all delicious, my favorite, hands down, is the Vegetarian Chicken Noodle. It tastes just like how my Mom would make her chicken soup when I was a kid. And its vegan and super yummy! I brought some of their soups when I went camping this summer and even my meat-eater friends liked them." Send your nominees for Product of the Week to product (at) veganoutreach.org; previous products can be found here.
Notes from All OverAndy Rooney Sees the FutureOn 60 Minutes, Andy Rooney had this to say: "I often pass a farm with cows grazing in the field and I think to myself how terrible it is that human beings grow other animals just to kill them and eat them. Most of us think of vegetarians as nuts and I'm not a vegetarian but I wouldn't be surprised if we came to a time in 50 or 100 years when civilized people everywhere refused to eat animals. I could be one of them. Of course, I'd be pretty old by then." Watch the video here, or read the transcript here.
Pork Industry Condemned / Ben & Jerry's Promise ChangeBoth via DawnWatch.com: The Saturday, September 23, New York Times editorial (the paper's official editorial opinion) headed "The Ultimate Agricultural Efficiency" opens: "Any American history of pork -- the meat, that is -- shows a steady concentration of more and more hogs in the hands of fewer and fewer producers. That is what modern agricultural “efficiency” looks like. It’s good for the bottom line of the big industrial players, but bad for farmers, hogs, the environment and, ultimately, consumers. That history took another step in the wrong direction when Smithfield Foods -- the biggest pork packer -- agreed to buy the second biggest pork packer, Premium Standard Farms." Also, Ben & Jerry's has committed itself to abandoning its current egg supplier and phasing in the use of eggs that come from hens housed under higher welfare standards. For more, see here.
Notes from Our MembersI received an
Even If You Like Meat at
the Now and Zen concert in San Francisco.
It made me physically ill and I
would really like to stop eating
meat. I realized that it is quite
easy to stop. On Saturday, my
boyfriend and I were in Boston,
when a protest rally for vegans
came through and handed me one of
your pamphlets. It made me cry,
and since then, I haven't touched
meat, and also convinced 3 other
people to follow with me. DeAnza College is one
of my favorite schools
to leaflet, and Randy Sandberg and
I handed out 1210 EIs and
5 GCFEs today. I had several
good conversations with students.
The best part of the day was when
one girl came up to me to ask some
questions about the booklet. She
said she was horrified by what she'd
read, and she didn't see how she
could continue to eat meat. I gave
her a GCFE and told her
about how I went vegetarian/vegan,
and suggested that she take it at
her own pace, that what was really
important was making a lasting change
to help animals. She said she was
going to check out the VO website
and read more on the topic. I also
met another student who said that
she'd like to join me in leafleting
DeAnza. We exchanged email addresses,
and hopefully we'll get another
new leafleter out of the day! At right, Heather Leughmyer leaflets at Ball State; photo by Joe Espinosa. The best part of my
two-school day occurred
at Johnson and Wales, when a campus
maintenance employee happened to
pick up a discarded EI
before I had a chance to get it
myself. She glanced at the cover,
decided not to throw it into her
trash barrel, and paused to read
it. As another maintenance employee
approached, she beckoned her over
and the two of them pored over the
booklet together. They were both
loudly discussing the brochure,
and the first maintenance employee
ended up taking it with her instead
of throwing it away. Over the course of
the summer farmers
market season, VeganMania
Bakery distributed your Why
Vegan? pamphlets to great success.
The worst responses I'd get were
people opening it up to the middle
and seeing the gruesome pictures
and wanting to put the pamphlet
down, but I'd just say, "I
know it's awful to look at, but
it does have a happy ending when
you choose to eat some vegan food
instead!" Most people were
happy to have the information and
it certainly sparked a lot of good
conversations. So, thanks for producing
that little gem. At Cal State Los Angeles
today, a lady told
me that she and her daughter are
now vegan after reading EI last
semester.
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excerpt:
Don't dwell on the people you know
who won't change. Instead, go out
and leaflet, or sponsor a leafleter,
at a college!
-Suzanne
Haws, 9/27/06