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Notes from Vegan
Outreach
Happy New Year!
While most of the country celebrates
Independence Day on the 4th of July,
July 1st marked the beginning of
Vegan Outreach's 2007-2008 fiscal
year, and the new Adopt
a College school year.
Speaking of AAC, Marina Berati
informs us that 15 activists recently
handed out Perche'
vegan? at a university
in Rome, as part of the 4,000 that
they handed out during the spring
semester; photos
here.
 For
the first six months of 2007, Vegan
Outreach's distribution has reached
803,767 booklets. For some perspective,
the total for all of 2005 was 863,604.
At right, Sue Rattenbury leaflets
at UC Berkeley; photo by Victor
Tsou.
Thanks so much to everyone who
has worked hard to reach new people
with the animals' message, and to
those whose generous contributions
have funded the printing and shipping
of so many booklets. With your help,
we will continue to make this year
even better.
Product of the Week
Sasha: Goodbaker.com
has the best tasting vegan baking
mixes ever! So simple, you only
need to add water and a little oil
for the amazing chocolate brownie
mix, chocolate chip cookie mix,
chocolate cake mix, chocolate ganache
mix, pancake and waffle mix, and
more. Plus they also have organic
imported dairy-free chocolate chips
at a good price.
Send your nominees for Product
of the Week to product
(at) veganoutreach (dot) org;
previous products can be found here.
Notes from All
Over
From the St. Petersburg Times:
"At New Tampa Vegans meetings,
Sonneborn and Zacharias often put
out pamphlets and brochures with
color photos of overstuffed pigs
packed in pens where they cannot
move and sickly looking chickens.
The photos are not gruesome, but
they're not pleasant to see. It
was enough to persuade Marina Bocciarelli,
who lives in Pebble Creek and owns
a pet-sitting business. As an animal
lover, she hated what she saw in
the Vegan Outreach brochures at
one of the cooking classes."
Read
more.
From the LA Times: "To
be sure, animal welfare issues aren't
new.... But only in recent years
has consumer awareness reached the
point that some of the biggest agribusiness
concerns have been prompted to reconsider
how they raise and kill animals.
In May, restaurant market research
firm Technomic Inc. asked 600 people
who had recently eaten out to name
their top five social issues. Health
insurance was first, followed by
paying people a 'living wage.' Next
was animal welfare (including the
humane treatment of animals), named
by 58% of the respondents."
Read
more.
From PublicBroadcasting.net: "Governor
Kulongoski signed a new law Thursday
making so-called 'gestation crates'
illegal for breeding pigs in Oregon.
The law takes effect in 2013, giving
farmers six years to change their
practices. Oregon has about 4,000
breeding sows -- a comparatively
small number compared to some other
states." Read
more.
From the New York Times:
"Because they are often crowded
into ponds, farmed fish and shrimp
can become sick as the quality of
the water becomes polluted by waste
and feed. 'You may have 10 to 20
times the density of fish as in
a natural environment,' said Robert
P. Romaire, professor of aquaculture
at Louisiana State University."
Read
more.
Veg Kids in the News
In The
Danger of One-Sided Debate,
the New York Times Public
Editor addresses Nina Planck's anti-vegan
article.
From the Chicago Tribune:
"Vegetarian diets are lower
in saturated fat, cholesterol and
animal protein and have higher levels
of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium,
potassium, folate, antioxidants
such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals.
They can reduce the risk of diabetes,
some cancers and cardiovascular
disease. Vegetarians, meanwhile,
have been shown to have lower body
mass indexes than non-vegetarians,
as well as lower blood pressure,
hypertension and blood cholesterol
levels. 'With tenacity and proper
planning, a vegan diet can meet
the needs of 10-year-olds,' said
registered dietitian Dave Grotto,
a spokesman for the American Dietetic
Association." Read
more.
See also The
Veggie Kid, from the
Philadelphia Inquirer.
Editor's note: Many articles
suggest that a vegan diet is difficult,
requiring, for example, "tenacity."
As the mother of a happy, healthy,
and successful 12-year-old
lifelong-vegan daughter,
I see the extremely poor diets that
some of her classmates and cousins
eat. With more
and more children overweight
and diet-related
diseases like diabetes
on the rise, all parents
should be tenacious about providing
their children with proper nutrition.
-Anne Green, PhD
Feedback from Our
Members
Thanks to the many readers
who wrote regarding last
week's eNewsletter. We appreciate
your feedback!
 Thank
you for the most recent
e-newsletter, "A
New World, Piece by Piece."
Quite a few activists I meet have
bought into the battle cries of
some thinkers [who] spend all their
time and energy viciously castigating
Peter Singer, the major organizations
and anybody who they do not perceive
as being "pure" enough
in their approach, etc. What is
frustrating is that these activists,
who are very well-meaning and committed
to the vegan cause, isolate themselves
from the broader animal rights movement
and end up doing very little besides
trying to convert, often unsuccessfully,
their friends and relatives to veganism.
Thank you for a thoughtful piece
on the issue and for supporting
a pragmatic approach focused on
reducing suffering while retaining
the ultimate goal of eliminating
suffering.
-HS, 6/28/07
At right, Jack Norris leaflets
at the San Francisco Pride festival.
At the Warped Tour
stop in Pomona, Susan Rattenbury
and I distributed 11,200 copies
of Even If You Like Meat
booklets. Research has repeatedly
shown that people remember the most
and to a very high degree, what
comes first and what comes last,
be it a classroom lesson, or a lecture,
or any experience. Well, the very
first thing that thousands of young
people were exposed to was the fact
that eating meat is an act of animal
cruelty. And the very last thing
they were exposed to at this concert
was again that eating meat is an
act of animal cruelty.
-Stewart Solomon, 6/29/07
You can see previous
issues of Vegan Outreach's e-newsletter
here.
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Vegan Outreach
P.O. Box 30865
Tucson, AZ 85751-0865
VO is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization; all donations
are tax-deductible. |
