Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • October 3, 2007 | ||
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Notes from Vegan Outreach
Program Attempts to End Animal Cruelty"'Even if you like meat...you can help end this cruelty,' stated a leaflet that was handed to students Wednesday outside Sacramento State's University Union.... The pamphlet included information about factory farming and reducing one's meat consumption to help end animal cruelty. The pamphlet described some of the horrible conditions animals experience before they are killed for consumption, as well as ways people can incorporate non-animal products into their diets." Read more. At right, Brian Grupe leaflets at Sacramento State; photo by Bridget Jones.
Resource of the WeekLast week's mention of DeliciousTV prompted several people to point out Compassionate Cooks, where you can get podcasts, view recipes, etc. You can order the DVD from Vegan Outreach's catalog. Send your nominees for Product of the Week to product (at) veganoutreach (dot) org; previous products can be found here.
Notes from All Over72-Year-Old Former Mr. America Still Going StrongVia Vegan.com: "But how does he keep the physique? He still works out for an hour a day, six days a week. And his diet is made up of nuts, beans, fruits, and vegetables. That means no meat, no chicken, no fish, and according to Jim, cheese is the worst." Read more, with video.
Antibiotic RunoffVia DawnWatch, the New York Times: "One of the persistent problems of industrial agriculture is the inappropriate use of antibiotics. It’s one thing to give antibiotics to individual animals, case by case, the way we treat humans. But it’s a common practice in the confinement hog industry to give antibiotics to the whole herd, to enhance growth and to fight off the risk of disease, which is increased by keeping so many animals in such close quarters. This is an ideal way to create organisms resistant to the drugs. That poses a risk to us all." Read more.
Can Vegetarianism Prevent Bird Flu?“It is curious...that changing the way humans treat animals--most basically, ceasing to eat them or, at the very least, radically limiting the quantity of them that are eaten--is largely off the radar as a significant preventive measure. Such a change, if sufficiently adopted or imposed, could still reduce the chances of the much-feared influenza epidemic.” Read more.
Notes from Our Members
Josh Balk distributes Even If; photo by Loren Hart. On my mini-tour of
San Antonio, two U
TX-San Antonio students noticed
my vegan shirt at a restaurant.
They ended up leafleting with me
the next day at UTSA [Kelsey
Hutchins at right], and we
got so much great feedback! About
ten students came back to say it
was really eye-opening and were
planning to change; we saw about
ten others intensely
reading the booklets nearby. 
I had many great
interactions leafleting
last week. At the University of
the Arts, it seemed like 1/3 of
the people were already veg or vegan.
A maintenance worker for the school
came over to say he had seen one
left on a table, read through it,
and was definitely going to cut
back on the amount of meat he ate
because it was so wrong how the
animals were treated. A professor
at the school read the book a few
feet away from me for about 5 minutes,
then came back and gave it back
and said "I don't eat much
anyway. But now I'm not going to
eat any." At the Walk for Farm
Animals, I had a stack
of Even Ifs, and a walker
from Corvalis asked if she could
help distribute them. She then decided
to order more booklets to leaflet
Oregon State. I handed an Even If
to one guy, and I heard him say,
"Oh no!" as he looked
down at the pamphlet. He came back
later and said, "I want to
go vegan." Yesterday at Morgan
State U, the acceptance
rate was near 100% and the students
were very friendly. One young woman
showed me a salad she had just purchased,
saying that she was going to get
a chicken sandwich until she read
the booklet. I told her about the
many alternatives other than salad,
gave her a GCFE, etc. At right, Jon Camp leaflets outside the White House; photo by Loren Hart. Today at George Mason U, I was
approached by a
gentleman concerned about eating
vegetarian while being physically
active. I told him that I run, play
soccer and football, lift weights,
etc. He said that he approached
me about these questions because
I looked healthy. It's important
for vegan advocates to take the
time to stay in shape, to be healthy,
etc. Just as it is important to
counter the angry
vegan stereotype, we must also
counter the weak vegan stereotype.
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Like
many people, I regularly
ate meat and never thought about
the conditions that animals endured
before becoming meals. But after
receiving one of your booklets [at
Penn State], I literally felt sick
to my stomach. This is not at all
what I envisioned farming to be!
How could I be so naive and never
once think to question where meat
came from? When I learned I was
supporting such an industry, I made
a vow to consume drastically less
meat. I am excited to make such
a change, and have already begun
spreading the word to family and
friends.
