Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • April 16, 2008 | ||
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Notes from Vegan OutreachJon Camp's Spring Tour Roundup
But seeing the tangible results of leafleting also left me longing for what could be if more were to get involved with this outreach. How great it would be if we had even a weekly presence in every major metropolitan region and college town in the US and Canada! And for the regions where one or two individuals were active, what if 5 or 10 or 20 were to leaflet regularly? As vegans, we see that by simply abstaining from meat, eggs, and dairy, we can reduce a great deal of needless misery with one fell swoop; we are sometimes dumbfounded that others don't grasp this. But the same holds true for activism. By getting out for even one hour a week, we have the potential, over time, to spare millions of animals a lifetime of suffering. Cesar Chavez once stated that, "Talk is cheap...It is the way we organize and use our lives everyday that tells what we believe in." It's often easy to get daunted by the prospects of making substantive change for animals. But I see on a daily basis that change is not only possible, it is inevitable when -- and only when -- we make it happen. Each one of us, through our time and/or financial contributions, can help significantly push the ball forward for animals. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help you get involved in doing this important work that needs to be done.
Rockin' for the AnimalsConsider adopting a concert this summer and continuing to reach new hearts and minds with the message of compassion. Please take a look at our 'veg-friendly' concert list, and let Anne (at veganoutreach (dot) org) know which concert(s) you can cover. We'll supply the booklets and the helpful advice. Rock on!
Evil Product of the WeekMatt: Trader Joe's vegan chocolate chip cookies sit in the cupboard, taunting me all day, calling out that I should just give in and eat the entire delicious bag. Bad cookies! Bad! Send your nominees for Product of the Week to product (at) veganoutreach (dot) org; previous products can be found here.
Notes from All OverEgg Industry UpdateThe egg industry in 2007 saw the "largest single year decline in per-capita consumption in the last 10 years. Expectations for 2008 per-capita consumption are for levels to once again be historically low." Page 8 of pdf.
In Vitro Meat UpdateWired: "To produce the meat we eat now, 75 to 95 percent of what we feed an animal is lost because of metabolism and inedible structures like skeleton or neurological tissue," Jason Matheny, a researcher at Johns Hopkins and co-founder of New Harvest, a nonprofit that promotes research on in vitro meat, told Wired.com. "With cultured meat, there's no body to support; you're only building the meat that eventually gets eaten." New York Times: My colleague Mark Bittman wrote a fine piece recently about the greenhouse-gas consequences of conventional meat production. Others have explored the environmental and ethical impacts of factory and feedlot farming. Manufactured meat, in theory, provides an end run around these issues. ... [O]ne could envision someday a model, say, of a solar-powered facility in southern California or Singapore basically turning sunlight and desalinated seawater into growth medium and then tons of cruelty-free, sustainable nuggets of chicken essence.
Lightning Round
Notes from Our MembersIt was great leafleting
at Kent State University. More than
half the students thanked me for
the booklet, and there were several
who said they had received the booklet
in the past and were now
vegetarian or vegan.
Above, from L to R: Nick Lesiecki, Emily Pepe, Jessica Dadds, Anu Garg, Adrienne Youmans, Yvonne LeGrice. You can attend an upcoming conference to meet with other Vegan Outreach folks! Today was a fun day
of outreach, with
lots of high school students from
a nearby high school coming through
John Jay Square on their lunch break.
I could tell that the school has
been leafleted heavily before, because
I heard from students who had leaflets
from the last time someone (Jenna)
was there! A teacher from Beacon
H.S. stopped by and was excited
to see that I was leafleting, and
said that after the lunch break,
many of his students were showing
him the leaflets. He wants to order
some for his classes!
A few days ago, I
helped our mail carrier unload a
huge shipment of leaflets. He was
curious, so I gave him an Even
If. I saw him again today,
and he told me, "I read your
booklet. It was thoughtful and well
written. It didn't scare people
off in the first two pages like
the old animal rights info, and
it presented some good solutions
to the problem. I'm going to pass
it on to one Kurt Mantheiy leaflets at the University of North Texas; photo by Jon Camp. At the University of
Pittsburgh, one girl
ran up to me saying "You are
right! You are so right! You are
right! You are so right!" She
had read through the booklet and
was blown away and was intent on
going veg. She also took booklets
to share with friends. We had other
good experiences too: one woman
said she would try her best to go
vegetarian; one teacher took a bunch
of booklets for his class; etc.
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Last
Friday night, I returned from my
68-day college leafleting tour.
With the help of 49 volunteers,
45,804 booklets were handed out
in VA, TN, AR, TX, OK, NM, AZ, CO,
WY, KS, MO, IA, IL, WI, KY, and
WV. What I saw on the road was similar
to what other VO leafleters continue
to see on a daily basis -- scores
and scores of individuals sincerely
considering the plight of farmed
animals and making changes.
It
was Agriculture Awareness Week
at North Carolina State University,
where they displayed live animals
while grilling dead ones, and had
many signs promoting the meat, dairy,
and egg industries. The NC Farm
Bureau, local Farm Bureaus, industry
trade associations, and others sponsored
the event. Unfortunately, but not
surprising, very little of the event
was devoted to plant agriculture.
After initial resistance from NCSU,
our campus animal rights group,
of
my kids."