Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • May 13, 2009 | ||||||||||||||
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Notes from Vegan Outreach
Adopt a College Across the ContinentFrom sub-zero temps in the Great Plains to 90+ degrees in Phoenix, Adopt a College activists have handed booklets to 484,415 students this spring semester. And 686 different schools have been leafleted—a new record! A total of 48 volunteers are over 500 booklets for the term, with 28 over 1,000! Joe Espinosa, Casey Constable, and Leslie Patterson are each over 10,000! See the full list here. Congratulations to everyone for their great work, and thanks to all our donors who make this work possible!
The Latest Nutrition NewsVO President Jack Norris, RD has recently discussed new vitamin D research; be sure to subscribe to his informative blog!
Product of the Week
Send your product of the week to product (at) veganoutreach (dot) org; previous entries here.
Notes from All OverPublic PerceptionErik Marcus on Max Fisher on Vegans. Editor’s note: Whenever Vegan Outreach links to an article like this, we receive angry emails from people upset that we are “tearing down” vegans. But VO doesn’t exist to glorify vegans or veganism—we exist to save as many animals from the horrors of modern agribusiness as possible. Only nonvegans are in a position to change their choices to help animals, so what is important is their perceptions of vegans, not our self-esteem. See also “Countering the Stereotype.”
Bruce on the BookBruce Friedrich (Matt Ball’s coauthor on The Animal Activist’s Handbook) was interviewed for PETA’s Podcast and the PETA Files.
Lightning Round
Notes from Our Members
Lots of vegetarians
and interested folks at
the College of St. Scholastica.
One woman came back and said, “I
just read this whole thing. It’s
really amazing. I didn’t know anything
about this." She asked for
the Guide
mentioned in Even If You
Like Meat. She also took 10
more Even Ifs to pass out
to her friends. I became a vegetarian
and eventually a vegan because of
being handed one of your booklets
while in college. It changed my
life! Today, Brandon [Becker]
and I handed out 2,716 Vegan Outreach
booklets at UNC-Chapel Hill. I picked
a place in the center of the lower
quad where two footpaths intersect.
Since the weather was so nice, a
couple hundred students were sitting
and lying all around the quad. I
noticed that some of the groups
of students were looking at booklets
together and discussing the information.
This was very rewarding to witness.
I leafleted one professor during
his lunch break. After reading the
booklet, he came back and told me
how glad he was that I had given
this to him, because he had been
wanting to go vegetarian for 25
years. He said that his son is vegetarian,
that he had already stopped eating
certain animal products, and that
he thought that receiving this booklet
might just help him finally stop
eating meat altogether. We celebrated
for a moment, and then I gave him
a Guide. "Anger,
Humor, and Advocacy"
was very meaningful to me. Particularly
this passage: "One suggestion
is to always remember your ultimate
goal. In my case, it is the alleviation
of suffering. If I allow myself
to be miserable because of the cruelty
in the world, I am adding to the
suffering in the world. More importantly,
I am saying that unless utopia is
instantaneously established, it
is not possible to be happy. Thus,
my goal is fundamentally unachievable."
When I read your simple words, I
could see how I was allowing myself
to be miserable because of the cruelty
in this world. The suffering of
animals is an indescribable horror
to me. So thank you for giving me
an alternative way to look at—and ultimately change—my own
reactions toward suffering and misery. I had about six
very good conversations with interesting
people while leafleting Michigan
Ave. Several people told me they
had been thinking about going veg,
and getting a booklet was a "sign"
(as one woman described it). I read Handbook
in one sitting—devoured it—and have imbibed
and osmosed its principles of meaningful
living. I’ve read it three times since,
and it now lives on my bedside table.
Last weekend, I gave one of your
Why Vegan? booklets to the
teenage daughter of a friend of
mine. I used the same line that
my then 20-year-old and brand newly
vegan daughter used on me nearly
7 years ago when she handed me the
booklet: "I’m only giving this
book to people I love. Will you
read it?" The girl text messaged
me one hour later (I had already left)
and announced that she was now vegetarian. Jennifer [Greene],
Heather [Kramer],
Peter [Bass], and I handed out 2,918
Vegan Outreach booklets at SUNY
Stony Brook. There were too many
awesome moments to list—here
are two: The president of the faculty
senate walked up to me after getting
a leaflet, saying, "I am sick
to my stomach, I can’t even eat
now"; I gave him a Guide.
He returned later with the B12
question and to talk a little more
about factory farming. Later, a
student almost threw out a leaflet,
but I convinced him to keep it and
read it. He returned later and we
talked for quite a while about how
to go vegan, and why free range
is a myth, etc. He was shocked to
hear that the males in the egg industry
get discarded, and left, saying,
"I don’t think I even want
to eat meat anymore!" 
Acceptance was very
high at Montgomery
College. Two separate African American
guys let me know that they were
veg; one of them yelled out, "vegan!"
with his fist in the air while another
opened up his jacket to reveal that
he was wearing an "I’m
Not a Nugget" shirt. Great day at Evergreen
Valley College. One
guy was really thankful for the
information, since he had a presentation
on animal abuse he was preparing
to give tomorrow. I hooked him up
with some other pamphlets. One young
lady asked as she approached, “Are
those vegan pamphlets?” She and
her friend told me they had received
said pamphlet before and “were trying
really hard.” I gave them Guides,
for which they were very grateful.
Also heard lots of aahs, oohs, and,
“Oh, interesting.” I definitely saw
quite a few people take one after
noticing the pictures of the pigs
on the front and once again heard
more swine flu comments.
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Office:
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5/10/09