Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • August 19, 2009 | |||||||
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Notes from Vegan OutreachAdopt a College Shoots Out the Gate!AAC activists have been watching the calendar and heading over to schools as they open for the term. Already in August, 24 schools have been leafleted, with 6,988 students learning the hidden realities of modern agribusiness, along with detailed information on pursuing a cruelty-free diet! Follow their progress at AdoptaCollege.org!
Summer Outreach a Huge Success!
Leafleters across the continent have handed out 282,783 booklets so far this summer at concerts, festivals, and other venues. Many of these were given to attendees of the Warped Tour. As The Humane League summarized: “After five weeks and 15,000 miles traveling, we reached a whopping total of 163,200 young people with detailed information on factory farming and reasons to go veg in 24 cities across the U.S. and Canada. Thank you very much to the core volunteers who traveled around the country – Nick Cooney (right), Vic Sjodin, Aaron Ross, Kate St. John, and Kansas James – and to the many local volunteers who helped. Also, thank you very much to all the donors whose generosity allowed this great, life-saving work for animals to be accomplished!”
Product of the Week
Jan: “At Kroger’s, I found delicious vegan products by Gardein; even carnivores would find them very tasty! The ‘chicken’ product comes as Chick’n Filets, Tuscan Breasts, BBQ Pulled Shreds, and other varieties. The product, quite rich in protein, comes in packages with spiced sauce and needs only to be warmed up.” Send your product of the week to product (at) veganoutreach (dot) org; previous entries here.
Notes from All OverMessaging for Change, Not Ego“It’s simply idiocy to think that you can more effectively address this issue with absolutism. Trying to get to the end point by flat refusal to consider anything but your own absolutist position (however morally right) is simply not going to open the necessary ‘mind doors’ to begin to alter values.” Full article.
Meat-Free MondaysExcellent CNN video.
Lightning Round
Notes from Our Members
Thanks
for writing your
book with Bruce. I really enjoyed
it and only wish I could have read it years
ago. Thanks also for the booklets. An enthusiastic
college student told us she went vegan after
reading one, and that she shared it with 30
friends. Lots of teens and
twenty-somethings out on Michigan Avenue in
Chicago last night. Joe, Mikael, and I were
joined by Claire, an activist from the UK who
found us online so she could do some vegan outreach
while on her trip across the US. A highlight
of the night: a man stopped to tell me he has
not eaten meat since receiving a Compassionate
Choices a month ago. He said, “I am
now a vegetarian. I just can’t eat meat anymore
after reading about how chickens are treated.”
He took more information. Another highlight
was a group of five teenage boys who have recently
gone vegetarian and had some questions about
going vegan. From a new Adopt a College leafleter: At the farmers’ market, I
had a really great conversation with a guy about how we are treating
animals and the immense suffering it causes, the fallout on so many
fronts of this totally unsustainable way of
living. We also talked about our kids (he has
a boy, I have a little girl) and agreed that
we should leave a much better planet for them.
When he first walked up I actually had him pegged
as a guy that wouldn’t even bother taking a
leaflet, but ended up being the best encounter
of the day.
We had
a great night leafleting, showing
Meet
Your Meat on our computer, and sampling
out Tofurky Italian sausages with sautéed
peppers and onions along with vegan hot dogs
mixed with baked beans (paid for by VegFund,
which will also pay for Vegan Outreach literature
to accompany vegan food giveaways). One guy
actually knelt down in front of the computer
screen so he could hear the MYM video
better. When a friend passed by, he called him
over to see the footage and said, “If
you ever eat real hot dogs again, I’ll
kill you.” Not exactly a compassionate
comment, but I’m glad he took the video
to heart. This
is not a book that proselytizes
radical activism. It is, rather, a supportive
and comforting book for all of us who love animals
and want to help them. Includes chapters on
The Joy of a Meaningful Life, Choosing Meaningful
Action, Effective Advocacy for Animals, and
is chock-full of information on animal issues
without being the least bit preachy – it is inspirational
and practical. I love this book and added it
to recommendations on my own site, and have
bought it as gifts. Bravo to the authors.
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