Enewsletter

Notes from Vegan Outreach

Jon Coming to the South!

Starting in October, Jon Camp, VO’s Director of Outreach, will embark on a two-month college leafleting tour throughout VA, SC, GA, AL, MS, and northern FL. He would love to speak with your local group about Vegan Outreach’s work and the importance of getting active for animals.

Jon has found housing for most of his tour, but still needs a place to stay in or near Columbia and Conroe, SC; Savannah, GA; Tallahassee, FL; Jackson, Starkville, and Oxford, MS; and Florence, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, and Auburn, AL.

If you’d like to house America’s Most Courteous Houseguest, leaflet with him, or have him speak to your group – or all three! – please email jon (at) veganoutreach (dot) org. Thanks so much!

From the Jack Norris RD and “Your Daily Dose of Vegan Outreach!” Blogs

• Great Story from St. Louis
• Soy, Testosterone, Erectile Dysfunction
• Grains vs. Meat
• Short Exchange on Global Warming

Please Vote for Vegan Outreach

Want to give VO’s work more exposure? Please vote for Vegan Outreach as Favorite Nonprofit Vegetarian Organization in the current VegNews poll. You can vote between now and August 31. Thanks!

Product of the Week

Nikita: “Coconut Bliss is an organic ice cream, soy free, comes in bars as well, and is sweetened with agave nectar.”

Please submit your product of the week via this page; previous entries here.

Notes from All Over

Lightning Round

• A. Afarensis May Have Eaten Meat; So What?
• Time Video on Bird Intelligence
• Vegan.com:
  • Poultry Tops CDC’s List of Food Poisoning Outbreaks
  • NY Times on Egg Production Methods
  • Cancer-Stricken Hog Farmer Goes Vegan
  • Time on Part-Time Vegetarians
  • Canada: No Country for Animals
  • A Meathead’s Meatless Month
  • Why Not to be a Vegan Health Nazi
  • A Sound Bite for Die-Hard Meat Eaters
  • Another Problem with Meat: Deadstock Disposal

Notes from Our Members

Nikki Benoit (above) and six-year-old Rebecca Solomon (below) help the students of Cal State Northridge make informed choices.

Lots of Future Farmers of America at Purdue today. Five times I was given the opportunity to speak with groups of the FFA kids. The usual untruths were offered in defense of animal agriculture. I spoke to each issue in turn, but kept bringing it back to the fact that producing and eating meat, milk and eggs are not necessary and cause immense animal suffering for our own pleasure. On the flip side, heard from five vegetarians, one an FFA student who quietly, away from her peers, let me know she’s vegetarian.
—Joe Espinosa, 6/15/10

Very powerful conversations at Cal State Los Angeles. Met three vegans in the first 20 minutes! One, who’s organizing many outreach events to educate church communities, invited me to speak for VO!
—Nikki Benoit (above), 7/1/10

John (Oberg) and I met many veg-friendly folks leafleting at the Phoenix Art Walk. We were joined by Emma, who is newly vegan after being leafleted by John last month!
—Jeff “Newlywed” Boghosian, 7/2/10

Good leafleting with Rob (Gilbride) and Leah (Wagner). One man said to me, “Do you think it is wrong to eat chickens?” I told him they are the most abused animal on the planet, and we discussed their lives and the high numbers consumed. He said, “Someone told me that if you watch Food, Inc. you won’t want to eat chicken anymore.” I have heard a lot of comments from folks going veg after watching Food, Inc. despite the lack of a veg message in the film. It’s encouraging to see that many people do in fact connect the dots without us explicitly saying to go veg. That’s why brochures like Even If You Like Meat and Compassionate Choices are so valuable in my opinion.
—Eleni Vlachos, 7/3/10

While tabling at the farmers’ market, one woman in her 70s took materials to share with the “less enlightened.” She told me she confronted one of the natural chicken farmers at the market today, asking him how old his chickens are when they’re slaughtered. He told her 10 weeks, but that they have a great quality of life for those weeks – to which this sweet little old lady replied, “How would you like it if you were allowed to live a great life for ten years and then I chopped off your head?”
—Todd Lent, 7/3/10

New vegan Angie (Hammond) and I had great conversations at the farmers’ market. We met at least 15 vegans. One woman took information about getting active with VO!
—Barbara Bear, 7/3/10

At the Las Cruces Warped stop, Phil (Letten) offered a booklet to a couple who responded, “No thanks, we already got one today, and I think we’ll probably go vegetarian now.”
—Nick Cooney (at right, leafleting the NM Warped Tour concert), 6/30/10

Leafleting at Truman College, one guy told me that it might be hypocritical to tell others how to live if I wasn’t perfect. I let him know that none of our booklets say, “This is how you should live”; nor do they state that we are perfect. Rather, they simply let people know of a cause of suffering in today’s world; the recipients of the booklet can then do what they want with this information. Not being perfect doesn’t bar us from trying to do what good we can.
—Jon Camp, 6/28/10

	Vegan Outreach is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the suffering of farmed animals by promoting informed, ethical eating. All donations are tax-deductible. Vegan Outreach POB 30865, Tucson, AZ 85751-0865