Thursday, March 29, 2007

Film Screening: Peaceable Kingdom

Last night, VegSarasota held a free screening of the compassionate film, Peaceable Kingdom



We had a brief meet and greet before the film with refreshments and snacks. Many new faces attended this event, so special thanks to them and those who made donations to help cover our costs. The theater room accommodated 25 people, and it was full to capacity. During the 110 minute film, it was great to hear the occasional laughs from the audience, because there were plenty of sad moments. Although this film is certainly mild by animal rights film standards, looking into the faces of so many beautiful creatures, and realizing that the cages they're showed living in is their home until death can be very difficult. This is especially true for those whom have not been exposed to such imagery.

After the film, we had a discussion of how this is merely one element of the overall movement, and encouraged people to be open and curious about their daily consumption. There were many wonderful comments from the audience. That was was great because to witness the sparks of compassion igniting a fire of change is truly inspiring.

We broke out to the kitchen area for some more refreshments, and many folks stayed to participate in further discussion, as well as to get to know some of the other attendees a little better. A couple of highlights were discussion of the new Discovery Channel series, Planet Earth, a heart warming story from Dennis about how he met his wife, a wonderful interview with Liz that may turn into a PSA, and of course the vegan cookies!

I would like to thank anyone reading this who attended, you are each appreciated and we are thankful to have met you.

Special thanks to Daniel for the space, Marie for the spices, Liz for the time & passion, and Lisa for the filming and dedication.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Urban Outfitters Sells Vegetarian Tees

It is great to see the topic of vegetarian hitting the mainstream with these cute tees from Urban Outfitters. Buy one today, start an interesting conversation wearing it.


Everyone Loves a Vegetarian


Vegetarians Have More Fun

Labels:

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Activism Debate: A Review

Recently, on the web podcast Vegan Diner by author and activist Erik Marcus he had a two part debate with Rutgers professor Gary Francione. The debate centered on welfare vs abolition in the compassionate living movement. That is to say, the common approach to compassionate activism — which typically supports incremental improvements — vs outright 'conversion' from a meat centered diet directly to veganism where anything in between is just as unethical.

Francione says repeatedly (but never mentions any evidence or studies) that it is MORE cost effective and efficient to campaign for 100% abolition and veganism than it is to continue to seek incremental change. That is the key I think. While getting 50,000 hits on your website (as Francione says his has) is not trivial, I would need to see some statistics before I believe the claim that given a sample of people you can do better for animals by accepting only direct conversion to a vegan lifestyle as progress.

I do agree with Francione’s point though that some of the incremental changes serve to make people comfortable with consuming animals. In a subsequent follow up to the debate, Paul Shapiro from HSUS tried to rebut that by saying “That’s like telling people not to drive hybrid cars because it still pollutes the environment. If Francione thinks that small welfare improvements make people more comfortable eating more animal products then he would be campaigning against animal welfare, and trying to make conditions worse.” — The latter which is an excellent point. But neither Marcus nor Shapiro really answered or fully addresses those folks who are more satisfied being vegetarians because they eat stuff labeled ‘free range’, ‘organic’, or ‘cage free’. So I emailed Paul asking him to respond more directly to this point with standalone facts. If I hear from him I may do another blog entry. My view is that though some will be more comfortable clinging to food labels like free range or cage free, there are many more who will take the gradual approach to veganism, regardless of how it starts.

On one point of Francione’s I strongly disagree. He says that organizations like HSUS should essentially deplete their financial resources “now” to save or stop the suffering of animals immediately. He condemns them for essentially being a good business. Obviously that is ridiculous because if they spent all that money today - even except for what it takes to pay their employees and have operating expenses -then were for example, sued by some animal agriculture operation (or one of a thousand other things that could happen) they wouldn’t be able to afford a lawyer, and they’d go out of business tomorrow. Then by next week no more animals are being helped either by the reduction of suffering OR by the abolishment of the ‘property paradigm’. So that entire line of criticism is just wildly ignorant coming from an obviously intelligent guy like Gary Francione.

Marcus, while remaining much more polite, does not exhibit the debating skills to match. This is unfortunate, as for the first part of the discussion meant it was fairly one-sided. Marcus seems to drop back to some of the same points repeatedly which reduces the effectiveness of his argument, but this may just be a result of him not getting a word in edgewise for much of the discussion.

I think there are certainly valid points Francione made that Marcus didn’t want to face up to, such as the ‘comfort level’ thing. But there are also certain things Marcus said that Francione didn’t face up to, such that by stating abolition is completely different than welfare reform, and anyone who fights for welfare is wasting their time or essentially lying to people. Marcus rightly asserts that by not being inclusive to other segments of the movement, the result is a divisiveness among activists. While Marcus states that the abolition movement is a great additional tool for animals in addition to the existing ones of welfare reform and animal rights, Francione refuses to merge these two aspects of the movement. This would serve to exclude many activists, which seems counterproductive. On the second point Marcus argues that in fact, welfare advances have made the lives of untold billions better, not worse. He states it does more good than harm to enlighten the masses on the outrageous cruelties in animal agriculture (which are too numerous to mention here), a point I personally agree with.

I would be interested in what Francione considers ‘abolition activism’ most activists I have met always know veganism is the goal, but by his definition we’re in the “new welfare” camp churning out ‘happy meat’ eaters. Francione bases his arguments on the fundamental concepts of peace and non-violence, however much of the material I’ve read by him thus far seems to be based on aggression, negativity, and disagreement with other activists and animal rights groups. Aggression always reduces credibility of someone advocating peace. I admit though that I am new to Francione and have not read much of his work to date.

Some notable concepts brought to light from this discussion:
“Rights” is not the same thing as “Welfare” (you wouldn't advocate slaves welfare, but rights)
PETA has given an award to a designer of a slaughterhouse (presumably because it is “less cruel”.
We need to end the Property Paradigm homosapiens exact over non-human animals (G.F.)

Francione is the author of several books, including 'Rain Without Thunder

Marcus is the author of Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating and more recently, Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, and Money

My appreciation to each of the gentleman who participated in this discussion for allowing me to consider another aspect of compassionate living.

Labels: , , ,

Friday, March 09, 2007

Ethanol, it's a win win!

Well it may not be the electric car of the future that was killed by GM and oil exec's in the 80's, but any alternative fuel that reduces the need for oil is ok by me. And if that same fuel source can be a thorn in the side of animal agriculture and those who support them by consuming and buying meat products... well that's just icing on the vegan cake!!



So it is with much glee (and trust me, I usually don't have glee) that I inform my readers (yes, both of you) that....

Ethanol Demand is Driving Up Meat Prices

Some notable highlights:
"The average price of corn...is $3.20 a bushel, up from $2 last year."
"Meat and poultry production will fall as producers face higher feed costs" (ed- production? really?... are they 'manufacturing' meat?)

Here's to the upward trend continuing!

Labels: ,

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Dinner at Moe's was a Blast!

Thanks everyone who came out tonight for Veggie Burrito Night. Approx 30-40 people showed up, and we took over the place.

I love easy events where can all just hang out and get to know each other on a more personal level. It was great to see Bryan & Jen's new baby (our youngest member), and Sam & Patrick have announced their engagement. Lot's of new folks came out too which is great! New people are ALWAYS welcome. Thanks again everyone, I'm still smiling.


peace & love,
Dill

Labels: