Activism

Last night I glanced at the tv when my grandma was watching the news and saw a story about flour being dumped on Kim Kardashian because she wears fur coats. It got me thinking about Vegan and Animal Rights activism in general. With all of our options to spread a message about compassion a woman decides to waste food and give some celebrity even more publicity. All that woman managed to do was make me aware of Kim's perfume line and perpetuate the stereotype that vegans care about animals and not human beings. It also got me thinking about what does and doesn't work to get people to stop eating meat. I can only speak for myself and what worked for me. Picketing KFC and screaming at celebrities didn't work. What made me first go vegetarian was watching video of slaughterhouses that was showed on the local public access cable channel. I keep wondering why PETA, who is the largest animal rights group in the country if not the world, doesn't sponsor simple public service tv adds. I didn't make the leap to veganism for over five years because I thought being vegan was too much work and I was concerned about nutrition. That gradually changed because of rational people sharing and blogging about their experiences with veganism. Specifically an Austrailian woman's youtube channel called The Veganic Witch. She's unfortunately no longer on youtube because of a lot of drama going on. I'll probably never meet her but I'm grateful to her for making me want to lead a more compassionate life. Another person I found helpful was Isa Chandra Moskowitz, again something I found on youtube. She talked about culinary activism. It got me thinking that if you want people to be vegan you can't just shout fur is murder and show pictures of battery cages. You need to give them positive experiences of vegan food. I think alot of people agree with our ethics but think they'd just be eating salad all the time. Fear of being deprived is a big hurdle. Try to make it a bit smaller and try not to be a douchebag.