Matching Update

The Matching Campaign has now topped $32,000 (doubled to $64k). As per yesterday's post, that means, at a minimum, 17,500 fewer years of suffering on factory farms, via the choices (and example) of more Connors:

"This flier tipped the scales for me this morning.
I'm going veg right now." Via Nikki at UC Santa Barbara.

Want even more?? Check out today's EN!

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Biggest Bang for the Buck

The folks at Utilitarian Essays look at the cost-effectiveness of Vegan Outreach's work.
Obviously, you could choose different parameters, and even start from different measures, to change the results a lot, but this is one take:

[A] single dollar donated to Vegan Outreach is expected to prevent between 100 days and 51 years of suffering on a factory farm.

The bottom line: we are always doing our absolute best to reduce as much suffering as possible per dollar donated and hour worked. Every day, we are focused on giving you the biggest bang for the buck!

At Cal State, Northridge, Nikki met Angelica, who has been
veg for a year since her boyfriend got a VO booklet.

Carolyn Mullin changes lives at Ventura Community College.

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Feedback and More Gateway Community College

I'm continually inspired by the advocacy highlighted here.... Vegan Outreach is one area of hope in our country that I am so grateful to be a part of. It is not only the content, but also the tone and framing of the message that keeps me engaged and interested in the work being done. Congrats and thanks for all your work!
—Jim, 11/25/11

You can be a part of this work, too, and bring about more of this:

Kathleen had no clue how animals were treated;
now wants to be a vegetarian! 

Carlos says: "I'm vegetarian because it's wrong
how they treat animals."

Harley is now interested in going veg!

And finally, for Ruby, John reports:

I leafleted her before her class; when she came out after class she walked by and said that it made her so sad. We spoke for about five minutes. She began crying a little and saying that these were God's creatures. Ruby told me that she'd pray for them, so I took it a step further and made it clear that she could also directly impact these animals by striding towards a veg diet. She seemed very excited that she could do something about it.

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Gateway Community College

John O sends this:

"I am never eating chicken again!"

More to come.

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More Jack and Ginny

Vegan Nutrition: Sometimes the Devil Really is in the Details

Restrained Eating and Vegetarianism in College Females

Bonus Links:

Re: Pizza is a vegetable.

Even in Utah! Mondays go meatless at Granite schools

From Suzanne:

I received the shirt and love it! I love your organization and all you the meaningful work you do. I've told so many people about what a terrific, responsive group Vegan Outreach is!

Erin Gaines (above) and Jennifer McMann (below)
change lives at the University of Texas, Austin.

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Friday Video: Changing Lives

Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to the End-of-Year Matching Challenge! Because of you, there will be many many more vegetarians next Thanksgiving!

If you haven't seen this video, we hope you find it informative and inspiring:

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Doin' the Charleston

Above, Tommy has been veg since getting a booklet at
the College of Charleston last year. Below,  Lauren Walker helps
another C of C student see the truth.

PS Some Thanksgiving thoughts from Ginny.

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Supply Only Changes When Demand Changes

In today's Enewsletter, we talk about how the work we do together change the world — not to have things be a bit less bad, but to make things fundamentally better.

Literally every single day, we are thankful to work with so many great people dedicated to this powerful, positive, and necessary work. We hope you can take a few minutes to peruse a few of the stories of the lives we have changed.

For the animals,
-Anne, Ellen, Matt

.

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Magnificent Miscellany

Dr. Greger talks turkeys.

Another vegan NFL star.

Fun gallery of Nikki and crew

Being on the right side of history (from Sept. 2010).

I received one of your booklets at UCLA. Today, I decided to read it, and I will stop eating meat. This conversation with myself has been going on for some time, and I want to thank you for providing the thing that finally put me over the edge. I can't deny that the icky feeling I get when I buy meat has its basis in fact. I can't be a hypocrite. Keep it up, I respect your work immensely.
—NP, 10/2/11

Emily has been vegan for nine years
since getting a VO booklet at Worcester HS.

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All in a Day's Work

The incredible Phoenix crew* did a leafleting and feed-in at Arizona State University on 11/7. Here are some of the people who pledged to be veg that day:

*Jeff, Rachel, Michael, Phoenix, Joseph, Devin, Isabella, Cathy, Kirby, Kelsey, John, Rachel, Anon, Ashley, Ciara, Shay, Amy, Kyle, Ardita, Christine.

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Gobble!

Here is Nature's page for My Life as a Turkey. You can check your local listings to see if/when it will replay in your area, or you can just watch the full episode here. Karen Dawn has a good review.

Nikki reports: Shannon and Brittany rocked Glendale High School!
Shannon choreographed a dance to "I will survive"
while Brittany held up informative signs throughout the song.
I leafleted students as they rolled out.

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Friday Video: Fish Like a View!

Koi Observation Tower. Who'dve thunk fish would like having a view?

Bonus quote, from RS, a monthly donor who also contributed to the EOY Matching:

You guys are the bomb! Optimism, logic, comfort, the feeling of accomplishment  as we move forward. No wonder I'm a monthly contributor. Not looking for kudos here, just saying that it's your actions and attitude that has made me feel good every time I send money to you. And every time I decline a piece of meat. Cheers!

Nikki sends this picture of Laura (with cookie!),
a new vegan at Citrus College.

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Memories of Summer: Warped Tour Impact

Don't know how I missed this before, but Phil Letten came across this video. From 2:25-2:59, she shows the VO booklet she got at Warped Tour and how it prompted her to go vegetarian.

Veg on the spot, Warped Tour, Marysville. 

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Whaaaaaat?? (Seriously!)

Way over 700k for the semester! Can you believe it?

Person-to-person, one at a time:
Michelle reaches another person at Auraria.

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Happier Vegans Are Better Advocates

Last Monday, ARZone ran this daily thought:

I think we will all be happier – and thus better examples, and thus better advocates for the animals – if we accept that some people will just be jerks. (And let’s be honest – that’s true about vegans, too – there are vegans who will be loudly belligerent with anyone whose thoughts deviate ever-so-slightly from theirs).

From this interview.

Brian at College of Marin.

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Wednesday Night — My Life as a Turkey

Lauren points out that PBS is airing My Life as a Turkey the evening of Wednesday, Nov 16, the week before Thanksgiving! Could be quite subversive.

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The Fatal Flaw I'll Gladly Embrace

Jack digs up this piece from early 2010, which concludes:

In the end ... pessimism is undermined by an earlier throw-away comment: “But now in the 21st century supermarkets routinely cater to vegetarian food buyers, restaurant menus regularly display vegetarian symbols, and the harm to health and the global environment caused by factory farming has become established knowledge.”

So in what is, by far, the most important area of animal advocacy, those of us actually working for the animals have made huge, undeniable, and absolutely vital progress. That’s a fatal flaw I’ll gladly embrace.

Lana and Frederic take Montreal!

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Catching Up On Pictures

Too many good pictures pouring in to use them all! Received in just the last few days:

A student at the University of Maryland
is engrossed in the truth.

Aaron Ross reaches another UMD student.

Joyce Gibler provides the animals a voice at CSU Stanislaus.

At the University of Georgia, a
student learns what had been hidden.

Nikki (above) and Steve (below) take to Santa Monica.

Tracy Patton went vegan and got into activism ten years
ago after getting a booklet from Joe Espinosa at UIC.

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We Filter The News So You Don't Have To!

Print Newsletter Now Available! (pdf)

Paul in The Atlantic: The Animals That Love Pain: How Factory Farming Explains Abuse

Ginny: Countering Claims Against Vegan Diets

McFib?

Dave Zabriskie on His Vegan Tour de France


And from Nikki:

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Jack: Vegan Advocate for Life

OneGreenPlanet interviews Jack.

PS, Jack recently received this feedback:

By the way, thank you for injecting good, credible science into vegan advocacy. It has been a much-needed contribution given the dubious information propagated by so many popular diet "gurus", both vegan and otherwise. Thank you!

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11/11/11 Friday Videos (and bonus feedback)

How growing meat in a petri dish may be the future

Meat the Future

PS:

I feel good about supporting Vegan Outreach because of your cost effectiveness and success. A big thanks to all the leafleters.
—SP

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Give People What They Want

I have tried a few fake-meat and also fake-dairy products and they all were terrible! I hate to waste my money on something that goes in the trash, so I was wondering if you could share the product brands that you like best and actually taste good. I know everyone is different, but you may have tried a lot of different brands over the years and determined which you like best.

Thanks for writing!

Unfortunately, a lot of vegan products are concerned first and foremost with being what someone considers to be optimally "healthy," which leads them to taste lousy (especially to someone used to the standard American diet). But a problem I have with judging new products is that I went vegan over 20 years ago; so for decades, I've judged products not against meat and dairy, but against older vegan products.

So it isn't surprising that I've heard from new vegans who hate products I love, and love products I've always thought were terrible.

First, I'd probably suggest Gimme Lean, both sausage and ground beef. I know people who have fed their meat-eating family GL without telling them (e.g., as tacos), and they never knew the difference. And my very non-vegetarian Dad will buy the sausage for himself, which is really saying something!

Another universal winner, in my experience, are Tofurky Deli Slices. I haven't had all flavors, but I haven't met anyone who disliked them. Not as widely tested but also almost universally loved are Field Roast sausages, especially Apple-Sage flavor. (The only person who doesn't like those is Anne, because they are too meat-like for her; she prefers Tofurky Italian Sausages.) Other Field Roast products are generally considered very good.

I have made many holiday meals with homemade seitan and gravy (using the seitan recipe on our site) that have pleased many meat-eaters (and been judged better than the Tofurky holiday roast).

Gardein products are generally, but not universally, loved. We've eaten many, many, many Boca burgers here, and find Gardein's Ultimate Beefless Burger to be well above it (but not as cheap, especially if you get Boca from Costco).

We eat loads of meals with Trader Joe's Chicken-less and Beef-less strips -- enchiladas, teriyaki stir-fry, curries, etc. That is probably the single item we eat the most.

As for non-dairy, we generally get whatever almond milk is on sale at the grocery store, and Silk chocolate soy milk for Anne's coffee. I think Silk's soy milk is very good, too. There's a huge variety, sweetened and not, "regular" and vanilla, etc. (I can't say I'm all that "up" on the latest non-dairy drinks.)

See this page too. Hope this helps!

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Thanks, Theo!

With the clothes I just cleaned, I found one of the plastic ties used to hold together leaflets. Each one of these ties holds together a set of 50 leaflets, which go into 50 unsuspecting hands with a simple message, "info about our food system," and 50 different people are given a persuading argument for why we ought to cut back on (or hopefully, give up) meat consumption. During the four days I took off work last week, I removed roughly 80 of these ties (and Brian did the same). We both had dozens of conversations with numerous individuals, and without a doubt influenced countless decisions as a result. If you care about animals at all, Vegan Outreach is doing the most effective work to reduce their suffering, and I encourage everyone to volunteer or donate to this excellent organization.
—Theo Summer (below)

And today, your support of Theo's efforts can go twice as far!

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Report from Jon

Record day at Stephen F Austin U, where I reached over 1,500 students. Good exchanges, too, including:

Woman A: She hates you (points to Woman B).
Me: Why?
Woman A: Because you just turned me into a vegetarian.

I then went on to tell Woman B that Woman A would be ok, that I've been veg for 16 years and haven't withered away, that my diet expanded as a result of going veg, etc. An awesome day of outreach!
—Jon Camp, 10/24/11

Irma Rodriguez makes sure this Grossmont College student
is able to make informed decisions.

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Reaching the 49%

Congrats to Erik for this excellent catch:

Only 51% of Americans Adamantly have “No Problem” Eating Meat & Dairy

That means almost exactly half of the population are willing to question the standard American diet!

Paul was at the conference where these results were presented, and noted: “In its summary of concerns Americans were offered, 'humane treatment of farm animals' ranked higher than obesity, environmental sustainability in farming, global warming, and having enough food to feed poor nations.”

As we write here:

Instead of wishing for a different world, we must honestly evaluate the world as it currently is, and then do our very best to reduce as much suffering as possible. We must reach and influence the people who might be willing to go vegan; reach and influence people who might be willing to go vegetarian; reach and influence the people who won’t (now) go veg, but who might stop buying meat from factory farms – and help support all of these people as they continue to evolve as consumers.
Outreach efforts to all of these people are necessary if we are to help a large and diverse society evolve to a new ethical norm. This is why Vegan Outreach produces a range of literature to make everyone and anyone, in any situation, the most effective advocate for animals possible.... Each step brings the animals’ interests to light, making people consider the otherwise hidden reality behind the meat they eat. There is no other way to go from a carnivorous society, where farmed animals have virtually no protection, to a vegan society where they have near-total protection.

Congratulations to everyone out there, every day, making this happen!

After getting booklets from Brian, these three Shasta College
all committed to changing their diets!

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Feedback, Next Generation

Thank you -- and thanks for The Animal Activist's Handbook! It's a great inspiration. Your ideas about maximizing activist efforts, and your suggestions for how to be a more graceful and effective advocate, are the main reason I'm ready to go out leafleting.
     I really appreciate all the work of everyone at Vegan Outreach (including the kind notes that Anne always sends for donations -- you really know how to treat donors and volunteers!).
—SS, 10/6/11

Jesse and Erin send along a picture of son Ace, who
“loves all sorts of foods, including tons of vegetables, legumes, whole grains and fruits.”

Don't forget the End-of-Year Matching Opportunity, where you can help reach twice as many new people!

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Catching Up with Jack and Ginny

Some of the latest articles by the Dynamic Duo who brought us Vegan for Life:

• Nutrition Calculator (meal planning and nutrition analysis)
• Blast from the Past: Eat Right for Your Type
• Glucosamine and Chondroitin
• An Essential Resource for Pregnant Vegans
• (And always worth plugging Real Vegan Children)
• U.S News Rates Vegan Diets (and Gets a Few Things Wrong)
• Become a Vegan in 10 Easy Steps

Marc Camp makes the animals' case at U Houston.

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Friday Non-Video from Mr. 300k

Interview with Brian "The" Grupe!
Note: this wouldn't play for me in Chrome, but did in Explorer.

After getting the Even If from Brian at Sonoma State, Murat
decided to stop eating animals right then.

Today, Brian handed a VO booklet to his 300,000th person! Congrats, Brian!!

You can support Brian's work and have your contribution go twice as far by clicking here!

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Bonus Post: Jon in Illinois and South Carolina!

Attention IL & SC: In the next two weeks, Jon Camp, VO's Director of Outreach, will be speaking in Chicago, Columbia, and Charleston. Details are here (Chicago, Saturday, Nov 5), here (Columbia, Wednesday, Nov 9), and here (Charleston, Thursday, Nov. 17).

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We Get Letters

Kathrin from Germany:

Dear Vegan Outreach Team,
     THANK YOU for being the way you are. I am new to the vegan lifestyle. Initially I had started looking into vegetarianism but my research made me realize that if you go vegetarian for ethical (and other) reasons, going vegan is the logical choice. I have equipped myself with facts and found encouragement and so far it has not really been as hard as I had expected.
     I have had a look at a variety of websites advocating veganism but they often came across as somewhat self-righteous and pushy. Thank you for being different. Your factual approach, leaving each and everybody to make their own decision in the end, and your openness to welcome a variety of opinions on how to lead a cruelty-reduced (I wish I could say free) life without evading the truth that with respect to some areas there just is not room for compromise, has encouraged me endlessly.
     Other vegan sites I have studied are quick at finger-pointing, while what I got from your site was also a display of the ability to question your OWN behavior as vegans in an animal-exploiting world. In the end, the complete lack of self-righteousness, the ability to develop new ideas within the framework of ethical behavior and the great and clear collection of facts is why Vegan Outreach has helped me become vegan more than any other resource I turned to. After all ... veganism, to me, is a kind way of living, but sadly, many organizations seem to forget that kindness to those curious in veganism will probably win more people over than harsh judgement and a Holier Than Thou attitude.
     Thank you so much for everything.

If you want to support VO's work, please take advantage of the End of Year Matching Challenge!

This student at Riverside Community
College has been stopped dead in her
tracks by the truth.

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Halloween 3

The Jester of Justice says:
Animal Cruelty Is No Laughing Matter.

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