Last weekend, I presented “How to Plan a Veg Fest” at the Animal Rights National Conference. It was my first time speaking at the conference, and I was honored to have a chance to present what I’ve learned through producing Twin Cities Veg Fest with Compassionate Action for Animals.

Twin Cities Veg Fest has been one of our most successful events. It drew 2,000 people last year, and we received tremendous amounts of positive feedback. People tasted excellent vegan food and were empowered with resources to move towards a plant-based diet. Just as importantly, the festival showed the general public that many people care about animals and are embracing lifestyle changes to help them. At the conference, I shared with other animal protection activists what I’ve learned so that they can do the same thing in their own communities.

I don’t have very much experience with public speaking, but this subject was easy for me to talk about. I’m enthusiastic about sharing what I know, as I see the veg fest as being an effective form of outreach that I hope other communities will try. After the talk, I heard from at least three people who are interested in planning a festival. I couldn’t ask for a better response than that!

Last year, CAA created a website as a resource for other communities interested in planning a veg fest. All of the information from my talk at the conference can be found there. 

This coming weekend, I’ll be speaking at the Animal Rights 2014 National Conference on how to plan a veg fest. The first thing I’ll mention in my talk is that our organization got a lot of help from other festivals when we started planning our own Twin Cities Veg Fest over three years ago. We’re now inspired to help others who would like to create veg fests in their own communities. With this intention, we here at Compassionate Action for Animals created a website, How to Plan a Veg Fest.

If you’re coming to the conference, you can hear my talk on Sunday, July 13th at 3:30 pm. If you want to plan a veg fest but won’t be attending the conference, please check out the website.

In the next couple of weeks, I’ll post an update about my experience at the conference. I look forward to learning from and sharing with our national community of animal advocates.

A couple weeks ago, our posse of Compassionate Action for Animals volunteers came together at the Pride Festival in Loring Park. We planned to use pay-per-view as our primary outreach method. With pay-per-view, we would offer festival attendees each a dollar to watch a five-minute video revealing the horrors of factory farming. Our goal was to reach as many people as possible and let them know what happens to animals on modern factory farms so that they can make informed food choices in the future. Usually, in one day of pay-per-view outreach at the University of Minnesota, we’re able to engage about 50 people to watch the video. We weren’t sure what this weekend at the Pride Festival would bring.

We started off strong on Saturday with some outgoing volunteers and enthusiastic viewers. Some who watched the video for the first time asked what can they do to help. Some proclaimed, “I’m never eating meat again!” We were happy to provide them with the Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating.

Later in the afternoon, some ominous dark clouds rolled in, and the rain started to pour. A few lost souls took shelter under our tent, including a pink-haired vegan cookbook author. As the downpour ensued, we had to suspend the pay-per-view activities, but discussions about farmed animals continued. Before long, the clouds cleared and we continued with our advocacy efforts as planned.

On Sunday, we continued with an energetic group of volunteers crying out for change and a few of the viewers crying because they were so moved by the video. Those tears of sadness became smiles of inspiration as they learned how they could move towards a plant-based diet.

At one point, we had shown the video so many times that we actually ran out of one dollar bills. Fortunately, our executive director Unny Nambudiripad came to the rescue with another batch of money to help the animals.

By the end of the weekend, we had given away 500 dollars and, more importantly, shown the video a staggering 500 times. Pride 2014 turned out to be our most far-reaching pay-per-view event thus far, and we hope that those who were so moved by the video will continue to reflect on that feeling of empathy and make changes in their diet to support those feelings.

If you would like to participate in this exciting work with CAA, we have a steady roster of outreach events on the horizon. Take a look at our August Outreach Opportunities and see if anything works for your schedule. For more information or to sign-up to volunteer, contact me at [email protected].

Why show up to summer gatherings empty-handed when the world of vegan food abounds with delicious options? This recipe for Creamy Potato Salad is sure to wow your friends and family. They won’t know the difference once they bite into this creamy classic gone vegan.

Most recipes for potato salad call for an egg-based mayonnaise. The only difference here is that an egg-free mayonnaise is used. Try Vegenaise. Many people enjoy this particular brand even more than the common non-vegan versions.

Everyday, hundreds of millions of egg-laying chickens experience agregious abuse on modern factory farms. If you want to help alleviate this suffering, consider alternatives to eggs and those things made from eggs like mayonnaise. With options such as this vegan Creamy Potato Salad, we can still participate in our fun summer outings, enjoying familiar foods in the company of our loved ones, but we can choose to make those foods in ways that reflect our compassion for animals.

I’ve been fascinated with fishes for as long as I can remember. Maybe it’s because I’m from Minnesota, “the land of 10,000 lakes.” Or maybe I loved The Little Mermaid so much as a child that I grew up wanting to explore that world “under the sea.”

However, life for fishes is far from a fairy tale. These sentient beings are the most exploited group of animals on our planet. In the United States alone, humans kill 60 billion fishes every year for food. Excluding shellfish, that’s more than seven times the number of all other animal groups killed for food.

Why is this this death toll so astronomical? Perhaps it’s because humans have difficulty relating to fishes. After all, fishes don’t live in a world that is at all familiar to us. They aren’t cuddly and furry. They can’t express emotion on their faces. Some don’t even have faces! Fishes have long been misunderstood as primitive, cold, unfeeling creatures, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. These animals live dynamic lives within complex social communities. They recognize each other, learn from each other, and cooperate with each other.

Domestic cats, with all of their different personalities, habits, and abilities, are only one species. Now consider that what we refer to as “fish” contains more than 25,000 species. When we group them together and generalize this large group of animals, we lose sight of their distinctive qualities.

Here are a couple of my favorite species from this incredible underwater world:

Frillfin gobies live in tide pools. They each have a home pool, but sometimes when the tide rolls out, the waves sweep them into a different pools. These gobies aren’t the adventurous type and want to get home as quickly as possible. They leap from pool to pool until they reach home. They’re able to find their home pools even from ninety feet away. How are they able to do this, you wonder? When the tide is high and they’re still able to swim freely above the pools, they create a mental map of the area. They then use this map to get back to their home pool once they are swept away. I wish I had a sense of direction like these guys!

Certain species of sticklebacks have a sense of justice. To check out a predator, they pair up in teams of two and have a specific pattern to follow. While moving toward the predator, each take the lead for about half of the time. Occasionally, a fish will slack in its duty. Then, the next time there’s a scouting mission, the partner of the slacker fish will try to find a different partner. If they need to be a pair again, the fish will punish the former slacker by refusing to lead. (This reminds me of 10th grade English class more than I’d care to admit.) Passive aggressive behavior isn’t the best option, but for these sticklebacks it seems to be working.

I hope this glimpse under the sea has inspired you to learn more about our underwater friends. I’ve shared a few of the remarkable qualities of just two species of fish. Remember, there are 25,000 more for you to discover!

Please check out fishfeel.org, an organization dedicated to promoting the recognition of fish as sentient beings.

CAA volunteer and vegan powerhouse AmyLeo Barankovich is teaching a picnic-themed cooking class at Valley Natural Foods on Tuesday, July 23rd. AmyLeo will teach you how to prepare a traditional summer picnic meal minus the animal products. You’ll have lots of vegan recipes to explore and scrumptious samples to take home: Juicy Lucy with Daiya nondairy cheese shreds, New Potato Potato Salad with a hint of cilantro, and Chocolate American Flag Brownie with fruit stars. You won’t leave hungry!

Summer Fun Picnic Eats and Treats

Tuesday, July 23rd

6:00 – 8:00 pm

Valley Natural Foods

13750 County Road 11

Burnsville, MN 55337

952-891-1212

$10 (co-op member-owners) and for $15 (for non-members)

Register in advance!

BREAKING NEWS: An anonymous donor will match the next $100 of funding for the Twin Cities Veg Fest campaign. Give now to our Indiegogo campaign and see your contribution doubled! The campaign expires tomorrow on Tuesday, July 1st at 11:59 PT. Only 1 day left! We’re not far from our goal, but we need your support to make it the rest of the way.

Your support helps fund a festival that celebrates compassion and welcomes everyone, whether vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore. Twin Cities Veg Fest brings the community together and shows how fun and delicious a compassionate lifestyle can be. It’s both powerful form of outreach and a fun way to spend the day.

Our third annual Twin Cities Veg Fest 2014 will happen on Sunday, September 28th, 2014, 10am – 4pm at Coffman Memorial Union on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota. Our previous festivals were great successes, and we anticipate continued growth. With your support, we can reach new audiences, provide more tasty vegan food, and bring cooking demos to the festival.

To learn more about Twin Cities Veg Fest, listen to our most recent Exploring Veg, the Compassionate Action for Animals podcast. In this first podcast of a four-part series devoted to all things Veg Fest, we give an overview of the upcoming festival. CAA Executive Director Unny Nambudiripad talks with Twin Cities Veg Fest organizer Dave Rolsky about what the Veg Fest is, how it came to be, and what it offers the general public.

Twin Cities Veg Fest is free to attend. Your generous support is what makes this event possible.

Visit our Indiegogo campaign page, and check out the range of perks for different levels of contribution. We have everything from a cute CAA button to a homemade vegan cake delivered straight to your door.

Contribute today and become a Twin Cities Veg Fest Funder!

Their Lives, Our Voices 2014 is a one-day conference that offers both established and aspiring activists an opportunity to develop their advocacy skills and to meet other people who are also speaking out for animals. The conference takes place on Saturday, September 27th, 2014, the day before Twin Cities Veg Fest 2014. In this post, we interview Andrew Rockway, a committee member for the festival who is helping to plan Their Lives, Our Voices 2014.

How did you get interested in advocating for animals?

The majority of my friends, somewhat coincidentally, are vegan, so it’s a natural extension of being politicized by like-minded people.

What have you enjoyed most so far?

About advocating for animals? It’s certainly preferable to the alternative. It’s also nice to meet people who are interested in promoting the needs and rights of animals.

What are you most looking forward to at the Veg Fest?

Lots of food!

You’re planning our conference, Their Lives, Our Voices. Tell me about the conference.

TLOV offers vegans and non-vegans opportunities to enhance their abilities as animal advocates. We have speakers presenting philosophical and ethical arguments related to animal advocacy as well as speakers offering practical information on general activism to develop the hard skills needed to be effective.

Why is it important for activists to attend Their Lives, Our Voices? What will they learn?

TLOV is an excellent opportunity for those interested in advocating on behalf of animals to invest in themselves. TLOV helps activists build new skills, expand their networks, and be reinvigorated in animal activism. Whether it’s learning new strategies for communicating with non-vegans, developing better time management skills, or learning how to build an effective campaign, TLOV offers new information for even the most experienced advocates.

What makes you optimistic about the animal advocacy movement?

Here in Minnesota, at least, tons of young people are interested in becoming effective advocates, taking that next step beyond becoming vegetarian or vegan. It’s great to see young people working hard to build the community that sustains and supports advocacy efforts.

Imagine you’re talking to somebody who isn’t vegetarian and is, um, a little afraid of you. What would you say to them to convince them to come to the festival?

Fooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.

What hobbies do you enjoy (besides devouring tasty vegan food)?

I like to read (lots of things), ride my bike, and now that it’s summer, sit on my front stoop.

What’s a fun experience that you’ve had with a non-human animal?

[Editor: Silence. A goofy guy like Andrew hasn’t had a fun experience with animals? I guess he is goofy and mysterious.]

What’s your favorite vegetable?

Is pizza a vegetable? No? Possibly rainbow chard (it’s so pretty!) or red onions.

This interview was originally published on the Twin Cities Veg Fest blog.

Did you know that “vegetarian” was first coined in 1842 and has more to do with its Latin root, vegetus, which means “lively, fresh, and vigorous,” than with vegetables?

More and more people are wanting to lead “lively, fresh, and vigorous” lives as vegetarians or vegans out of compassion or for health reasons. Becoming Vegan, Express Edition: The Everyday Guide to Plant-based Nutrition by Brenda Davis, RD and Vesanto Melina, MS, RD is a helpful resource to combat common nutritional misconceptions and to ensure proper nutrition. This book could be helpful resource for anyone, whether or not they consider themselves to be “becoming vegan” and no matter where they fall on the spectrum of plant-based eating,

As registered dieticians, Davis and Melina offer a wealth of knowledge on how to get enough protein, where to find key minerals like B12 and iron, and what good fats to include in your diet. Last year, I wasn’t able to be a blood donor because my iron level was on the low end of normal, and since then I’ve been looking for ways to get more iron into my diet. Becoming Vegan taught me that cutting back on caffeine and including vitamin C in my meals will increase my iron absorption. In other words, an iron-rich breakfast of oatmeal with raisins and nuts is even more iron-rich when I add a serving of citrus fruit or strawberries to it. Don’t worry if that meal idea doesn’t sound good to you; the book includes a chart of vegan foods and their general mineral content to help you plan nutritious meals to suit your tastes.

In addition, Becoming Vegan offers nutritional advice for those with special dietary needs, including pregnant women, children, and the elderly. I’ve often heard that folate is important for pregnant women. I was relieved to read that vegans and vegetarians who eat beans, greens, and oranges can easily meet their folate needs. Another helpful table lists foods that provide 15 grams of protein per serving and also have high levels of iron, zinc, and folate. You can use this table to help you to maximize the nutrition in your diet. The next time you’re sitting down to watch a movie, swap out the popcorn for a couple cups of fresh pea pods and get a major boost of protein, iron, and folate. These kinds of strategies and sample menus that you’ll find in the book will help you to feel confident that, no matter what your life stage, you’re getting the nutrition that you need to thrive.

Chapter Eight overviews the strengths and weaknesses of ten different vegan diets and in the process reveals the variety of food choices that vegans have. Davis and Melina include tips on how to make those diets work for your nutritional needs. Additional chapters focus on dietary modifications for those who are overweight, underweight, or athletes.

One of my favorite resources in Becoming Vegan is “The Vegan Plate,” a diagram accompanied by a table of suggested servings and tips. I recommend making a photocopy of this diagram and sticking it on your fridge as an easy reference guide. I also appreciate the recipe for “Liquid Gold Dressing,” a whole foods alternative to a vitamin supplement. Each serving contains your daily dose of omega-3 fatty acids and half your daily B12 requirement.

I recommend Becoming Vegan, Express Edition to anyone looking for a comprehensive guide to plant-based diets or for those who want to be well-versed in addressing misconceptions about vegan nutrition and current dietary controversies, like whether or not soy is good for you. I learned a lot of valuable information about being healthy on a plant-based diet that will benefit me for years to come, allowing me to be the most “lively, fresh, and vigorous” vegetarian or vegan I can be.

Every now and then, animal advocacy groups like Mercy for Animals release undercover videos of factory farms. In fact, they released an investigation of Pipestone Systems here in Minnesota just last fall.

These undercover videos help us to see for ourselves how animals are treated in these facilities.

Eager to make us feel at ease with what they do, some producers want us to resist the idea that animals are raised on factory farms. They ask instead that we think of all farms simply as farms. No doubt they hope to encourage the kinds of images that go along with the idea of a farm – places where we are asked to think of farmers as doing what’s best for their animals. If we want an accurate image of animal agriculture, though, we’d do well to resist.

Here’s why.

We’re often asked to see the decision to move animals inside as a kindness, since inside they’re spared from extreme weather. We aren’t told that confinement helps producers save money on feed. Animals who can’t move don’t need as much food as animals who can.

And let’s think about what happens to animals inside.

Mother pigs are confined for months at a time in gestation crates, cages so small that the pigs trapped in them can’t turn around. Baby pigs have their tails and testicles cut off without pain relief. And piglets who aren’t growing fast enough or who are in need of medical care are killed by being slammed head first against a concrete floor.

Eager to put us at ease with these practices, those in the industry try to convince us that they do these things for the sake of the pigs. But they leave important parts of the story out.

We’re told gestation crates help prevent aggression that arises when sows are raised in groups. We aren’t told that research shows this aggression subsides after only a day or so and that after a week the sows form stable social groups.

Research also shows that aggression between the sows poses a threat to the producers’ bottom line — when you introduce sows into groups after they’ve been artificially inseminated there’s a risk that some embryos won’t implant.

We’re told sows in groups have higher cortisol levels than sows in gestation crates. (Cortisol is a stress hormone.) We aren’t told that cortisol levels are elevated during sex and play as well, complicating the argument that elevated cortisol levels are always a bad thing.

We aren’t invited to ask whether the brief period of aggression and the stress that comes from being able to interact meaningfully with others might be worth it for a sow when the alternative is nearly four months of confinement in a gestation crate.

We’re told that slamming the heads of baby pigs against a concrete floor is a fast and pain free way to kill them. We aren’t invited to ask why we would never consider euthanizing our cats or our dogs like that.

We’re told cutting the tails off of baby pigs prevents them from chewing each other’s tails off. We aren’t told that tail biting only becomes a problem in confinement, where the pigs being bitten are unable to run away.

We aren’t told why baby pigs have their testicles cut out. It’s done because leaving pigs intact can impact the taste of their flesh.

We aren’t told that baby pigs are denied effective pain relief in cutting off their tails and testicles because it would cost too much. Painkillers and vets to administer them, after all, aren’t free.

We’re often presented with a false dilemma. We’re told we can either save some money by eating pigs raised in these awful ways or pay more and eat pigs raised differently. We’re liable to forget the other alternative — quit eating pigs altogether.

When you hear from those in the industry about how much they care about their animals, it’s important to remember that they’re in business. It’s important to remember that what they tell you is marketing. They have a product they want to sell you and what we’re learning about animal agriculture is giving us good reason not to buy it.

Producers will point out that the practices I’ve described are standard in the industry. But this response  is empty. The fact that practices have become standard doesn’t make them morally acceptable.

It would be unthinkable to do these things to our cats or our dogs. Not only does the law forbid it but so does a basic interest in showing kindness and compassion toward our fellow creatures.

And aren’t pigs our fellow creatures too?

Jeff Johnson is a philosophy professor at St. Catherine University, an active volunteer with Compassionate Action for Animals, and a member of the CAA board of directors. This article was first posted on his Tumblr blog in response to a recent article in the Star Tribune.