Movement Watch

Movement Watch

Lee Hall, with guest contributor Robin Lane | Winter 2003/2004

MOVEMENT WATCH is an update on recent and current campaigns in the animal advocacy movement, with brief, rights-based analyses. MOVEMENT WATCH does not provide a full overview of any listed advocacy group’s work. Campaigns and news items are selected for their legal and social significance.

Normally, MOVEMENT WATCH explores the legal significance of various animal advocacy campaigns. A discussion of the trend in vegan fairs is a bit of a diversion, but well worth including in our series. A good vegan fair, like a good vegan restaurant, has the potential to change the way people think about their diets and it does so in the most enticing way: by offering people of all ages wholesome and delicious food.

Most people want to live according to their principles; how many people sit down at the table, rub their hands together, and plot to further world hunger or to cause an animal to suffer? When the light goes on and we understand that, as individuals, we really do have power to address world starvation, environmental degradation, and animal suffering, we gain the strength that comes from knowing an individual actually can make a difference. Veganism is powerful.

Take animal suffering, for example. Over a lifetime, the average meat eater reportedly brings about the deaths of some 2,400 animals.[1] And if this is so, it means that a pure vegetarian spares 2,400 animals over a lifetime. Now that’s power. Most people working at animal sanctuaries would be greatly impressed by one person who has directly spared so many lives.

The vegan fair is a promising trend on a planet facing severe human suffering as well. With fast-food restaurants changing dietary habits worldwide, and meat consumption reaching an all-time high, the number of animals on farms around the globe has risen fivefold since 1950, and these animals now outnumber humans three to one.[2] Farmers are using up the Amazon jungle, once home to leopards, parrots and deer, to produce soybeans destined for cattle feed.[3] With farmed animals already consuming half the world’s grain, humanity is headed for global famine, probably within the next decade.[4] No wonder a commentary in The Guardian called veganism “the only ethical response to what is arguably the world’s most urgent social justice issue.”

Many people have responded to information about global hunger and animal use by embracing a mainly vegetarian diet, but continue to consume milk, cheese, or eggs. All of these products are environmentally destructive, and also rely heavily on grain production. Chickens reared for egg production are notoriously maltreated. Dairy cows suffer terribly throughout their lives, and their suffering is inextricably linked to veal production. With fish, the scenario follow the same pattern. Fish are known to feel pain and try to escape it; and they can also anticipate future pain.[5] At the same time, fishing devastates marine ecosystems.[6] It is becoming increasingly clear that pure vegetarianism, or veganism, is a necessary key to animal well-being and human survival.

So while annual health food fairs and green festivals are becoming popular events in major cities, some activists have moved a step beyond. It was 1996, at the annual general meeting of The Vegan Society, when Chris Sutoris and Robin Lane proposed Britain’s annual Vegan Festival. The Festival debuted in 1998, with over 1,000 people gathering to support it, and the event has flourished ever since.[7] Although the preparation takes time, facilitators Lane and Alison Coe say the rewards have been worth it.

Treats made by a small group of volunteers called Veggies have become a perennial hit, as has Vita Organic’s raw food and organic juice bar for health food fans. Children look forward to the art workshop, and there is also a drumjam for all ages and abilities. The popularity of the Vegan Festival means that it has outgrown its hall. They hope that corporate and private donations will enable them to reserve a larger venue by the 2004 event.

The Vegan Festival has inspired smaller vegan events, including a fair hosted by the grassroots group Realfood Campaign. The Realfood fair attracted about 300 people — and the attention of the BBC — with a remarkable ten-dish Chinese buffet, as well as a variety of Italian, Mexican, Greek, and Indian foods. Also available was a wide range of vegan meat, dairy and fish substitutes, salads, pâtés and dips. Soy milkshakes proved quite popular, as did the eight varieties of cakes and an impressive selection of chocolates. Organizers described the day as an encouraging time when meat eaters and vegetarians, including aspiring vegans, come into the hall to get information and sample the exciting array of edibles, and encounter a positive feeling generated by the crowd of people becoming educated and inspired by the benefits of a vegan lifestyle. One mother come into the fair with her four children, all of whom had gone vegan within a week of her decision to do so, because her conviction and compassion made perfect sense to them. One does not often see teenagers who aren’t embarrassed by parental idiosyncrasies, but these young people knew the significance of their mother’s decision, and whole-heartedly supported her. They were delighted to find themselves part of a larger community, and the youngest child seemed most pleased to be able to have “fish fingers with no dead fishes in them.”

Another entrant was the free vegan fair in November, in the city of Bristol. Non-vegetarians were, of course, warmly welcomed. Events included vegan food tastings and nutrition workshops, a talk on raw food, a presentation from an expert on cancer, a talk on animal rights, a talk on dog racing, allergy testing, a magic show and other entertainment for children, strolling magicians, poetry readings, and lessons in circus skills.

Now that their sixth national Vegan Festival has been a success, vegan pioneers Lane and Coe have built up a wealth of experience. When they first started, neither had any knowledge of organizing a large event. The message here, say Lane and Coe, is that it is entirely possible for any committed person to design and run a successful vegan fair — and inspire a trend.

Footnotes

  1. See Jim Motavalli, “The Case Against Meat” - E Magazine (Jan.-Feb. 2002).
  2. See George Monbiot, “Why vegans were right all along” - The Guardian (24 Dec. 2002).
  3. See George Monbiot, note 2 above; and Larry Rother, “Relentless Foe of the Amazon Jungle: Soybeans” — The New York Times (17 Sep. 2003).
  4. See George Monbiot, note 2 above.
  5. This has been noted by a number of leading scientists, including Donald Broom, Professor of Animal Welfare, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge.
  6. See George Monbiot, note 2 above.
  7. See “Vegan Food, Family and Festivals” by Chris Sutoris, published in Vegan Stories (Julie H. Rosenfield ed., 2002) at p. 126.