What a great time to be in Florida! Yeah... Not only has the weather been gorgeous but in just a few days on Saturday Oct. 25th I'll be attending the 9th Annual Central Florida VegFest. As in every year I have attended there will be lots of incredible booths filled with goodies, useful vegan information, delicious food and outstanding speakers.
I am thrilled that this year's speakers will include Emily Moran Barwick who is the sharp mind behind Bite Size Vegan. Her 3:00 PM talk will be on Veganizing Via Video: Effective Digital Activism & The Bite Size Vegan Story.
In this day in age people connect the most through digital means and social media. We are a visual culture with a waning attention span and it's important that those working to spread the message of veganism find ways to educate within this paradigm. Emily will share with you her personal journey with video activism, including her inconvenient tech-phobia and missteps, as well as speak to the key components of developing your own digital activism. She will also share some of the Bite Size Vegan videos and save time for questions.
Emily says "my hope is to help people really look at our reasoning behind what we do to animals; to examine our justifications more deeply than 'that’s the way it’s always been'.
I'm taking notes! ;) In the meantime if you can't attend this fabulous VegFest celebration --- Check out her awesome videos that pack so much useful information in an easy to swallow little nugget... Below are two of my favorites - The first is from the Vegan Ethics and Morality Playlist: And this 3 minute gem is jam-packed with cleverness, talent and truth! For me hearing Emily speak in person will be the highlight of this VegFest... I'm certain her humor, enthusiasm and well-reasoned communication will make its due impact here in Florida... I know her high energy is just the jump start I need! Thank you Bite Size Vegan for all you do and for coming down to the Sunshine State! :D
Gosh, Florida just can't stay out of the news (or my blog) this month!
Back in 2009 two Alachua County students were arrested on felony animal cruelty charges.
As the small minded, boastful (and stupid) jerks that they were, they posted a "brag video" on youtube. But when the animal services investigator went to the school principle he didn't even know that there was an ag-chick-raising-bird-killing program going on! Imagine that? 40 students involved in this FFA (Future Farmers Association) project and the only one "in charge" was teacher Allen Shaw who "On the day the video was shot, Shaw was helping students "kill and properly package their chickens."
Now I don't know... Any one ever see a "dead chicken" flap her wings as the video shows? How lazy and cowardly the "justice system" is huh? :(
The FFA organization is much like 4H - Yeah they have a "blah, blah" creed too. And a yearly "Beast Feast" where they can win prizes like hunting and fishing trips and killing equipment to add to the pleasure and fun. And they also can gorge on dead deer, pig, fish, and alligator bodies... Oh yes, and tortured chickens too.
I have nothing against teaching kids self sufficiency and how to grow healthy, wholesome foods with projects like the Edible Schoolyard. And I'd love to see the fruits of their labor in neighboring Plant City, that holds it's yearly Strawberry Festival this month... But I'll pass for all the "livestock" shows and the pig races. Pity such a beautiful celebration of nourishing and lovely fruits, marred by the inclusion of animal-slave exhibits.
Given the video above, and the blatant disregard that public institutions have for following law, I have good reason to be mistrusting of systems that indoctrinate kids into thinking that living beings are to be used and disposed of. This does not teach them respect or compassion. Clearly 4H, FFA and other organizations that teach kids it's okay to take innocent life, should be dismantled, spurned and rejected for the sinister propaganda that they spew. It fosters violence and "othering".
There's nothing wholesome, healthy, normal or kind in slaughtering victims. We need to stop condoning butchery - Not hold classes with hands on methods of doing such!
So - In lieu of all the above, Karen Davis founder of United Poultry Concerns, along with HERO Humane Educators Reaching Out, is organizing an effort to get Florida Schools to enforce statutory mandates of humane treatment toward all beings and to end the slaughter of animals in schools. Having spoken to dozens of education officials here in Florida - I can confirm that most haven't even ever heard of the statute: Title XXVII, Part IV, Chapter 1003.42 let alone follow it's rule.
You know... I can't do very much about the institutional slaughter of 57 billion land animals a year in the world... But I sure can do something about the brutalization in my own back yard!
Join us on March 31 from Noon to 1PM outside the Orange County Courthouse . Be there- if not in body, but in mind, spirit and intent! Oh... And you'll know who we are - We're the ones not wearing uniforms or badges... And not killing.
Thanks.
