Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, & Money discussion

Thanks for becoming part of this Meat Market book club. Before you participate in the discussions, it would be great if you could introduce yourself in this thread. These sorts of things would be of interest:

• Where you're from.
• Some of your favorite veggie-oriented books/authors
• Any animal or veggie advocacy you've done in the past.
• What you're hoping to get out of participating in this discussion forum.

If there's anything not covered above that you'd like to add, we'd love to hear it!

Hello, all. My name is Lori. I live in Seattle, and I just graduated with a B.A. in English and Art History from the University of Washington. Though a student, I am not the average "student" age. After ten (or so) years of working in the soul-sucking advertising industry I decided to return to college to find my niche, and to learn how to exploit said niche. I write.
In addition to "Meat Market", "Animal Liberation" by Singer, and "Dominion" by Scully, are a few of my favorite philosophical selections concerning animals. Cookbooks are another category altogether.
I have been vegetarian (vegan later) since 1986. My work as an activist (since 1987) ranges from leafletting to liberating. What do I hope to gain from this forum? I don't really know how to answer this. The more I see of this world the less inclined I am to believe it will change. I guess I am here because I'm looking for hope.

Hi I'm Bonnie from Toronto, Canada. I am a writer and editor by profession.

I read all the best known veggie authors. Someone I adore is Gene Baur of Farm Sanctuary. I'm pleased to have met him twice here in Toronto, and interviewed him for a veggie blog. He's a lovely person, so loving despite all the cruelty he's seen. I admire that. His book is fabulous. I enjoy Colleen Patrick Goudreau's podcasts too. She's inspiring and so knowledgeable.

I blog and tweet about animal rights and veganism, and I post photos of animals on flickr (not animals in zoos). My photos have helped change peoples' views about the animals they see around them. They have told me so. I'm proud of that. (I'm Ducklover Bonnie on flickr, should you wish to see my work).

What I hope to get out of this discussion forum is the opportunity to meet activists and to expand my social circle to include inspiring people. I am always looking for ways to advance my activism, so I'm hoping to learn from the other participants. And make friends!

Oh, and I've been vegan for four years.

Hi I'm Michelle from Charleston, SC. I am an RN working in Immunology for autoimmune disease and arthritis. My husband is in the Air Force and I have 2 girls ages 3 and 7. After reading The Food Revolution, I read the China Study and it changed my thinking! I then went on to buy over 35 Vegan Cookbooks, because my family did not like vegan cooking. I kept thinking if I can just find a cookbook my family would like this would be so much easier. I just mix and match recipes and love the Enguine 2 diet and Get Healthy Go Vegan for the family style meals. I am an athlete and recently became a exercise coach and I am talking about The China Study, and the work of Dr. Neal Bernard, DR. Fuhrman, and others that have figured out how diet can effect health and prevent cancer, osteoprosis, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, etc.

So I am using my position as a Nurse and a Coach to influence others to give up meat and dairy for the health concerns. Once they do the research then their eyes become open like mine did to the abuse animals suffer and how unsafe conditions are for the animals smeared in feces.

I am a vegeterian and want to get that push to be a vegan. I do follow vegan.com blog and send something everyday to facebook from his blog. It is starting to spark some interest from some of my friends.

Bonnie, I am on twitter...I would love to follow you!

I became a vegan/vegeterian one year ago while my husband was in Afghanistan, so it was very stressful trying to change our eating and buying habits.

I am hoping to make some friends and become an activist.

Hi, everybody. I'm Lisa, from San Francisco. I became vegetarian in 1977 and vegan (a long road to it) between 1988 and 1994. Last month was my 16th year anniversary as a vegan.

I used to be much more active, mostly in various vegan education activities. I did start a book club, via one of my local vegan groups, where we get together and eat vegan food and read mostly fiction. I'd like to become more active again. Right now, the extent of my vegan activism is supporting individuals who are interested in being vegan.

I've read quite a few animal rights books, vegan supporting books, vegan cookbooks.

Just a few of my favorites are

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism and Strategic Action for Animals: A Handbook on Strategic Movement Building, Organizing, and Activism for Animal Liberation by Melanie Joy,

The Animal Activists Handbook: Maximizing Our Positive Impact in Today's World by Matt Ball and Bruce Friedrich,

The Inner World of Farm Animals: Their Amazing Intellectual, Emotional, and Social Capacities by Amy Hatkoff,

Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals by Karen Dawn,

and so many others. (You can check out my animal-rights, vegan, and cookbooks shelves for book ideas.)

I'm here to participate and learn, and to also hopefully be helpful to others. I do love interesting vegan oriented and animal rights discussions.

ETA: Welcome to Goodreads, Erik! And, thank you for starting this group!

ETA again: I went vegan (from vegetarian) after reading Diet for a New America by John Robbins.

Hi all. I'm Erin from Belton, TX--a lonely place for vegans and animal advocates. I've been vegetarian for 15+ years, but I'm new to veganism (almost a year now). I volunteer with a pet adoption group and have participated in some Petland protests. I contact my legislators frequently regarding animal-friendly legislation, though ultimately I have far more faith in the power of grassroots activism. I'm here to gain knowledge and tools to become a more effective advocate.
Favorite AR books include:
Thanking the Monkey - Karen Dawn
The Animal Activists Handbook - Friedrich & Ball
A Rare Breed of Love - Jana Kohl
Vegan: A New Ethics of Eating - Erik Marcus
I'm happy to be here :)

Hi I'm Caroline from Fairfield, PA. My husband became veg then vegan after taking a philosophy class in college in the 1980s. Some of the required readings were Peter Singer and Tom Regan. These readings inspired him to go vegetarian. After about a year, I was inspired also. At first, we relied quite a bit on eggs and dairy to fill the spots where meat used to be but, following the logic of humane eating to its conclusion led us to veganism. Let me tell you kids, back then it was pretty rough going (I'm sure Lisa from SF can sympathize). We only had 2 vegan cookbooks and no internet (with its awesome vegan recipe blogs) and no Whole Foods markets. Our daughter, Eliza, born in a more veg-friendly era, is 15, homeschooled and a life-long vegan. She thinks vegan cheese is gross. We live on a farm and have way too many rescued animals. I got my copy of Meat Market straight from Erik's hands when he gave a talk at a local animal sanctuary. Recently, I've enjoyed reading Jonathon Safran Foer.

One reason I'd like to participate in this discussion is to get some advice on answering questions from curious omnivores in the most succinct and knowledgeable way possible. I also want some opinions on a rather frustrating counter-argument to vegetarianism I've encountered recently and that is, "I need it for my health".

Nice to meet you all!

Hi everyone, I'm Lee from Hamilton, Ontario. I'm a relatively new vegan as well, just coming up on one year. The book that inspired me to go vegan was John Robbins' The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World and more recently I read and loved Melanie Joy's Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism.

I still have a lot of questions about veganism that niggle away at the back of my mind and look forward to the discussions here. My good friend Lisa from San Francisco above was a major support and influence for me and I hope to be the same for my friends and family. I write a vegan food blog and am also a bit of a cookbook fanatic. I am not aquainted with any other vegans in person and hope to expand my circle of friends to other compassionate and aware people.

My name is Peacegal and I'm a Goodreads addict. *Hi, Peacegal...* As you may see from my page I'm quite active in reading and reviewing animal advocacy books. I'm also very interested in humane education and am building a Goodreads library of children's and young adult books that promote compassion.

Hello,
I gave up eating animal "products" completely after sseing Food Inc. I had a vague sense that all was not well in the raising of animals for food. I'm naturally squeamish and I had to force myself to see the Pollan film. As bland as that movie was, it was enough to make me swear off eating these "foods" forever.

I'm an artist and a writer and I live in Oakland. I've had five or so letters to the editor published on factory farm cruely and/or the health aspect to this.

I've also handed out leaflets for Vegan Outreach. ONce at Laney College which is a community college in Oakland and once at UC-Berkeley. I have tried and failed to convince friends and family to give up eating animal food.

I would really like to convince our son, who is starting to gain weight, even offering to pay for him and his wife to go with us on the McDougall Costa Rica trip. Didn't work. I kind of wished I hadn't offered because I think it made him even more entrenched in his point of view.

I'd also like to convince my brother who is five years younger than me, is overweight, in bad shape and who has had colon cancer. No go.

It all makes me sad, sad for the animals, sad for the environment, sad for people I dearly love who are suffering physically. Of course, like everyone who knows anything about these issues, I find it very very frustrating.

Yet I'm also grateful for the brave work that is being done to address this situation. And happy I'm not alone in my concerns and worries. I appreciate Erik's work and read his blog every day.

I think veganism is a spiritual path and not an easy spiritual path.

My name is Jaya Bhumitra, and I am from Los Angeles. While I have started to develop a library of animal welfare/rights classics, I admit I have not had a chance to read many of these books yet. In fact, while I spend about 3 hours each day reading on these issues (from sources such as blogs, newsletters, and news articles), one of the reasons I joined this group is because I thought the structured format would force me to make time to read a full-length book and delve more deeply into the content.

I am a volunteer outreach coordinator for Compassion Over Killing in Los Angeles, a contributing writer for ThisDishisVeg.com, and have been an active animal advocate for the past year and a half (since I became vegan). I had been vegetarian for the 20 years prior to that (and would have been vegan if someone had only told me about the realities of dairy and egg farming or leather and wool production). I'm trying to make up for lost time by being as active as possible now. I spend most of my time on vegetarian outreach but support all animal causes.

My academic and professional background is in marketing, communications, and psychology.

Hello, I am Vicki Renee and I live in the suburbs of San Diego in Rancho Bernardo. I am an animal rights, animal activist person. I own a publishing company and a book store that contains so much vegan information for anyone to take. I also rent videos about animals for free to anyone that wants to educate. My life is for the animals and my bookshelf's are crazy with so many book that I couldn't even begin to list them.

I live with a dog and 3 cats. I love my life and how I have evolved to this point in my life. I hope to help anyone who wants to help the animals as they really have no rights.

I am actually on the terrorist list because of one phone call for the animals which I find amusing as I am no terrorist. It is laughable to me.

I want to know how vivisection and vegans interact with each other for many.

Rich blessings to all.

Hi everyone. I'm Kristina. I've been vegan for a little over 3 years now and before that I was vegetarian for about 4 years. I live in Akron, Ohio which is less than an hour south of Cleveland. I have my BA in English and I'm currently working on my MA in English Composition.

The first "vegan" book I read, and the one that convinced me that veganism is the way to go, was "Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating," by Erik Marcus. Other than that, most of my vegan-based reading, other than a blog here or there, has been of the cookbook variety, sad as that may be. (I love Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Sarah Kramer!) That being said, what I'm most looking forward to in this discussion is simply getting more information. I know why *I'm* vegan but without a lot of facts, it's sometimes difficult to back up my decision when talking to other people.

I'm also hoping to make a couple of vegan friends out there, even if it's a long-distance sort of thing. After three years, I still have a very limited circle of vegan buddies. It'd be great to expand that.

I noticed that a few people have mentioned twitter. Follow me (@kmf85) & send me a DM so I make sure to follow you back! :)

Wow, I'm so impressed by intelligence, the level of commitment and the energy of the people who have come to this group. I also love the fact that we're from all over the country and some of us are new to this way of thinking and eating. That means the word IS getting out more and more.

I'm Meredith. I live in San Diego. I am very active in the animal rights / vegan community. I campaigned avidly for California Prop 2 passage in 2008. I heard Erik speak in my city just before the release of Meat Market (when was that?)and I credit him for getting me to stop eating eggs and dairy. I am thankful and happy every day that I do not contribute to the suffering of other living beings and I am thrilled to have such wonderful, compassionate friends on this earth.

Hello, I'm Cheryl and I have been vegan for 8 years. My husband has been vegan for 3 years (that also happens to be the length of time we have been together). I do lots of vegan & AR events. Currently my husband & I are starting a veganic farm up by Redding, CA. I own Meat Market but have not had a chance to read it, so I will be reading it in the next week or so.

Hello All, I'm Erica and I have been vegetarian for fifteen years and a vegan for two. I have worked in animal rescue, welfare, and advocacy for the past eight years, most recently starting up the non-profit organization called Karuna For Animals: Compassion In Action, Inc. It is the ultimate goal of the organization to rescue, rehabilitate, and home animals of all species. We do work in Humane Ed., Community outreach, fundraising, event planning, and more. Check us our at www.karunaforanimals.com. I am also a vegan chef, who loves to present veggies and non-veggies alike with amazing vegan meals, options, and nutrition. Additionallly, I am a certified yoga instructor who practices and teaches the principle of Ahimsa or "non-violence" on a daily basis. Currently I am working on my MFA in Creative Writing and am completing my thesis (fervently searching for a publisher!), "The Virtues of Veganism." Jenna and Bob Torres, Will Tuttle, Sharon Gannon and David Life, Erik Marcus, and many more that have come before me and set the bar extremely high, are my teachers and mentors.

Hi all, Joe Espinosa here from Chicago, Illinois. I became vegetarian in 1992 and went vegan in 1994. I am a full time Social Worker in Chicago and leaflet for Vegan Outreach each week. I spent my first few years in animal protection doing the standard animal rights activities we were taught to do, but switched to leafleting for Vegan Outreach after thinking a bit about what was the action most likely to spare the most animals from the most suffering. I am not a big reader following graduate school which burned me out, and being busy between work and animal protection work, but would put Meat Market, The Animal Activist's Handbook, and Eating Animals as my top 3 books. Here to participate in the exchange of ideas that will become increasing important as animal agribusiness gets more intelligent in their responses to the efforts of animal protectionists.

I'm Adam. I live in Berkeley, CA, where I'm a graduate student in mathematics. I've actually read relatively few advocacy books. I liked Meat Market and Eating Animals, though. I write a blog called "Say What, Michael Pollan?" devoted exclusively to criticism of Michael Pollan, including a lot on his treatment of animal issues. I've also worked with a new food co-op to make sure that animal issues receive proper attention in making buying decisions.

Hi Adam,
I'm glad you've taken on Michael Pollan. We have a house in West Marin, a part of the country which is I think ground zero for the locavore movement. The mantra here is organic, grass-fed, free range and Michael Pollan is a near diety.

It's amazing to me how just a few people (I'm thinking of Pollan, Andrew Weil and Dr. Oz.) can end up the authorities on food, health, etc. I guess it's our celebrity society.

I am Zsuzsanna. I'm in the Chicagoland area. I homeschool my two teens and one preteen. I also run Weekly Vegan Menu blogspot, which I started as a direct result of reading "Meat Market." When I began it I wasn't aware that there were already millions of vegan blogs on the web.

Fortunately, the blog has actually inspired several members of my homeschool community to take the plunge and go veg. There was no preaching involved or even encouragement; I guess it was more of a familiarity with my family, the fact that we aren't totally nuts and the ease and variety of the foods that my family eats daily. The blog is a lot of work, but very worth it.

From this group I hope to be able to address more of the typical ignorant garbage that people tend to spew. Marcus and Vegan Outreach have provided some ammunition for the classic ones, but folks seem to be coming up with more and more reasons for eating animals. Up until recently I would avoid conversations based on animal agriculture because people are too selfish and self-centered to be concerned about any other beings besides humans. In short, it has been too disheartening to talk about. I know I need to go beyond my comfort zone and be able to intelligently and succinctly discourse about this topic.

I'm Andy, I live in Miami, FL. I was vegetarian for about 2-3 weeks until I read Eating Animals and have been vegan for almost 6 months. I have been involved with Vegan Outreach here for about 4-5 months. I'm currently reading The Animal Activist’s Handbook. I have read Slaughterhouse, Farm Sanctuary and Eat To Live also. I own Vegan Planet, Juiceman's Power of Juicing, and a few other cookbooks. I have not read Meat Market yet, but I hope I can further my knowledge to be a more effective activist.

Zsuzsanna wrote: "I am Zsuzsanna. I'm in the Chicagoland area. I homeschool my two teens and one preteen. I also run Weekly Vegan Menu blogspot, which I started as a direct result of reading "Meat Market." When I be..."

Zsuzsanna wrote: "I am Zsuzsanna. I'm in the Chicagoland area. I homeschool my two teens and one preteen. I also run Weekly Vegan Menu blogspot, which I started as a direct result of reading "Meat Market." When I be..."

What is the name of your blog?

Leslie wrote: "Zsuzsanna wrote: "I am Zsuzsanna. I'm in the Chicagoland area. I homeschool my two teens and one preteen. I also run Weekly Vegan Menu blogspot, which I started as a direct result of reading "Meat ..."

Hi Leslie,

It is http://www.weeklyveganmenu.blogspot.com

ZS

Great website. I'll have to try some of the recipes. Thank you.

Hello to everyone!
I'm Silvana from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I live in San Diego, California now and I work at the Gerson Institute, where we promote the Gerson Therapy based on mostly vegan nutrition to heal chronic and degenerative conditions like cancer.

I've been vegetarian for 2 1/2 years and vegan for more than 1 year now.
The book that turned me from veg to vegan was Thanking the Monkey, by Karen Dawn. But I owe my conversion to vegetarianism to my beloved friend Vicki Renee that I'm glad to see her in this discussion board as well.
Meat Market was one of my favorite books for its detailed description of the meat industry while I was in the beginning of this major change in my life.
Becoming vegan was the best decision I have ever made.
I am now an activist, using social media to speak up, giving talks in Buenos Aires to small groups and being able to work at a place where we have an organic vegan buffet style lunch freshly made by our chefs on a daily basis.
From this club, I would like to learn further info on the most effective ways of spreading the word and get connected with other people. I truly believe that there are so many good people out there, but the major problem is that they are just not connected!

Thank you Erik for such an amazing work for the animals.

Greetings all, My name is Leslie and I live in Chicago. Some veg-advocacy books that I like include Meat Market (of course), The Animal Activists Handbook, Eating Animals, and Dominion. While doing outreach I have also heard from tons of people who went veg because of Skinny Bitch.

I have been a vegan and activist for about 4 years after being vegetarian/mostly vegan for about 8 years. I work full-time as a librarian, am a volunteer leafleter for Vegan Outreach in the Adopt-A-College program, and coordinate leafleting events for Mercy For Animals in Chicago. For this discussion group, I am interested in exploring the dismantlement strategy introduced in Meat Market. I think as a movement we really need to think and work strategically, the animals are counting on us!

Hi, I'm Caleb and I'm from North Carolina. We are the 2nd largest hog producer and turkey producer in the United States.
I have not read any veggie books that I can remember in quite a while, I read most information on the interwebs.
I am part of three legislative animal advocacy groups in my state. I believe that the key to animal welfare is through legislation.
I am here to learn from wonderful, compassionate people!

Hello. I'm Elaine and I'm a vegan and an animal advocate. I live in Las Vegas with my husband and baby.

I manage a group blog, Vegan Soapbox and I'm the main organizer for a grassroots group, Vegas Veg. I'm a reluctant leader, having stepped up merely because it seems like no one else will.

Right now I'm reading Change of Heart by Nick Cooney. Eating Animals and The China Study rank high for me as do Diet For A New America and When Elephants Weep.

I'm here because now I'm in too deep to get out. I'd better make good use of my knowledge and save some animals.

Hi, I'm Jeff, currently living in Phoenix, AZ. I organize a grassroots veg outreach group, focusing on leafleting, food giveaways, and local veg guides.

My favorites are Eating Animals, The Animal Activist's Handbook, Dominion, Next of Kin, and Meat Market.

My main interest in Meat Market is the analysis of the strengths/weaknesses of the various movements. We are accomplishing a lot, but we're still growing as a movement and we're capable of much more. Looking forward to the discussion!

My name is Stephanie, and I live in Orlando, FL. I was vegetarian for 4+ years and transitioned to vegan 9 months ago, making the switch easily after reading The Ultimate Vegan Guide. I have also gained a lot of insight and information from reading Peter Singer’s The Ethics of What We Eat, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safron Foer, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy, PhD, Slaughterhouse by Gail Eisnetz, and The Animal Activist’s Handbook by Ball and Friedrich. Just by sharing bits of what I was reading in these books with my husband, he also went vegan!

Since I’m pretty new to the vegan lifestyle and to activism, I currently spend a lot of time reading and learning as much as I can about the issues. I also recently got involved with the local veg and animal rights meetup groups here in central Florida that are quite active in leafleting at concerts and events and other outreach.

As I search for my niche in the dismantlement movement and how I can be an effective advocate for animals, I hope to gain knowledge and insight from others with years of experience and learn practical tips for outreach, how to draw people into conversations, how best to present information so it’s accepted, approaches that work and those that don’t, etc.

I’m excited and encouraged to be a part of discussions about dismantlement and how we can all be a part of this important social change.

Chicago, IL

Favorite veg books: Eating Animals, Animal Activist's Handbook, Fast Food Nation

Past/Current Advocacy: Student animal rights group in college, volunteering and internships, Ohioans for Humane Farms campaign, currently with Mercy For Animals in Chicago

What you're hoping to get out of participating in this discussion forum: I've read bits and pieces, but I've been meaning to read the whole thing for some time as a lot of people have highly recommended it and I follow vegan.com. I'm interested in the idea of "dismantlement" and learning more about what is most effective for "dismantlement." I've learned a lot from vegan.com, and the long time advocates that are participating in this, so I'd love to learn more!

My name is Jennifer, I am a graduate student from Toronto, Canada. I am currently writing my Master's Thesis on Vegan and Vegetarian Identity, and should be finished this winter.

Some of my favourite books on food/animals are:
The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter;
Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen;
Clean Food: A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source with More Than 200 Recipes for a Healthy and Sustainable You;
The Case for Animal Rights;
Making a Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights;
The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory;
and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone's Favorite Treats; because you catch more flies with cookies than you do with wagging fingers. :)

I am also hoping to launch a vegan bakery in the fall that will service farmer's markets and events in my area. Some friends of mine want to open other vegan businesses in the next 3 years and work towards a vegan-ring around the city, made of non-compete businesses that support each other. In addition to that outreach, my best friend and I are working to start an entry-level vegan website in the new year that explains the basics of vegetarianism and veganism, as well as does step-by-step demonstrations, videos and humour.

I'm happy to meet all of you and look forward to the discussions to come.

Jennifer

Hi, I'm Julie from Massachusetts. I became a vegetarian in 1988 after reading Diet for a Small Planet and later became vegan. I've been inspired by many books, including The World Peace Diet, Yoga and Vegetarianism, Eating Animals and Meat Market. I love cooking and my collection of vegan cookbooks and recipes is ever expanding. I've done animal advocacy tabling and I'm the co-organizer of a local vegan society. Through this forum I am hoping to exchange ideas with others and to become a better activist.

Hi everyone! I'm Amy from NJ. I have been a vegetarian for 4 years and a vegan for 2 months now. My 3 children all became vegetarians when I did and my middle child decided to go vegan with me. My husband was a hold out, but we finally convinced him that in order to stay in the house, he had to give up meat - just kidding - but it did take a lot of convincing!! I loved the Omnivore's Dilemma, Eating Animals and the Skinny Bitch.
Recent activities include adopting our 3rd dog from a shelter, trying to institute meatless mondays in our district's school lunch program, and marching with Farm Sanctuary in downtown Princeton. I am looking forward to learning more so I can be a more effective advocate for animals!!

I'm David and I'm also from Toronto. Hi Bonnie! Hi Jennifer!

I've been working with the Toronto Vegetarian Association for about five years and Meat Market was the book I was instructed to read by my boss when I started here and didn't know all that much about anything.

My work involves promoting plant-based living and supporting our local vegetarian and vegan communities, so I'm always on the lookout for new ideas that can help us build on our existing programs. But deep down I'm a politics junkie who would love to get some tips about how we can push forward a dismantlement agenda in Canada!

In addition to Meat Market, other books I swear-by include Eating Animals, The Pig Who Sang to the Moon and Veganomicon. I'm also a big fan of Carol Adams, Harold Brown, and jae steele.

I'm Ginny, from Port Townsend, WA. I'm a dietitian and I blog about vegan nutrition and also write for various internet sites and do some work with the American Dietetic Association's vegetarian group.

Fave books are--well, Meat Market, of course! I also love The Animal Activists Handbook: Maximizing Our Positive Impact in Today's World, Strategic Action for Animals: A Handbook on Strategic Movement Building, Organizing, and Activism for Animal Liberation, and Eating Animals

I'm traveling over the next five days but am planning on reading all of these introductions while I'm killing time in airports, and then chiming in as much as I'm able.

Hi everyone! I'm Marguerite. I'm from Utah but live in Brooklyn (am an undergrad at NYU). I've been leafleting for Vegan Outreach pretty consistently for about a year and was Farm Sanctuary's Outreach intern last year. I'm also trying to revive NYU's Cruelty-Free Club which is turning out to be quite the struggle!

I am just beginning to feel comfortable as an activist (as a lifelong vegetarian and 5 year vegan, geez!) and am excited to hear others' experiences and tips! I'm also really interested in farmed animal policy à la ballot initiatives in California and Ohio.

The Animal Activist's Handbook more than anything else has helped me understand how to communicate my passion for veganism and animals. Policy-wise, Meat Market has been most enlightening. I also love Eating Animals for its unique tone and format!

Hi all, I'm Kevin from Cincinnati, Ohio.

A few of my favorite Veg/AR books are:

Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, Revised Edition
The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery
Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism
Eating Animals

As far as recent activism goes, I had a pretty deep involvement in the Ohioans for Humane Farms campaign earlier this year and have been working on a couple of statewide and local projects since then. My two main activities now are volunteering with Mercy for Animals and, trying (with the help of several others) to organize the Cincinnati area Animal Advocacy community into an effective and energized entity.

I look forward to the discussion here. Hope to see the ultimate 5 step dismantlement plan come out of it.

Hi David! Hi Jennifer! What a great Toronto contingent showing up here!!

Hi there.

My name is Mandy and I have been a vegan for 5 years. Was vegetarian since the age of 14 (20+ years) except for a short period of time when I began eating fish again. Big mistake, I know.

I am a fan of John Robbins work (Diet for a New America, May All Be Fed, The Food Revolution, Healthy at 100 ) and everything by Erik Marcus (especially Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating ). I also read the Vegan.com blog religiously. My husband and I have our own vegan website http://theveganvoice.org/ with a blog and a feature called The People Project where we show the faces of veganism. The Vegan People Project can be found at
http://theveganvoice.org/people.html

I am looking forward to the discussion here. I've only begun reading Meat Market and it's already amazing.

Caity wrote: "Hi! I'm Caity McCardell and I live in Oceano, California (Central Coast). "
Hi Caity, are you part of the Central Coast Vegetarian Network? http://www.ccvegnet.com
I grew up in SLO and my parents still live in that area.

Hi, I'm Andy, a grad student in Boston. I've been vegan just shy of a year, and plan to take on some form of activism soon--probably leafleting. Right now I'm trying to become better-informed about animal agriculture and clearer about the core message I aim to convey to others. My favorite books on the subject are 'Meat Market' and 'Eating Animals'.

I am also fascinated by the deep ideological conflicts that exist *within* the vegan community--over the moral status of animals, how we should talk about their plight with the non-vegan public, and which social developments count as progress. For an example of what I mean, see Erik's recent post on Whole Foods' new welfare rating system:
http://tinyurl.com/2wl7umy
I doubt these conflicts can be resolved, and I certainly don't want to spend all my time and energy arguing with other vegans -- who does? But I'd like to think that our disagreements could at least be further *clarified*, to the benefit of all involved. This is a goal I carry with me as I learn from Erik and others.

Andy wrote: "I am also fascinated by the deep ideological conflicts that exist *within* the vegan community--over the moral status of animals, how we should talk about their plight with the non-vegan public, and which social developments count as progress."
Have you read: http://pattricejones.info/blog/wp-con...
?

Hi Elaine--no I hadn't, thanks! I think Pattrice Jones provides a useful framework for evaluating welfare legislation, and for thinking about advocacy more generally.

Stephanie wrote: "My name is Stephanie, and I live in Orlando, FL. I was vegetarian for 4+ years and transitioned to vegan 9 months ago, making the switch easily after reading The Ultimate Vegan Guide. I have also g..."
Hi Stephanie! We're practically neighbors - I'm in Winter Haven. Perhaps some time we could leaflet together... Or just have lunch at Ethos? Just wondering - have you checked out the animal rights meet up groups in Central Florida? They always have something going on to get more involved with helping the animals. Nice meeting you! :)

Hello... I'm Bea Elliott and I live in Florida and I'm semi-retired. After several years of being a vegetarian I learned about milk/eggs and factory farms. That information motivating me to open my eyes about some realities that were previously hidden from me.

The first book I read about animal issues was Dominion. After I became informed of the "system" that "regulates" animal use I wanted to learn all I could about the complex economic structures of animal agriculture & society so I read Meat Market which I found a wealth of information on the subject of "food politics".

I write a blog, have created a few videos, write letters to my paper and leaflet. When those things don't occupy my time I like being with my 2 cats, 2 dogs and small flock of rescued hens that I consider ambassadors for those people who think chickens are unworthy of respect... I am married for 20+ years to a wonderful man that is inching towards veganism... Thus far eliminating everything but "fishes" from his diet.

I'd love to learn more about strategies that can help get the word out about the benefits of veganism and how to get people aware of the plight of animals.

Happy to meet you all.

Hello, all. My name is Jim, and I live in Princeton, NJ. I became a vegetarian about a year ago, after having two major influences on me - several friends who are vegetarian and vegan and an abiding concern over how animal protein is "produced". When asked by friends why I became a vegetarian, my pat answer was "I read too much", by which I meant that I took time to understand what the hell was happening to construct the animal protein I was eating. Thanks to books like Meat Market and The China Study, plus a girlfriend who is vegan, I took the logical step into a vegan lifestyle 4 months ago at age 46. I look forward to some great discussions, and forgive my "newbie" ignorance!

Hello everyone---better late than never! My name is Maria, AKA Mo, and I am from Las Vegas, NV. I've been a vegetarian for 1 1/2 yrs and a vegan now for 5 months. I'd initially tried to become vegan in 1994 but was not successful---it's a long story with lots of slips and medical issues. I am very happy to finally be vegan now and I am interested in becoming a more effective animal advocate and activist. Currently I am focusing on becoming more involved with our wonderful local Vegas Veg meetup group (Hi Elaine!) and doing lots and lots of letter writing and emails for animals.
Professionally, I am a nutritional consultant and a writer/researcher for a supplements manufacturer.
I have a blog (http://eatveganlasvegas.blogspot.com/) about veganism and other things that interest me. Looking forward to meeting everyone---I am a long time admirer of Erik's books and website, so this is very exciting for me!

Hi everyone. I'm Judy and have been eating a plant based diet since 1988. In March of 88 my daughter died in a car accident.

Six months later I picked up a couple of pamphlets some caring person had left at a local bookstore, which described what happens to animals in factory farms. I read about how calfs are taken from their mothers and how the mom cow will do anything inluding breaking through fences to get to her baby if given the chance.

In that moment I knew I would never eat a bite of meat again. I felt that if those animals suffer even a tiny fraction of what I was suffering, then it was terribly wrong.

I am involved with VegNetBend here in Bend Oregon, a group we started two years ago. We are very active for a small group, having monthly potlucks, programs, showing films, tabling (last year at WinterFest we gave out over 7,000 samples of vegan Field Roast sausage) Earth Day events, Vegan Thanksgiving dinner at local restaurant, Ask A Vegan tables plus we are starting a radio program on local community radio on December 17 where we'll discuss issues related to veganism, do interviews, etc.

We are on Facebook at VegNetBend Group.

Even though I have read many books in the past 22 years,Meat Market opened my eyes to things I did not know and to discover the idea of dismantlement. I joined this group because I want to find out the best way to "speed this along" - animals are suffering every second and I want to help as many people as possible to Go Vegan.