What You Can Do
Vote
Voter’s guide to how Congress voted on food issues
Ask for Vegan meals!
Military hospitals show Plant Based meals are healthier-ask for them!
India has standards for what is vegetarian or vegan, ask that your food manufacturer or restaurant adopt a definition and label.
HSUS helping Sodexo offer more Plant Based items in universities. Vegan reading label memes
Social Media
If you have a Twitter account, or Facebook profile, consider adding a web banner or video to your page to educate people to the cruelty of factory farms. See http://www.mercyforanimals.org/
Video footage is the most powerful tool the animal protection movement has to expose the plight of farmed animals. Have your children and family watch some videos so they can see the evil of factory farming and can understand your decision to educate people about it.
Join several web services like Yelp, Google & Trip Advisor and review every restaurant, hotel and store you visit. Use the word “vegan” in the title and be positive in your post. Let store owners & the public know vegans have money and shop and we are the social norm.
Likewise, if you go to a site like Betty Crocker and veganize the recipe, sign up so you can make a positive post about a recipe being accidentally vegan (if it is) or easy to veganize (and how!).
Do you use Facebook, Pinterist, Instagram or any of the other social media tools? Post & share positive things about veganism-benefits to health, the environment, cost savings, cruelty free etc. You will (1) encourage passionate vegans (2) support new vegans (3) educate omnivores on the benefits and compassion of veganism.
Share-Find a few animal advocacy sites you like and share their content on your social media accounts and ask your friends to share it on theirs. This increases the visibility of the advocacy social media site based on how the internet operates and by your friends sharing it the message will reach THEIR (omnivore?) friends who would not have seen it on your site.
Many sites like MFA & PCRM have sites that will populate onto your site which makes keeping your social media up to date easy.
Respond to the media. Contact them by email or Facebook to commend them when they run stories showing the benefits of veganism or the horrors of animal agriculture. Likewise, if they bully or misrepresent vegans, write them about their inappropriate behavior. As your friends to likewise commend and complain to magnify your impact.
Write letters to the Editor-it is the second most read page of a newspaper. Vegan Letter to Editor letters here for you to use!
Send your local paper, tv station or radio health studies that talk about the benefits of reducing meat consumption because studies show this impacts people’s eating habits.
What photos are most effective in conveying the message? Study here.
Post a cute photo on social media to get the animals are not food connection, like a hen caring for a kitten with the quote “this is where Mother Hen” came from because of the incredible love hens have for others. www.thedodo.com is a great source for cute photos.
Vote with your wallet!
Encourage people to donate VEGAN products like these to their local food banks/pantries.
Shop on Amazon? Dedicate a portion of your purchases. Visit Smile.Amazon.com – then search for and select Compassion Over Killing as your charity of choice. Shop at a Kroger brand store? Get a frequent shopper card, register it, and select your local Humane Society to receive a donation.
Boycott brands who are anti-vegan like Ezekiel 4:9 bread who supports meat producers.
Educate people that studies show it is faster and less expensive to eat vegan!
Barnivore.com can tell you if fish bladders, egg or milk was used in the wine or beer making process. Wines that are NOT vegan friendly are Barefoot, Beringer, Cupcake, Fetzer, Franzia, Naked Grape, Oak Leaf, Rex Goliath (rooster on label), Turning Leaf, Winking Owl (Aldi), Woodbridge. Some widely available brands that ARE vegan suitable are Sutter Home’s Chenin Blanc, Riesling, or Gewurztraminer ONLY or Kendall-Jackson Rose, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel. ALL wines from these brands are, too: Corbett Canyon, White Truck are vegan friendly.
Ensure your donations help the GREATEST number of animals. For every 1 dog or cat killed in a shelter, about 3400 farmed animals are confined and killed, yet 80% of donations go to shelters.
Buy beauty products, soaps and household cleaners not tested on animals. See the beauty products link here:
Pets can be vegan, too, even cats! Dr. Andrew Knight explains on his web site or the Main Street Vegan November 15, 2017 podcast.
Personal items like ballet slippers or others can be found vegan.
Help for those in the military
Other nation’s military “get it”, tell your DoD leader or elected representative that the US needs vegan options, too!
South Korea provides its military with meatless meals as does Israel and a northern European country.
Outreach through food!
Host a vegan pot luck! Or encourage omnivores to donate vegan food (list) to their food pantry
Bring in vegan treats to work or your child’s class. Place literature near the goodies at work and provide the recipes (sample). It provides ‘advertising’ to the issues in a fun way, desensitizes the word ‘vegan’, and can open conversations with people you never would approach directly.
Contact companies online or by snail mail. If they sell an accidentally vegan product, encourage them to label it vegan or at least parve to let vegans, plant based and those with dairy, egg or fish allergies know their product is suitable for them. Likewise, if a company COULD easily make their product vegan, write them to encourage them to do so. Try to write one company a month!
Other Ways
Buy a copy of your favorite book (The China Study) or movie (Forks Over Knives). Lend it for a month to someone who might be receptive, then a month later lend it to someone new!
Adopt a signature block for your emails that expresses your position in a productive manner. Provide a link to an organization that can provide details if your statement draws interest.
Purchase animal advocacy literature or print out health materials from sites like pcrm.org and always have them available to hand out if a conversation with someone provides an unexpected opportunity to educate someone on a cruelty free diet.
Sign up to receive daily emails with tasks that can be completed in under five minutes w/ Hen Heroes & THL’s Fast Action Network.
Federal Employee? Donate via Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) to Vegan Outreach using number 11331.
See http://www.mercyforanimals.org/ for videos. MeatVideo.com is a great overarching video.
Advocate for vegan options in your work cafeteria, local restaurants and your grocery store.
Don’t underestimate the power of the pen. Writing letters to legislators lets your representative understand voters positions on an issue instead of getting fed endlessly from factory farm lobbyists. Writing businesses to modify their purchasing like to grocery stores to end selling calf flesh/veal or to purchase only pig flesh that was not crated during gestation. Consumers CAN change business practices with purchasing pressure and letters.
Provide teachers, youth group leaders and family with a list of ‘accidentally’ vegan candy at major candy holidays-Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Halloween and Christmas.
Educate people on how donating money to organizations to buy animals to raise to slaughter is NOT a good hunger solution but COMPETES in food and water with the starving people. Give and learn here.
If confronted with a situation but do not want to be confrontational, speak from your perspective. “I used to eat animals but then I learned about how they are tortured and sometimes butchered alive and then I had to stop.”
Choose your every day words carefully. Animals are killed not euthanized or slaughtered. Animals are he and she not it. Do not kill two birds with one stone instead get two for the price of one.
The more mainstream vegan is, the easier it is for vegans to STAY vegan and easier for people to consider going vegan. Dr. Campbell (T. Colin Campbell’s son) suspected that social norms prevent people from realizing a Plant Based Diet is healthier for us. (12 Oct 2016 podcast) We need to change those social norms.
Write your representatives about Primate and Big Cat captivity in the US.
Support other vegans, especially new vegans!
Fun list of how to support vegans and create new ones!
Be a friend to another vegan advocate and help them work through the pain we see in our advocacy. Reach out if you need help! Animal Activist Support Line.
Here is famous vegan singer Macka B singing about all that we CAN eat as vegans!!!
Animal Advocacy Organizations of Interest
Mercy for Animals http://www.mercyforanimals.org/
United Poultry Concerns http://www.upc-online.org/
Union of Concerned Scientists suggestions for advocacy
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/what_you_can_do/
Free from Harm-Why vegan? Animals, health, environment, world hunger
Vegan Friendly Doctors listing here and –http://vegdocs.com/
Vegan Outreach http://www.veganoutreach.org/
Food Safety
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/take-action/
Why Speak Up?
To remain silent aids those that harm
& & HOA