By Jacqueline Hlavenka
This holiday season, millions of Americans will gather for a traditional holiday feast of turkey, ham and all the fixings-however, when it comes time to “meet your meat,” some students believe the face behind their food is enough to make their stomach turn.
On Nov. 28, speaker and activist Jenna Calabrese of Vegan Outreach, a non-profit organization from Pittsburgh, Pa., educated students about the benefits of a vegan lifestyle, and how it can positively affect one’s personal health and the environment as a whole. This was just one of several events sponsored by the Progressive Students Union’s “Global Awareness Week.”
Before the presentation began, technical difficulties prevented the Vegan Outreach slideshow from being broadcasted on the Cultural Center Theater’s main screen after a miscommunication between the Audio Visual Department, Event Management, and the Progressive Students Union. The cable connecting to the screen was incompatible with the Dell laptop supplied by Vegan Outreach.
“Not having the slideshow on the big screen was disappointing. The Vegan Outreach seminar, and Global Awareness Week as a whole, was planned about a month in advance,” said Eric Dubinsky, vice president of the Progressive Students Union.
The correct cable needed was provided by the Audio/Visual Department shortly thereafter. Alternatively, students gathered around the laptop as speaker Jenna Calabrese initiated an interactive question and answer session about how the students in the audience became vegetarians and vegans.
“I started off thinking about chicken on the bone. I couldn’t eat it because it came from an animal. In context, it almost seems like eating my own arm,” said Brian Shoicket, a freshman audio/radio major, divulging his first thoughts as a non-meat eater.
Others commented on the difficulty of maintaining a vegan diet on the University’s campus, given the price of vegetarian and vegan items and the limited accessibility to quality, healthy products themselves. Lackmann does offer a document entitled “Hofstra’s Guide to Being Vegan,” complete with vegan options at each dining facility at the University.
However, the mission of Vegan Outreach is not solely based upon “converting” people to vegan lifestyles, but according to Calabrese, “reducing the amount of suffering in [the] world,” on a general environmental level, promoting compassion and eco-friendly options.
The organization particularly exposes ethical information about the reality of slaughterhouses and how to end cruelty to animals through the widespread distribution of illustrated booklets, Why Vegan, Even If You Like Meat and Try Vegetarian.
“With titles like Even If You Like Meat, the approach to this way of thinking is much easier to understand. People can go at their own pace, page-by-page, gradually making progress, even small things,” said Calabrese.
Focusing on animal welfare, Vegan Outreach inspires readers to think beyond the pork chops wrapped in plastic at the local grocery store, putting their meals in context as once a living, breathing creature.
“Many people believe that animals raised for food must be treated well because sick or dead animals would be of no use to agribusiness. This is not true,” said Calabrese.
Conversely, senior Vice President of the American Meat Institute, Janet Riley, liaison of the animal welfare committee, oversees policy issues and monitors the treatment of animals on factory farms.
“In the meat-packing industry, we monitor the health of the animals coming into the plant. Veterinarians inspect every animal and condemn animals that are unfit for human consumption. Any animal that cannot walk to slaughter, especially cattle, they are condemned, and that was part of our response to mad cow disease,” said Riley.
Riley also added that the humane treatment of animals contribute to a better-finished product. As a result, factory farms that violate basic health or ethical codes of conduct will subsequently shut down.
“Not only is it ethically appropriate, we benefit economically by treating animals humanly on our plants. It’s an ethical and moral imperative to do the right thing,” said Riley.
Additionally, according to Calabrese, the environment suffers as the demand for animal-based products increase, degrading water quality and decreasing the nation’s biodiversity. Vegan diets, according to Vegan Outreach, are cheaper, and can contribute to solving world hunger by increasing crop production on raw ingredients like vegetables, grains and legumes instead of creating expansive animal-based factory farms.
Students interested in switching to a vegan lifestyle were strongly urged to encourage meat-free living by handing out pamphlets, contacting companies about obtaining more vegan options, even offering vegan cook-outs on campus and offering a veritable alternative to standard meat-based diets.
“The point is to oppose cruelty and to make veganism accessible. Take steps now to make a better world,” said Calabrese.
Jenna Calabrese of Vegan Outreach showing her audience her presentation on veganism.