As a vegan food blogger, I tend to focus more on the delicious, delicious food I eat and don’t often touch on vegan issues. Maybe I figure it’s preaching to the choir, or you can win more people to yr side with a vegan cupcake than a pamphlet, but animal rights are why we’re really here (Right? I dunno. There are LOTS of reasons to go vegan. Go vegan!)
On Friday I attended a viewing of Peaceable Kingdom:
The Journey Home, a movie about the horrors of the farming business. It was
held at a nearby Catholic high school, and sponsored by The Tablet,
the Brooklyn/Queens diocese newspaper, but the movie itself was not a religious film. I suppose
it was meant to appeal to the social justice issues of the church. Due to this
sponsorship, the majority of the audience was made up of older (than me) people.
The movie itself was interesting. I don’t watch many
animal rights clips or movies: I am aware of the atrocities and do not enjoy
seeing the upsetting images. Peaceable Kingdom was not overly explicit but I do
wish it came with a disclaimer or warning. That said, a lot of the film was
heartwarming. Interviewees were mostly people who used to work in the farm
business but eventually had an epiphany for and left. Two different couples
were people who ran farm sanctuaries, another man was a veterinarian (I think.)
One woman worked for the Humane Society but disclosed that they were often not
very merciful in their dealings with animals. Also interviewed was Howard
Lyman, author of Mad Cowboy, who now goes on tour speaking about his past as a
powerful agribusinessman. He says that he probably sent more animals to their
death than he the number of people he has spoken before. This information is
disturbing but it is important that people own up to their past.
I especially liked that Peaceable Kingdom made many
points about the different horrors of the meat business. Not only is it cruel
to animals, but it damages our human bodies too. Lyman was basically poisoned
due to his having worked with chemicals that treat the food given to cows.The movie is going on tour
around the country (I think next it will be in Portland?) but it was
especially important that it was shown here in Queens because in this urban
situation, we are so far removed from the animals that produce our food. We
hardly understand that meat on a plate comes from an animal that had to die, or
that milk was taken from a baby cow under terrible circumstances so that we
could drink it.
There was a Q & A session afterwards with the filmmakers and one of the interviewees, Harold Brown, and a good amount of people conveyed that they had learned some new information. We all received a little gift bag with a NYC vegan restaurant guide and some literature on how to help and get involved. The director, Jim, and Harold were very patient and nonjudgemental when it came to answering questions, which I think is especially important because it seemed like this was a lot of people’s first interaction and experience with veganism and animal rights. One man said he had changed many of his eating habits after watching movies like this but wanted to know if there was any “less bad” meat, or if there was a humane way of eating animal products. Jim responded that any change towards eating less meat was a good one but definitely made his point that “if I don’t need to eat meat to survive, why would I take a life?” He also talked about intersectionality, which is a huge deal with me. A feminist needs to support race issues, animals rights issues, class issues, and all of these things are interconnected! The movie specifically highlighted a mother hen protecting her chick at any sign of danger, showing a little chick nestle up underneath the mother’s wing. There was also an especially touching scene of ewes being reunited with their lambs, waiting and calling out for them after having been separated after a rescue.
There was a Q & A session afterwards with the filmmakers and one of the interviewees, Harold Brown, and a good amount of people conveyed that they had learned some new information. We all received a little gift bag with a NYC vegan restaurant guide and some literature on how to help and get involved. The director, Jim, and Harold were very patient and nonjudgemental when it came to answering questions, which I think is especially important because it seemed like this was a lot of people’s first interaction and experience with veganism and animal rights. One man said he had changed many of his eating habits after watching movies like this but wanted to know if there was any “less bad” meat, or if there was a humane way of eating animal products. Jim responded that any change towards eating less meat was a good one but definitely made his point that “if I don’t need to eat meat to survive, why would I take a life?” He also talked about intersectionality, which is a huge deal with me. A feminist needs to support race issues, animals rights issues, class issues, and all of these things are interconnected! The movie specifically highlighted a mother hen protecting her chick at any sign of danger, showing a little chick nestle up underneath the mother’s wing. There was also an especially touching scene of ewes being reunited with their lambs, waiting and calling out for them after having been separated after a rescue.
After the Q & A there was a small reception in the
cafeteria which was geared towards transitioning omnis (i.e. not exactly
healthy vegan food): samples of Nate’s meatballs, Amy’s pizzas, Dunwell donuts,
Justin’s peanut butter cups, WholeSoy yogurts, Field Roast sausages, Daiya
cheese, Earth Balance butter on bread, and coffee and tea with Silk milk. I
tasted the Nate’s for the first time (not really a fan), took a cheese cube, and
snuck TWO Justins. My mother, who also attended, liked the donuts :) Anyway, it
did all seem well-received.
Oh, super cool and serendipitous: I spotted Eric from
Rumpshaker, a zine about Hardcore! I went to a reading of his at a record store
not too long ago where he had vegan cookies! The crossover with the hardcore
and straight edge vegan scene is pretty awesome and not something a lot of
people think about. ALSO on the train heading to the viewing I actually saw a woman who I first learned about at the Veggie Pride Parade in March. She was
doing her regular spiel, which is singing and handing out pamphlets and vegan
literature. It was like spotting a celebrity! HowEVER, only one man took her flyer
and once she got off the train car, he threw it out the door! What a jerk! A litterbug AND a meat eater.
So yea, a successful night. I think some lives were
touched, if not changed overnight. My mother is currently deliberating about
going vegan (!), I ate a faux meatball, I got some cool literature, I
reaffirmed my resolve to visit an animal sanctuary and maybe be a little more
vocal in my animal rights stance.
Do you guys watch the animal rights movies? Not unless you want to cry, right? What was it that made you first turn vegan?
Do you guys watch the animal rights movies? Not unless you want to cry, right? What was it that made you first turn vegan?
