By Bobbi Weaver
Author Erik Marcus talks about becoming a vegan, about his new book The Ultimate Vegan Guide, and using social networking for advocacy.
“Meat comes from animals that have been killed,” stated
vegan author, Erik Marcus during his June 7 presentation at Joyce Beers Community Center
”Milk
and eggs come from animals that will be killed.”
Marcus presented arguments for following a plant-based diet
during the hour-long presentation sponsored by the Animal Protection and Rescue
League (APRL; http://www.aprl.org )
He commented that when he first became a vegetarian, he then
learned about veganism. He questioned
why one should abstain from eating eggs and milk as well as meat. As he investigated the reasoning for veganism,
Marcus found that use of these products still contributed to the animal
agricultural industry. Milk and eggs are
products of reproductive female animals.
When the animal ceases to able to reproduce, he noted, her existence
becomes less profitable. Consequently,
the animal is then slaughtered for meat.
Marcus stated that veganism is more attractive today than it
was 20 years ago. He commented that the
quality of vegan cookbooks in the past was poor, but added that now there are
at least a couple of hundred vegan cookbooks.
Since the market for cookbooks today is saturated, he contended, there
is “no longer room for mediocrity."
Marcus
noted that the best argument for following a vegan diet is what he coined the
“commodity-cruelty” argument. He
explained that meat, milk and eggs are more or less pure commodities,
and that producers compete purely by price.
Accordingly, he added, whoever can produce the most for the lowest
amount of money is going to be the most successful. He noted that the animal agricultural
industry does this by jamming as many animals as possible into one facility and
using selective breeding methods for producing faster-growing animals.
Animal agriculture will reduce labor costs at any possible
turn, Marcus noted. He cited the example
of battery cages to further this point.
He stated that battery cages are used to cut away at essentially all of
their labor costs. Battery cages allow
you to bring food by conveyor belts and water by pipes. Excrement falls through the wire floor of the
cage. The floor is tilted so that eggs
roll to another conveyer belt.
“As long as an egg is considered a commodity,” Marcus
noted, “it’s anything goes as far as
animal welfare is concerned.”
Marcus’
newest book is The Ultimate Vegan Guide:
Compassionate Living Without Sacrifice (2008) [ISBN: 1440464987. List price:
$14.95.] In this book, Marcus
uses his 20 years of experience as a vegan to make the transition to a
vegan diet for others more seamless. He
is also the author of Meat Market: Animals, Ethics and Money (2005). [ISBN: 0975867911.
List Price: $14.95], and Vegan:
The New Ethics of Eating, 2nd ed. (2000). [ISBN: 0935526870. List Price:
$16.95].
Marcus urged the audience to
contribute to the lessening of the number of animals killed for food by
reaching out to others and telling them about the benefits of a plant-based
diet. He discussed the operations of the
group Vegan Outreach (http://www.veganoutreach.org/),
an organization which distributes literature to individuals for further
distribution in areas like college campuses.
He also urged the audience to make use of social networking software for
outreach as well.
“Things have recently changed online. This social networking stuff is really
important,” he stated. “Today, the
opportunities you have to get the word out to a significant number of people is
tenfold of what it was in 1995.”
He urged audience members to register for Facebook and
Twitter. “Social networking software
allows the people in your life to pay closer attention to you and your
interests,” he added. He argued that
because there is a connection to you, others on the network will pay attention
to what you post.
“Become good at posting selectively-good material, ” he stated as he cautioned the audience not to
post every animal rights thing seen online.
He advised attendees to only post something that is really interesting,
and added that “showing restraint is key.”
Marcus is in the process of writing an article on the use of
social networking for advocacy. To be
notified about its publication, you can subscribe to an email list or an RSS
feed from his web site at http://www.vegan.com.