By Lori Stultz, Communications Manager

I’ll be the first to admit that here at Vegan Outreach we love to brag about our Outreach Coordinators (OCs). Each semester, our OCs spend endless hours driving from state to state, college campus to college campus, to help raise awareness about the animal abuse in our agriculture system. They forego the comfort of their own homes, stay on other people’s couches, and leaflet in unforgiving and unpredictable weather patterns—I’m looking at you Midwestern and East Coast leafleters!

Equally brag worthy are the individuals who work “behind the scenes” of Vegan Outreach. These hardworking folks make sure our goal of helping as many animals as possible is being met at its fullest potential. The inner-workings of an organization like Vegan Outreach can easily keep a whole team of people working full time—and then some—and many of our staffers actually don’t get the opportunity to leaflet very frequently. That’s why we love to boast about them when they make time to go out and do outreach.

We’ve had a handful of non-OC staff members out there tearing it up this semester, and here’s what they had to say when I asked about their leafleting experiences—

Josie Moody • Office Manager • Sacramento State

“I always get a little nervous before I go, but within minutes my apprehension disappears and I start to enjoy myself! I smile and say thank you to people who take a leaflet, and even to people who decline. As the saying goes, that one life matters to the life that is saved.

It’s encouraging to think of all of the amazing activists I know who go out and do this day-in and day-out, planting the seeds of compassion.”

Roxanne Hill • Community Engagement and Events Manager • Cal State Dominguez Hills

“I was excited and a bit nervous as I anticipated my leafleting debut. To my great surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was a lot of fun as I competed with myself, trying to hand out as many leaflets to as many students as possible. Even more surprising was how warm, friendly, and polite the vast majority of the students were—even when declining a leaflet!”

Breege Tomkinson • Director of Finance • Sacramento State

“I didn’t leaflet long (less than two hours), but it was a really good experience. Most students seemed open to taking a leaflet and many said they were already vegan or vegetarian. One student came over and thanked us for what we were doing. At one point, I handed a leaflet to a student whose hands were full because she was carrying a plate of chicken, but she took it. I liked that we were planting a seed about an issue many of these students most likely wouldn’t have thought about that day.”

Lisa Rimmert • Director of Development • East High School, Denver

“The thought of leafleting outside of a high school was a little intimidating—even for an extrovert like me! We ended up passing out 225 leaflets and it felt good walking away knowing that I had planted some vegan seeds.”

Taylor Radig • Campaigns Manager • East High School, Denver

“On our lunch break, Lisa Rimmert and I went out to a local high school and handed out a couple hundred leaflets to passing students. It only took about 30 minutes out of our day to get lifesaving information into the hands of future change makers.”

Jack Norris • Executive Director • Cal State Dominguez Hills, Pasadena City College, Sacramento State

“It always feels great to get back out there. Leafleting for just 90 minutes a month can reach a lot of people—you never know when you’ll change a life and maybe create the next great animal advocate!”

Steve Ann Chambers • President • Iowa State

“It was chilly, but we—Patti Rogers-Engelby and Outreach Coordinator John Deetjen—managed to distribute 2,500 Vegan Outreach booklets. We had so many great interactions with students. While we were warming up inside the library (between classes), one young woman came over to me and asked, ‘Are these your booklets? I’m vegetarian and I’m trying to go vegan, so this is great!’ I hooked her up with Vegan Outreach’s Vegan Mentor Program.

It’s incredibly fulfilling to connect with so many interested young people!”

Vic Sjodin • Director of Outreach • Cal State Dominguez Hills

“It brought me great joy to step out from behind the desk to leaflet with Jack and Roxanne at Cal State Dominguez Hills this semester. Eight years of leafleting and nearly 650 different schools, I’d never actually leafleted with the man who started it all. Students were very kind and responded well to the new Compassionate Choices booklet covers, and it’s always great to see so many students reading the booklets. It reinforced the simple, but profound beauty of leafleting to me—that with just a few short hours of your time, you can change several dozen lives forever.”

Kevin Gallagher • Operations Manager • University of Washington

“Given that the Seattle area has been plagued by record winter rains that have greatly impeded leafleting, I’d none too jokingly exclaimed that my primary aim is to avoid having to leaflet in a downpour as it greatly hurts the leaflet take rate—everyone is in too much of a hurry getting from one place outdoors to another indoors to have much patience for taking a leaflet, especially leaflets that are beginning to become sodden. But however much time I have to leaflet—in good weather or not—it’s heartening to have someone take a leaflet so that they can ponder making conscientious changes to their eating habits.”

I think this speaks to the dedication of each and every Vegan Outreach staff member. Let’s give a heartfelt thank you not only to our amazing Outreach Coordinators, but also to the wonderful Vegan Outreach employees who are not always publicly acknowledged for the hard work they’re doing for the animals.

By Jen Bravo, Guest Contributor

In part one of our Tech Trends That Are Changing the World for Animals–for the Better!, we shared some exciting technology trends that are benefiting animals—including innovations around the future of protein—hint: it’s cruelty-free!—and how virtual entertainment and immersive experiences are changing how we will relate to animals, learn about them, and be entertained by them.

In this post, we’ll talk about ending animal testing—finally!—and how drones and artificial intelligence are revolutionizing anti-poaching and conservation efforts.

Trend #3: Ending Animal Testing

Many of us have been fighting the practice of animal testing for decades. We’ve lobbied to change regulations (here, here, and here), rescued animals from laboratories, and educated our friends and family about buying cruelty-free products. The day is coming, however, when it’s cheaper and more efficient for companies to switch completely to new non-animal testing methods. Over the past few years, the development of human organs “on-a-chip” have begun to revolutionize disease modeling and drug development at an astonishing rate. At the same time, it’s revealing animal testing as the archaic and inaccurate practice that it is.

The Wyss Institute at Harvard University has “engineered microchips that recapitulate the microarchitecture and functions of living human organs, including the lung, intestine, kidney, skin, bone marrow, and blood-brain barrier. These microchips, called ‘organs-on-chips,’ offer a potential alternative to traditional animal testing.” By testing on replicas of human organs, rather than animals with a different physiology, researchers will increase the accuracy of their results, while reducing costs. The Wyss Institute isn’t the only one. Many companies are working through FDA approval processes and continuing to refine their innovations. And it gets better—companies like Emulate are finding ways to emulate the entire human body, opening doors for an improved understanding of how diseases, medicines, and our environment affect us, all without testing on any animals.

If you’re interested in learning more about these new technologies, IndieBio, a San Francisco-based biotech accelerator, will be highlighting Scaled Biolabs, a startup that is “accelerating biologic, gene, and cell therapies using smart microfluidic chips.” You can view IndieBio’s most recent Demo Day—February 9, 2017—here, which features Scaled Biolabs.

Trend #4: Drones and Artificial Intelligence

No, this trend isn’t about SkyNet, and the Terminator isn’t coming for you (as far as I know). But if you’re an elephant or rhino poacher, a drone might be. Using drones to fight poaching isn’t new, but they’ve been highly effective, and that effectiveness will continue to improve with the use of smart systems and artificial intelligence. The Black Mambas—the celebrated majority-women anti-poaching unit in South Africa—are using drones to protect rhinos, and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is using drones to patrol marine reserves in the Gulf of California. Legendary Captain Paul Watson of Sea Shephard has outfitted all of his ships with drones, arguing that advanced technology is the best way to combat poaching (see the link for “DIY drones” below). And Air Shepherd is using predictive algorithms, originally developed to locate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to predict where poachers will be located, then sending drones to patrol those areas. Artificial intelligence allows drones to recognize what’s important, saving precious bandwidth, and alerting rangers only when their help is needed. One example is the philanthropic arm of the Dutch company Birds.ai, which provides “intelligent eyes in the sky” to rangers protecting rhinos from poaching.

As predictive modeling and artificial intelligence improve, and as hardware costs of the drones themselves come down—and crafty rangers are able to DIY drones for one-tenth the cost!—our ability to stop poaching before it starts will continue to improve.

We all know that technology moves fast, but these “exponential” technologies—technologies that are improving in performance and decreasing in cost along an exponential curve—can surprise us with the speed at which they take off. So if 2017 has gotten you down, just think that these technologies are getting better and better, and cheaper and cheaper, at an exponential rate. The days of factory farming, zoos and animal shows, animal testing, and poaching are coming to an end…faster than we think.

By Taylor Radig, Campaigns Manager

A few months ago, Vegan Outreach launched a petition asking leading pizza chain California Pizza Kitchen (CPK), to follow the dairy-free trend in pizza and add a vegan cheese option to their menu. Despite thousands of signatures from eager customers wanting to support this option, CPK has remained silent on their future menu additions.

We want to continue to have CPK hear from their vegan and non-dairy customers—letting them know that this option would be successful!

Here are three easy steps you can take to make this happen:

Call your local California Pizza Kitchen

When you call, ask to speak with the restaurant manager. Tell them how excited you would be if CPK added a vegan cheese pizza to their menu!

Show them on social media

Tag #CaliforniaPizzaKitchen and #CPK to make sure your voice is heard.

Share the Petition

Sign the petition at Veganoutreach.org/CPK and make an even greater impact by sharing the petition on Facebook and Twitter!

Together, we can make this vegan cheese pizza happen! Thank you in advance for your help!

By Victor Flores, Greater New Mexico Community Engagement and Events Coordinator

In February, the Alamogordo Health and Wellness Fair invited my family to participate in their annual health fair at New Mexico State University Alamogordo in Alamogordo, NM. After learning that the vendors and speakers needed to bring their own lunch, we saw a perfect opportunity to “wow” them with a vegan meal. Even though it required food for 100 people, we accepted the challenge!

There’s a vegan-friendly restaurant in nearby El Paso, TX, named Eloise that makes its own seitan that is absolutely delicious. We ordered 100 of their El Graco seitan wraps as the main entrée and rounded out the meal with veggie chips, apple braid strudel for dessert, and water infused with strawberry, kiwi, lime, and orange.

Besides having a booth set up with tons of information on the benefits of plant-based nutrition, we had an area to give out information to the vendors and speakers we fed. We intentionally set up a table in a separate area so they wouldn’t be distracted with the noise. When the speakers and vendors came to pick up their food, we made sure that everyone who got a seitan wrap also took a Vegan Outreach pamphlet. We also posted a menu so everyone knew what they’d be eating. Most were excited to try the wrap, while others were skeptical.

After all the meals and pamphlets were handed out, I took a stroll around the entire fair to visit with the vendors while they were eating. I’m not exaggerating when I say that everyone was blown away! Some couldn’t believe the meal was vegan. Many swore the seitan had to be some type of meat since the flavor and texture were so delicious. I didn’t come across a single person who didn’t like the meal.

Many of the vendors and speakers came to our booth after lunch to request more information and vegan recipes. Several asked for our contact information to see if we could possibly do cooking classes and other community activities These groups varied from local health organizations to an organization that mentors juveniles in the juvenile detention system.

If you’re trying to create more vegans in your community, keep your eyes open for opportunities like this. Vegfests are fun but we’re often preaching to the choir. Look for health fairs and festivals at local schools. Offer them free vegan food and then sit back and watch lives change!

By Lori Stultz, Communications Manager

The surge of incredibly strong, fast, and talented vegan athletes is one of my favorite parts about this movement. The types of athletes vary widely, and it’s inspirational to hear vegan athletes talk about their concern for animals and the environment, and the ways in which they take care of their own bodies.

I’ve never paid attention to the sport of weightlifting, but it definitely caught my eye when I heard about Clarence Kennedy, an Irish weightlifter who lifts weights—a lot of them—fueled by, you guessed it, plants! I watched a few of his YouTube videos and read multiple interviews online, and I was immediately impressed.

I reached out to Clarence to ask if we could do a brief interview. The interviews I read prior to making contact discussed a lot of the specifics of his weightlifting, but I was curious about a few other things—like why he chose this sport and why he decided to go vegan. I was also interested about how his weightlifting community responded to his transition to a plant-based lifestyle.

This is seriously an interview you don’t want to miss out on! And for that athlete in your family who thinks it’s impossible to be athletic without eating meat, forward them this blog post! I think Clarence’s compassion and overall balanced approach to veganism will make them rethink what it means to be a vegan athlete.

Lori Stultz: What got you interested in weightlifting?

Clarence Kennedy: About 10 years ago I got into a sport called tricking, which is basically an underground sport that combines elements from gymnastics and martial arts.

After tricking for a while, I wanted to increase the height and power of tricks. I read that athletes incorporate the Olympic lifts and its variations to increase power and speed (this is the oldest footage I could find of myself doing Olympic weightlifting). So, I started adding lifting into my training and I enjoyed them so much that I got hooked and I slowly stopped tricking, although I still do it from time to time.

Lori: Do you lift professionally or is it something you do as a hobby?

Clarence: Weightlifting for me is purely a hobby. Before, I had wanted to become a professional athlete, but my goals have changed in recent years and the reason is quite complicated. In the future, I might release a video explaining why.

Lori: What sparked your interest in changing your eating patterns to one that is now completely plant-based?

Clarence: The reason I switched was purely for ethical reasons. It had nothing to do with weightlifting. From a young age, I was aware of the hypocrisy of people claiming to be against animal cruelty, yet those same people would consume animal products. It just became normalized for me and it was something I purposely ignored until I came across a few YouTube videos from TheVeganAtheist, ThinkAboutThis, Unnatural Vegan, and other channels. After watching a lot of YouTube videos and reading the articles about veganism, I realized there was absolutely no good argument against veganism and I slowly changed what I was eating.

Lori: How has the lifting community of other weightlifters responded?

Clarence: Surprising well. I expected to get a lot of hate for the vegan food video I uploaded online recently, but it seems a lot of people were actually willing to try changing their eating habits too. Quite a few people liked the fact that I didn’t criticize meat eaters.

Lori: What’s your favorite go-to meal?

Clarence: Probably just cereal with fruits and seeds, because it’s simple to prepare!

Lori: If you had to offer one piece of advice to someone who’s interested in going vegan, whether they’re athletic or not, what would it be?

Clarence: I would definitely say research a lot on how to eat healthy when living a vegan lifestyle. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of pseudoscience in the vegan community. A simple rule is to avoid getting information from people advocating juice cleanses, raw vegan diets, not taking supplements, and people exaggerating the health benefits of a veganism (I’ve seen some vegans claim veganism can cure Crohn’s disease). Most of the information I got on plant-based eating is from VeganHealth.org. It’s the only website that really explains the common pitfalls of going vegan and backs up the information with science.

Another thing I would say to someone is that they should continue to educate themselves on why they should be vegan. It’s extremely easy to fall back into the culture you were born into, especially since 99% of people around you—depending on where you live—are meat eaters and tell you eating meat is normal.

Lori: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few of my questions, Clarence. You’re certainly an inspiration in the growing number of athletes who are moving toward to a vegan lifestyle.

By Alex Bury, Organizational Development Consultant

Before you read this blog, please take a moment and center yourself with this important video showing popcorn popping in slow motion. Thank you.

Many years ago, I met a woman named Dinali Abeysekera. She and I briefly worked together, but she soon went on to all sorts of amazing life things—like helping people after natural disasters and starting awesome new businesses. Apparently fundraising with me wasn’t exciting enough, and I got used to the slight feeling of envy every time I saw her Facebook posts about her various accomplishments.

About six months ago the envy turned to all-out, bright green jealousy because now she’s making popcorn! Dinali and her husband started a brand new, all-vegan, gourmet and organic popcorn company called Luminous Organics.

This is an interesting coincidence because I share something similar with my husband—VO’s Jack Norris—a love for popcorn. When Jack and I go to the movies we mostly go for the popcorn. And when one of us brings a bag of popcorn home, we try to hide it so the bag lasts longer. It never works. Jack likes Earth Balance and YaYa’s Herb & Garden Vegetable, and I usually get SkinnyPop or BoomChickaPop. All great options, but my new favorite is definitely Luminous Organics’ Turmeric Black Pepper!

Dinali sent me a bag of each of her four popcorn flavors and all four bags were gone in a couple of days. They’re absolutely delicious! The Turmeric Black Pepper has an extra punch to it, and I loved the delicate sweetness of the Cacao and Maple flavors.

I highly recommend you order a box of all four flavors before your next all-night Battlestar Galactica marathon, birthday party, road trip, or staycation. You can buy Dinali’s popcorn in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island, NY, and they ship quickly to everyone else.

Don’t sit on this—go get yourself some Luminous Popcorn now. It’s going to bring so much popping love into your life.

By Jen Bravo, Guest Contributor

Many of us just couldn’t wait for 2016 to be over, and now 2017 is off to a rocky start as well. What better way to cheer ourselves up than to take a peek at some technology trends that are revolutionizing the world for animals?

Trend #1: The Future of Protein

Imagine a world in which factory farming no longer exists, and we can feed the world high-quality protein with minimal inputs of energy, water, fertilizer, and no antibiotics! A world in which the suffering and environmental destruction inherent in factory farming is a thing of the past. This world is not as far off as you might think, thanks to advancements in cellular agriculture.

Over the past few years, innovators have been leveraging tissue engineering, synthetic biology, bioengineering, and materials science to grow or replicate factory farmed products—such as meat and dairy—in a laboratory setting. You may have heard of the Impossible Burger, Hungry Planet’s Range-Free™ burger, and Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger—which is now supported by an investment from Tyson Foods—and these are just the beginning!

New Harvest is accelerating the development of “milk without cows, eggs without hens, and beef without cows,” and the Good Food Institute is supporting early-stage and established companies to develop and market “clean meat” and plant-based proteins.

There are a number of start-ups, ranging from Memphis Meats, a San Francisco-based company growing meat from animal cells, to SuperMeat, which just completed a successful Indiegogo campaign in September 2016 and is focusing on a cultured chicken product.

Perfect Day Foods—which produces cow’s milk using yeast—are pushing the envelope at the forefront of the animal-free food revolution.

The good news is that as these technologies improve and demand increases, costs will come down, making these animal-free choices the frugal and environmentally-sustainable choice as well.

Trend #2: Virtual Entertainment & Immersive Experiences

Technology won’t just change how we eat—it will change how we relate to animals, learn about them, and are entertained by them. You may remember 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes? It was lauded by animal advocates for being the first live-action film to not only tell the story from the point of view of a sentient, non-human animal, but to use only computer-generated images to do so. Well, 2011 seems like forever ago, considering what we can now do using virtual reality (VR).

Imagine swimming with dolphins, experiencing the Great Migration across the plains of the Serengeti, or spending time with a family of mountain gorillas, all without exploiting living animals. Imagine classes of students experiencing coral reefs or rain forests, full of vibrant plants and animals, rather than a zoo or aquarium with captive animals.

VR will revolutionize how we educate children about the natural world, enabling them to immerse themselves in ecosystems without damaging them. And VR will enable those who would never otherwise be able to travel the globe to experience these animals in an immersive way.

VR will also enable even greater education about the plight of animals trapped in our modern food system. Animal Equality’s VR iAnimal brings people inside factory farms—and we believe that’s just the beginning. As Forbes contributor Ross Gerber wrote last month, virtual reality, “will make an exponentially larger imprint on society, transcending gaming and having the potential to touch on everything from education, sports, entertainment, and medicine. The obstacle right now is the price.…”

But as with so many technologies that were prohibitively expensive in their first few years, VR hardware will come down in price and its easily scalable content will soon become ubiquitous.

Next week, in part two, we’ll talk about ending animal testing and how drones and artificial intelligence are revolutionizing anti-poaching and conservation efforts. So be sure to stay tuned!