By Lori Stultz, VO Rocky Mountain Outreach Coordinator

I’d like to introduce you to this unique sounding band—Moon Hooch—that’s growing in popularity. If their music doesn’t draw you in immediately, then maybe knowing that the three band members are vegan and very environmentally conscious will do the trick.

I first became aware of them a few months ago and have listened to their music while pouring over articles and interviews—

When I looked up their tour schedule and saw that they were going to be playing in October at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, CO—where I live—I knew that this interview had to happen. I recommend cranking up their latest album, Red Sky, while you get familiar with the band.

Lori Stultz: Where are you from? I notice that you [Wenzl] have an accent, whereas you two [Mike and James] don’t.

Mike Wilbur: I was born and raised in Boston, MA. I lived in Brooklyn, NY for 8 years, and went to school in Manhattan, NY.

Wenzl McGowen: I was born in Spain, and I’ve lived in Germany, Austria, and Portugal. I lived for 9 years in New York. My mom is from Chicago, IL and my dad is Austrian. They decided not to raise me bilingual, so my first language is German.

James Muschler: I am from Cleveland, OH. I lived there for 18 years and then I moved to New York. And that’s where I met Mike and Wenzl, at The New School.

Lori: How did Moon Hooch come to be? Did you intentionally come together to form a band?

Mike: We definitely did not decide to intentionally form a band!

Wenzl: We were all living in this house together with a bunch of musicians. James and I started to have this thing where we played house music on the streets of New York because both of us were in this band called the A-Typicals, which was an electronic dance music band.

I was playing sax lines that were based on repetitive, simple kind of stuff that you’d find in electronic dance music. And James was playing house beat. And then Mike ran into us and joined us.

We just started going out together and playing, and I started writing simple songs that were based on electronic dance music with blues-based melodies. And from there it kind of grew into what it is now.

Lori: When did it become a goal to travel and do tours?

Mike: We never really had plans to do anything but make money playing in the subway in New York. We were broke college students. Then Mike Doughty saw us down there and offered us a national tour. And then we had a small national following over a period of a month after that.

We’ve just been building on that for six years, slowly. And now here we are at the Fox Theatre.

Lori: Tell me about your collective vegan journey. Was it a group decision?

Wenzl: Yes, it slowly became that. My ex-girlfriend is very health conscious and conscious of the impact she has on the environment. She just kept informing us of what was actually going on in the animal industry, but it took years for that to sink in and for us to give up our desire to eat meat. It’s been about five years since we all went vegan.

Lori: What kind of advocacy/promotion do you do on tour? Do you try to make it known to your audience that the band is vegan?

Wenzl: We post videos, James keeps a food blog, and when we’re in vegan restaurants we post photos of food. We also give out flyers about veganism at our shows.

Lori: I read that you try to cook your own meals on the road. How do you do that?

James: We carry a toaster oven and that thing [pointing to a portable camp fire stove]. We also carry our own utensils.

Mike: [Laughing] James is on a squash bender right now, it’s ridiculous. We’re traveling with like five squashes.

We try to buy only local at co-ops and stuff in the different cities we go to.

Lori: Do you all also try to check out a lot of vegan restaurants while you’re on the road?

Mike: We checked out WaterCourse Foods while we were in Denver, CO—that was amazing. If we know it’s going to be worth it, we’ll check it out. But we’ve been trying to eliminate waste this tour. We bought a water filter and we’ve been using reusable bottles.

Lori: Do you try to make issues about waste known to your audience as well?

James: Yes, but we try not to make it overkill and shove it in people’s faces. We like to lead by example.

Lori: What’s your favorite part about living on the road? And what’s your least favorite part?

Mike: [Laughing] My favorite part is that our parents don’t tell us what to do anymore!

No, just kidding. My favorite part is that I get to play music everyday. My least favorite part is everything else, especially sitting in the car for 4 to 6 hours everyday between cities.

Wenzl: I think my favorite part is to give this kind of experience to people every night. And to have this kind of experience for ourselves, too. Doing shows…it sorts of breaks all these layers of perception that you build up during the day.

Sometimes you take reality so seriously. You know? And then in the end you’re on stage pouring out your soul and you just feel this insane energy of love and understanding. It transcends all these tools we have to communicate with each other.

James: Ditto!

Wenzl: And I think my least favorite part is having no privacy. It’s like we have to hang out with each other 24/7 and then sleep in the same bed at night.

Mike: [Laughing] Ditto!

Lori: Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you want people to know?

Wenzl: Whenever we’re having this moment of transcendence, whether it’s through music, through nature, through meditation, through yoga, or whatever it is, it’s important to remember that that’s out there. When it gets really tough in life, this complete bliss and acceptance is something that’s attainable. Even if it gets really dark and frustrating and sad and angry and all of those things, there is this other level of being within all of us.

Mike: Every time someone eats meat, something was murdered and tortured so that they could eat that meat. People’s actions matter.

James: Mushrooms are way better than meat—they’re easier to eat and they take way less time to cook! They’re very tasty.

Lori: Thank you, James, Mike, and Wenzl, for taking the time while busy on tour for me to spend time with and interview you! We sincerely appreciate all that you do to spread the vegan message of compassion.

And as the timing may have it, VO’s newly published Everyone Loves Music booklet even features quotes from the band members.

Vegan Outreach’s Executive Director, Jack Norris, RD, has written an update about Vegan Outreach’s attempts to assess the effectiveness of leafleting: Leafleting Effectiveness Study – Fall 2016 Update.

To summarize the state of the project, we are in the midst of our third pilot test to determine how best to go about measuring direct diet change created by leafleting and we are optimistic that we’ve found a method that can provide a reasonable amount of statistical certainty. The drawback is that it comes with a price tag of about $40,000. For this reason, we are likely to conduct it in waves over the course of a few semesters.

Excerpts from the Full Article

People have always asked us at Vegan Outreach how we know whether leafleting makes a difference.

We have mainly had anecdotal evidence to provide them, such as the Lives Changed and Recent Feedback pages on our website, which list some of the feedback we receive from people who have changed their diets due to receiving a booklet.

The impact that can be palpably felt on college campuses when leafleting—by talking to interested students, seeing people reading the booklets, and overhearing people discuss the issue—typically leaves an activist with a strong sense that they have just done a lot of good. These feelings are what keep so many leafleters going out day after day.

Nonetheless, it would be great to have more precise information about the impact of leafleting. This is no easy task, since there are at least four scenarios where leafleting is likely to make a positive difference.

• Direct Diet Change: A person receiving a booklet is moved emotionally or intellectually by the suffering of farmed animals and adopts a vegan diet.
• Word of Mouth: The original booklet recipient shares that information with others either through conversation or passing along the booklet.
• Touchpoint: A person is made aware of the suffering of farmed animals by a booklet, which makes them more likely to change their diet when presented with a future outreach activity.
• Animal Protection Community-Building: Leafleting is a low barrier-to-entry activity for new and experienced animal activists alike. Taking part in leafleting outings builds important connections between people and organizations in the animal protection community.

Historically, studies on leafleting have focused on the first scenario (direct diet change). Vegan Outreach’s current efforts are also focused on determining how likely people are to change their diet after receiving a booklet. However, to get a full understanding of the benefits of leafleting, these other dimensions have to be taken into consideration, and may themselves be subjects for future investigations.

A 2016 Harris Poll commissioned by the VRG found that “Approximately 3.7 million U.S. adults are vegan; 4.3 million are vegetarian but not vegan.”

To my knowledge, these polls are the best information we have on how many U.S. adults are vegan, and they show that over 22 years—and a great deal of activism—we have increased the number of vegans by about 3 million.

Click here for full article.

This year’s issue of Vegan Outreach News is now available.

Inside: Record-Setting Outreach • Measuring Effectiveness • Keeping Vegans Vegan • Doubling Your Impact for Animals, and much more!

Thank you for all you’ve made possible this year – and here’s to even more success in 2016!

(click to image to play video)

Vic Sjodin, VO’s Director of International Outreach, recently spoke at the International Animal Rights Conference in Esch, Luxembourg on effective activism, leafleting and staying inspired. The talk was very well received, you can see it here!

 

By Vic Sjodin, VO Director of Outreach

The fall semester has officially started at many colleges and universities across the country, which means ample opportunity for animal advocates to get out there and do outreach to an open-minded crowd of people.

Whether you’re new to leafleting or you’ve been leafleting for years, we want to give you a few easy-to-implement, time-tested tips that are guaranteed to help you leaflet like a pro.

Smile and Say Hello

A warm greeting and a friendly smile will undoubtedly increase the number of booklets you hand out. You can also try saying statements like, “Info on helping animals.” or “Help stop suffering.”

People who are new to leafleting will often say these statements as questions—”Would you like some info on how to help animals?” Doing this will actually decrease the number of booklets people take from you. Tweaking something so little can increase your take rate dramatically.

Extend Arm Fully

You’ll want to lean a little towards the receiver and extend your arm fully, locking your arm straight out when handing off the booklet. Do your best to pass the booklet right into the receiver’s hand.

If you have your arm close to your body and bent at 90 degrees, you won’t appear as confident. This is another small change that will make a huge difference!

For a bonus tip—make sure to square your shoulders and face the person walking toward you. Hand the booklet forward, slightly to the left or the right of your body. Be mindful not to hand out booklets with your arm to the side of your body.

Thank People Who Take a Booklet

Saying “Thank you!” or “Have a nice day!” or even “You’re the best!” with a little enthusiasm will have a profound cumulative effect by keeping the momentum of leaflet takers going. The person who took your booklet will appreciate the kindness, and, more importantly, the next person approaching will take note of your kindness and likely grab the booklet you’re offering.

Once a few people start taking booklets, more and more people will take them as they see others doing it. This simple act can often double or triple your take rate when done with warmth and sincerity.

Watch a Demonstration

Want to see these tips in action? Check out this video—a recording of Vegan Outreach’s first Facebook Live leafleting demonstration.

Have more questions about leafleting? Check out our detailed Helpful Tips page on the Adopt A College Website.

Want to get involved and start leafleting? This is how to get started.

Good luck and happy leafleting!

by Jack Norris, Executive Director

Vegan Outreach recently joined with ReadingRewards to do a pilot study to determine the effectiveness of paying people to read our booklets. Participants were given a small reward as part of a rewards program.

We tested the booklets Your Choice (YC), Even If You Like Meat (EI), and a control pamphlet about immigration. Participants were then surveyed to see if they intended to change their diet. All participants were surveyed a month later to see how they changed.

You can see the basline report by clicking here and the follow-up by clicking here. As of this writing, I didn’t have an official study design report yet, but will add that as soon as I receive it. [Added Dec 18, 2014; click here.]

For the initial study, 223 people read YC, 181 read EI, and 213 read the control pamphlet. For the follow-up, 167 of the YC, 134 of the EI, and 158 of the control readers took part.

The takeaway messages were as follows.

EI was the stronger pamphlet in terms of getting people to change. Compared to YC, EI has more text, citations, and more graphic images. It doesn’t focus as much on trying to convince people based on the fact that others are also going veg.

The finding that people were more persuaded by EI goes somewhat against the social research that suggests that seeing other people like you doing something is the most powerful motivator for change. On the other hand, older people were more likely to change in this survey (which was a surprise), and YC shows pictures of college students, not older people.

Speaking of the age of people who changed, among those over 50 years old, 14.3% reported changing their diet due to the pamphlet. The rates were 5.5% for readers between 40-50 years old, 2.9% for readers between 30-40 years old, and 1.9% for readers between 18-30 years old. These differences were statistically significant.

Predictably, women were more likely to change than men as 6.8% of female respondents who read a VO pamphlet reported changing their diet due to reading the pamphlet, compared to only 1.4% of male readers.

In terms of how much change the pamphlets created, the results suggested that 1 out of every 60-100 readers may have become pescetarian, vegetarian, or vegan due to reading the pamphlet. These results are highly uncertain due to lack of statistical significance. If true, then at a cost of $0.44 per read, it would be $26.50-$44.15 per major diet change.

Some of these results were surprising. We had been planning to make all our booklets more like YC, but this has given us a strong reason to continue having a couple booklets with more graphic photos and more text and citations.

The fact that older women were more likely to change their diet than younger women or men was also surprising. It’s hard to believe that this finding isn’t an anomaly, but definitely worth paying attention to more for the future.

In the meantime, I don’t think this survey should necessarily be taken as the final word on which booklet to use. The fact is, for most leafleters, YC is a lot easier to hand out and possibly handing out more could overcome the fact that if someone reads the entire booklet, they are more likely to change from an EI. And we don’t really know the differences between the booklets among a large number of college students.

The benefits of this Pay Per Read model for studying our booklets is that it solves some of the significant logistical problems of going onto college campuses and surveying people over time (especially finding the people to re-survey over time). In the not-too-distant future, I am interested in testing:

• Larger groups of people to possibly achieve statistical significance
• Longer time periods
• Reading pamphlets versus watching videos
• Incremental approaches versus a harder sell for veganism
• Environmental, health, and animal arguments compared to each other

That should keep us busy for a while.

By Josie Moody, VO Office Manager

If you’re looking for vegan shoes, you’ve come to the right place—my husband Mitch and I have compiled a list of vegan shoes below!

First, there are a number of sites that sell only vegan shoes. Wills is one of Mitch’s favorites for buying professional work shoes.

Other vegan companies are MooShoes, Vegan Essentials, and The Vegetarian Site.

If you aren’t buying from one of the great sites listed above, one invaluable resource we discovered is Vegan Kicks. Vegan Kicks is dedicated to helping you find vegan shoes, avoid ones that aren’t, and contact companies to ask them to include vegan options.

Vegan Kicks includes information about the workers’ conditions in their yearly reports—Vegan Shoe Policies 2015.

After discovering fashionable options from all-vegan companies such as Native Shoes, Newton Running, Unstitched Utilities, Vegan Chic, and Xero Shoes—where you can make your own sandals!—I’ll be spending my money at businesses whose values align closely with mine.

A special shout out to Vans, who, as of this writing, has dozens of vegan options for toddlers, kids, and adults alike!

Are there any vegan shoe companies you didn’t see in the Vegan Shoe Policies 2015 list? Let us know in the comments below!

By Jack Norris, Executive Director, and Rania Hannan, Research and Assessment Specialist

On August 1, Gallup released a poll in which they asked people whether they were vegetarian and vegan, and then compared the results to the same poll they conducted in 2012 (1). Gallup framed their results as, “Few Americans Vegetarian or Vegan,” but that really depends on your perspective—applying their results to the adult population shows that 7.6 million U.S. adults consider themselves to be vegan and that’s a considerable increase from earlier decades.

Gallup found that while the percentage of vegetarians has remained at 5% since 2012, the percentage of vegans had increased from 2% to 3%—a 50% increase in six years. And if you do the math based on the U.S. adult population from 2011 and 2017—the years they used in their calculations (2)—the number of vegans has increased by an estimated 2.8 million in those six years.

There are two caveats to this poll:

• Unlike the Vegetarian Resource Group’s polls of vegetarians and vegans which ask people what foods they eat, Gallup asked people if they “consider themselves to be” a vegetarian or vegan. The Vegetarian Resource Group’s pollsters estimated there to be 3.7 million adult vegans in the U.S. in 2016 based on food frequency data (3).
• The margin of error for these Gallup polls is wide at ±4%.

That said, the trends point in the right direction and reinforce our experience on the ground—the number of vegans is growing. Thank you to everyone working to spread a vegan lifestyle and end the suffering of farmed animals!

References

1. Snapshot: Few Americans Vegetarian or Vegan. Gallup. August 1, 2018.

2. Adults U.S. population taken from U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division (2011). Accessed August 10, 2018. Found U.S. adult population to be 237,734,073 in 2011 and 252,063,800 in 2017.

3. How many adults in the U.S. are vegetarian and vegan? Vegetarian Resource Group. Accessed August 10, 2018.

By Lisa Rimmert, Vice President of Strategic Communications

As the fall semester ends and we gear up for spring outreach, these dedicated campus leafleters have inspired us with their incredible work for animals this semester. They’ve spread a message of compassion to hundreds of thousands of people, making a huge impact in bringing us closer to a vegan world.

Let’s take a look at what they’ve been up to this fall!

Jevranne Martel

Drawing on her experience as a life coach, Jevranne Martel stays upbeat and engages people in thoughtful conversations as she leaflets. As our lone Canada Outreach Coordinator, she keeps her schedule jam-packed, traveling from British Columbia to Prince Edward Island, advocating for the animals. This semester, Jevranne handed leaflets to 26,580 students and showed virtual reality slaughterhouse footage to 198.

Carlos Contreras

Carlos Contreras [above, left] joined Emmanuel Marquez as the two embarked on Vegan Outreach’s first-ever tours in Peru and Ecuador. Encouraged by the positive response in both countries, Carlos finished the semester in his home country of Mexico. He handed leaflets to 25,742 students at a total of 42 schools this semester and he showed virtual reality videos to 220 people.

Emmanuel Marquez

In addition to supporting outreach by numerous volunteers, Emmanuel Marquez personally showed virtual reality videos to 263 people—bringing his total to nearly 5,000 over the past two years! He also handed leaflets this semester to 28,690 people at 54 schools on outreach tours in Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru.

Sarai Garcia

Sarai Garcia wrapped up her second semester of leafleting with Vegan Outreach, covering New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In the spring, she handed leaflets to 13,200 students at 26 schools, and now she’s more than doubled those numbers! This fall, Sarai handed out 35,004 leaflets at 60 schools.

Sam Tucker

Sam Tucker has handed leaflets to 44,530 people throughout Australia and New Zealand, and he’s shown virtual reality videos to 396. He’s also helped develop leaflets for Australia outreach and was instrumental in creating and launching Vegan Outreach’s 10 Weeks to Vegan program in Australia and New Zealand.

Carlos Yanez

Carlos Yanez completed his first solo tour of the Southeast U.S. this semester. He set a personal record of handing out 1,756 leaflets at North Carolina State University on October 10^th, and overall this semester he handed out 49,436 leaflets at 74 schools.

Richa Mehta

This was Richa Mehta’s second semester with Vegan Outreach India. She handed leaflets to 24,775 people and showed virtual reality videos to 403. On top of that, she was instrumental in working with food companies to reduce their use of animal products and introduce vegan options.

Miguel Marron

Miguel Marron received a Vegan Outreach leaflet at his college, then started an animal rights club, volunteered for Vegan Outreach, and is now an employee. He celebrated his 14^th anniversary as a vegan in October, and we’re celebrating that he handed out 44,818 leaflets and showed 330 virtual reality videos this fall!

Sarah Weldon

Leafleting in the southern U.S., Sarah Weldon uses her experience as a Marine Corps veteran and reformed hunter to relate to people who are initially resistant to the vegan message. As a result, she handed out 53,164 leaflets this fall and has had many hunters and farmers shake her hand and thank her for having a genuine conversation with them.

Brian Chavez

Brian Chavez [above, middle] started leafleting with Vegan Outreach in Southern California and has traveled all over the midwest U.S. to spread veganism. Brian leaflets heavily during class changes, then during slow times he takes the opportunity to have more meaningful conversations with curious students. As a result, he has handed out 58,643 leaflets on 55 campuses, and so many people have told him they’re going veg!

Steve Erlsten

Last but certainly not least is Steve Erlsten. Steve began leafleting in an official capacity for Vegan Outreach in the fall of 2013—and he hasn’t stopped since! While handing leaflets to 71,925 students this semester, he reached—and exceeded—his goal of personally handing out one million pro-veg leaflets! Congratulations, Steve, and thank you for your dedication!

These activists’ work is far from flashy—they wake up early, lug heavy boxes, and remain on their feet for hours at a time. We’re happy to be able to celebrate them any chance we get. Thank you for helping us do so! And thank you, of course, to the donors whose generosity made this work possible!

If you want to honor these activists and see Vegan Outreach do even more for animals next year, please consider making a donation by December 31st. It will be matched dollar-for-dollar for twice the impact!

Thank you!