Shifting the paradigm from animals as property to animals as nonhuman persons with inherent value requires a grassroots movement of people who are educated educators–people who understand the arguments in favor of veganism and can discuss them calmly and in plain language with the other people that they interact with in their day-to-day lives. We need people who can explain to others why “happy” exploitation, reducetarianism, and other speciesist approaches are not the solution and, indeed, are part of the problem.
There are all sorts of ways to do creative, nonviolent grassroots advocacy. But, in the end, the most important component of a grassroots movement for animals is the individual–YOU!–communicating with other individuals.
If each of us convinced one other person in the next year to go vegan and that was repeated over a period of years, we’d have a vegan U.S. in about 12 years and a vegan U.K. in about 9 years.
Each of us can be an effective agent of change. It does not cost anything to educate ourselves. Indeed, one of the primary purposes of this website and of our Facebook page is to provide you with free educational resources.
The alternative is supporting the bloated animal charities that do nothing but sell out animal interests and make people feel better about exploiting animals in return for a donation.
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If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence to yourself.
If animals matter morally, veganism is not an option—it is a necessity. Anything that claims to be an animal rights movement must make clear that veganism is a moral imperative.
The World is Vegan! If you want it.
Learn more about veganism at www.HowDoIGoVegan.com.
Gary L. Francione
Board of Governors Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University
Anna Charlton
Adjunct Professor, Rutgers University
©2016 Gary L. Francione and Anna Charlton
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