“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
H aving stretched our comfort zones, honed some new skills, and expanded our awareness, the next questions we tend to ask are How can I help? How can I use my skills and knowledge to be part of the solution? Where do I fit into this whole thing? What is the best use of my time? What is the best use of my money? Sometimes the answers lead us to a new vocation, sometimes to an avocation. We may become activists, or we may use our income to support activists—or both. But this stage in our journey isn’t simply about figuring out what to do for a living or what type of advocacy to engage in. It’s about finding our place in the context of this larger cause—whether our motivation is health, animals, or the environment. To be clear, you don’t have to become an advocate to remain vegan, but chances are you’ll be inclined to align your commitment to veganism/plant-based eating with other aspects of your life.
Finding your place doesn’t necessarily mean you have to quit your job, change careers, work for a vegan organization, or take to the streets with placards and petitions. Finding your place might mean working at a job totally unrelated to veganism at which you’re happy, successful, and well paid but that enables you to financially support people who have chosen to do this work full-time. Even if you don’t consider yourself an activist in the formal sense of the word, you are making a difference by virtue of not contributing to the inherently unsustainable, inhumane, unhealthy practices of the animal exploitation industries, and whether you intend to be or not, you are an ambassador of compassion and wellness.
Still, if you feel that being vegan is not enough and you want to delve into more active advocacy, there are many ways to get involved. As you begin to explore your options, I encourage you to keep in mind that the question isn’t necessarily “What is the best type of advocacy to get involved in?” It may be “What type of advocacy is the best for me?” As you venture down this path, here are a few things to consider:
1.Answering the question “What type of advocacy is the best for me?” means thinking about what you’re good at, what you love, and what excites you most. You’re going to be most effective if you’re coming from a truthful, authentic, joyful place.
2.There may not be one single answer for you; there may be several things you’re interested in. If so, I think you’ll find a common thread running through them. Perhaps your answers are all related to communication, education, technology, or legislation. In other words, if you have several interests, it might be helpful to identify the category they all fit into to help give you a bigger picture of where you want to devote your efforts.
3.Whatever your answer is to the question “What type of advocacy is the best for me?” be open to the fact that it may change. You may change your mind, get burned out, or just get bored, but that doesn’t mean you have to throw out the baby with the bathwater. If you’re doing one type of advocacy and you’re finding it taxing, emotionally draining, or less gratifying than it used to be, the best thing to do is try something else rather than stop advocating altogether. You might discover a new talent or passion, or you may find something you’re even better at. It’s okay to try one type and then another.
Always be open to evaluating and reevaluating what you’re engaged in to make sure it’s satisfying and effective—not draining and depleting. Often, we think we have to keep doing something because we’ve already invested time and resources, or we’re afraid to switch to something else because our identity has become defined by a particular type of activism. When it comes to effective advocacy, we need to continually ask:
Is this working?
Is this effective?
Am I happy?
Am I burning out?
Are there changes I can make within this type of activism to make it better, more sustainable, more effective? If not, do I need to try something else?
Nothing is ever so good that it’s above a little revision. Effective advocacy means being flexible, open, curious, and self-reflective. We will never have all the answers, but we should always be asking questions.
The work I’m doing today is similar to the type of advocacy I was drawn to early on in terms of the larger categories—writing, communication, information, outreach, education—but the forms have changed and the mediums continue to evolve. My very early advocacy involved volunteering at a county animal shelter, where I socialized cats and cleaned their cages. I started out going one day a week, then two, then several, because it was heartbreaking to think that if I didn’t show up, nobody was going to interact with the cats or give them some time to stretch their legs outside of their cages. (Guilt certainly drives a lot of advocacy, which is why we need to make sure we pause for self-care.) I had become vegetarian around that time, and in an effort to raise awareness about the different forms of socially sanctioned animal abuse I had come to care about, I began making little brochures and flyers about various issues: puppy mills, vivisection (using animals as research tools), and vegetarianism. This was before the internet, so I typed out the names and telephone numbers of various organizations on each brochure and distributed my handmade materials to passersby at the mall—before I was stopped for doing so because I didn’t have a permit. I had no idea what I was doing, and I didn’t know any other activists; I just needed to do something to speak up for animals.
Several years later, after moving to California and becoming vegan, I stepped up my activism. Every weekend, I would head out for the streets of Berkeley, set up my TV/VCR, play a loop of Meet Your Meat, and hand out copies of Why Vegan? pamphlets. I had countless conversations with compassionate consumers who wanted to stop participating in these atrocities but whose minds were filled with myths and misconceptions about veganism. I realized they understood why becoming vegan was optimal, but they didn’t know how to make the transition. So, I started teaching vegan cooking classes in my city of Oakland. I had no formal culinary training, but I knew enough to help those who knew less than I did. In addition, I organized events with speakers (such as my hero, John Robbins), hosted film screenings of documentaries, led youth groups in discussions about veganism and on tours of animal sanctuaries, and began giving talks at schools and churches, while also continuing to teach vegan courses and cooking classes that were open to the public every month. I taught these classes for ten years.
Because I wanted to reach more people than those who attended the cooking classes, I raised the money to produce a cooking DVD to sell and distribute.* Once that was in motion, I started writing, producing, recording, and hosting a podcast—in 2006, long before most people, including myself, really knew what a podcast was. Although it was my dream to be a published author, I never thought my first book would be a cookbook, but since my goal was to give people the tools and resources they needed to become and stay vegan, I felt it was a necessary labor of love. Same with the second book and the third. After writing cookbooks, I turned to writing books to help people transition to being vegan and to live with conviction and compassion—including the book you’re holding in your hands. I also started writing opinion pieces for various publications and radio shows, and I became (and remain) a regular contributor to my local National Public Radio station. I began doing regular TV segments and speaking to audiences all around the world—at VegFests, conferences, and universities—and I created The 30-Day Vegan Challenge online program to give people a multimedia experience as they made their transition. My political engagement also increased as I began working with local officials to pass animal-friendly legislation, and I cofounded a political action committee to help elect animal-friendly candidates. I’ve also come full circle and once again volunteer with an animal rescue organization, socializing cats.
When I left graduate school in 1996, I wasn’t even vegan—I was barely vegetarian (more like pescatarian)—but I already knew I wanted to dedicate my life to animals. I vividly remember saying to my fellow graduating classmates, “I don’t know what it’s going to look like, and I don’t quite know what form it’s going to take, but my goal is to do something related to writing, teaching, advocating for animals, and helping people at the same time.” Those threads continue to run through my work today. I knew what I was fairly good at, and I knew what I was passionate about, but I didn’t know exactly what the work was going to be. I think it’s fair to say that when I graduated with a master’s in English literature, I didn’t envision myself teaching cooking classes, creating recipes, or screening slaughter videos on the streets of Berkeley. Even though I could have worked for an animal or vegan organization, I always knew I wanted to work for myself, so I set out to do just that. As I was advocating in all the ways described above, I also worked full-time as a content director for a nonprofit organization unrelated to animal issues; it was a good job doing good work, but my heart wasn’t in it, and after a few years, I left to turn my avocation into a vocation.
I was able to do this because I never stopped asking, What am I good at? What do I love? What is there a need for? What is effective? How can I use my skills, gifts, and interests to be the most useful? I encourage you to ask yourself these types of questions whether you want to find your place as a volunteer or as a professional. Here are some questions to get you started; add them to your own journal or word processing software and take some time to work out your answers.
What moves me?
What do I love?
What am I good at?
What are my gifts?
What are my skills?
What are my talents?
What gets me excited?
What am I passionate about?
What do I see as a gap that only I could fill?
If you love writing, write. Write a blog, a book, magazine articles, opinion pieces, letters to the editor, or even legislation.
If you love talking to people, talk. Speak at high schools and universities, start a podcast, make videos.
If you love cooking, cook. Create recipes, write a cookbook, teach classes, start a business, open a cafe (but be sure to partner with someone who has business skills if that’s not your forte).
If you’re an artist, create. Draw, paint, illustrate, sculpt, design.
If you’re a musician, make music.
If you’re a filmmaker, make films.
If you love politics, get involved, support animal-friendly candidates and legislation, run for office.
Everyone has a contribution to make, whether as an independent contributor or as a volunteer for an individual influencer or a larger organization.
It is worth saying, however, that effective long-term advocacy is not just a matter of figuring out what you love and what makes you feel good. It’s also about figuring out what you don’t love and what doesn’t make you feel good. Some people are perfectly comfortable attending protests or demonstrations. Some people hate writing; some are scared to death of public speaking. Don’t do something you loathe just because you think you should. That’s not to say we should never stretch our comfort zones and try something different, but if you try something and still feel intimidated, inadequate, or uncomfortable, there’s probably a better place for you, and by stepping away you open up a space for someone else who is better suited. You also free yourself up to find where you belong.
As for choosing specific types of activism, I mention some below, but you can also search online for ideas; reach out to organizations and influencers to see what their needs are; read books like Mark Hawthorne’s Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism, Stephanie Feldstein’s The Animal Lover’s Guide to Changing the World, and Jennifer Skiff’s Rescuing Ladybugs: Inspirational Encounters with Animals That Changed the World for inspiration. And keep in mind that you don’t have to found, work for, or volunteer at a nonprofit organization to find your place or have an impact. The recipient of your precious time (and money) might also be an independent content creator, a podcaster, a blogger, or a grassroots activist. The primary difference between a nonprofit organization and a sole proprietor is simply that the former doesn’t have to pay taxes. Tax-exempt status doesn’t make someone better organized; it just means they have to comply with a few rules, so keep an open mind when it comes to figuring out who you want to donate to, work with, or volunteer for.
A VOCATION
If you do want to work on behalf of veganism or animals full-time as a solo entrepreneur but you are in a job you can’t currently quit, you can begin to build your second vocation as you work in your first. It may mean working two jobs while you create the business you want; it may mean finding an investor or a business partner; it may mean taking out a business loan—it all depends on the type of work you want to do. You may want to get certified, take a course, or earn a degree. Figure out what you need to do, make a plan, and put one foot in front of the other. Fear is what stops most of us from making a change: fear of not having enough money, fear of not succeeding, fear of succeeding, fear of the unknown. If any of that sounds familiar to you, I encourage you to take the time to write down what your goals are. Having a more concrete vision of your future can make it feel less intimidating.
How do I envision myself spending my days?
Do I see myself working from home or in an office?
What kind of contribution do I see myself making?
What types of jobs am I best suited for?
What blocks do I need to clear to make the first step possible? The second step? The third?
What am I afraid of?
What am I excited about?
Get clear about what you want and what you want to do. This exercise is not only useful for those who want to work for themselves; it will provide clarity even if you want to work for someone else. Once you have a better understanding of what you want to contribute, you will find that there are plenty of different positions at many different vegan companies, vegan organizations, and animal protection organizations you can apply for.
EARNING A LIVING
Another important question often gets neglected by those whose motivations are altruistic:
How much money do I need to make to live comfortably without having to worry about paying my bills?
I hear from so many large-hearted people who are working in a job or on a project that promotes veganism or animal protection (or who are eager to do so) but who feel they need to say, “I’m not doing it for the money. I’m doing it for the animals” (as if anyone goes into animal advocacy for the cash). They emphasize that they’re working for free or running on so shoestring a budget that they can’t make ends meet or pay anyone to help them, because they want to devote everything they have to the larger cause. Poverty and self-sacrifice become emblems of magnanimity: the less you make, the more it shows you care—a sentiment even some vegans use to criticize fellow vegans or animal protectionists who make salaries greater than they think they deserve. There’s a notion that if you generate money from noble work, you’re probably really a greedy mercenary, and if you do want to do good work in the world, you ought to renounce the desire to live comfortably. I don’t think these ideas are unique to vegans and animal advocates; I think they abound in other movements as well, especially in those inclined toward anticonsumerism, anticapitalism, and socialism.
To say we humans have a schizophrenic relationship with money is an understatement. When we don’t have it, it’s all we think about. When we do have it, we want more of it. When we have more, it’s never enough. When others have it, we’re envious; when others don’t have it, we blame those who have it for keeping it from those who don’t. The bottom line is you can both do good work in this world and want financial security at the same time. You don’t have to choose one over the other. That’s not to say we can’t make sacrifices for the larger cause, but asceticism need not be a prerequisite for advocacy. Don’t be ashamed for wanting to make money. Neither the animals nor the humans who benefit by our work need us to be monks as much as they need us to be strategic. They don’t need us to be poor as much as they need us to be successful, visionary, and effective—with enough money to enable us to do our work without the distraction of worrying about having enough money.
Asceticism need not be a prerequisite for advocacy.
START WHERE YOU’RE AT
News flash! You don’t have to change careers to use your voice for animals; there are countless ways to advocate in the framework of your current job, whether you’re a software consultant, a trucker, a teacher, a real estate agent, or a restaurant worker. Whatever you do—as either your vocation or avocation—you have an opportunity to make a difference:
If you’re an interior designer, you can talk to your clients, colleagues, or company about wool, cashmere, and leather. If you work for someone else, you can request your company stop using these products in the name of environmental integrity and sustainability; if you’re self-employed, you can make it your policy to work only with animal-free materials.
If you’re employed by a corporation that provides food for staff events and meetings, you can influence the type of food that’s served. Work with the Meatless Monday campaign (meatless monday.com) to implement it at your office.
If you’re a nurse, doctor, or staff member in a hospital, perhaps you can screen movies like Forks Over Knives or encourage other staff members to take the 30-Day Vegan Challenge. Human resources may even provide incentives and benefits to those who take the challenge, especially if staff members can demonstrate improvement in their blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, etc. after having made dietary changes.
If you’re an attorney, you can donate some of your time to an animal law case. Contact the Animal Legal Defense Fund for opportunities.
If you’re a hairdresser or work in a salon, you can transition to vegan, cruelty-free products.
If you work for a rodent expulsion service, you can switch to using only humane, catch-and-release traps.
If you’re a filmmaker, you can try to make sure all the meals served on set are plant-based and refrain from using live animals or animal products during the shoot.
In fact, leveraging the power we have among the groups we’re already affiliated with is the best way to effect large-scale change, whether we’re talking about the local government officials we vote for, the companies we work for, the neighborhoods we live in, or the churches we are members of. Individuals are more willing to take risks and make changes when they’re aligned with the status quo. Don’t underestimate the influence you have to reset norms and therefore inspire new behaviors among the people and organizations you already have relationships with.
Certainly some jobs can be more challenging for vegans than others, especially those related to food; if you work in the food industry as a server, line cook, chef, baker, caterer, manager, or cafeteria worker, you’re most likely handling meat, dairy, and eggs on a daily basis. If you’re in this scenario and feel miserable doing your job, you have a few options:
1.Quit your job.
2.Quit being vegan.
3.Figure out a way to use the position you’re in to advocate for veganism and animals.
Option 1 would be self-destructive unless you have another job lined up. (Perhaps you can find a similar job in a veg*n restaurant.) As difficult as it may be to remain in a food-related job that requires you to serve or cook meat/dairy/eggs, animals aren’t helped if you have no income, cannot pay your bills, and rack up debt. Make sure you have a plan before giving notice.
Option 2 would be self-defeatist and illogical. It doesn’t make sense to start eating meat, dairy, and eggs again just so you can stop feeling bad about handling meat, dairy, and eggs in your profession.
Option 3 requires a bit of willful blindness, but it will enable you to do your work without losing your mind. When you’re able and willing to leave your job, you’ll do so, but in the meantime, there are a number of ways you can influence the restaurant you work at and the customers you serve. The most obvious way is to increase the plant-based offerings. Work with the management, owners, and/or chefs to get more plant-based options on the menu, arguing from the perspective of sustainability and profit and providing them with a number of resources to demonstrate the success of restaurants that have added more vegan options to their menus.
Organize a test taste with managers and staff that features products such as the Impossible Burger, the Beyond Burger, Just Egg, and Just Mayo—all brands that work with restaurants and commercial businesses. Contact the companies themselves for samples and to help find out what distributor your restaurant (or whatever type of food service company you work for) can order them from.
Reach out to Forward Food, which works with food service directors, chefs, and dietitians at universities, hospitals, major corporations, and restaurant chains, to add plant-based foods to their repertoire. Connect with them directly or check out their website (forwardfood.org) for recipes, resources (such as the Professional’s Guide to Meat-Free Meals), and toolkits for university foodservice professionals, healthcare foodservice professionals, and restaurants. They also do culinary training.
Consult the Good Food Institute’s database of food-service products at goodfoodscorecard.org; it includes photos, detailed information, and sales contacts.
There are countless stories of restaurant owners who become vegan and slowly start veganizing their establishments. You can do this, too! Check out Veganizer (theveganizers.com), a fantastic resource that includes a step-by-step guide for restaurateurs who want to fully or partially veganize their establishment.
Getting restaurants to add vegan options to their menu isn’t enough, however. As we saw in the sidebar on page 207, research reveals that how items are marketed to customers makes all the difference in terms of how well they sell—or not.1 Keep in mind that even if you don’t work for a restaurant, you can still work with restaurants to help them implement these ideas. Restaurant outreach is a much-needed form of advocacy that anyone can do—wherever you live. Here are some suggestions you can encourage restaurants to implement to increase the sales of their plant-based options. (Some of these suggestions may also be useful to food activists, bloggers, recipe creators, and cookbook authors.)
Do not create a separate vegan menu. Rather, incorporate vegan items within the nonvegan items of the regular menu.
The name of the dish matters. Label menu items with words related to taste and enjoyment. Customers are more likely to choose “Zesty Chile-and-Citrus-Roasted Asparagus” over “Asparagus” and “Tangy Ginger Broccoli and Smoky Shiitake Mushrooms” over “Broccoli and Mushrooms.”
Don’t label the item as vegetarian or vegan. For example, title a plant-based burger “Impossible Burger” or “Beyond Burger” rather than “Vegan Burger” or “Veggie Burger.” If it’s not a commercial patty, call it something exciting like “Smoky Grilled Grain Burger” or “Mexican Bean Chipotle Burger.” Only indicate that the item is plant-based in the description: “made with delectable plant-based ingredients for the discerning meat-eater.”
As much as people profess to want to eat healthfully, they are less inclined to order something if it’s labeled “healthy,” “low-fat,” “no-oil,” or “low-calorie,” as we equate these descriptors with “no flavor” and “no satisfaction.” Instead, use descriptors like “indulgent,” “decadent,” “sinful,” “rich,” and “luxurious.”
Increase the artistry of the dish’s presentation. Studies show that how food is plated actually enhances the flavor—and thus increases the sales—of the menu item.
Aside from vegan burgers and nuggets, don’t rely too heavily on seitan or tofu. They tend to have negative associations for nonvegans.
If you do add a commercial product to your offerings, contact the manufacturer so they can add your restaurant to the product finder page on their website.
Once the vegan items are on the menu and being marketed in a positive way, restaurants can further increase orders of their vegetarian or vegan options by using an effective little psychological trick. Social psychologists have known for a long time that when something is already being done by the majority of people, the rest of us think it must be a good thing, so we want to do it too. In other words, you can change a person’s behavior by highlighting that other people changed their behavior. Social peer pressure for good! For instance, restaurants should advertise their new plant-based additions by saying something like “More and more people are trying our new burger.” Restaurant servers should recommend the plant-based option and promote it as the special of the day, emphasizing its popularity: “Today’s special—the Impossible Burger—is everyone’s favorite.” A recent experiment led by a Ph.D. student in psychology at Stanford University found that if a customer is told that other people are increasingly choosing the menu’s meatless options, they are more likely to order a meatless meal.2 The researchers worked with a burger restaurant near Stanford University to add to the menu a simple, unobtrusive message: “Our Meatless Burgers Are on the Rise.” Affixed to the credit card machine was another: “We’ve noticed customers are starting to choose more meatless dishes.” Over the course of seventeen days, these two small interventions resulted in an increase in the sales of meatless dishes of 1.7 percent, translating to over 180 people who chose the vegetarian option. When behaviors are presented as societal norms, it taps into our brain’s deeply ingrained desire to conform to societal standards. If you’re a server in a nonveg restaurant, just recommending the vegetarian and/or vegan options on the menu may work, but it might be even more effective if you did so by saying, “One of the most popular dishes is the [name of vegan menu item]” or “Our customers keep coming back for the [name of vegan menu item],” rather than simply “I recommend the [name of vegan menu item].” A subtle difference—but one that can have an impact.
The word advocate comes from the Latin word vocare, which means “voice.”
Being a voice for animals at work—the word advocate comes from the Latin word vocare, which means “voice”—can be done quietly as well, even if it’s just about protecting your own principles. When my husband was a software engineer, he was staffed on a project to build a website for a horseracing company. He told his manager that he didn’t feel comfortable working on that project, and his boss happily put him on another. A friend of mine who works as a sound engineer at a radio station received a call from a journalist who wanted to rent the studio to interview a trophy hunter (someone who pays tens of thousands of dollars to kill large “game” animals). My friend works with many people whose values are not in alignment with his own, but he felt he just couldn’t do this one in good conscience. He replied by saying that they were booked up and recommended a commercial production studio in the same city. Did that mean my husband’s company didn’t staff someone else on the horseracing project or that another studio didn’t give studio time to a big-game hunter? No, but sometimes a little self-preservation is necessary as you’re finding your vegan place in this nonvegan world. And remember, it’s not just who you work for that provides you with an opportunity to advocate or not; it’s how you spend your well-earned salary. With the money you make serving meat burgers, selling wool clothing, or recording interviews with hunters, you can support the vegan and animal protection organizations you care about. Consider it an offset.
Don’t do nothing because you can’t do everything. Do something. Anything.
Reconciling your veganism with the rest of your life is not always easy, and not everyone is an activist. It can be exhausting to see animal exploitation everywhere you turn and always feel obligated to combat it or guilty that you can’t. As long as we’re striving to live an ethical life, we will encounter difficult situations that test our patience and stamina. We’re not always going to hit a home run in our efforts to advocate, but facing these situations can also make us stronger, wiser, and more resourceful. Will there be consequences when we speak out and step up? Yes. Will there be consequences when we don’t? Absolutely. What’s the alternative? Stop being vegan? Stop striving to live ethically? Don’t do nothing because you can’t do everything. Do something. Anything. We are not perfect people, and we do not live in a perfect world, but there is so much we can do in our individual lives to advocate for the things we care about. Even though we can’t control the world, we can control ourselves. Choosing the type of advocacy that best suits us is one way to exert the power we have, but choosing what type of advocate we want to be may make the difference in how effective and how satisfied we will be.
TEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ADVOCATES
Based on the success and mistakes of my own advocacy, as well as that of others I’ve observed and studied over the years, I’ve devised a list of characteristics of effective advocates. Putting into practice all or just some of these habits will not only help increase your efficacy, it will also help increase your happiness and peace of mind—especially if you’re in this for the long game (which is one of the elements of effective advocacy: understanding that change takes time, perseverance, and patience). Some of these habits will come easily to you; some will need to be cultivated. Implement what you can, be open, and embrace the challenge.
1. Highly effective advocates manifest and model compassion.
We all know how easy it is to have compassion for those who agree with us, look like us, vote like us, and eat like us, but if we profess to be compassionate people, it means we have to strive to have compassion for everyone: the guilty and the nonguilty, the kind and the unkind, the good and the evil, the human and the nonhuman, the people we like and the people we don’t, the vegan and the nonvegan. Authentic compassion means having compassion even for people who are not compassionate. Many people hear this and think that striving to have compassion for everyone—regardless of who they are and how they behave—means condoning inappropriate, dangerous, offensive, illegal, or violent behavior. They think it implies being a doormat, enabling abusive behavior, and keeping untrustworthy people in their life. None of this is what compassion is about. Compassion doesn’t condone bad behavior; it helps transcend it.
Compassion doesn’t condone bad behavior; it helps transcend it.
Highly effective advocates recognize and truly believe that non-vegans are compassionate people, too. I’ve seen too many vegans (especially those who identify as “ethical vegans”) write off nonvegans as cruel and insensitive, but I don’t think that’s the whole truth about people. I don’t believe people wake up each morning trying to figure out how they can contribute to violence against animals that day. That doesn’t mean there aren’t sadists in the world doing horrific, unspeakable things, but the majority of people contributing to violence against animals are doing so out of ignorance and conditioning—not sadism and blatant cruelty. I think the truth is people are so sensitive that they don’t want to believe that they’re contributing to harm or violence against animals, and so they choose the easier route—ritualizing, rationalizing, and romanticizing their consumption of animals (see chapter one, “Don’t Tell Me. I Don’t Want to Know”). We humans have a great capacity to compartmentalize our emotions and support things we would never participate in directly—and then justify our behavior so we can sleep well at night. I know I did. But that doesn’t mean the compassion isn’t there. Before I became vegan, I was a compassionate person, but my compassion was blocked; it was conditional. Highly effective advocates know this and seek to guide people to their own compassion. But they also continually seek to be more compassionate themselves. The idea that only nonvegans compartmentalize their compassion is a false one.
We’re all taught to compartmentalize our compassion and reserve it for only a select few, doling it out as one would limited, scarce rations—as if exercising it fully and authentically would deplete us of it or compel us to waste it on the “wrong people.” And so we actually wind up rationing our compassion. We decide who is worthy of our compassion and who it should be withheld from, who deserves it and who it should be denied to. We see this play out in the ugliest of ways when animal advocates celebrate the death of hunters or prominent meat-promoting celebrities—cheering their demise in the name of compassion for animals. That’s not compassion; that’s vengeance. That’s not kindness; that’s insensitivity. Vegans also ration their compassion when they say, “I’m not going to have compassion for slaughterhouse workers, animal farmers, animal abusers, hunters, people who test on animals, people who eat animals, and [fill-in-the-blank] because they don’t deserve my compassion.” They use righteousness and—ironically—compassion as justification for their intolerance, forgetting that the people we think are the least deserving of our compassion are probably the ones who need it most.
Less compassion in the world just means less compassion in the world. More compassion in the world means more compassion in the world.
If someone violates, hurts, or kills someone else—human or nonhuman—it’s an indication that they’re lacking compassion, empathy, awareness, or consciousness. The solution is not to withhold the very thing that’s missing (compassion, empathy, awareness, consciousness) but to fill the lack with that thing. It doesn’t matter who fills the void; what matters is that the void is filled. Less compassion in the world just means less compassion in the world. More compassion in the world means more compassion in the world. It really is that simple.
2. Highly effective advocates plant seeds and remain unattached to whether or not those seeds germinate.
As advocates who are desperate to end animal suffering, we think that if we provide enough information, show enough films, post enough social media photos, and say enough of the right things, people will become vegan, just as we did. I hear a lot of vegans say—with a little indignation in their voice—“I saw that film/heard that talk/read that book and became vegan overnight. How can someone see the same thing and not become vegan?!” We forget the dozens of other seeds planted along the way in our own journey leading up to the moment when we saw that movie or read that book. Perhaps it was the fifteenth seed that finally compelled us to do something different—to become vegan—or perhaps it was the 150th. The moment of awakening itself is often characterized as coming from out of the blue—“I became vegan overnight”—but with a little retrospection, most people would acknowledge that cracks had been visible prior to that moment—that “becoming vegan overnight” is really the culmination of years of fissures appearing in the foundation, enough that the walls can no longer hold.
When we present information to someone else and they don’t become vegan, it isn’t because we failed or because they’re unfeeling; it may be because it’s only the second seed planted for them or that the seeds that have been planted aren’t ready to grow yet. There is no way to know, but that is no reason to despair. It’s a reason to keep planting seeds and to keep watering them. We don’t know what will be the final thing that compels someone to make a change, and in a way it’s really not our business. Highly effective advocates plant seeds but remain unattached to whether or when those seeds will germinate.
Highly effective advocates also know when to stop overwatering the seeds they plant. I hear from a lot of advocates who say, “I’ve been trying to convince my uncle (or friend or family member) for five years that being vegan is healthier/better than eating meat, but he just argues. What can I say to persuade him?” My response? Move on! There are plenty of people who may want to hear what you have to say, but they’re not hearing it because you’re spending your time arguing with your uncle instead. Step back, let go, and when your uncle is interested, I bet he knows where he can find you if he wants more information. (In fact, when you stop pestering him, he may be more inclined to hear what you have to say.)
It may surprise you to learn that as someone who advocates for animals and compassion, my mission isn’t “to make the world vegan” or “to change people’s minds.” If those were my goals, by all accounts I would be a failure as an advocate (and a pretty miserable person to boot). I would be a failure because I can’t make anyone do anything. All I can do is speak the truth and trust that the truth will inspire others to act on their own values. While there are indeed effective and ineffective ways to advocate, human beings aren’t a math equation to be solved. We are complex, psychological, habit-driven beings who resist change and abhor discomfort. For many people, willful blindness resolves the dissonance and discomfort they feel about their participation in animal cruelty or unhealthy eating habits. When they do the quick calculation in their minds, they see very little value in making behavioral changes that would disrupt how they eat, how they shop, how they socialize, and how they live. For those reasons and more, advocates have a tough hill to climb, and we need to understand the difference between leading and forcing. That is why I’m clear about my mission, which is to empower people to make informed food choices, to raise awareness about violence against animals, and to give people the tools and resources they need to live according to their own values of compassion and wellness. I’m very clear about those goals, and I can say unequivocally that I attain those goals every single day.
I believe we’re here to be teachers for one another, and I’m grateful for my role as a conduit. But that’s all any of us are. I don’t take the credit for people becoming vegan from my work—just as I don’t take the blame for people who don’t become vegan despite my work. Do your work, then step back, says the Tao Te Ching. The only path to serenity.
3. Highly effective advocates never forget their own story.
It’s imperative for those of us who have already become awake to remember where we came from—to remember that we, too, were once asleep and unaware. Perhaps we made stupid jokes, said silly things, defended our behavior. Perhaps we said, “I’ll never be vegan”; perhaps we made fun of vegans. The point is, if we remember our story, we’ll be less inclined to be self-righteous when we encounter people who are not where we’re at. In forgetting our own stories, we lose our humility, and in doing so we risk becoming arrogant and self-righteous—not a great formula for remaining joyful or attracting people to this way of life. Highly effective advocates know we’re no better than anyone else for being vegan; we’re just better today than we were yesterday.
4. Highly effective advocates recognize there is more than one way to advocate.
Advocacy is not algebra. There isn’t one single answer to the problems of animal cruelty, exploitation, and consumption. Although I do think some forms of advocacy are more effective than others, and I do think some methods turn other people off more than they draw them in, no single type of advocacy works best, because no single type works independent of the others. Individual forms of advocacy don’t exist in a vacuum. It’s not enough, for instance, to show people why they should be vegan; we also need to show them how to become vegan, and for that we need all the advocates who create the tools and resources that guide people through the transition.
We need advocates who create recipes, write books, make films, teach cooking classes, provide accurate nutrition information, and demystify vegan eating, cooking, living, and shopping. We also need innovators who create vegan products, investors who infuse money into these products, and lobbyists and trade groups who can ensure these products are equitably represented in the marketplace. We need advocates who raise awareness, write letters, screen documentaries, rescue animals, and run shelters and sanctuaries. We need advocates who help enact and enforce laws, change policies, educate, litigate, and legislate. We need advocates who change hearts and minds and those who change institutions such as schools, restaurants, corporations, and governments. We need it all. The animals need it all.
Worry less about people who don’t agree with you. Harness instead the power and energy of the people who do agree with you, get to work, and let others do theirs.
Whatever you choose to do, do it well, and know that you’re making a difference. Whatever you choose not to do, get out of the way and let others do the work they have chosen. Just as all religions believe that God is on their side, so too can activists fall into the trap that they know exactly what works and that everyone else is wrong. Be wary of any activist who says that their single form of activism is the right way, and everyone else is hurting “the cause” rather than helping it. It’s one thing to come together as fellow advocates to discuss efficacy, strategy, and improvements; it’s quite another to devote precious time and to spend limited social capital publicly criticizing, condemning, and undermining other advocates—whether they’re individuals or organizations. There are a lot of problems in this world, and there are a lot of people who sit on their duffs doing absolutely nothing to solve them. There are fewer people who actually get up, speak out, and do something to make this world a better place. Advocates—even those with whom you disagree—who dedicate their time, resources, and money to help (animals or people) are not the problem. Apathy is the problem. In other words, worry less about people who don’t agree with you. Harness instead the power and energy of the people who do agree with you, go do your work, and let others do theirs.
When my first book—The Joy of Vegan Baking—was published, I realized very quickly that I had to develop a thick skin if I was going to put my work out in the world. Everyone’s a critic, of course, and with the prevalence of social media and websites that invite reviews, everyone has a public platform for voicing their criticism. I don’t expect everyone to love everything I do, but what struck me were the “reviews” from people who promptly panned The Joy of Vegan Baking not because the writing, photographs, or recipes lacked merit but because it wasn’t the book they wanted written—ostensibly one with recipes free of sugar, gluten, and oil. Clearly, my book wasn’t a fit for them, but instead of just not buying the book, looking around for another, or writing their own, they took the time to excoriate mine and encourage others not to buy it.
Do your work, then step back. Everyone has a contribution to make—even if it’s not the same as yours.
5. Highly effective advocates find common ground and build coalitions on that ground.
Effective advocates identify shared values, whether they are talking to their compatriots or advocating to nonvegans. They find common ground with people who may on the face of it seem like “the enemy” or “the opposition” and build from that common ground, standing together against violence rather than standing against one another—a great strategy for dealing with disagreement in any relationship about any issue. This is not always easy to do because you have to be more willing to find resolution than you are eager to be right; you have to be more willing to solve the problem than you are anxious to win the argument. Highly effective advocates ask, Do I want to be right or do I want to be effective?
Highly effective advocates ask, Do I want to be right or do I want to be effective?
When it comes to talking to nonvegans, highly effective advocates know that people are surprised (and relieved) to know that vegans had a pre-vegan life. When someone says “I love meat” or “I could never give up cheese,” they don’t expect a vegan to say, “I did, too. I loved meat. I didn’t stop eating meat because I stopped liking the taste; I stopped eating it because I realized it was made of animals” (or whatever is true for you). By doing so, not only will you be finding common ground with people, you will also be remembering and reinforcing your own story. It’s incredibly effective (and incredibly kind) to acknowledge that you had a similar experience:
“I used to think the same thing.”
“I totally understand.”
“I can absolutely relate.”
“I also grew up eating animals. I also thought it was going to be hard to stop.”
“I also never thought I could give up cheese.”
If people find ways to identify with you, they’ll be more inclined to consider making changes themselves or at least be open to hearing what you have to say. It’s easy to stereotype someone we perceive as different from us and put them in a neat little box labeled not me, presuming we know everything about them because of the category or categories we’ve placed them in. If you identify as a liberal, progressive, vegan, atheist Democrat, you may see anyone who is a conservative, religious, Republican meat-eater as antithetical to you, and yet I’d wager that you have some things in common—even things you would agree on. Perhaps you both have dogs, cats, or children. Perhaps you both hate broccoli or love blueberry pancakes. Perhaps you both like hiking or chocolate or beer, or you both agree that animals shouldn’t be victims of violence. There is always something, and I suggest you find it and start there. Rather than determine that you can’t talk to someone about a sensitive subject because you have such different viewpoints, try to have a more catholic perspective that appreciates the common ground you share and that respects the common ground you don’t. This applies broadly as well, whether you’re creating coalitions with other movements, working with opposing political parties on nonpartisan legislation, or finding common ground with other animal and vegan advocates and organizations. Effective advocates know they don’t need to agree with others about everything in order to work together on something.
6. Highly effective advocates understand that perfection is the enemy of the good.
“This is Earth. It will never be heaven. There will always be cruelty, always be violence, always be destruction. We cannot eliminate all devastation for all time, but we can reduce it, outlaw it, undermine its sources and foundations: these are victories. A better world, yes; a perfect world, never.”3 These are the words of the brilliant activist Rebecca Solnit from her small gem of a book, Hope in the Dark, which celebrates activism as a journey rather than as a means for achieving Utopia. Similarly, in his book Enlightenment Now, cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker makes the case that in every way progress can be measured (health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, happiness), things are better now than they used to be, even though there is still much work to be done. But not everyone wants to believe in progress—especially, it seems, progressives. “There’s a tendency among intellectuals to point to every unsolved problem as the symptom of a sick society,”4 says Pinker; like Solnit, he reminds us that although we will never have a perfect world, that doesn’t mean we should stop trying to make it better.
Both authors challenge a view cherished mostly by progressives that we can’t talk about any good things until there are no more bad things and that we can’t celebrate progress until everything is perfect. Some animal advocates succumb to this manner of thinking when they criticize instead of celebrate any incremental progress toward the larger goal of eliminating systemic violence against animals:
They disparage campaigns, such as Meatless Monday, that encourage people to eat less meat, dairy, and eggs or any program that helps people transition over a period of time, such as the 30-Day Vegan Challenge or Veganuary.
They call for boycotts of vegan products whose manufacturers receive investments from nonvegan companies for the purpose of increasing the availability and affordability of vegan products in the marketplace.
They oppose any welfare laws that make it illegal to confine, mutilate, and mistreat animals used for food, entertainment, fur, or research.
They characterize any type of advocacy other than that which tells people to “go vegan” as a betrayal to the animals.
Let me tell you a little story.
At the end of 2014, an ordinance to ban the use of bullhooks on elephants was brought before the Oakland City Council. Bullhooks are sharp weapons used to hurt and intimidate elephants to force them to perform unnatural acts for the amusement of humans. Some advocates decried the ordinance, saying that it was just a welfare measure and that if we really wanted to make a difference for animals, we should ask the city council to ban the circus altogether. Feld Entertainment, the owner of Ringling Bros. Circus, showed up with expensive lawyers and spent a lot of money in Oakland (and previously in Los Angeles) to fight the bull-hook ban. They lost. As cities and counties across the United States began drafting legislation similar to that which passed in Oakland (and before that in Los Angeles), Ringling recognized how expensive it would be to fight in small local jurisdictions across the nation. They also knew that without bullhooks, they wouldn’t be able to train (read: torture) these large, sensitive, social animals—and so they made the announcement that they were removing elephant acts from all of their circuses.
It was a victory to be sure, but many advocates lamented the fate of the other circus victims—the tigers, lions, and bears. What’s the difference if other animals are still suffering? What we really need to do is close the circus! Except the story wasn’t over. Without elephant acts, the circus’s main moneymaker, Ringling couldn’t attract enough audience members to remain profitable, and in May 2017, after 146 years, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey closed for good. A ban on a single weapon used on a single species triggered the demise of the most famous of American circuses—an incremental step that broke the circus’s back.
Most advocates celebrated the victory, but some blamed other activists for not ensuring that all of Ringling’s animals would go to sanctuaries. “Perfectionists can find fault with anything,” writes Solnit. “Perfectionists hold that anything less than total victory is failure, a premise that makes it easy to give up at the start or to disparage the victories that are possible.”5 We have no idea the impact our activism will have, and none of us can predict the outcome. Highly effective advocates do the best they can, let others do the work they do, celebrate victories, and don’t let perfectionism be a stick with which to beat the possible.
Health-food vegan advocates can also let their vision of a perfect world hinder progress when they insist that anything short of a wholefoods, unprocessed, sugar-free, gluten-free, oil-free, plant-based diet is unhealthy. They rail against the very existence of vegan meats, cheeses, and other convenience foods, claiming they’re as unhealthy as animal-based versions. They attack those they dub “junk-food vegans” and censure cookbook authors and food bloggers for using oil, flour, sugar, or any other ingredient they deem unfit for human consumption in their recipes. The fact is, everything and everyone is on a spectrum, and we have to meet people where they’re at. It’s rare—and difficult—for someone to go from eating fat-laden steaks and greasy French fries every day to basing their diet on sweet potatoes and kale. Many of the more highly processed foods help people transition from their meat-, dairy-, and egg-based habits, and despite claims to the contrary, measure for measure, vegan meats, dairy-free cheeses, and other vegan foods in the marketplace are loads healthier than animal products. Admittedly, that’s a low bar to begin with, but that’s the point. It’s all relative. A bowl of pinto beans is more nutrient-dense than a Beyond Burger, but a Beyond Burger is healthier than a beef burger.
Technically speaking, the term “processed” refers to any food that has been washed, cleaned, cut, milled, chopped, heated, pasteurized, blanched, boiled, cooked, canned, jarred, frozen, mixed, blended, or packaged; in other words, any food that is in any way altered from its whole natural state could be considered a “processed food.” The orange juice you squeeze into a glass from a fresh orange is processed. The fresh blueberries you blend into a smoothie are processed. The fresh tomatoes your grandmother taught you to can and the fresh kale you dehydrate are both technically processed foods. Eating foods in their different states brings pleasure and variety to our lives; there’s a reason one of our favorite kitchen appliances is called a food processor.
Instead of disparaging “processed foods” as a monolith, we can make a distinction between minimally processed and highly processed foods and recognize that even the latter have their place. Considering how easy the meat, dairy, and egg industries make it for people to eat unhealthy animal products, we should be grateful that people can choose meat-, dairy-, and egg-free items in the marketplace. Aspiring to make whole foods the foundation of our diet means doing the best we can—not striving for perfection—and creating a space for others to do the same.
7. Highly effective advocates are committed to self-care.
Many advocates suffer from the mistaken assumption that self-care is egocentric, but in fact, the opposite is true. The consequences of not attending to our physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual, and financial needs can be dire and detrimental to our efficacy as advocates and to our health as human beings. We can suffer from empathic distress (see Stage One), anger (see Stage Five), rage, self-righteousness, cynicism, low self-esteem, fatigue, depression, ill health, debt, unemployment, or burnout. Make no mistake about it: self-care isn’t selfish, it’s sensible; it’s not self-indulgent, it’s self-preservation. Your activism isn’t lessened by self-care; it thrives by it, and the recipients of your activism—whether human or animal—are better served when you commit to it.
Highly effective advocates know they don’t have to suffer in order to be effective, and in fact are less effective when they are suffering. They know when their resources are running low so they can replenish them before they’re fully depleted, and they recognize the value of investing in self-care—a broad term that really just means being as compassionate with yourself as you would be with others you care about. Practicing daily self-care is a sure-fire way to not only keep your tank full, but even have some reserves when you’re having a particularly difficult day, and it’s the most effective way to prevent burnout. You can’t give what you don’t have. The benefits of self-care are manifold, including more resilience, improved resistance to disease, enhanced self-esteem, and increased self-knowledge.
Creating a self-care plan doesn’t take much time, but whatever time you do invest will come back to you tenfold. Customize your own plan based on what your values are and on what you genuinely enjoy. Here are a few suggestions:
Eat well.
Cry when compelled.
Laugh.
Spend time in nature.
Exercise.
Get sufficient sleep.
Surround yourself with supportive, compassionate people.
Find quiet time.
Disengage from social media.
Implement periodic news blackouts.
Read a book unrelated to animal rights or veganism.
Give yourself a break from activism. Activist guilt is a real thing; give yourself permission to say no.
Drink tea.
Spend time with animals.
Tend to financial needs.
Practice mindfulness (see page 81 for the Loving-Kindness Meditation).
Express gratitude. Numerous recent studies have found that people who write down or even consciously think about what they’re grateful for tend to be happier and less depressed.6
Prioritizing self-care in all aspects of our lives will make us better advocates and can even provide a model for others who struggle with self-care to follow.
8. Highly effective advocates know their message, stay on message, and repeat their message.
If you asked vegan advocates what their primary message is, the majority of them would most likely say that it’s “Go vegan” or “It’s wrong/cruel/unhealthy to eat animals.” What I’m encouraging you to do is get even clearer than that. For instance, here’s my basic message:
Animals are here for their own purposes and not for our use. Animals don’t exist to be our entertainment, our food, our test subjects, or our shooting targets. They have value completely separate from humans. We are part of their community, and they are part of ours, as residents, co-inhabitants, and contributors; they are not outsiders or intruders. My message is that to use violence against nonhuman animals is to perpetuate violence against ourselves and one another. My message is that we are all connected. My message is compassion.
Everything I say or write reflects my message, my worldview. Take the time to clarify your own. Once you’ve done so, share it—then repeat it. When we repeat our message, we strengthen it. Although many of the new people in your circle of influence will be hearing it for the first time, those hearing it for the thousandth time will have it reinforced in their brains.
So, know your message, repeat your message, and then stay on message. It’s easy to get distracted and reactive, or to be persuaded by other advocates who think your message should reflect their message. Resist the temptation. Finding a good, effective message and then sticking with it takes extraordinary discipline, but it pays off in the end. It keeps you focused, and it makes your message very clear to others—who can then repeat it to even more people.
Finally, advocates who use “Go vegan” as their mantra may want to consider the research that shows that people respond better to the language of values than ideology.7 And to most people, veganism is not a value. It’s a manifestation of values (kindness, simplicity, responsibility, self-care), but it’s not a value in people’s minds. In fact, most people perceive it as an ideology. In other words, when advocates exclaim “Go vegan!” they’re not really speaking to a value or identity that has the potential to resonate with people. What’s more, treating veganism as an identity that people should adopt usually backfires, because many people associate veganism as being antithetical to their existing identities, as we discussed in Stage Six. So if we’re thinking strategically as advocates, then the message we communicate cannot simply be “Go vegan,” because to most people, “vegan” is just an ideology, and adhering to an ideology is not a moral, or values-based, goal for people. Being a good person is a moral goal. Being kind is a moral goal. Not hurting anyone is a moral goal. So, break down “veganism” into the language of values and morals instead. Frame your message in terms of moral goals such as compassion, justice, kindness, protection, simplicity, nonviolence, wellness, nonharm, and integrity, and you will be much more effective.
To most people, veganism is not a value. It’s a manifestation of values.
9. Highly effective advocates have perspective and vision. They learn from the past, stand firmly in the present, and keep their eye on the future.
As human beings and as ambassadors of compassion, we need to know on whose shoulders we stand not only to fully appreciate the importance of this work but also to understand that we are part of something very old and very profound. Therefore, highly effective advocates seek to learn about the advocates who came before them, whose courage and conviction shaped the vegan and animal protection movements as we know them today. It is their mistakes we can learn from and their successes we can emulate. Our movement has an incredible history, and yet it is virtually unknown. If vegan and animal advocates don’t know the history of our cause, we have no sense of our movement’s struggles, long-term strategies, achievements, and heroes. What’s more, if we don’t know and thus don’t promote our long, impressive history to the public, then opponents of the movements will fill the void by constructing their own false story.
For example, by promoting the history of animal protection, advocates could smash the myth that we are misanthropes; history shows this to be patently false since most early animal advocates were involved in multiple social justice movements, and many still are today. This unfounded dichotomy often cited between animal rights and human rights comes directly from the opponents of the animal protection movement, who have done a better job than animal advocates of controlling the story, the history, and the perceptions of animal advocacy. If animal advocates not only learned their history, but also made it part of their mission to get that history out to the public, I believe it would greatly benefit the movement overall. We would be better able to speak to the fact that many of the early founders of the animal protection movement in the UK and in the US were active in other social justice areas: in the abolition of slavery, in the suffrage movement, in peace movements. See the sidebar on page 260 for some examples of this.
We need to dispel the myth that work on behalf of animals hinders humanitarian issues. In fact, with all the in-fighting about the word vegan, advocates would do well to understand that early animal advocates actually called themselves “humanitarians.” These were people who were challenging the very bedrock of human superiority, but one of their goals was also to make human society more moral and humane, thus they considered themselves humanitarians, in the sense that stopping cruelty was also about bettering humanity. They also referred to themselves as protectionists, humane agents, zoophilists, rightists, and welfarists. If you want to immerse yourself in the history of the animal protection movement, I recommend starting with Kathryn Shevelow’s book For the Love of Animals: The Rise of the Animal Protection Movement, whose focus is on its inception in the United Kingdom, and Diane Beers’s book, For the Prevention of Cruelty: The History and Legacy of Animal Rights Activism in the United States, which documents the history of the animal protection movement in the United States. As for the history of vegetarianism and veganism, I recommend The Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism from 1600 to Modern Times by Tristram Stuart, The Heretic’s Feast: A History of Vegetarianism by Colin Spencer, and Vegetarian America: A History by Karen Iacobbo and Michael Iacobbo.
Learning about our past is also crucial to having perspective in the present. Both historically and recently, divisions in the movement have threatened and even undermined potentially successful campaigns. There is nothing new about that, nor is it unique to the animal protection movement or the vegan movement, but these divisions are an important measure of a movement’s health and success. Internal ideological or strategic differences can invigorate a movement with new ideas and energy, but they can also tear it apart, and there is much we can learn from our past about how to manage them. Different opinions and ideas should not be silenced, but one of the questions organizations and individual advocates need to ask themselves is how a movement can best embrace them.
Learning about our past is crucial to having perspective in the present.
Finally, as much as we need to look to the past, we also need to be rooted in the present, while planning for the future. One of the ways to sustain our activism is to recognize that we’re in this for the long haul—that animal advocacy is a marathon, not a sprint. We’ve come a long way, but we still have far to go, and in order to carry on as a movement, we need to build the future brick by brick. If you focus only on individual bricks, with all of their messy mortar, you begin to feel you’re making no progress at all. If you instead step back, acknowledge your progress, and commit to the big picture, you’ll wipe your brow, take a breath, and get back to stacking those bricks.
10. Highly effective advocates have hope.
I talk about hope as an antidote to anger in Stage Five, but because hope is also part of the formula for effective advocacy, it needs to be mentioned here as well. Highly effective advocates have hope because there is much to be hopeful about:
The concept of veganism—living compassionately and healthfully—is more mainstream than ever before.
More people are speaking up on behalf of animals and plant-based eating than ever before.
Animal-free meats, cheeses, and milks are available in grocery stores and in restaurants all around the world, and those options are only increasing.
Animal-based meat and milk companies see the writing on the wall and are creating their own plant-based products or investing in those that have proven successful.
Scientific advances and technological breakthroughs such as cellular agriculture, GPS tracking, and drone technologies have the potential to save billions of animals from poaching, factory farming, and systemic abuse.
Visionaries are creating innovative products—for animal-free food, clothing, and materials—that increase our choices in the marketplace and enable us to support companies and products that reflect our taste and ethics, while rejecting those that don’t.
For those of us who live in democracies—and the majority of countries are democratic8—we can criticize elected officials, vote them out, and exercise our power and privilege to help those who have neither, including animals.
More and more countries are banning circuses that have animal acts.
Animal welfare is now taken seriously as a legislative issue.
Highly effective advocates are messengers of hope rather than of doom—not only because there is reason to hope but also because a steady stream of crisis-messaging depletes people’s will and ability to engage with social problems. While framing everything as a crisis or a catastrophe might generate clicks on social media, the emotions they inspire tend to be either fleeting or fatalistic, leaving people feeling that social problems are overwhelming and unsolvable and causing them to turn away with a sense of frustration and helplessness. As advocates, we tend to focus a lot on problems, but it should be no surprise that people are pretty clear about the problems. We need to do a better job focusing on the solutions, and on painting them as vividly and concretely as we do the problems—that is, more specifically and tangibly than just saying “Go vegan.” So, while we need to alert people to the problems animals face, we need even more to alert them to the problems we can all solve.
Highly effective advocates are messengers of hope rather than messengers of doom.
In her book Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit channels her philosophy of hope through the words of Virginia Woolf, who wrote in her diary in 1915: “The future is dark, which is the best thing the future can be, I think.” It’s tempting to interpret darkness as dismal and dreary, but Solnit reframes it: “Most people are afraid of the dark. . . . Many adults fear, above all, the darkness that is the unknown, the unseeable, the obscure. And yet the night in which distinctions and definitions cannot be readily made is the same night in which love is made, in which things merge, change, become enchanted, aroused, impregnated, possessed, released, renewed.”9 In other words, the future isn’t dark because it’s bleak; it’s dark because it’s inscrutable. It’s inscrutable because it has not yet been written. So go write it. Go write the future today.
Historical Humanitarians
Here are just a few examples of how the struggle against animal abuse and exploitation has always been bound up in other social justice issues and how early activists advocated for many of them across the board. Believing that stopping cruelty against animals also benefits humanity, some early animal advocates called themselves humanitarians, and many founders of the animal protection movement in the UK and in the US were active in other social justice areas.
William Wilberforce: A British politician, philanthropist, and Member of Parliament from 1780 to 1825, Wilberforce was the first to introduce a bill to abolish the slave trade; he opposed slavery on ethical grounds and was also a voice for animals. He was active in educational reform, prison reform, the promotion of public health initiatives, and advocating for better working conditions for factory workers. As an extension of his concern for justice, in 1824 he helped found the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which is the predecessor of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Henry Bergh: Believing that “mercy to animals means mercy to mankind,” Bergh was the first to successfully challenge the prevailing view that both animals and children were property with no rights of their own. He founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1866 and cofounded the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1875.
Caroline Earle White: An American philanthropist and tireless activist, White worked on behalf of the suffrage movement and the abolition of slavery, and in 1867 cofounded the Philadelphia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which became the American Anti-Vivisection Society, an organization still thriving and succeeding today on behalf of animals.
Henry Salt: A British writer and literary critic born in 1851, Salt is credited as the first writer to advocate for animal rights (rather than just improving their welfare). Salt formed the Humanitarian League in 1891 with the aim of banning hunting as a sport; in addition to dedicating his life to animal advocacy, he was also actively involved in other social justice areas, such as the reform of prisons, criminal justice, and schools.
George Thorndike Angell: An American lawyer and philanthropist, Angell founded the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1868, and in 1889 founded the American Humane Education Society. Dedicating his life to the humane treatment of animals, he also crusaded for humans, advocating for public health and against the adulteration of food.
*Shout-out to animal advocate extraordinaire Alka Chandna, who I initially taught the classes with and who generously helped me produce and host the cooking DVD.