About Unny Nambudiripad

Unny is a co-founder and the Executive Director of Compassionate Action for Animals. Please see his biography.

Interview with Eddie Garza of Mercy for Animals

Today we have an interview with Eddie Garza, senior campaign coordinator at Mercy for Animals, a sponsor of this year’s Twin Cities Veg Fest.  For more information on MFA and their work to prevent cruelty towards farm animals, visit their website.

CAA:  What is your mission?

Mercy For Animals is a national nonprofit animal protection organization dedicated to preventing cruelty to farmed animals and promoting compassionate food choices and policies.

CAA:  Why are you sponsoring the Veg Fest?

It’s an important event! Mercy For Animals proudly supports the Twin Cities Veg Fest and its mission to promote healthy, sustainable, and compassionate food choices.

CAA:  What are you most excited about at the Veg Fest?

We’re excited about the whole thing! It’s great to have a free event that offers lectures, food samples, information, resources, and a ton of fun. This Veg Fest will help open the hearts and minds of countless people to the health and ethical benefits of a plant-based diet.

CAA:  What do you see in the future for animal advocacy?

As more people wake up to the cruel and inhumane plight animals face on factory farms and in slaughterhouses, the number of vegans will continue to dramatically increase. To meet this demand, the market for products free of meat, dairy, and eggs will continue to expand and improve. We will see more states pass new laws outlawing some of the most abusive practices on factory farms, and more corporations will implement and improve their farmed animal welfare policies.

Interview with Jackson Tyler Eddy of A Frame Forward Photography

Today we have an interview with Jackson Tyler Eddy, owner and operator of A Frame Forward Photography. We’d like to thank Jackson not only for his support of this year’s Veg Fest, but also for putting his beliefs into action with his dedication to green business practices. To see samples of his work (we highly recommend it) visit his website.

CAA:  What is your mission?

Jackson:  I am a Twin Cities based Custom Lifestyle Portrait & Wedding Photographer. Almost nothing makes me happier than delivering amazing images to clients that truly touch their hearts, now and well on into the future. I’m a big believer in Gandhi’s wise words about being the change you wish to see in the world. I base all my personal and business decisions around this philosophy. I am Minnesota’s highest rated “green” photographer, operating and creating in an eco-friendly manner. You can read more about my green ways on my website.

CAA:  Why are you sponsoring the Veg Fest?

Jackson:  I was excited about being a part of this inaugural event because I have a strong passion about the Vegan/Vegetarian lifestyle and wanted to connect with other like-minded folks in and around my community.

Having never really been a big meat eater, I have been a pure Vegetarian for about 7 years now, along with my better half Natalie and our two young boys. I’m Vegan a lot of the time but do dabble with kind cheese and eggs on occasion.

Besides the fact that killing an animal makes me sad, factory farming is just out of control. It’s out of control in the sense of sheer animal cruelty and also because of the huge negative impact on our environment and surrounding ecosystems. I am excited that the awareness, and knowledge about these facts are becoming more mainstream. Regular folks, filmmakers, influential leaders, and celebrities have all been embracing and endorsing our movement and I feel that the future is bright.

CAA:  What are you most excited about at the Veg Fest?

Jackson:  Although I won’t be speaking at the event I will be just about everywhere else, with camera in hand capturing the days details, events, and speakers.

I’ll also have a booth to share my work and my family will be joining me as well. I’ll be giving away some deeply discounted Kid & Family Portrait coupons as well as giving away some free sessions in a random drawing.

I absolutely love photographing and spending time with kids and their families. And to be able to work with clients that share the same personal beliefs makes it that much more special. I very much look forward to meeting a bunch of awesome like-minded individuals and families at TC Veg Fest in July.

Interview with Scott Heiser of the Animal Legal Defense Fund

This week we had a chance to interview Scott Heiser of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. He’ll be speaking at this year’s Veg Fest, and from the sound of it you won’t want to miss his talk. The Animal Legal Defense Fund has been fighting for animal welfare through the legal system for over thirty years. For more information on the organization’s work, visit www.aldf.org/.

CAA:  What will you be speaking about?

Scott:  I’m speaking about animal law in the context of food production. I’ll be laying out some of the common practices employed in factory farming and explaining how and why existing animal cruelty laws are decidedly inadequate to address this conduct. I’ll also touch on the ag industry’s fear of undercover work and the industry’s reaction to the disclosure of these practices (i.e., ag-gag laws).

CAA:  How did you get involved in animal advocacy?

Scott:  As a prosecutor I have always considered animal cruelty cases to be a top priority for the justice system. When I decided to leave the DA’s office back in 2007, I joined ALDF to help law enforcement and prosecutors get better results in animal cruelty cases—the move was just a perfect fit for me, my skill set and my personal values.

CAA:  What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Scott:  Sailing, hanging out with my wife, our 16-year old dog (Atticus) and our two cats. Whitewater kayaking as well.

CAA:  What are you most excited about at the Veg Fest?

Scott:  Meeting amazing people and seeing old friends—it is such a treat to be a part of something like this!

CAA:  What’s your best tip for someone who wants to go vegetarian or vegan?

Scott:  I’d have to say that one might need to approach the change with some humility. When I made the switch, I brought a little too much “in your face” content about the realities of meat production in the U.S. and my friends got pretty defensive about their (un)willingness to consider the issues that drive one’s decision to bag meat.

CAA:  Who/what species is your favorite animal?

Scott:  That’s a tough call. Over the years, I have had some amazing bonds with some very cool animals with exceptional personalities. However, I’m going to have to say that my relationship with Atticus is it. At 16, he’s pretty dependent on me for help (he used to be such a fiercely independent soul) and seeing that level of trust he has in me is a pretty amazing thing—even more so when I think back to the tough start to life he had when we got him from the shelter 15.5 years ago.

 

Interview with Kim Dreher of VegFund

Today we have an interview with Kim Dreher, Director of VegFund, an organization based in Glendale, California that aims to support animal advocacy organizations across the country.

CAA:  Why are you sponsoring the Veg Fest?

Kim:  Veg Fests are a fantastic way to expose the public to the benefits of a vegan lifestyle. It’s a positive form of outreach that gives people the opportunity to try delicious vegan food, learn about the issues, and enjoy a fun day with friends/family.

CAA:  What is your mission?

Kim:  VegFund empowers vegan activists worldwide by funding and supporting outreach activities that inspire people to choose and maintain a vegan lifestyle.

CAA:  What are you most excited about at the Veg Fest?

Kim:  The number of lives that will be changed as a result of this event. Each person who reduces or eliminates his/her consumption of animal products has a tremendous impact.

CAA:  What do you see in the future for animal advocacy?

Kim:  Now, and in the future, social media offers incredible tools for spreading the vegan message. VegFund works to stay on the cutting edge of this technology and creates programs that take advantage of what these tools have to offer. For more info, email us at vo@vegfund.org.

The primary focuses of VegFund’s financing efforts are food sampling and video outreach projects, but merit-based funding is also available for innovative projects that promote vegetarianism and veganism. To learn more about their important work, or to apply for funding, visit their website.

Interview with Veg Fest Speaker Mark A. Berkson

This week we interviewed Mark A. Berkson, professor of religion at Hamline University and advisor to the Hamline Animal Rights Coalition. Mark is a longtime friend of CAA and has spoken at some of our past events, and we are thrilled to have him as a speaker at this year’s upcoming Veg Fest. He was kind enough to take the time to tell us a bit his work and interest in the animal rights movement. When you come to Veg Fest, make sure to catch his talk if you can—it promises to be a very interesting conversation.

CAA:  What will you be speaking about?

Mark:  The tentative title of the talk is “Faith and Food: Comparative Religious Perspectives on Animals, Compassion, and the Meal on our Plate.”  I’m going to talk about the ways that different religious traditions give us a framework to see non-human animals as something other than resources to be used, but rather as kin, as beings with whom we share a great deal and to whom we must extend compassion and concern. The perspectives of the different religious traditions vary, but all of them provide valuable resources that can be used to create a strong ethic of animal welfare. The record of the world’s religions on animals is mixed, but I want to focus on those aspects of the traditions that are most useful to those of us who care about animals. Most people in the world are profoundly influenced by their religious traditions, so if we want to create a better world for animals, we need to understand these traditions and how they can shape values and inspire people to action. Think of the way that religious language played a central role in the Civil Rights movement, for example. It can work the same way in the animal welfare movement.

CAA:  How did you get involved in animal advocacy?

Mark:  It was a gradual process that began with changing my own eating habits. I realized that there was a fundamental tension between how I felt about animals (particularly those I loved) and the fact that I unreflectively wore and ate them. I couldn’t live with this cognitive and emotional dissonance, so I began to cut meat and leather out of my life (the process began nearly twenty years ago). I was surprised by how easy it was. (I love to eat, and I can honestly say that I have never missed meat. The increasing number of vegetarian products out there has certainly helped.)  As I started to teach, I began to integrate sections on religion and animals into my courses, as I came to see that one can learn a lot about a religion by examining its views on animals. Ultimately, I developed an entire course on religion, ethics and non-human animals. I began lecturing about these topics at conferences (including a number of the TLOV conferences sponsored by CAA) and become increasingly active in the movement. I believe that the treatment of animals is one of the great moral issues of our time, and I simply cannot stay silent. It has an impact on our health, the environment, and most of all, the lives of billions of sentient, feeling beings. Ethics can be very complicated, but it seems to me that there is a simple guideline that is worth trying to live by – Live in such a way so as to minimize the unnecessary suffering and death of other sentient beings. Since most of do not have to eat animals to live happy, healthy lives, we should not. And the factory farm system is, of course, an indefensible moral atrocity. We must do everything we can to end it.

CAA:  What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Mark:  I enjoy spending time with my family, and every weekend my two sons (both vegetarian!) and I go out together for lunch and activities, ranging from concerts and movies to walks around Lake Como. We also attend weekly meditation at a wonderful place called Common Ground in Minneapolis, which teaches a mindfulness practice. I also love going out with my wife and our friends for meals and good conversation. Music plays a profoundly important part in my life, and I enjoy both listening to it (classic and new rock, jazz, blues, classical) and playing it (I’m in a band called Ibaba, where I play guitar). Yoga is an essential practice for me, and I think I’d fall apart if I didn’t do it regularly. I also love reading, and while most of the books I read are related to what I teach and write about, I treasure the opportunity to indulge in a good novel when I have time.

CAA:  What are you most excited about at the Veg Fest?

Mark:  I’m looking forward to connecting with others who are part of the animal welfare community. In so many contexts, vegetarians and animal welfare activists are a minority, and it often feels like we need to explain ourselves. It’s nice to have a sense of shared commitment and solidarity with others. I also look forward to hearing the other speakers (there are some dynamic, inspiring speakers on your schedule), who always teach me a lot. And, of course, I can’t wait to sample the food. I can rationalize a lot of eating if I convince myself I’m doing research.

CAA:  What’s your best tip for someone who wants to go vegetarian or vegan?

Mark:  If someone is thinking of going vegetarian for the first time, I’d tell them that it need not be all or nothing, and it doesn’t have to be sudden. Some people think that, since they really love some particular kind of meat, that they could never be vegetarian, and so they continue with their same diet. They can just begin by gradually integrating vegetarian meals into their diet a few times a week, trying veggie “meat” products, etc. Once people see how easy it is (and, in many cases, how much better they feel), momentum builds and it becomes easier. For me, the strongest motivator was an ethical one, but different people are motivated by different things. Over time, they’ll discover the multiple reasons why a largely or entirely vegetarian diet makes sense, but it can’t be forced. The motivation must come from within, although others can support it. I used to think that I could argue people into changing their views and diets. Now, I understand that the best strategy is to gently “plant some seeds” with occasional words and reading material (informative but not combative), support and encourage someone who is making positive changes in their lives, and share really good vegetarian food so people know what’s out there.

CAA:  Who/what species is your favorite animal?

Mark:  Well, this is almost impossible to answer. At the moment, we have three cats, and I have a great love for that species (including big cats, which are remarkable beings). I’m also a big fan of dogs. Dog energy can just make a person happy. I have always been fascinated by primates, and I can spend large amounts of time just watching bonobos, chimps, gorillas, etc. I’m a sucker for primate documentaries. I’m also very interested in wolves (my eldest son’s favorite animal), and I had a great time at the wolf museum in Alaska. Even very small social animals, such as ants and bees, have societies that are intriguing. I recently had some amazing close encounters with dolphins, and that was exhilarating. And the more I learn about elephants, the more I respect and admire them. I could keep on going – after all, what animal isn’t fascinating? – but that will have to suffice.