June 2011 Archives

The Farm to Fridge Tour ended with a bang in Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake Tribune printed a terrific story on our events there and the City Weekly will also be running an article in the next issue of the magazine. I was really excited to see both events go so well, especially the evening Video Event. We parked the truck right at an outdoor mall area. Lots of people were doing some Saturday night shopping and tons of people stopped to watch Farm to Fridge. People were gathered around, with some even watching from across the street. It was awesome to see quite a few parents stop with their young children. I am thrilled that the last event of the tour was so amazing!

While I am rather sad to see the Farm to Fridge Tour come to an end, I am more than happy with how successful it was. In the last three months, the tour covered nearly 12,000 miles, stopped in 42 cities, generated massive amounts of mainstream media coverage, and opened the hearts and minds of countless Americans to the plight of farmed animals. This tour has made me very optimistic about the future. After speaking with people all over the country, I have come to realize that almost everyone cares about animals and does not want to cause them suffering. People really are going vegan in droves.

San Jose was the second-to-last stop for the Farm to Fridge Tour. We held the Outreach Event in downtown San Jose and had a fantastic turnout of volunteers. We handed out tons of leaflets and received lots of honks from drivers in support of our message signs.

For the evening Video Event, we set up in Palo Alto, which is a city about 20 minutes outside of San Jose. Palo Alto is more of a college town and has a lot of people still out and about later at night. We parked the truck right near a square where people like to come and just hang out with friends. While many were hanging out, they were shown the horrific realities of factory farming. Many in the audience stayed and watched Farm to Fridge multiple times. I still love seeing the impact this film has on people! It is so powerful!

I spoke with a couple of people who told me the local NPR radio station discussed our events and Farm to Fridge. I also spoke to a radio host at the People's Radio, a local FM radio station, who told me he had brought up the events and Farm to Fridge on the air repeatedly for a couple of weeks. What an amazing success in San Jose!

The dedicated activists of Sacramento were very excited to be a part of the Farm to Fridge Tour. We held the evening Video Event in Old Town Sacramento, where the atmosphere was very laid back. A lot of activists had one-on-one conversations with the many people who stopped to watch Farm to Fridge. Vic spoke with one middle-aged couple for about twenty minutes after they viewed the film, and they both committed to moving toward a vegan diet. They were deeply moved by the film. Vic gave them both MFA Vegetarian Starter Kits before they got on their way. I am thrilled with the outcome of our day in Sacramento!

San Francisco is such an amazing city! It was my first time there and I had a fantastic stay. We received some great media coverage from The World Reporter. A crew from News21 also filmed our events for part of their documentary on the recent ag-gag bills that have been popping up in various parts of the country.

We parked the truck at an intersection bustling with restaurants and bars. During the evening Video Event, the foot traffic really picked up. Lots of people were out and about and were given an eye-opening look at how farmed animals are treated before making it to our plates. At all four corners of the intersection people watched Farm to Fridge on the truck as they waited for the green light to cross the street. Many people stopped to watch the film all the way through and left with an MFA Vegetarian Starter Kit.

The tour is winding down but I am excited for the events that will be held in the final stretch!

It was wonderful to spend a couple of days in Eugene. I enjoyed reconnecting with old friends, and making some new ones as well. The Farm to Fridge Tour received some fantastic media coverage in Eugene. The newspaper at the University of Oregon, the Daily Emerald, printed a great story on the front page! The local affiliate of ABC also provided some coverage.

The morning Outreach Event was amazing. We held the event right on the edge of the University of Oregon, at the location with the most foot traffic. We handed out lots of leaflets, heard from many who were already vegan, and heard from many others who were interested in moving toward a vegan diet. Right after the event, a group of grade school children walked by the truck with their teacher. After seeing the billboard-sized banners on the truck, asking, "How much cruelty can you swallow?" and encouraging them to "Boycott animal abuse" and "Choose Vegetarian," a lot of them jumped up and down with excitement, and gave us thumbs up.

For the Video Event, we parked the truck right across the street from a super-busy nightspot. Many people watched Farm to Fridge on the truck while they were just hanging out with their friends. We noticed that this sparked many conversations about factory farming. We kept the film playing for over two hours before wrapping it up. What a great day for farmed animals.

The time spent in Portland was fantastic! Right when we arrived in the city on Sunday, I gave an interview for Supreme Master Television, an international, non-profit channel. Supreme Master also covered both the Outreach Event and Video Event in Portland. I also gave an interview for KXL, a local community radio station.

Both Portland events went tremendously well. We parked the truck in an ideal spot for the Video Event, right across the street from a main public transit hub. People were able to watch Farm to Fridge while they waited for their trains. Many expressed interest in adopting a vegan diet. A police officer stopped to watch the film and was so moved that at the end he personally asked for an MFA Vegetarian Starter Kit. It was inspiring to see how much people in Portland care about farmed animals.