Leave A Link, Change A Life
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Vegan Outreach activism literature says that leafletting is one of the most effective means of animal advocacy. They have a team of advocates who hand out pro-vegan literature at college campuses in their Adopt-A-College program.
But let’s say, for whatever reason, that you don’t want to leaflet. You have another option: virtual leafletting. Whenever you visit a blog or forum you have an opportunity to promote veganism. You can leave a link to a vegan starter kit or you can post a video. You can recite some facts or you can leave a recipe. This is real activism.
Make no doubt about it, the comments you leave here and there across the world wide web have an impact. People read them and react to them. You have the power to influence others and convert people to veganism.
So the next time you’re surfing the web and you think you’re just wasting time, think again. You can be productive with that time. You can leave pro-vegan comments and links all over the web.
Need some ideas of the kind of comments to leave? Here are a few ideas:
Topic: Environmentalism/ going green/ recycling/ climate change…
Your possible comment:
“Did you know going vegan helps slow climate change? Did you see this article: http://vegetarian.about.com/b/2008/09/10/in-the-news-eat-less-meat-to-combat-climate-change.htm“
Topic: Food/ sustainability/ local food/ food safety/ nutrition.
You could comment:
“A plant-based diet is safe, healthy, and sustainable. See this for more: http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2007/03/02/going-vegetarian-and-vegan-sustainable/“
Topic: Politics/ law/ elections…
You might sayt:
“Have you heard about Prop 2 in California? It would ban gestation crates, veal crates, and battery cages. You could vote yes or your could just go vegan.”
Topic: Money/ economy/ taxes…
Your comment:
“Going vegan is good for your pocketbook. Here’s a story about that: http://vegetarian.about.com/b/2007/09/18/in-the-news-go-vegetarian-to-save-money.htm“
Occasionally something might just drop into your lap. Someone brings up the topic of veganism directly. Regardless of what they say, this is a great opportunity to drop a few links to vegan starter kits or prominent vegan resources. Here are some links to bookmark for such occasions:
Compelling Videos:
- Live Your Values
- Meet Your Meat
- Hormel Pig Slaughterhouse
- Dairy Cow Slaughter
- Earthlings
- More videos >>
Veg Starter Kits: recipes, nutritional info, reasons to go veg, and more:
- Vegan Outreach Vegan Starter Kit
- PCRM Vegetarian Starter Kit
- PETA Veg Starter Kit
- Compassion Over Killing Vegan Starter Kit
- Action For Animals Vegetarian Starter Kit
Veg Recipe Indexes: places to search and find vegan recipes:
- The Post Punk Kitchen Recipes
- Veg Web Recipes Index
- Vegan Food (dot net) Search
- Choose Veg Starter Recipes
- All Creatures Veg Recipes
- Recipe Zaar – the vegan section
- Veg Cooking Search
- Vegan Mania List
- Veg Family Index
- Vegan Soapbox Recipe Search
So don’t ever think you can’t be an activist just because you don’t want to do protests, demonstrations, or leafletting. Every person you speak to about veganism and every web interaction you have about veganism is a form of activism. You can make a difference for animals with only a few minutes each day. Leave your vegan mark whenever you go!
excellent ideas and links! thanks so much!
I’m glad you wrote an article about this. I have been dropping links to video’s (usually http://meat.org) for a few months now. It only takes about 15min of my day and everyday I can definitely say I have done something (other than abstain from animal products) for the cause. I think this activity, if embraced by all advocates, may be one of the most important things the movement can do as a whole. When I drop these links I wonder why it seems like I am the only one doing it. Everyone should be doing it. It’s easy, convenient and effective.
Tips:
– Go to google blog search.
– Enter in a phrase that will list blogs that may be relevant to your comment: “eat meat”, “animal rights”, “environmentalism”, etc…
– The results will appear. Subscribe to the rss feed for these results. Now you should be able to conveniently open about 10 blogs at a time with the latest search results for these phrases
– Start reading the blogs and dropping your comments/links.
– Repeat the next day
If you aren’t used to RSS feeds I apologize if that was a little terse. If you play around with this technique you will eventually get it.
I hope this idea spreads. I truly believe it is effect
And don’t be discouraged by negative comments you may get by doing this. People instinctively bully people who have views they don’t agree with. The important thing is that the links are there. The people sympathetic to these links may tend to be more contemplative and less vocal therefore you may here less from them. At the very least it’s a good way to start a healthy debate if your inclined.
“People instinctively bully people who have views they don’t agree with”
I think you’re right.
It’s hard not to react negatively and I keep trying, failing at times. I think overall, more discussion about animal rights, even if some of it is negative, is better in the long run than less discussion about animal rights.
PS – as an alternative to RSS feeds, you can set up a Google Alert to get email links: http://www.google.com/alerts or you can do a StumbleUpon search: http://www.stumbleupon.com/