ARCO's Abolitionists - A Vegan Forum

[url="http://bryant-terry.com/"]Bryant Terry[/url] is an Oakland-based eco-chef, food justice activist, and author of Vegan Soul Kitchen (VSK): Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine (Da Capo/Perseus March 2009). For the past nine years he has worked to build a more just and sustainable food system and has used cooking as a tool to illuminate the intersections between poverty, structural racism, and food insecurity. His interest in cooking, farming, and community health can be traced back to his childhood in Memphis, Tennessee, where his grandparents inspired him to grow, prepare, and appreciate good food. Bryant is currently a fellow of the Food and Society Policy Fellows Program, a national project of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

lauren Ornelas is a San Jose-based vegan and food justice activist. She is the founder of Food Empowerment Project and serves as the group's volunteer executive director. She is also the former executive director of Viva!USA, a national nonprofit vegan advocacy organization. lauren has been active in the animal rights movement for over 20 years. After spending four years as National Campaign Coordinator for In Defense of Animals, lauren was asked by Viva!UK to start and run Viva!USA in 1999. In cooperation with activists across the country, she worked and achieved corporate changes within Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe's, and Pier 1 Imports, among others. She currently serves as Campaign Director with the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

Victor Tsou is an Oakland-based grassroots vegan and anti-oppression activist. He co-founded Living Opposed to Violence and Exploitation ([url="http://loveallbeings.org/"]L.O.V.E[/url]), an online community and movement promoting veganism and non-violence. He formerly worked for Vegan Outreach.

A. Breeze Harper is a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Davis, exploring race, postcolonial, and feminist theories and their use as tools within critical food geographies. She runs a blog called Sistah Vegan and is editor of the book Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society

The first four [the ones I copied here] are local to the Bay Area and address animal exploitation and interlocking oppressions. The rest are speakers we've had or considered having come speak on our campus.

Regarding films, I hear the new version of Peaceable Kingdom is more abolitionist oriented and if it's anything like the first, it should be more uplifting and less heavy on graphic imagery than Earthlings. If you show Earthlings, you might try doing what we did: edit out the most brutal footage and show a handful of segments. [url="http://www.witnessfilm.org"]The Witness[/url] is another great film we've shown before. A new documentary on vegetarianism called [url="http://www.porchlifeproductions.com"]Seeing through the Fence[/url] looks like it could be good. [url="http://www.fowlplaymovie.com/"]Fowl Play[/url] is a new film on the Egg Industry and farm animal rights. It's only 50 minutes long and super powerful. I don't know of any films that fuse animal rights with human rights.

In terms of funding, check out http://www.vegfund.org/

Hope this helps!