The Wake

At first, when Gil Schwartz went vegetarian as a seventh-grader he didn’t really understand why. Later, when he got involved with animal rights issues as a junior in high school he became a vegan. Schwartz decided to become vegan because he saw how animals were treated on factory farms. Now as a member of Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA) and president of Minnesota Student Animal Rights Alliance, Schwartz actively campaigns for animal rights.

“Animals are raised in wretched conditions,” Schwartz says.

While he is not fundamentally against eating meat, Schwartz says he believes humans no longer need to rely on animals for survival. He drew a distinction between earlier cultures’ meat eating habits, like American Indians, and modern-day factory farms. Schwartz added that there is a huge myth that farm animals are raised humanely.

In an effort to promote animal rights awareness, CAA held a showing of “Peaceable Kingdom,” a documentary chronicling the lives of factory-farmed animals. The showing marked the kickoff of Veg Week; an event intended to foster the vegetarian community on the University of Minnesota campus.

Produced by James LaVeck, “Peaceable Kingdom” is a documentary about an animal sanctuary where formally abused farm animals go to recover and live.

The film combined footage of the animal sanctuary with footage from factory farms, highlighting egg farms where male chicks are thrown out, some of them hatching in the dumpsters.

What about free-range farms? Aren’t those animals supposed to live happy lives? According to Schwartz, there are no government regulations about how free-range farms treat their animals. As long as they have access to sunlight, which sometimes does not mean much, they can call their farms free-range.

Terri Dahl, a retail merchandising major at the university, was toying with the idea of being a vegan when she visited Cedar Summit Farms in New Prague, Minnesota. Dahl has been a vegetarian all of her life, and the trip to the free-range, organic dairy farm clinched her decision.

“The cows were outside, but the pasture was basically just a big mud pit,” Dahl says. “I knew then that I was making the right decision.”

Giving up dairy and eggs wasn’t entirely easy, especially at family gatherings. It has gotten easier and Dahl says she has found a lot of tasty ways to avoid eating animal byproducts. Dahl also says after she went vegan she felt a lot healthier.

Approximately 2.5 percent of Americans are now vegetarians, according to the American Dietic Association (ADA).

In their paper Vegetarian Diets, the ADA found that balanced vegetarian diets could offer many health benefits. They determined that many vegetarians have lower body mass indices as well lower rates of death from heart disease.

Sales of vegetarian foods are also rising according to the ADA. In 2002 vegetarian food sales were approximately $1.5 billion dollars. The ADA projected that by the year 2006 this number would double.

In their study the ADA included three different types of vegetarians: lacto-ovo vegetarians, lacto-vegetarians, and vegans. The lacto-ovo vegetarian, the most common type, does not eat any meat but does include eggs and dairy products. Lacto-vegetarians eat dairy products but exclude eggs from their diets. Vegans do not eat any animal byproducts including both eggs and dairy.

While many people are vegetarian and vegan to support animal rights, some just find a vegetarian diet tastier.

Megan Tomlinson of Minneapolis became a vegetarian when she was 12 because she didn’t like the way meat tasted.

“I became a vegetarian so I wouldn’t have to eat hot dish when my family got together for holidays. I wanted to save room for pie,” Tomlinson says.

At the vegetarian potluck CAA hosted at the end of Veg Week, two long tables were lined with different types of food including Burger King veggie burgers, vegan tamales, and foods from local ethnic restaurants.

In addition the ADA estimated that eight out of ten sit down restaurants, especially ethnic ones like Indian and Thai, offer vegetarian options. Schwartz, Dahl, and Tomlinson all said finding vegan and vegetarian options in the grocery store as well as at restaurants is not hard to do.