nobody wants to be the victim of a lie
nobody wants to be taken advantage of
nobody wants to be manipulated into
believing something that isn’t true
nobody wants to see their emotional or
physical health harmed in any way and
nobody wants to see their world be
destroyed but what if I told you that
these statements are not just
hypothetical musings what if I told you
that there is another world out there
and one in which we are completely
unaware and it is robbing us of our
innate desire to strive to live well and
do no harm to others in fact just in the
last minute this other world is
responsible for destroying the
equivalent of seven football fields
worth of land and in the next hour 1
million innocent lives will be taken now
what if I told you that we are not only
victims of this other world but we are
also responsible for its existence and
we are paying the price in the form of
our own health the health of the planet
the lives of others in our own capacity
for compassion this other world that I
speak of is the animal agriculture
industry and today I am going to share
with you the game-changing moments that
led to my understanding of how our own
capacity for empathy creates a kinder
more compassionate world and it starts
with our choices now despite what you
may be thinking the statements I made
earlier about being victims of lies
manipulation physical and emotional harm
and destruction are in no ways
exaggerations or baseless
unsubstantiated claims what is extreme
however is the massacre of nearly 9
billion
and animals every year in our country
alone for the consumption of meat dairy
and eggs and the way in which these nine
billion animals are raised treated and
killed is truly beyond any horror that
you could possibly imagine sitting in
your seat right now now it’s not our
fault that we are unaware of what’s
going on because the agriculture
industry purposefully hides this
information from us and instead paints a
picture of happy cows and rolling plains
and all of their advertisements we have
been fed terms such as pasture-raised
cage free organic natural humane to
appease us and to make us believe there
is no harm in our choices we have been
entirely indoctrinated into a world
where eating animals has become so
normalized that we don’t even think we
have a choice but to do it but in the
age of information we do have the
ability to make choices that prevent us
from paying with our dollars to support
an industry that is based entirely on
suffering cruelty and destruction and we
have the right and the responsibility to
understand the full unfiltered picture
of where our food is coming from and who
is paying the price for it but every
enlightenment must begin with a
game-changing moment and for me the
game-changer was when my cousin shed
light on the cruelty of factory farming
our intense and thorough conversation
led to my own research starting with a
video he sent me called farm to fridge
farm to fridge was a 12-minute horror
film that contained undercover footage
of the industry standard for the
treatment of animals raised from meat
dairy and eggs i sat on the couch in my
apartment completely stunned with tears
streaming down my face and when that
video stopped
I felt like my world had stopped
spinning and a slew of questions went
through my head
like how
can this be real how is this allowed why
are we not educated about this and the
more I research and the more I watched
the deeper I realized this needs to stop
initially it was very difficult for me
to accept the reality in the scientific
fact that humans do not need to consume
animals in order to be healthy and the
more I delved into this world
the quicker I internalized the reality
that we eat animals for four reasons
only tradition convenience habit and
taste I used to love eating meat in fact
one of the favorite stories among my
college friends is how my version of
snacking was sitting on the floor of my
dorm room eating a rotisserie chicken
right out of the container but after
watching farm to fridge and doing more
research on animal agriculture I could
no longer deny the truth just because I
didn’t want to accept it and I certainly
didn’t want to deprive myself of my own
desire to live well and to live in a way
that causes the least amount of harm to
others I could then look at my dog
Gracie and see the connection but Gracie
is no different than any other sentient
being Gracie was simply born into
different circumstances Gracie lives in
a world where it is not palatable or
socially acceptable to exploit abuse or
consume dog meat
the reality is that Gracie is no
different than any chicken cow pig goat
or lamb so the light had been shed and
the truth had been exposed and now it
was time to do something about this
animals are sentient creatures which
means they can and do feel pain fear and
sadness along with affection comfort and
love there have been over 2,500 studies
to prove this animals have unique
personalities and they have their own
interests in fact we share the same
desire that they
do to live our lives in peace to live a
life that is free of pain fear and
suffering and we both want to have some
fun to animals care about their
relationships and they worry about those
relationships like we worry about ours I
was heartbroken to see videos of baby
calves in the dairy industry being
ripped away from their mothers shortly
after birth because humans consume the
cow’s milk so the babies cannot have it
and the male babies are sent to
slaughter or sometimes killed instantly
right in front of their mothers and the
mother cows cry for hours days sometimes
weeks over their lost babies the bond
between a mother and her baby is no
different in the animal world only their
cries are different but mothers and
babies are not the only relationships
that animals form animals form
friendships – just like us about a year
ago I became involved with an animal
sanctuary for baby goats with special
needs called the goats of anarchy
created by an amazing woman Leeanne
loris Ella and the first time I visited
the goats of anarchy I realized
firsthand just how playful and
affectionate farm animals are just like
our pets at home and one goat in
particular his name is miles he came
over to me as I was kneeling down and he
propped his legs up onto my knees and he
leaned into me and he twisted his head
entirely around my neck and it took me a
second before I realized this is my
first goat hug and then mild continued
to follow me around all afternoon and
lean in for kisses and cuddles just like
Gracie does whenever were at home and
that first visit to go to van our key
changed me because I kept thinking about
miles and about the fact that all
animals crave affection but we deny them
the chance and this led to my
contemplation about
the connection between the way we treat
non-human animals and the way we treat
human animals what are the factors that
empower humans to treat other people so
poorly
what is the mentality behind bullying
how do we do humanize other people so
that it becomes acceptable to treat them
in a way that we would not want to be
treated ourselves throughout history and
throughout observations that you and I
have made and perhaps in reflection of
our own lives
we become desensitized to the suffering
of others under the false belief that we
have more rights than others that we are
smarter than others that we are more
attractive than others that we have more
followers than others that we can
contribute more to society than others
that we are more powerful and more
deserving we have become desensitized to
the suffering of other nations because
it’s not happening in front of our eyes
on our own turf and they don’t speak our
language so we don’t understand them and
they don’t look like us they are other
so what is the common denominator
between us and those who are other it is
our capacity to suffer and our desire to
live and to be happy there is no
difference between human and animal
sentience how then can we argue against
compassion it no longer matters that
chickens are dumb an argument I have
heard before and one that is also untrue
but what does matter is that they can
suffer so we have to ask ourselves how
can we accept the fact that we kill 9
billion animals every year who have the
same emotions that we do rather than
support their suffering and exploitation
we should try to learn something from
the animals we as humans have a lot to
learn from them the ability to spread
kindness unconditionally even when it’s
hard
the desire to protect our relationships
and to remain loyal to those we care
about the ability to persevere despite
unfortunate circumstance and to remain
resilient in times of physical and
emotional challenge so what then is the
solution how can we live our lives in a
way that does not support animal
suffering or exploitation we can
research factory farming and animal
agriculture and make informed decisions
we can recognize the contradiction in
the phrase humane slaughter as an
English teacher we call that an oxymoron
but ultimately what we can do is adopt a
plant-based diet and dispel the myth
that a plant-based diet means eating
salads three times a day a plant-based
diet means eating macaroni and cheese
tacos
pizza pasta doughnuts all of your
favourite foods you can still be a
foodie and eat a plant-based diet you
can still be an Italian girl and crave
your favorite comfort foods and I
guarantee you can still go to your
favorite restaurants and find an option
on the menu that is plant-based and
what’s more is I bet you will hardly
notice a difference in the taste because
our society is really starting to adapt
to the demand of a plant-based diet
because our planet literally cannot
sustain the rate at which humans consume
animals that’s why companies that are
creating plant-based substitutes for
meat are experiencing skyrocketing sales
to the point where Tyson chicken bought
five percent of the plant-based company
beyond meat the largest meat producer in
America had no choice but to prepare for
a world where people are starting to
care about where their food is coming
from and who is paying the price for
every product you currently enjoy there
is a company out there who is making a
plant-based substitute that will meet or
exceed your expectations and taste
variety and quality and
we base our choices for food on
compassion for animals we also extend
compassion to the environment and to
ourselves animal agriculture is the
leading cause of global warming ocean
dead zones water depletion deforestation
and species extinction and furthermore
what about our own health the number one
leading cause of death in America is
heart disease and our arteries are not
getting clogged from eating fruits or
vegetables they’re getting clogged from
eating animal products and a plant-based
diet is the only diet that has been
proven to reverse heart disease I think
it’s amazing that whenever we make more
compassionate choices that kindness
comes back to us in the form of our
health and the well-being of our planet
we can literally change the world every
single day that we choose to eat a
plant-based diet in one day you could
save 1,100 gallons of water 45 pounds of
green 30 square feet of forested land 20
pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent and
one animal’s life every day it is time
that we start to take responsibility for
our actions and our choices especially
ones that we make three times a day and
ones over which we do have control it is
time that we get outside of ourselves
and start thinking about the future and
not what just we want right here and
right now and it’s time to stop being
brainwashed into thinking that we can
only be healthy if we drink a cow’s milk
at breakfast and eat a chicken breast at
dinner and we need to abandon the it’s
not my problem mentality because that
way of thinking cripples our ability to
be empathetic and selfless across all
facets of our life also it is our
problem we as humans have been given the
ability to use reason and logic and
rather than view that as a right to do
we want it’s time that we look at that
as a responsibility to make better
choices and to care for those who are
under our protection we can be game
changers every day through our choices
we have the ability to shed light and to
educate our family and friends so that
we can grow together and be part of
something bigger than ourselves when you
think about it we all started as
children who really cared about animals
so let’s return to those roots of
Gandhi once said that the greatness of a
nation and its moral progress can be
judged by the way it’s animals are
treated just because things have always
been done a certain way does not make it
right and we have the responsibility to
create a more ethical world than the one
in which we grew up let’s not just say
we want to change the world let’s
actually do it thank you
[Applause] you
nobody wants to be taken advantage of
nobody wants to be manipulated into
believing something that isn’t true
nobody wants to see their emotional or
physical health harmed in any way and
nobody wants to see their world be
destroyed but what if I told you that
these statements are not just
hypothetical musings what if I told you
that there is another world out there
and one in which we are completely
unaware and it is robbing us of our
innate desire to strive to live well and
do no harm to others in fact just in the
last minute this other world is
responsible for destroying the
equivalent of seven football fields
worth of land and in the next hour 1
million innocent lives will be taken now
what if I told you that we are not only
victims of this other world but we are
also responsible for its existence and
we are paying the price in the form of
our own health the health of the planet
the lives of others in our own capacity
for compassion this other world that I
speak of is the animal agriculture
industry and today I am going to share
with you the game-changing moments that
led to my understanding of how our own
capacity for empathy creates a kinder
more compassionate world and it starts
with our choices now despite what you
may be thinking the statements I made
earlier about being victims of lies
manipulation physical and emotional harm
and destruction are in no ways
exaggerations or baseless
unsubstantiated claims what is extreme
however is the massacre of nearly 9
billion
and animals every year in our country
alone for the consumption of meat dairy
and eggs and the way in which these nine
billion animals are raised treated and
killed is truly beyond any horror that
you could possibly imagine sitting in
your seat right now now it’s not our
fault that we are unaware of what’s
going on because the agriculture
industry purposefully hides this
information from us and instead paints a
picture of happy cows and rolling plains
and all of their advertisements we have
been fed terms such as pasture-raised
cage free organic natural humane to
appease us and to make us believe there
is no harm in our choices we have been
entirely indoctrinated into a world
where eating animals has become so
normalized that we don’t even think we
have a choice but to do it but in the
age of information we do have the
ability to make choices that prevent us
from paying with our dollars to support
an industry that is based entirely on
suffering cruelty and destruction and we
have the right and the responsibility to
understand the full unfiltered picture
of where our food is coming from and who
is paying the price for it but every
enlightenment must begin with a
game-changing moment and for me the
game-changer was when my cousin shed
light on the cruelty of factory farming
our intense and thorough conversation
led to my own research starting with a
video he sent me called farm to fridge
farm to fridge was a 12-minute horror
film that contained undercover footage
of the industry standard for the
treatment of animals raised from meat
dairy and eggs i sat on the couch in my
apartment completely stunned with tears
streaming down my face and when that
video stopped
I felt like my world had stopped
spinning and a slew of questions went
through my head
like how
can this be real how is this allowed why
are we not educated about this and the
more I research and the more I watched
the deeper I realized this needs to stop
initially it was very difficult for me
to accept the reality in the scientific
fact that humans do not need to consume
animals in order to be healthy and the
more I delved into this world
the quicker I internalized the reality
that we eat animals for four reasons
only tradition convenience habit and
taste I used to love eating meat in fact
one of the favorite stories among my
college friends is how my version of
snacking was sitting on the floor of my
dorm room eating a rotisserie chicken
right out of the container but after
watching farm to fridge and doing more
research on animal agriculture I could
no longer deny the truth just because I
didn’t want to accept it and I certainly
didn’t want to deprive myself of my own
desire to live well and to live in a way
that causes the least amount of harm to
others I could then look at my dog
Gracie and see the connection but Gracie
is no different than any other sentient
being Gracie was simply born into
different circumstances Gracie lives in
a world where it is not palatable or
socially acceptable to exploit abuse or
consume dog meat
the reality is that Gracie is no
different than any chicken cow pig goat
or lamb so the light had been shed and
the truth had been exposed and now it
was time to do something about this
animals are sentient creatures which
means they can and do feel pain fear and
sadness along with affection comfort and
love there have been over 2,500 studies
to prove this animals have unique
personalities and they have their own
interests in fact we share the same
desire that they
do to live our lives in peace to live a
life that is free of pain fear and
suffering and we both want to have some
fun to animals care about their
relationships and they worry about those
relationships like we worry about ours I
was heartbroken to see videos of baby
calves in the dairy industry being
ripped away from their mothers shortly
after birth because humans consume the
cow’s milk so the babies cannot have it
and the male babies are sent to
slaughter or sometimes killed instantly
right in front of their mothers and the
mother cows cry for hours days sometimes
weeks over their lost babies the bond
between a mother and her baby is no
different in the animal world only their
cries are different but mothers and
babies are not the only relationships
that animals form animals form
friendships – just like us about a year
ago I became involved with an animal
sanctuary for baby goats with special
needs called the goats of anarchy
created by an amazing woman Leeanne
loris Ella and the first time I visited
the goats of anarchy I realized
firsthand just how playful and
affectionate farm animals are just like
our pets at home and one goat in
particular his name is miles he came
over to me as I was kneeling down and he
propped his legs up onto my knees and he
leaned into me and he twisted his head
entirely around my neck and it took me a
second before I realized this is my
first goat hug and then mild continued
to follow me around all afternoon and
lean in for kisses and cuddles just like
Gracie does whenever were at home and
that first visit to go to van our key
changed me because I kept thinking about
miles and about the fact that all
animals crave affection but we deny them
the chance and this led to my
contemplation about
the connection between the way we treat
non-human animals and the way we treat
human animals what are the factors that
empower humans to treat other people so
poorly
what is the mentality behind bullying
how do we do humanize other people so
that it becomes acceptable to treat them
in a way that we would not want to be
treated ourselves throughout history and
throughout observations that you and I
have made and perhaps in reflection of
our own lives
we become desensitized to the suffering
of others under the false belief that we
have more rights than others that we are
smarter than others that we are more
attractive than others that we have more
followers than others that we can
contribute more to society than others
that we are more powerful and more
deserving we have become desensitized to
the suffering of other nations because
it’s not happening in front of our eyes
on our own turf and they don’t speak our
language so we don’t understand them and
they don’t look like us they are other
so what is the common denominator
between us and those who are other it is
our capacity to suffer and our desire to
live and to be happy there is no
difference between human and animal
sentience how then can we argue against
compassion it no longer matters that
chickens are dumb an argument I have
heard before and one that is also untrue
but what does matter is that they can
suffer so we have to ask ourselves how
can we accept the fact that we kill 9
billion animals every year who have the
same emotions that we do rather than
support their suffering and exploitation
we should try to learn something from
the animals we as humans have a lot to
learn from them the ability to spread
kindness unconditionally even when it’s
hard
the desire to protect our relationships
and to remain loyal to those we care
about the ability to persevere despite
unfortunate circumstance and to remain
resilient in times of physical and
emotional challenge so what then is the
solution how can we live our lives in a
way that does not support animal
suffering or exploitation we can
research factory farming and animal
agriculture and make informed decisions
we can recognize the contradiction in
the phrase humane slaughter as an
English teacher we call that an oxymoron
but ultimately what we can do is adopt a
plant-based diet and dispel the myth
that a plant-based diet means eating
salads three times a day a plant-based
diet means eating macaroni and cheese
tacos
pizza pasta doughnuts all of your
favourite foods you can still be a
foodie and eat a plant-based diet you
can still be an Italian girl and crave
your favorite comfort foods and I
guarantee you can still go to your
favorite restaurants and find an option
on the menu that is plant-based and
what’s more is I bet you will hardly
notice a difference in the taste because
our society is really starting to adapt
to the demand of a plant-based diet
because our planet literally cannot
sustain the rate at which humans consume
animals that’s why companies that are
creating plant-based substitutes for
meat are experiencing skyrocketing sales
to the point where Tyson chicken bought
five percent of the plant-based company
beyond meat the largest meat producer in
America had no choice but to prepare for
a world where people are starting to
care about where their food is coming
from and who is paying the price for
every product you currently enjoy there
is a company out there who is making a
plant-based substitute that will meet or
exceed your expectations and taste
variety and quality and
we base our choices for food on
compassion for animals we also extend
compassion to the environment and to
ourselves animal agriculture is the
leading cause of global warming ocean
dead zones water depletion deforestation
and species extinction and furthermore
what about our own health the number one
leading cause of death in America is
heart disease and our arteries are not
getting clogged from eating fruits or
vegetables they’re getting clogged from
eating animal products and a plant-based
diet is the only diet that has been
proven to reverse heart disease I think
it’s amazing that whenever we make more
compassionate choices that kindness
comes back to us in the form of our
health and the well-being of our planet
we can literally change the world every
single day that we choose to eat a
plant-based diet in one day you could
save 1,100 gallons of water 45 pounds of
green 30 square feet of forested land 20
pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent and
one animal’s life every day it is time
that we start to take responsibility for
our actions and our choices especially
ones that we make three times a day and
ones over which we do have control it is
time that we get outside of ourselves
and start thinking about the future and
not what just we want right here and
right now and it’s time to stop being
brainwashed into thinking that we can
only be healthy if we drink a cow’s milk
at breakfast and eat a chicken breast at
dinner and we need to abandon the it’s
not my problem mentality because that
way of thinking cripples our ability to
be empathetic and selfless across all
facets of our life also it is our
problem we as humans have been given the
ability to use reason and logic and
rather than view that as a right to do
we want it’s time that we look at that
as a responsibility to make better
choices and to care for those who are
under our protection we can be game
changers every day through our choices
we have the ability to shed light and to
educate our family and friends so that
we can grow together and be part of
something bigger than ourselves when you
think about it we all started as
children who really cared about animals
so let’s return to those roots of
Gandhi once said that the greatness of a
nation and its moral progress can be
judged by the way it’s animals are
treated just because things have always
been done a certain way does not make it
right and we have the responsibility to
create a more ethical world than the one
in which we grew up let’s not just say
we want to change the world let’s
actually do it thank you
[Applause] you
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