Lee Hall is awesome. Hall wrote Capers in the Churchyard: Animal Rights Advocacy in the Age of Terror, which is a must read for anyone concerned about nonhuman animals. Don't miss this talk!

If people understood the history of animal domestication and how it truly disconnected us from the natural world in order that we become "dominators" of it, they would understand better this unnatural order. My school days had no mention of the root causes of violence and disease, a direct result of confining and eating animals, combined with destruction of predators and the fragile eco-systems being demolished from animal agribusiness and the land necessary to grow livestock feed.The issue is ten thousand years old and has been a wedge in human spiritual evolution. For those real patriots who desire a future for our off-spring, and peace, it is imperative to read books like Slaughterhouse, Gail Eisnitz, Unnatural Order, Why we are destroying ourselves and the planet, Jim Mason, Eternal Treblinka, Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust, Charles Patterson, Judaism and Global Survival, Richard Schwartz, and God's Covenant With Animals, J.r. Hyland...to name a few I missed during my public education... Lee hall is a dreamer. I too, have a dream. That one day, children can look into the eyes of baby turkeys, looking back with equal curiosity, and see beauty and kinship. I too, long for a world that cherishes all living beings and works to spread policies of non-violence and peace. "The greatness of a nation and its true moral progress can be measured by the way animals are treated." Gandhi www.petatv.com and www.animalsvoice.com show us what the industires pass laws to protect.

Anyone interested in vegan eating should definitely order the FREE vegetarian guide from the Humane Society of the United States. You can get it at: http://www.hsus.org/farm/resources/pubs/gve/

Friends of Animals -- the organization Hall works with -- has a Vegan Starter Guide available in print and in PDF format here: http://www.friendsofanimals.org/img/Vegan_Starter_Guide.pdf

Anyone opposed to animal abuse needs to watch this new video exposing the abusive conditions inside a North Carolina turkey hatchery:

www.COK.net

Friends of Animals is the organization that truly advocates for "peaceful revolution," through veganism. Their Vegan Starter Guide is the best I've ever seen, with wonderful recipes, health, environmental and ethical information about a plant-based diet. Everyone should visit www.friendsofanimals.org and dowload a FREE copy of the Vegan Starter Guide, as well as their fantastic Vegan Restaurant Guides, available for several different cities, including NYC and Washington DC. Pass them on to friends who need to hear the message, and in this way we can help get the peaceful revolution underway.

I highly recommend reading Lee Hall's book, Capers in the Churchyard, to anyone interested in animal rights and vegan advocacy. You can get the book through Friends of Animals website: http://tinyurl.com/ybppzo

I wish I lived close enough to attend this talk. An article co-written by Lee Hall titled "Revolutionary Veganism" is also on the Friends of Animals website: http://tinyurl.com/ykmh84

Lee Hall's excellent work is regularly featured in Dissident Voice (www.dissidentvoice.org) Her latest article can be found at: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct06/Hall31.htm
Links to her other articles are at the end of the piece.

The FOA starter guide has some tasty recipes in it, but a significant portion of the nutrition information isn't information at all, not being based on medical science. They promote raw foodism and to young people, where it can do the most damage.

I think the best starter guide out there is Vegan Outreach's "Guide To Cruelty Free Eating". It is written by a registered dietitian:
http://www.veganoutreach.org/starterpack/index.html

I think Vegan Outreach is the better organization too. They are run by somebody who studied engineering in school. There approach is very reality based, down to Earth, rational and practical. In other words, effective.

The leadership of the FOA tends toward being people who are idealogues. Failed ones at that. They ran an animal sanctuary called Primarily Primates in Texas that was taken over by the government on the grounds of neglect. They even fired one of their own high level people who went down there to see for himself.

Regarding the comments in the previous post: Friends of Animals Vegan Starter Guide offers a wealth of information on the vegan lifestyle, including compelling and scientifically-based information on a broad range of issues as to why veganism is an ethically, environmentally and nutritionally sound choice. Information is cited as well, and the reader is advised in the conclusion to “Educate yourself. Learn about nutritional needs and keep your body healthy.” A starter guide is not intended to be comprehensive in scope or the final word in nutrition, and a list of references for further reading is offered.

Raw foodism is neither promoted nor admonished; the term is offered as a description of an eating plan some vegans choose to follow. This is an issue of inclusiveness. There are persuasive environmental and ethical reasons one might choose to follow this type of diet. Again, the information is cited and readers are offered links to freely available information, both web-based and written. Raw foodism is not specifically promoted to young people, as the above author asserts. The focus of Friends of Animals Vegan Starter Guide is veganism, with an emphasis on a whole-foods diet that features fresh, easy to prepare, nutritionally-adequate and satisfying food; most of the recipes require cooking. A couple of raw foods recipes are included; uncooked foods should be included in any healthful eating plan.

While the public forum of a newspaper seems the wrong venue to either vent these inaccuracies and allegations or to dispel them, a couple of facts bear mentioning: Friends of Animals did not manage Primarily Primates at the time charges were brought against them; the result of the lawsuit only recently gave control over to Friends of Animals. Furthermore, no one from Friends of Animals was fired after visiting the sanctuary. Please feel free to visit Friends of Animals website www.friendsofanimals.org if one is interested in accurate information, or to download a free Vegan Starter Guide.

Dustin Rhodes
Friends of Animals