Over fifty supporters gathered outside Portland’s vegan mini mall on Saturday to see FARM’s 10 Billion Lives outreach vehicle depart on its North American tour! Acclaimed author Melanie Joy joined FARM’s grassroots coordinator, Alex Felsinger, in cutting the ribbon before handing the keys to the tour coordinator, Jeni Haines.
FARM is excited to announce an unprecedented and exciting addition to our Pay-Per-View program: a full-time touring vehicle (mock-up illustration pictured above)! Under the direction of driver/coordinator Jeni Haines, we intend to reach over 100,000 people each year through nearly 300 events, starting June 2012 for Warped Tour.
By showing Mercy for Animals’ powerful Farm to Fridge video, Pay-Per-View continues to provide amazing results: around 80% of viewers pledge to decrease animal product consumption and over 50% of viewers have made these changes 1 month later. Based on the survey data, we estimate that an average of 10 animals per year are spared for each Pay-Per-View participant. If we reach our goal of 100,000 viewers, we can spare 1 million animals in the first year alone! Continue reading »
San Francisco Bay Area FARM staff and volunteers visited four major public universities in the past week to hold Pay Per View events to kick off the school year. We visited UC Berkeley and San Francisco, Sonoma, and San Jose State Universities, with students on all four campuses were eager to earn a dollar in exchange for watching a 4-minute video about the treatment of animals on farms.
In total, we reached 725 people in just 11 hours over the four days! For the last two events, we introduced a new Vegan Pledge to the PPV sign-up sheet. At both UC Berkeley and San Jose State, over 75% of viewers pledged to eat animal-free meals at least 1-2 days a week. All viewers leave with the message that a vegan diet is the only way to truly avoid supporting the cruelty they witnessed in the video.
FARM’s follow-up surveys indicate that the pledges are not short lived. One month later, over 50% of survey respondents from past events have decreased their consumption of animal products!
World Farm Animals Day is a time to memorialize and mourn the loss of the 65 billion farmed animals who are killed each year for food. Each year since 1983, hundreds of caring individuals have coordinated events in their communities to draw attention to the ongoing terror facing farmed animals — please join us in taking a stand on October 2nd!
As always, the best way to honor these animals is to encourage others to adopt a vegan diet. For WFAD 2011, FARM is launching our new Pay Per View program — an innovative and amazingly effective method for exposing the public to the truth about animal agriculture.
Note: FARM President and Founder Alex Hershaft delivered this presentation on the Paths to Liberation panel during the Animal Rights National Conference 2011. Farm Sanctuary’s Bruce Friedrich provided the opposing viewpoint in support of welfare reforms.
Welfare or Abolition
This summer, we launched a highly effective vegan outreach program called Pay-Per-View. We pay people $1 to watch a four-minute clip of graphic undercover factory farming and slaughterhouse footage. In the past few weeks, we have generated more than 4,000 individual views, mostly at street fairs and rock concerts. The reactions are dramatic: viewers cry and vow never to touch meat again.
But now, this magnificent grass roots effort is facing a serious threat. Is it a devilish scheme cooked up by the meat industry’s marketing types? Well, yes. But, perversely, it’s also a scheme hatched, nurtured, or at least, abetted by the very same organizations that produced these highly effective undercover videos.
Yes, I am referring to the recent welfare agreement forged with the egg industry, that most egregious torturer of animals. It contains vague promises of industry’s support for legislation that would increase cage size in 18 years. However, its biggest impact is to lull caring consumers – the very people we’ve courting, into thinking that the atrocities they’ve witnessed at our PPV booth may be going away. That it’s safe to eat meat again. Consumers are hearing that message, however unintended, because they’re desperately searching for a way to justify and continue their flesh-eating habits.
On Thursday night, FARM staff and volunteers pushed the new Pay Per View mobile cart up to the lines of dedicated fans waiting outside a theater in Daly City, CA for the midnight premier of the last installment of the Harry Potter series. Over 100 people were stunned to learn that animals are treated even worse than house elves, but were then relieved to learn that helping animals doesn’t require any magic — just a change in diet!
Tabling with Pay Per View at festivals has been great, but the chance for impromptu Pay Per View is sometimes hindered by the set-up procedure. With so many great outdoor opportunities for Pay Per View during the summer, we decided that some wheels were in order!
FARM has teamed up with Action For Animals to bring Pay Per View to Warped Tour audiences across the United States this summer, and we’re happy to report that the first week of tour has been a huge success!
With help from FARM staff and volunteers, Action For Animals’ awesome three-person Warped Tour team set up Pay Per View at their booth in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Las Cruces, Las Vegas, Pomona, and Mountain View last week. We were able to reach between 150 to 300 people at each tour stop — a pattern that, if continued, will bring the final tally at tour’s end to nearly 10,000 people!
If you register by July 4, you will still get the discounted rate of $140 — after that, you can still register throughout July or even show up at the door to pay, but it’ll cost you $20 more!
Whether you’re still sorting out transportation or trying to convince a friend to come along with you, now is the time to get the ball rolling. And remember, there are all sorts of other ways to save money on the conference, from room shares to box lunches!
On Saturday June 18th, Food Empowerment Project (FEP) and Santa Clara County Activists for Animals (SCCAA) teamed up (with a little help from FARM’s event materials) to educate children at the Green Kids Conference. The event, organized by an 11-year-old, set out to inform children and their families about environmental issues and opportunities to improve.
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