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Often it feels like I just wish I could click my heels and
return to the days before social media. Between all the petty disagreements and
mindless distractions vying for one’s attention, it can enervate us and all
this access to “information” and one another’s opinions can feel like it’s more
trouble than it is worth. Then I think of people like Gary Smith, someone I
may not have met if not for Facebook, and I instantly remember that there are
indeed many benefits to social media. Not simply for meeting inspiring
individuals but for being exposed to those who help us to step up our game as
animal advocates because they are using social media to create a better world in
very smart and effective ways. (Yes, there’s more to Facebook than cute cat
videos and cupcake recipes.)
Gary Smith is leaving breadcrumbs to a better world with his blog, The Thinking Vegan, and through his savvy public relations firm, Evolotus, which
he runs with his equally inspiring, whip-smart partner, Kezia Jauron. Evolotus’
clients are a veritable who’s-who of progressive and powerful change-makers
such as Mercy for Animals, Forks Over Knives, Tofurky and Jenny Brown of
Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. Gary and Kezia get the best possible spotlight
on their clients in the media, helping to bring issues, messages and
products that might get lost in our increasingly crowded public sphere to a wider and wider support base.
I love Gary’s thoughtful and penetrating approach to animal rights as well as
his unapologetic, passionate vegan convictions. I know you’ll love him, too. I
am so honored to have Gary Smith as this week’s Vegan Rockstar.
1. First of all, we’d love to hear your
“vegan evolution” story. How did you start out? Did you have any early
influences or experiences as a young person that in retrospect helped to pave
your path?
Late one night in college, I was listening to KPFK, our Los
Angeles Pacifica station, and heard about Diet For a New America by John
Robbins. The next day, I went out and bought the book. I turned to the first
few photographs of factory farms, and that moment, I stopped eating animals.
About ten minutes later, I converted my first new vegan, just by describing the
photos to my then-best friend over the phone.
I had no idea what I was going to eat, but knew that I could
not support the brutality and violence that I had awoken to. Keep in mind, this
was long before the internet. Fortunately there was a health food store nearby,
and bean burritos from Taco Bell and Del Taco. Around that time, I took a class
on the study of nonviolence. I became friendly with the professor, gave a
couple of lectures for him at a community college, and did research for his
books. With that foundation, I became focused, dare I say obsessed, with
studying suffering. At the time, that meant human suffering, but now animal
suffering is the obsession.
I ate a vegan diet for three and a half years before sadly
going back to eating fish, dairy, and eggs. Though I went vegan for animals, in
retrospect, I didn’t fully grasp the larger philosophy of veganism, didn’t
connect it to anything else swirling in my head, and I didn’t make changes when
it came to clothing, and entertainment. I did learn about or products tested on
animals and purchased cruelty-free products.
After going back to eating fish, dairy and eggs, there was
always a voice in the back of my head telling me what I was doing was wrong.
The voice grew louder, until I heeded it, almost ten years ago. I gave up fish,
then a few months later, dairy and eggs. I recall that I wanted to see what it
would be like to eat a vegan diet again, but wasn’t fully committing to it.
After a day or two, I had this peaceful feeling come over me. I knew that I
would never consume animal products again.
What was different this time is that I educated myself. I
pored over books, websites, etc., wanting to fully understand veganism. The
more I understood, the more outspoken I became.
I’ve dedicated not only my life to activism, but also my
career. My wife and I created Evolotus
PR,
a public relations agency, where the majority of our work is for animal rights
and animal protection nonprofits, campaigns, and vegan-themed documentary films
and books.
2.
Imagine that you are pre-vegan again: how could someone have talked to you and
what could they have said or shown you that could have been the most effective
way to have a positive influence on you moving toward veganism?
The activist Anita Mahdessian has a story about this that
rings very true for me. She wrote, “Many years ago, I had a very brief encounter
with ‘my first vegan.’ He seemed to be a very peaceful man, a ‘love and light’
vegan. When I asked him, ‘what is a vegan,’ his answer was ‘vegans do not eat
or use any animal products.’ He did not tell me why, and I failed to ask him.
If only my first vegan told me the truth. If only my first vegan gave me all
the facts instead of ‘love and light,’ I would have gone vegan that very day.
My first vegan failed me. My first vegan failed the animals. However, my second
vegan did not. And I am forever grateful that he was merciless with the
inconvenient truth.”
I have often said, on The Thinking Vegan and
elsewhere, that I advocate telling the truth about how nonhumans are being
exploited and brutalized, in a forthright, sincere, truthful, factual manner.
One of the most popular blogs I’ve
written relates to this very topic. Certainly, we shouldn’t be assholes about
it. We don’t have to be combative. But the truth needs to be told, whether
people want to hear it or not, or are ready to hear it or not.
I’m not saying I would have been ready. But at least I would
have had the truth, which I didn’t have.
3.
What have you found to be the most effective way to communicate your message as
a vegan? For example, humor, passion, images, etc.?
There is no one way to advocate, no one magical “tone” that
will appeal to everyone, no single argument that will make the world vegan. I
have to follow my own voice, and my own values. People can smell an inauthentic
person from a mile away, and I wouldn’t be effective if I pretended to be
someone that I’m not.
I tend not to pet people for taking baby steps, not eating
animals one day a week, or switching to cage-free eggs. I don’t want people to
become confused about what I advocate. There is no way to humanely or ethically
exploit another being. Ethically, we are coming from a place of strength.
Coming from a place of strength means we can ask for what we want.
I find that people acknowledge this strength, and one way it
manifests is people often subtly seek my “permission” to use non-human animals.
They’ll tell me that the zoo they take their kid to really, really cares about
conservation. They’ll tell me they gave up red meat, or that their toddler
flat-out refuses to drink cow’s milk. They’ll tell me they tried once to adopt
through a rescue or shelter, but it didn’t have the brand of dog they wanted so
they “had to” buy a puppy. They want me, the token ethical vegan, to give them
a cookie for their labors, so they can carry on guilt-free. But I don’t give it
to them.
This comes up while mentoring new vegans, too. People ask me
if it’s okay to eat animals on vacation with their family, or in a restaurant
once in a while, or to use a certain hair-care product that is tested on
animals, or some other scenario when being vegan may be temporarily
inconvenient or undesirable for them. These questions only represent new vegans
lacking enough confidence to stick to their new ethical awareness. Happily, I
find that when people trust in whatever brought them to that awareness, and are
reassured that they can make different choices, they stay with me. It’s an
empowering thing for people, and an effective thing.
4.
What do you think are the biggest strengths of the vegan movement?
We’re loyal to the companies, organizations, and movement
leaders that have influenced us, innovate products for us, and share our
ethics. We’re fairly well mobilized and we support our own when we feel we’re
called to do so. The successful crowdfunding campaigns for documentary films,
books, restaurants, or food companies speak to that loyalty and support. Having
said that, I do wish there was less of a focus on veganism as a consumerist,
capitalistic lifestyle, and more on veganism as the social justice movement
that it truly is.
5.
What do you think are our biggest hindrances to getting the word out
effectively?
Being in PR, and working with mainstream media every day, my
biggest hindrance is that veganism and animal rights are not yet taken
seriously everywhere and by everyone. Bear in mind that our clients are usually
very deeply offensive to the meat and dairy industries, fast food, processed
food, pharmaceutical companies, the medical and healthcare industry. These are
the industries that advertise on the nightly news.
Secondly, our credibility is questioned by media and the
general public too. We are promoting ideas that are out of the mainstream, so
we’re going to be scrutinized more. We have to be better than they are, more
professional, more credible. There must be no factual or logical holes in our
arguments and our materials. Unfortunately, we’re perceived as having an
“agenda,” as if the animal-exploiting industries don’t also have an agenda,
which is profit.
I still see a lot of sensationalist campaigns, protests for
the sake of protesting, and a lack of strategy or substance behind some of what
animal activists are doing. There is no longer a need to get media attention
for media attention’s sake, and we’ve turned down many potential clients who
wanted stunty campaigns. We really don’t need to scream and wave our hands at
people, and media coverage can backfire very quickly if we are portrayed as
fools or propagandists. We can raise the level of dialogue, we really can.
6.
All of us need a “why vegan” elevator pitch. We’d love to hear yours.
The ethical choice is vegan. All sentient beings feel pain.
Meat, dairy, and eggs come from sentient beings. Meat, dairy, and eggs always
cause pain. If you choose to eat meat, dairy, and eggs, you are choosing to
cause pain and to participate in exploitation and murder. Participating in pain
and murder is always unethical. The ethical choice is vegan.
7.
Who are the people and what are the books, films, websites and organizations
that have had the greatest influence on your veganism and your continuing
evolution?
I’m inspired and influenced by so many people and animals.
Our dogs, Frederick
and Douglass, inspire me every day. I cannot imagine the life they had
previous to living with us. They spent the first five years of their lives in
cages in an animal testing laboratory, having all manners of terrible things
done to them, and yet they are forgiving and open to experiencing life – some
of life, at least. I look at their example and want to not only be a better
activist, but a stronger and more resilient person.
I’m inspired by all of the farmed animals that I have met at
sanctuaries, and those I’ve helped to freedom but never met. They have come
from such horrific surroundings and yet seem to have made peace with the world.
I’m inspired by Kim Sturla, Marji Beach, Jan Galeazzi, and
everyone else at Animal
Place, Nathan Runkle and the entire Mercy For Animals
team, and lauren Ornelas’ work at Food
Empowerment Project blows me away. Some of my heroes are Thomas Ponce, who
started Lobby
For Animals at 12 years old; Jo-Anne
McArthur, who puts herself through such personal suffering to bear
witness to animal suffering; and Tony Kanal, who
constantly combines bravery and thoughtfulness in his activism. Ari Nessel from
The Pollination Project
makes me want to be a kinder person, and his sister Dana Nessel, the civil
rights attorney who nearly singlehandedly won the right to marry for
everyone in America, makes me want to be a more kick-ass person. Kia Scherr
from One Life Alliance
taught me about forgiveness.
My wife Kezia influences and amazes me. We have been
together for close to 20 years. She is my best friend and the smartest person I
know. I learn from her all the time.
8.
Burn-out is so common among vegans: what do you do to unwind, recharge and
inspire yourself?
The reality is that I am preoccupied with ending animal
exploitation. It’s quite literally the first thing I think about when I wake up
and the last thing I think about before I go to bed. But I get so much energy
and excitement by working on these issues, and thinking about how we can be
more effective as activists, that I don’t really notice the time go by.
Also the work we do at Evolotus inspires us. Getting the
Wall Street Journal to write about a client’s work has the potential of being
read by four million people. I could spend the rest of my life passing out
leaflets and probably never reach that many people. We are constantly looking
for the next big thing that will put animal rights issues into the mainstream.
Finding that new next big thing is inspiring and recharging.
To unwind, I’m not ashamed to admit, we do a lot of
cocooning with bad reality TV such as competitive tattooing shows, the home and
garden channel, and lately binge-watching TV series on Netflix. I also love to
shop for and read novels. I’ve already surpassed my goal of reading 100 novels
this year! We also are lucky to live in a city with dozens of vegan
restaurants, so going out to lunch or dinner, or picking up vegan donuts on the
weekend, is something we do frequently. Maybe too frequently!
9. What is the issue nearest and dearest to your
heart that you would like others to know more about?
Living with Frederick and
Douglass, clearly, the answer is vivisection. Rescuing beagles from animal
testing laboratories, fostering them, helping them create a new experience of
the world, has opened my eyes to how important it is to consider individual
lives, versus abstract concepts and numbers such as ten billion land animals.
To say they have changed our
lives would be a massive understatement. We are completely invested in making
sure they are happy, healthy, and at peace, after the five-plus years they were
confined in a laboratory. They still have emotional and physical scars, but
with each day that goes by and each belly rub, they grow more comfortable and
adjusted to freedom.
It also puts a different
perspective on so-called “single-issue campaigns” because our dogs, and
millions more animals like them, are simply overlooked by vegan education
outreach. Just one or two decades ago, the animal rights movement included in
its focus animals in laboratories and animals used for fur. The truth is, we’ve
dropped a massive strategic ball on vivisection, and as a result we’re losing a
relatively winnable issue. There’s simply no reason animal testing – at least
nonmedical testing, meaning consumer products – should continue today.
Today, this movement is primarily
concerned with animals used for food. I understand the logic behind this, and
with my experience in hands-on rescue, and this expansion of my consciousness
from abstract numbers to specific individuals, has made me appreciate the work
of farmed
animal sanctuaries differently.
10. Please finish this sentence: “To me, being
vegan is...”
The greatest gift you
can give to yourself, the animals, and the planet.
