One of my favorite parts about the Let Live Northwest Animal Rights Conference (RIP, Let Live) was they captured all of their workshops on video. Seems like an extremely obvious thing to do in order to seriously magnify the potential for expanding the reach of the animal rights message and — in this case — showcasing the wise words of some pretty awesome activists. But you’d be surprised (or maybe you wouldn’t) by the amount of animal rights events and conferences which, for whatever reason, are not videotaped — thereby losing potentially thousands and thousands (more?) of viewers.
To that end, I remember how disappointed I was last year when I was speaking at the fabulous Boston VegFest (that’s not the disappointing part!), and it conflicted with the first ever National Conference to End Factory Farming, organized by Farm Sanctuary. Why couldn’t I be in two places at once? (How many times have we all thought that — especially as activists?)
Well, good things come to those who wait, because at long last, the videos from this groundbreaking conference are finally available for us to eat up. The workshops that were delivered at this one-of-a-kind event included Wenonah Hauter speaking on “The State of the Environment: Why Factory Farming Matters,” to Noam Mohr speaking on “Climate Change: The Role of Animal Agriculture,” to Anteneh Roba speaking on “Factory Farming: A Global Trend,” to John Ikerd speaking on “The Hidden Costs of Factory Farming,” and oodles more.
If you’re looking to greatly expand your understanding of the negative impacts of modern animal agriculture, and gather new ideas and action plans to put an end to factory farming, then make a commitment to watch one video a day. They are approximately 10 minutes long each (sometimes less), making that an attainable goal.
I hope to see this conference continue as an annual event, and I hope to see all the wonderful conferences that are popping up end up on the internet. Perhaps then I would not feel the relentless need to clone myself in order to avail myself of all this wisdom.
Photo at top of blog: Anteneh Roba at the National Conference to End Factory Farming, courtesy Farm Sanctuary.
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