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Presenting Veganism


robert
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This is an article that I specificially wrote for www.organicathlete.org to be included in their monthly newsletter, but I wanted to include it here too.

 

I hope that you will find it very helpful and it will enhance your ability to speak to others about your vegan lifestyle. -Robert Cheeke

 

Presenting Veganism by Robert Cheeke April 5, 2005

 

How many times have you been asked, “Where do you get your protein?”

Or what about, “Well, then what Do you eat?” These are common

questions that non-vegans have for us on a daily basis. They are

fairly easy to answer because anyone who knows anything about

nutrition knows that protein is one of the easiest nutrients to find

in human nutrition; and to answer the latter question, all you have to

do is tell them what you eat or more simply, tell them the foods you

avoid and that you eat everything else.

 

But what if you are preparing to give a presentation to a group of

people; do you know what kind of approach you would take and how you

would answer questions?

 

In my experience, the best way to approach any animal rights or

veganism presentation to non-vegans is to be prepared for the

questions you know will be asked and come across as a nice person just

sharing your lifestyle with them.

 

Nobody wants to hear that they are doing something wrong, so keep

everything positive. Rather than giving statistics about how meat-

eaters will die sooner than vegans, say that vegans live long healthy

lives, taking in all required nutrients to stay active and maintain

great health. Rather than talk about factory farming conditions, give

examples of animals that are treated well and that more should be

treated that way.

 

When you present yourself be sure to smile, laugh, be enthusiastic,

make great eye contact, thank people for their questions, and offer to

help them find an answer if you don’t have the answer they are looking

for. Make the group laugh, that will help them relate to you as a

human, and as a nice person, rather than the guest speaker who is

there to discount their lifestyle and condemn their eating habits.

 

When possible, avoid any kind of direct argument. Debating can be ok

depending on the setting but I wouldn’t recommend it. Give your

presentation and allow time for questions rather than a debate.

 

To help create a clear picture of who vegans are and what they do,

eat, and stand for, share part of your life with them. Talk them

through a typical day explaining what you eat. Start from morning

describing your meals up until you go to sleep that night. Bring in

examples of vegan alternatives to common foods like yogurt, milk,

meat, energy bars, cheese, treats, etc. Pass the foods around so they

can read the labels and get familiar with what is inside and so they

can see some healthy alternative foods they could be eating. Be sure

to read some highlights from the label of an example food. Such

as, “high in protein, no trans fat, no cholesterol, may reduce risk of

heart disease, etc.”

 

Come to the presentation prepared with some literature, such as Why

Vegan pamphlets or Vegan Starter Packs from Vegan Outreach. This will

give the group of people something to read while you field questions

and it could possibly create more questions based on the information

they read from the brochures or books.

 

The best thing that you can do is surprise the group you are speaking

to by not being what they expect. Most non-vegans will hear of a

vegan coming to speak at their class, group, school, function or

whatever the event may be, and immediately imagine a radical

environmentalist, angry at the government and meat and dairy

industries who will be preaching their ethical and moral values to

anyone who is not like them. This is what they expect in most cases,

so it is up to you to surprise them.

 

Come across as being just like them. Find some common ground and

perhaps even make it clear at the beginning that you are not there to

preach at them or that you are not trying to change their eating and

lifestyle habits. After hearing that, they will take a sigh of relief

and listen to what you have to say. If you open up with telling

people that eating meat is wrong, you might as well turn around and

walk out the door because you will no longer be heard by anyone in the

room and you will probably do more harm than good for the vegan

movement. Be their friend, relate to them, understand that yes,

animal products probably do taste pretty good, but explain why we may

want to consider other nice tasting foods that could be a bit

healthier and cause less environmental destruction.

 

If you come into contact with someone in the group who is aggressive

and tries to argue with you, quickly diffuse the situation by thanking

them and move on to the next question. You will be admired for your

control and the aggressive questioner, rather than you, will become

the “bad guy” in the eyes of the crowd. The group will probably have

more respect for you and they’ll be able to empathize with you since

you are the minority but handling yourself well through tough

situations.

 

My experience tells me that a non-aggressive, non-threatening,

friendly, enthusiastic approach works wonders when it comes to talking

with people on the other end of the environmental spectrum.

 

When you finish your presentation, realize that there are plenty of

other questions that the group probably has but didn’t have time or

the confidence to ask, so always leave them with some contact

information such as an e-mail address where they can contact you to

learn more about veganism.

 

Upon conclusion of your visit, always thank the group for inviting you

to share your lifestyle with them and stay around afterwards to

address individual questions that someone may not have wanted to ask

in front of a group.

 

If you take this enthusiastic, friendly, fun, gracious, non-

threatening approach you will be making the most of your potential

impact on the non-vegan community. You’ll be surprised how many

people may think really hard the next time they visit a fast food

restaurant.

 

-Robert Cheeke

www.veganbodybuilding.com

[email protected]

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  • 1 month later...

Feel free to share this with others and post it on other message boards.

 

It seems to be helping a lot of people. I get e-mails all the time about how to talk to people about veganism and this little article I wrote seems to assist a great deal.

 

Pass it along.

 

Thanks

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