Veganism Is Enlightening

VEGANISM IS ENLIGHTENING

Once you embark on the road to veganism, you gain knowledge, understanding, and insights not only relating to the dark side of animal farming and its impacts, but most of all on how everything on the planet is connected. It becomes clear how a seemingly small daily choice, such as what we put on our plates, can have a significant impact on the world around us – on people in our own communities and further away, on animals in farms and in the wild, and on the landscape, the health of the rivers and oceans, and the climate.

To quote Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar acceptance speech, when we champion veganism, we are not championing different causes, there’s commonality in all we do. “Whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights, we’re talking about the fight against injustice. We’re talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender, one species, has the right to dominate, use and control another with impunity”.

Agripunk

So for our “Enlightening” food solidarity event, we have chosen a special location: Agripunk, a farmed animal sanctuary built on the ashes of a former industrial turkey farm in Italy. Every three months, 30 thousand turkeys were sent from that farm to the slaughterhouse, after living their whole lives inside dark, filthy and crowded sheds. No animal deserves to be treated this way. The Agripunk founders helped close down that farm via investigations, activism, and community engagement, and then founded a sanctuary on the site.

Their work is not over. With the turkey farm closed, the campaigners have joined forces with the local community to close down the remaining four industrial farms in the area. Their motivation is not solely animal rights and animal welfare but also for the environment, health justice, social justice, biodiversity and protection of the local ecosystem.

Three Days of Action

Agripunk are the perfect partners for our Veganism is Enlightening food initiative. Over three days, we will share 500 meals in order to promote a low-impact, healthy food system. Through workshops we will learn more about intersectionality, ethical fashion, and greenwashing, and there will be opportunities to learn how to make vegan cheese, and to prepare food together.

Million Dollar Vegan is proud to support Agripunk as they enlighten their local community and also widen their reach via events, workshops, food solidarity actions, intersectional meetings and school visits.

Says Stefania Rivetti, Million Dollar Vegan’s Italy country manager: “I believe veganism is just the beginning, the starting point to a wider journey into knowledge, awareness, inclusion, equity and equality. It is the flint that ignites activism and action to build a sustainable, diverse, respectful and inclusive world. This is why partnering with similar minded organizations such as Agripunk is crucial to expand the scope of our message and our campaigns.”

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