Telegram & Gazette: “VegFest continues to grow” & “Small steps, big results”

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This past weekend the frontpage of the Living Section of the Telegram & Gazette featured two stories about the upcoming Worcester VegFest: Small steps, big results and VegFest continues to grow. See some excerpts below.

From Small steps, big results by Nancy Sheehan:

Maybe you want to try a vegan diet because you’ve heard that it leads to better health, more energy and weight loss. So suddenly there you are, cleaning out your fridge of all the eggs, butter, milk and meat that have been your dietary mainstay for years, the go-to goodies you’ve relied on to stave off late-afternoon hunger or throw together a quick dinner on a busy weeknight. (After doing this, all that many people would be looking at is a half-rotted head of iceberg lettuce and a jar of very well aged mustard.) After that, you might even find yourself shaking your head at co-workers’ fat-laced lunches and posting farm-animal cruelty links on Facebook.

What would wellness expert and longtime vegan Kathy Freston say about your newfound zeal? Probably something like “Stop doing that stuff. Ease yourself into lifestyle changes. Work your way gently toward getting the animals off your dinner plate.”

Read the rest of the story

From VegFest continues to grow by Nancy Sheehan:

Worcester VegFest was so crowded last year that organizers went out and found a larger venue for this year’s festival, which will be April 15 at Worcester Technical High School.

“We decided to find a new location that allows us to grow, year after year,” Drew Wilson, the president and founder of VegWorcester, the group that organizes the VegFest, said. “Worcester Tech High is a perfect fit. We have space for more vendors, a bigger room for the presenters and we are excited to be able to accommodate more attendees.”

For the third annual VegFest, Wilson is expecting about 3,000 people, but it could be more — and maybe many more. He has been surprised before.

“The first year we were expecting 500 and were blown away when 2,000 people showed up,” he said. “Last year we were more prepared for the crowd, and we were thrilled to have over 3,000 people attend.”

Read the rest of the article…

Kathy Freston is scheduled to be interviewed by Jasmin Singer from Our Hen House at 2:15-3pm, followed by a 30 min signing of her new book, The Lean. Copies of Veganist and Quantum Wellness will also be available.

Excited? Check out the presenter schedule and plan your day out. And RSVP for the facebook event.

April 10, 2012   Posted in: Worcester VegFest 2012  No Comments

VegFest 2012 Presentation Schedule Now Online

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We just posted our presenter schedule to WorcesterVegFest.com. Check it out below.

VegFest 2012 Presentation Schedule

The exhibitor area will be open from 11am to 5pm. There are lots of free samples, but bring your wallet too because you’ll definitely want to buy an entire plate of lunch, pick up a shirt, or get signed copies of our presenters’ books.

Ok, ok. Now invite all your friends on facebook. See you on Sunday!

April 9, 2012   Posted in: Worcester VegFest 2012  No Comments

We are on TV, talking about #WorcesterVegFest [Video]

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Worcester VegFest is on TV now. Heck yeah.

In addition to our radio PSA that is running on WCHC 88.1FM and WCUW 91.3FM, we have an interview airing on WCCA TV Channel 13 in Worcester in April. Mike Benedetti (person to watch 2010, creator of the 508 podcast) and I went on Soapbox to talk to Mauro about how awesome the 2012 Worcester VegFest is going to be.

Watch the video of our conversation on youtube:

Mike and I also went on WCCA last year to talk about VegFest 2011, but this year this interview is way better. In our conversation with Mauro DePasquale, station manager at WCCA, we briefly talk about each of the 2012 VegFest speakers: T. Colin Campbell, Kathy Freston, Nathan Runkle, Marianne Sullivan, Jasmine Singer and Bruce Russell. I mention that there is going to be a moonbounce for kids and tons of vegan food for everyone. Towards the beginning, I actually mispoke. I said there will be 50 food exhibitors. There will definitely not be 50 food vendors this year, but there will be plenty. There will be 50-60 total exhibitors, with over a dozen of them offering free food samples or selling full plates.

We’re basically celebrities now. Bring your copy of this video in DVD or VHS form to VegFest on April 15 at Worcester Tech High and Mike and I will sign it for you. And for God’s sake, RSVP on facebook already.

March 30, 2012   Posted in: Activism, Events, Worcester VegFest 2012  One Comment

Can you help us get our VegFest public service announcement on the radio?

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Three awesome VegFest volunteers, Julia, Kaylee and Pat have created a short audio PSA to be aired on local radio stations to promote the VegFest. You can download the mp3 here or click play on the audio widget below. Can you help us get this bad boy played on the radio?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Do you have a radio show? Know someone who does?

Pat is going to play it on his show on on WCUW 91.3FM, which airs every other Monday evening. Can you help us get the PSA on other radio stations? Do you run a radio show in the Worcester area? Do you know someone who is connected to a radio station? We’d love to get it on WTAG, WCHC or any other radio station in town.

If you can help us out, leave a comment here or get in touch with us: info@VegWorcester.com or call 508-499-8342. Thanks!

March 29, 2012   Posted in: Misc, Worcester VegFest 2012  No Comments

Vegan Bake Sale this Wednesday at 9pm [Event]

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Last year we had a vegan bake sale to raise some money for VegFest and the city shut it down. Yeah, for real. Can you believe it? Then we met with city officials and legalized bake sales in the city of Worcester. So this year, we are celebrating the first anniversary of legal bake sales in the city of Worcester by having… a bake sale!

This Wednesday, March 28 join us from 9pm-11pm, for a vegan bake sale at Moynihan’s Pub at  897 Main St, Worcester. The money raised will go towards the 2012 VegFest. The event will be happening during their regular Trivia Night.

Here’s the facebook event. And you can download the poster (pdf).

March 26, 2012   Posted in: Events  No Comments

Jasmin Singer & Mariann Sullivan of Our Hen House at Worcester VegFest 2012

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Worcester VegFest is Sunday, April 15, 2012 at Worcester Tech High from 11am-5pm. Check out WorcesterVegFest.com for more info. RSVP to the facebook event.

Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan will be speaking at the 3rd Annual Worcester VegFest!  Our Hen House, named the 2011 Indie Media Powerhouse by VegNews Magazine, produces multimedia resources that you can use in order to find your own way to change the world for animals.

Our Hen House’s mission is to “effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals.”  Our Hen House produces resources that you can use in order to find your own way to create change for animals.  Using video, audio, interviews, reviews, and the written word, it provides daily updates on what you need to create change.

Our Hen House

More about Our Hen House…

In order to address the cruelty of animal food production, as well as other forms of animal exploitation, a mass movement is needed that reaches into the homes and working lives of vast numbers of individuals.

Currently, the work of animal advocacy organizations deals primarily with educating people about the conditions within which animals exist, encouraging followers to make individual dietary and other lifestyle changes, and providing opportunities for involvement, primarily for top-down organizational campaigns based in legislative proposals and policy initiatives.

Our Hen House builds on the work being done by those advocacy groups to truly catalyze a mass movement in which individuals do not merely follow the leadership of animal advocacy organizations, but also take personal responsibility for leading the way to a new world in which the exploitation of animals is recognized as no longer necessary for human progress and must come to an end.

With our primary goal being to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, we showcase opportunities for individuals who care to start changing the world.

Our Hen House has a daily blog, weekly podcast, a video page and more. Check it out at http://www.ourhenhouse.org

Worcester VegFest – April 15, 11am-5pm, at Worcester Tech High

Don’t miss Jasmin Singer & Mariann Sullivan of Our Hen House at the Worcester VegFest on April 15 at Worcester Tech High. 11am-5pm. Jasmin Singer & Mariann Sullivan will join Kathy Freston, T. Colin Campbell and Nathan Runkle, all speaking at the event! This is going to be amazing!

RSVP to Worcester VegFest 2012 on Facebook!

March 21, 2012  Tags: , , , , ,   Posted in: Events, News, Worcester VegFest 2012  No Comments

Does meat kill more Americans than cigarettes do?

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Kathy Freston, a presenter at our upcoming Worcester VegFest 2012, has an interesting piece on the front page of Alternet right now. She asks, “Does meat kill more Americans than cigarettes do?”

From “Does meat kill more Americans than cigarettes do?” on Alternet by Kathy Freston:

The West’s three biggest killers — heart disease, cancer, and stroke — are linked to excessive animal product consumption.

Photo Credit: Alaettin YILDIRIM via Shutterstock

For many years, tobacco companies were able to maintain a strong pro-tobacco façade. Smoking focuses the mind. It’s good for you (doctors smoke!). It’s great for weight loss. It’s sexy. It’s cool. The tobacco industry spent big bucks to keep these ideas in the mind of the public for as long as it could.

And for many years after the lethal effects were universally known and undeniable, some of our nation’s smartest and most successful businessmen continued to believe, because it was in their interest to believe, that “nicotine is not addictive.” (Watch the seven most powerful tobacco executives of 1994 make exactly that statement, under oath, to Congress — not even two decades ago.)

I was reminded of how far tobacco has fallen reading the New York Times magazine interview with perhaps the most successful screenplay writer in history, Joe Eszterhas, who has lost 80 percent of his larynx to tobacco, and has apologized for his glamorization of smoking in such films as  Basic Instinct.

When I think about the effect of animal products on human health, I’m reminded of how quickly we’ve done a national about face on tobacco, and I look forward to the day when the Times magazine has a similar apology from someone who promoted animal products — because the evidence is in and it continues to grow: Animal products kill a lot more Americans than tobacco does.

The West’s three biggest killers — heart disease, cancer, and stroke — are linked to excessive animal product consumption, and vegetarians have much lower risks of all three. Vegetarians also have afraction of the obesity and diabetes rates of the general population — of course, both diseases are at epidemic levels and are only getting worse.

But much more important than the vegetarian community’s general statistics are…

Read the rest of this story…

Join us at the Worcester VegFest on April 15 to hear Kathy Freston speak in person. Copies of her new book, The Lean, will be available for sale. Book signing to follow. RSVP on facebook.

March 15, 2012   Posted in: News, Worcester VegFest 2012  No Comments

Are speciesists stupid? [InCity Times]

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I love the InCity Times. The editor always prints articles and editorials about animal rights and vegetarianism. This week InCity ran an article that stuck out because of it’s bold title: Are speciesists stupid?

From InCity Times article, Are Speciesists Stupid?

Excuse me for stating the obvious, but racists are dumb. That’s not just my opinion. It’s the conclusion of a provocative new study published in the journal Psychological Science. Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario, and his colleagues found that children with low intelligence are more likely to grow up to be racist adults. A previous study examining homophobia showed that people who are less adept at abstract reasoning are more likely to be prejudiced against gays.

All of this got me thinking: Does the link between brains and bias apply to how we view animals too? Are “speciesists”—people who believe that humans are superior to other animals—just not all that bright?

“There may be cognitive limits in the ability to take the perspective of others,” explains Hodson. In other words, the less intelligent you are, the harder it may be for you to put yourself in another’s shoes—and the more likely you are to hold prejudiced beliefs about other groups.

If someone is unmoved by the plight of elephants shackled, beaten and forced to perform in circuses or of animals poisoned and blinded in laboratories, perhaps they similarly lack the ability to consider the animals’ point of view.

The anecdotal evidence linking intelligence and empathy for animals is certainly intriguing. Some of the world’s greatest minds from throughout history—including Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Mohandas Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy—have been vegetarian.

Albert Einstein, whose diet was primarily plant-based, said, “Besides agreeing with the aims of vegetarianism for aesthetic and moral reasons, it is my view that a vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.”

A few years ago, the BBC reported on a study that linked a high IQ with being vegetarian. More than 8,000 children in the U.K….

read the rest of the article…

You can pick up a print copy at lots of places around town. I picked up my copy at Bagel Time on Park Ave, after I got a toasted chocolate chip bagel with tofutti.

March 13, 2012   Posted in: Animal Rights, Misc, News  No Comments

Exclusive Interview with 2012 Vegan Macaroni World Champion – MacDaddy [Video]

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Mike Benedetti from the 508 video podcast has an exclusive interview with Gail Witham, the winner of the 2012 Vegan MacDaddy Competition.

Check it on the 508 podcast:

March 12, 2012  Tags:   Posted in: Food Love  No Comments

Kathy Freston at Worcester VegFest 2012, author of “The Lean”, “Veganist”, “Quantum Wellness”

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Worcester VegFest is Sunday, April 15, 2012 at Worcester Tech High from 11am-5pm. Check out WorcesterVegFest.com for more info. RSVP to the facebook event.

Kathy Freston is the author of best sellers like Veganist and Quantum Wellness. She’s been a guest on Oprah and Ellen a few times. Freston will be at Worcester VegFest on April 15. Her brand new book, The Lean: A Revolutionary (and Simple!) 30-Day Plan for Healthy, Lasting Weight Loss will be available and a book signing will follow her presentation.

Kathy Freston, Oprah, Ellen, Dr. Oz, and the Worcester VegFest

Maybe you heard that Oprah and her 378 staff members recently went vegan for a week? Kathy Freston is the person who offered that challenge. She is everywhere talking about how easy it is move towards a vegan diet. Maybe you saw Kathy Freston on Martha Stewart, or on Ellen, or Dr. Oz, or Charlie Rose, or Good Morning America? Her view is that you don’t need to take an all-or-nothing approach to get the health benefits of veganism or to reduce the amount of animal suffering in the world. You can “lean into” veganism and take small steps that get you there. Freston’s best selling books have made a huge splash, consistently making it onto best seller lists.


Worcester VegFest – April 15, 11am-5pm, at Worcester Tech High

Don’t miss Kathy Freston at the Worcester VegFest on April 15 at Worcester Tech High. 11am-5pm. Kathy Freston, T. Colin Campbell and Nathan Runkle all in one place? This is going to be the best Worcester VegFest yet. We will post the speaker schedule soon.

RSVP to Worcester VegFest on facebook

March 8, 2012   Posted in: Worcester VegFest 2012  No Comments