10/01/03 "Why Veg?" Project of AFC and Sabina Fund
In cooperation with FARM Sabina Fund (www.farmusa.org), and as a part of Animal Friends Days, Animal Friends started a project "Why Veg?"
This project started on October 1, World Vegetarian Day, and will last for ten months. It consists of information stalls, public projections, debates and lectures about animal-free diet. Animal Friends activists in Zagreb attracted attention of their fellow-townsmen to health hazards of meat-based diet, and its damage to the environment and the animals. There was an information stand, billboard and the activists handed out small packages of soy steaks along with vegan recipes.
This year World Farm Animals Day, October 2, was marked in Croatia for the first time, also in cooperation with FARM USA. A leaflet "Life on a Farm" was specially printed on that occasion, and there was also a tasting of vegan sandwiches. We wanted to increase public awareness of animal suffering in factory farms before they "come" to our plates, so two days later in club Mama, Preradoviceva ulica 18, we held a projection of Austrian organization VGT's documentary "(K)ein herz für Lucie" about pig farming. After the documentary followed 90-minute debate about vegetarian diet and vegetarian way of life.
For past few days, Animal Friends held an information stall and collecting signatures for introduction of vegetarian meals in public institutions, and it continued this Saturday in front of the hotel Dubrovnik, at the corner of Bogoviceva and Gajeva ulica. Collecting of signatures will continue throughout this project.
On April 1, 1999, FARM announced establishment of the Sabina Fund to fund grassroots projects promoting a plant-based diet and publicizing the devastating impacts of animal agriculture. The Fund honors the memory of FARM President Alex Hershaft's mother, Sabina, who passed away on February 14, 1996.
FARM (Farm Animal Reform Movement) is a national, tax-exempt, educational organization advocating a plant-based diet and humane treatment of farmed animals through eight grassroots programs. It operates from the nation's capital with a staff of eight, through a grass-roots network of more than one thousand activists in all 50 states and several Canadian provinces.
This year Animal Friends is one of 64 grantees of Sabina Fund worldwide, and our project about promotion of vegetarianism/veganism is one of 10 selected projects.