Episode 77: Sarina Farb discusses "Bad Vegan", system change vs. individual change; harms of animal "gifting" programs; and why veganism is necessary for freedom, peace, and sustainability

Drawing by the vegan
artist Jo Frederiks

This week, I am pleased to present my second interview with the vegan advocate, speaker, and science educator Sarina Farb. Sarina previously appeared as a guest on Episode 61 of my show, in which she spoke about her experiences growing up as a vegan, as well as issues related to corporate influence over scientific research.

In our new interview, Sarina speaks about the overlap between individual change and system change, the approach she takes to using environmental and health arguments for veganism, and some of the problems* with programs that exploit nonhuman animals in the name of “food aid”. She also gives her review of the 2022 Netflix docuseries Bad Vegan, tells me about a speech that she recently gave at a conference in Mexico, and explains why there is hope that we can achieve a vegan world.

At the end of the show, we'll listen to the amazing song "Hold On" from Vegan Queen V's newly-released music album, Freedom Warrior.

*Of course, the main problem with animal-exploiting "food aid" programs is that they violate animals' rights by using nonhuman animals as resources. These programs are problematic in other ways too, though.

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways you can listen to this episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/56322.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-may-18-2022.
   

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If you'd like to receive an e-mail every time there is a new post on the AFAR blog, feel free to enter your e-mail address into the appropriate box in the right-hand sidebar of this site.

Go vegan, stay vegan, and let's remember to stand up and speak up for animal rights today and every day. Thanks for listening to the show!

Episode 68: Singer-songwriter Vegan Queen V speaks about her vegan Christmas music and her upcoming animal rights album

This week, I am pleased to present my second interview with the vegan singer-songwriter Vegan Queen V, also known as Jen Armstrong. The first time I interviewed Queen V was in 2019, for Episode 10 of my show. Queen V, who lives in the UK, creates songs that advocate for veganism and against animal exploitation.

In this interview, Queen V and I discuss her vegan Christmas songs, “Cruel World” and “Have Yourself a Merry Vegan Christmas”, as well as a song about ethics titled “Who Made You God”. Queen V also tells me about her upcoming animal rights music album and how being vegan has changed her life.

We'll hear all of the aforementioned songs on this episode, and we'll close the show with the song "Just Like Us".

It was fantastic to speak with Queen V again on the show!

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways you can listen to this episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/54399.html.
   
2.  Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-december-1-2021.
   

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If you'd like to receive an e-mail every time there is a new post on the AFAR blog, feel free to enter your e-mail address into the appropriate box in the right-hand sidebar of this site.

Go vegan, stay vegan, and let's remember to stand up and speak up for animal rights today and every day. Thanks for listening to the show!

Episode 20: Interview with Sandra Higgins of Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary (Part Two)

Sophie the lamb with Sandra

This week's show features Part Two of my interview with Sandra Higgins, founder and director of Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary in Ireland and Go Vegan World. (If you haven't heard Part One yet, you can find it here.)

This interview focuses on Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary in Ireland. Eden is a vegan sanctuary that provides a home for nonhuman animals who were previously exploited by humans. Eden's residents can live out the rest of their lives in peace, free from exploitation.

In Part Two, we discuss the following topics:

• how Eden, as a vegan sanctuary, differs from non-vegan sanctuaries
• what Sandra has learned from the individuals who live at Eden
• the importance of  sanctuaries in the animal rights movement
• how Eden's residents inspired the Go Vegan World campaign
• ... and more!

After the interview is the song "The Core" by the vegan singer-songwriter Queen V.

Here are some more photos of Eden's residents, courtesy of Agatha Kisiel Photography...

Angel in a Go Vegan World advertisement

Fairy

Fairy in one of Go Vegan World's advertisements

Jenny

Maria with Genevieve behind her

Yoshoda

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways you can hear this episode.

1. Listen to the podcast on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/47484.html. Currently, the radio show hosts at CKCU 93.1 FM are not physically going to the station because of the coronavirus, so I was not able to broadcast this episode on the radio this week, but I did upload it to the website as a podcast.
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afarmarch252020.

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram.

Until next time!

Episode 16: Ronnie Lee, founder of the Animal Liberation Front, discusses ALF history and the new definition of veganism

This week, I am pleased to present Part One of my recent interview with the animal rights activist Ronnie Lee. Ronnie founded the Animal Liberation Front in the 1970’s, and he has been involved in various animal rights and vegan education initiatives over the years. The Animal Liberation Front, of course, is a leaderless non-violent movement that rescues animals from exploitation and damages the equipment and property of animal exploitation industries.
 
In Part One of our interview, Ronnie told me about the history of the Animal Liberation Front and some of its accomplishments so far. We also discussed the new definition of veganism that Ronnie co-wrote with Tony Harris in 2017. This definition, which is also known as the Vegan Flag definition, can be seen below.

“Veganism is a way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of animals, which extends beyond dietary considerations to the avoidance of all types of animal use or abuse, including harm to their natural habitats.

“It includes a moral duty to actively oppose animal exploitation by encouraging and educating others to become vegan, with the core aim being the eradication of speciesism.”

At the end of the show, we'll hear Queen V's song called "Wearing My Blood".

In Part Two, which we will hear on a future episode, Ronnie explained what the animal rights movement needs to do in order to end the oppression of non-human animals.

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways to listen to the episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/46870.html. At the end of the show, there was a technical issue while Queen V's song was playing. The interruption doesn't last very long, though.
2.  Listen to the episode on Archive.org or download the MP3 file at https://archive.org/details/afarfebruary52020.

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram!

The next episode of Always for Animal Rights will be broadcast on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa on Wednesday, February 19, 2019-- and, of course, it will be available to listen to afterwards, as well.

Episode 13: Interview with Dawn Moncrief, founder of A Well-Fed World

This week on Always for Animal Rights, I interviewed Dawn Moncrief, the founder of a non-profit organization called A Well-Fed World (AWFW).
 
Dawn founded AWFW to address two forms of suffering in the world: the suffering of non-human animals who are exploited by the food system, and the suffering of humans who do not have enough food to eat. AWFW's flagship program, Plants-4-Hunger, provides funding to plant-based school lunch programs in Ethiopia and Nepal as well as programs that plant fruit trees, provide seeds, and run veganic community food gardens. In addition, AWFW has a grants program that supports animal rescue and vegan advocacy initiatives around the world.

In our interview, Dawn told me about what AWFW does and why she founded the organization. We also discussed the following topics:

• some of the reasons why it's harmful to send farmed animals overseas as "gifts" to impoverished human families;
• how animal agriculture is connected to world hunger; and
• what she hopes to accomplish in the future.

This week's episode also includes two animal rights songs: Queen V's poignant Christmas song "Cruel World" and Dr. Aryan Tavakkoli's hard-hitting animal rights song "Sixth Commandment".

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways to listen to the episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/46074.html.
2.  Listen to the episode on Archive.org or download the MP3 file at https://archive.org/details/afardecember182019.

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram!

Normally the show is broadcast once every two weeks, but we'll be skipping an extra week just this once. The next episode of Always for Animal Rights will be broadcast on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa on Wednesday, January 8th, 2019-- and, of course, it will be available to listen to afterwards, as well.

Episode 11: Interview with photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur

This week's episode of Always for Animal Rights features an interview with award-winning photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur.

 
Through her work documenting humans' relationship with other animals, Jo-Anne, who lives in Toronto, has visited nearly 60 countries around the world and was the subject of a 2013 documentary called The Ghosts in Our Machine. She is the author of two books that feature her photography and writings. This year, she founded We Animals Media, an international media agency dedicated to making the lives and the suffering of non-human animals visible to the public.

In this thought-provoking interview, we covered the following topics:

Grazing at a sanctuary in S. Australia
Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals

• Jo-Anne's photography journey and We Animals Media
• how Jo-Anne gains access to animal exploitation facilities to take photos
• the rise of effective altruism and effective activism
• the importance of sanctuaries to the animal rights movement
• how doing an internship at Farm Sanctuary helped her go vegan
• how children have responded to her humane education program
• the impact of her work, and what she hopes to accomplish in the future.

To learn more about We Animals Media, please visit WeAnimalsMedia.org.

If you are an animal rights activist looking for high-quality photos to use for your projects, you can find many of Jo-Anne's photographs at WeAnimalsArchive.org. The photos can be used for free as long as the project is intended to help animals and you cite the source of the image.

An arctic fox imprisoned on a fur farm
Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur/The Ghosts in Our Machine

Pigs imprisoned at a Finnish facility
Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur/Oikeutta eläimille

Elliot, a rescued sheep, at Freedom Hill Sanctuary in South Australia
Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals

After our interview is Queen V's song "Wearing My Blood", which is told from the perspective of a non-human animal who is imprisoned on a fur farm. The song is beautiful yet tragic.

I hope you'll take a listen to this episode!

How to listen to this episode


There are two ways to listen to the episode.

1. Listen to the episode on Archive.org or download the MP3 file at https://archive.org/details/afarnovember202019. This version contains the song "Wearing My Blood" in its entirety.
2. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/45742.html. In this version, the song "Wearing My Blood" is faded out part-way through.

You can find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram, as well!

The next episode of Always for Animal Rights will be broadcast on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa on Wednesday, December 4, 2019-- and, of course, it will be available to listen to afterwards, as well.

Episode 10: Interview with Queen V about her music and activism

We have reached the tenth episode of Always for Animal Rights! I would like to thank AFAR's listeners for your encouragement and moral support so far.

This week's episode of Always for Animal Rights features my recent interview with Queen V, a vegan singer-songwriter based in the UK. Queen V's songs focus on issues related to veganism, animal rights, and the environment. Her music is very powerful.

In our interview, Queen V told me about the inspiration behind her songs, how people have responded to her music so far, and what she hopes to accomplish in the future. As well, we spoke about how she has recently adopted a dog named Zala.

In this episode we'll hear three of Queen V's songs: "What Hell is Like", "What's It Gonna Take", and "Only One Life".

Queen V wrote the song "What Hell is Like" after watching the documentary Land of Hope and Glory, which shows the conditions that non-human animals are subjected to on UK farms. (Land of Hope and Glory can be viewed online for free by clicking here.)

"What's It Gonna Take", which has an environmental focus, is Queen V's most recent release. The music video has a very cool "ghostly" quality to it.

The song "Only One Life" speaks about the injustice of killing animals and the need to respect other sentient beings' right to live and be free.

On the show, we also spoke about Queen V's anti-fur song, called "Wearing My Blood". I mentioned that I would include a link to this song in the show notes, so here it is! I hope to include it on a future episode.

You can find Queen V's other songs on her YouTube channel here. Definitely check it out after you listen to the interview!

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways to listen to the episode.

1. Listen to the episode on Archive.org or download the MP3 file at https://archive.org/details/afarnovember62019.
2. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/45540.html.

You can find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook, as well!

The next episode of Always for Animal Rights will be broadcast on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa on Wednesday, November 20, 2019-- and, of course, it will be available to listen to afterwards, as well.

Episode 5: Interview with Sandra Higgins of the Go Vegan World campaign; announcement about the Liberation Pledge; and Queen V's song "Just Like Us"

This week's show features an interview with Sandra Higgins, the founder and director of Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary and the Go Vegan World campaign.

Go Vegan World is an animal rights advocacy organization that educates the public about animal rights and promotes veganism. The advertisements have appeared on billboards and other places in Ireland, the UK, and Toronto. As stated on Go Vegan World's website, the campaign "is animal focused in nature and seeks complete cessation of animal use by humans." It is a truly excellent campaign.

Sandra spoke to me about the experience that led her to decide to go vegan, the animals who inspired the Go Vegan World campaign, the impact the campaign has had so far, and importance of remembering that veganism is about animal rights. Please visit GoVeganWorld.com to learn more about veganism, and EdenFarmedAnimalSanctuary.com to read the stories of the animals who live at the sanctuary.

Here are some photographs of Go Vegan World's advertisements:

As usual, the animal rights news is at the beginning of the show.

After the interview, I also announced my decision to take the Liberation Pledge. To learn more about the Liberation Pledge, you can visit https://www.liberationpledge.com/.

At the end of the show is Queen V's song "Just Like Us", which was inspired by the chants that are sung in animal rights marches.

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways to listen to the episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/44526.html. In this version, the song "Just Like Us" was faded out about half-way through the song.

2. Download the mP3 file from Archive.org (in the "Download Options" sidebar, do a right-mouse click on "VBR MP3" and click "Save Link As..." or "Save Target As...") at https://archive.org/details/afaraugust282019. This podcast version contains the song "Just Like Us" in its entirety.

The next episode of Always for Animal Rights will air on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa on Wednesday, September 11, 2019-- and, of course, it will be available to listen to afterwards, as well.

Episode 4: Animal Liberation Toronto Conference, Queen V's music, and Anti-Speciesist Language

Hello everyone!

For this week's show, I interviewed Johanna Nikoletos of Liberation T.O. about the Animal Liberation Toronto Conference, which will take place in Toronto from August 16th to 19th, 2019. Johanna told me about some of the things that will be happening at the conference and about what she hopes the conference will contribute to the Canadian animal rights community.

After the interview is the song "What Hell is Like" by the vegan singer/songwriter Queen V. The song is very powerful.

Then, I discuss some of the ways that we can use anti-speciesist language in everyday life. Afterwards I realized that there were some important points that I forgot to mention in this segment, so I look forward to having a "Part 2" to this topic in a future episode!

And, as always, we have the animal rights news at the beginning of the show.

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways to listen to the episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/44299.html. The version on CKCU's website also includes most of the song called "Meat is Murder" (by the Smiths) at the end.

2. Download the mP3 file from Archive.org (in the "Download Options" sidebar, do a right-mouse click on "VBR MP3" and click "Save Link As..." or "Save Target As...") at https://archive.org/details/afaraugust142019.

The next episode of Always for Animal Rights will air on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa on Wednesday, August 28, 2019-- and, of course, it will be available to listen to afterwards, as well.