Name: Henry Hutchins

Social Justice Group: 2021-2022, Global Warming

Date of Fieldwork: February 9, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Joel Remland

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

On February 9, we met with Joel Remland, who has been on a vegan diet since he was a freshman in college.

Joel told us about the economic system set up to support the meat and dairy industry. The government pays farmers to produce the meat and dairy. Joel doesn’t think the industry needs the help. He also talked about how the workers were getting sick. In the effort to help factory farms, the government is distorting the situation making meat and dairy very cheap. People wonder why milk is so expensive nowadays but really it’s just closer to the actual cost.

Joel has hope because so many more people are becoming vegetarian and vegan. But Joel also says he’s really careful not to try to convince people too strongly to become vegan. He knows there are people who do public protests but doesn’t think communicating rage and shaming them works well.

Joel recommends watching Seaspiracy and Cowspiracy. He says they are stories about doing your research and find out the information about how factory farms cause global warming. But he says people don’t really like to change their habits so even if the information is out there it doesn’t mean people want to know about it especially when it comes to what people eat.

Small farmers are being driven out of business by the factory farms. Besides the ethical consideration hamburgers for example include meat from maybe 100 cows which puts consumers more at risk of food-born illness.

Diet is one of the main drivers of climate change and diet is something we could all address. Veganism is really catching on and that’s hopeful.