lauren T. Ornelas | |
|---|---|
 Ornelas in 2016 at UC Berkeley | |
| Born | |
| Alma mater | St. Edward's University |
| Organization | Food Empowerment Project |
| Spouse | |
lauren T. Ornelas is an American animal rights advocate for more than 20 years and is the founder of the Food Empowerment Project. [1]
Ornelas was born in San Antonio, Texas [2] and grew up in Texas, where she became a vegetarian as a child. She attended Douglas MacArthur High School in San Antonio from 1984 to 1988. When in high school, she became a vegan and started her first animal rights group.
Ornelas studied at St. Edward's University in Austin from 1990-1993, majoring in communications and minoring in political science. [2] In 1992, she founded the St. Edwards Animals Rights Society, which transitioned into Action for Animals after she graduated. [3] While in college, nuns tore down her "Go Veggie" posters. [4] In the 1992-93 academic year, Ornelas was a recipient of the St. Edward's University Presidential Award. [5]
Ornelas received her Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Edward's. She continued her work for animals while attending university and eventually became the National Coordinator for In Defense of Animals. [6]
Ornelas worked for In Defense of Animals from 1995 to 1999. Viva! UK then asked Ornelas to start and run Viva! USA, a national nonprofit vegan advocacy organization, where she did numerous factory farm investigations. [6] Ornelas ran Viva!USA from February 1999 to April 2006. [7] As Viva! USA's executive director, [8] in cooperation with activists across the country, she also brought corporate changes to such powerful companies as Whole Foods Market, [9] Trader Joe's, and Pier 1 Imports. [6]
In 2003, Ornelas appeared at the annual shareholder meeting of Whole Foods Market and spoke about the treatment and the lives of the ducks that were killed to be sold in Whole Foods stores. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey was present and initially responded to Ornelas's speech dismissively. But a subsequent sequence of e-mails between Ornelas and Mackey, plus Mackey's reading of a dozen books on animal agriculture, resulted in Mackey becoming vegan (from vegetarian). [10] [11]
In a 2004 address to the Empty Cages Conference, Ornelas described the results of Viva!USA's campaign to get grocery stores to stop selling duck meat:
"Grocery store chains, Earth Fare, Huckleberries, our local co-ops and Wild Oats either stopped buying duck meat from the farms we investigated or duck meat altogether. In fact, Trader Joe's stopped carrying all duck meat and put a statement on their website testifying to the fact that this was done because their customers were concerned about the treatment of the animals. With Trader Joe's the goal of our campaign was achieved." [12]
In 2006, Ornelas' desire to address a variety of social justice issues came to fruition with the opportunity to give a talk "Corporate Animal Farms: Exploiting Animals, Workers and the Environment, and Why You Should Work to Stop It" at the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. It was in Caracas that she noted that many of the issues being discussed revolved around food, from labor and immigration issues to water, animals, and the environment. Ornelas knew that being more responsible about what we eat was key to fighting injustice, and her idea for the Food Empowerment Project (F.E.P.) was born. [13] Ornelas is the founder and executive director of F.E.P., a non-profit organization. [1]
Ornelas campaigns against chocolate produced by labor of West African slaves. "How can we say vegan chocolate is cruelty-free just because it doesn't contain animal products? If it comes from the blood and sweat of slaves in West Africa -- children, no less -- it's certainly not cruelty-free," she says. [14]
Ornelas was one of several people who provided information used in the writing of the book Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism (2008) by Mark Hawthorne. She later married Hawthorne; they live in northern California.
Ornelas wrote a chapter of Lisa Kemmerer's 2011 anthology Sister Species: Women, Animals, and Social Justice. [15]
In California's 2008 Proposition 2 campaign, Ornelas was the Santa Clara County director of the YES ON 2 campaign. After Prop 2 won, Ornelas and other Prop 2 activists formed Santa Clara County Activists for Animals. [16]
Ornelas was Campaigns Director for Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition from March 2007 to July 2013.
Ornelas gave a talk on "The Power of Our Food Choices" at TEDxGoldenGatePark in San Francisco on October 9, 2013. [17]
Ornelas appeared in the 2014 documentary film, Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret . [18]
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan.
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat. It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Foie gras ; French:[fwaɡʁɑ], ) is a specialty food product made of the liver of a duck or goose. According to French law, foie gras is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by gavage.
Carol J. Adams is an American writer, feminist, and animal rights advocate. She is the author of several books, including The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory (1990) and The Pornography of Meat (2004), focusing in particular on what she argues are the links between the oppression of women and that of non-human animals. She was inducted into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame in 2011.
Viva! is a British animal rights group, which focuses on promoting veganism. It was founded by Juliet Gellatley in 1994. Viva! carries out undercover investigations to expose the abuse of factory farmed animals and produces information on how to go vegan, including recipes and shopping guides. It is a registered charity.
John Powell Mackey is an American businessman, and writer. He is the co-founder of Whole Foods Market and was the CEO of the company from its inception in 1980 until 2022. Named Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year in 2003, he is one of the most influential advocates in the movement for organic food.
Howard F. Lyman is an American farmer and animal rights activist known for promoting vegan nutrition and organic farming. In 1997 he was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for his leadership in the animal rights movement.
World Vegetarian Day is observed annually around the planet on October 1. It is a day of celebration established by the North American Vegetarian Society in 1977 and endorsed by the International Vegetarian Union in 1978, "To promote the joy, compassion and life-enhancing possibilities of vegetarianism." It brings awareness to the ethical, environmental, health, and humanitarian benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. World Vegetarian Day initiates the month of October as Vegetarian Awareness Month, which ends with November 1, World Vegan Day, as the end of that month of celebration. Vegetarian Awareness Month has been known variously as "Reverence for Life" month, "Month of Vegetarian Food", and more.
Juliet Gellatley is a British writer and animal rights activist. She is the founder and director of Viva! and a former director of the Vegetarian Society. She is also a founding director of The Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation, now known as Viva!Health, along with Tony Wardle, with whom she was married and has two sons, Jazz and Finn, born in 2002.
Food Empowerment Project (F.E.P.) is a volunteer-based non-profit organization focused on veganism and food justice. Its mission statement is "to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one's food choices." The organization was founded in 2006 by Lauren Ornelas, who continues to lead it. Based in San Jose, California, the F.E.P. opened an additional chapter in Seattle, Washington, in 2016.
Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism is a non-fiction book by Mark Hawthorne that examines a number of strategies for animal activism in countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The book was published by O Books in the UK in 2007 as a 282-page paperback. An expanded, 10th-anniversary edition was released as a 416-page paperback in November 2018.
Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) is an international nonprofit organization working to promote a vegan lifestyle and animal rights through public education and grass roots outreach. It operates ten national and international programs from its headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland.
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret is a 2014 American documentary film produced and directed by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn. The film explores the impact of animal agriculture on the environment—examining such environmental concerns as climate change, water use, deforestation, and ocean dead zones—and investigates the policies of several environmental organizations on the issue.
Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) is an international grassroots network of animal rights activists founded in 2013 in the San Francisco Bay Area. DxE uses disruptive protests and non-violent direct action tactics, such as open rescue of animals from factory farms. Their intent is to build a movement that can eventually shift culture and change social and political institutions. DxE activists work to "put an end to the commodity status of animals."
Vegetarian ecofeminism is an activist and academic movement which states that all types of oppression are linked and must be eradicated, with a focus on including the domination of humans over nonhuman animals. Through the feminist concept known as intersectionality, it is recognized that sexism, racism, classism, and other forms of inter human discrimination are all connected. Vegetarian ecofeminism aims to include the domination of not only the environment but also of nonhuman animals to the list. Vegetarian ecofeminism is part of the academic and philosophical field of ecofeminism, which states that the ways in which the privileged dominates the oppressed should include the way humans dominate nature. A major theme within ecofeminism is the belief that there is a strong connection between the domination of women and the domination of nature, and that both must be eradicated in order to end oppression.
Erica Meier is an animal rights advocate and was the president and executive director of Animal Outlook from 2005 to 2021.
Vegan studies or vegan theory is the study of veganism, within the humanities and social sciences, as an identity and ideology, and the exploration of its depiction in literature, the arts, popular culture, and the media. In a narrower use of the term, vegan studies seek to establish veganism as a "mode of thinking and writing" and a "means of critique".
Satya was an American monthly magazine which covered vegetarianism, animal rights, environmentalism and social justice issues. It was co-founded by Beth Gould and Martin Rowe in 1994 and released its final issue in 2007. Scholar Gary Francione says Satya became the main journal that promoted animal welfare after the demise of The Animals' Agenda in 2002.
ProVeg Nederland, known as Viva Las Vega's (VLV) from 2011 to 2017, is a Dutch foundation that aims to accelerate the transition towards a plant-based food system. The foundation's stated goal is to make it easier for consumers to eat plant-based more often and also to help companies address the growing demand in plant-based products. ProVeg Nederland is a member of the international ProVeg International.
She majored at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas in communications and has a minor in political science.
She started an animal rights club in high school, got arrested 'about 10 times' over the years, had nuns tear down her 'Go Veggie' posters in college, and constantly worked two jobs to support her activism
Lauren Ornelas, campaign director for Viva! Vegetarians International Voice for Animals[ dead link ]
'It's a big deal for the animals,' says Lauren Ornelas, campaign director at VivaUSA, the domestic branch of the British-based animal rights group. 'Whole Foods customers don't like the idea of ducks whose bills are cut off.'
Mackey did two things. He changed his vegetarian diet to vegan (he no longer eats food produced from animals, including dairy products). And he sent Ornelas an email telling her she was right -- not just about ducks, but about chickens, pigs, and cows.
In addition to Whole Foods Market's corporate commitment to raise the bar, my research on animal welfare issues while in dialogue with Ms. Ornelas, convinced me to personally become a vegan.
