CHAPEL HILL -- Farm Sanctuary founder and animal activist Gene Baur told a friendly crowd at UNC-Chapel Hill on Tuesday that besides reducing animal cruelty, a vegan diet reduces health care costs and cuts down on environmental degradation and energy use.
Baur, who lives in New York, is on a speaking tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Farm Sanctuary, which works to improve the living conditions of farm animals through advocacy and the operation of three rural retreats where rescued farm animals live out their lives. The group has two sites in California and one in New York.
More then 50 people attended Baur's slide show and speech, sponsored by UNC-CH's Parr Center for Ethics as part of its annual lecture series. This year's theme is "Money and American Values," Parr Center director Jan Boxill said.
"We are eating in a way that's killing us," said Baur, who thinks that Americans' meat-rich diet leads to heart disease and other problems.
Baur, who spent part of the 1980s traveling the nation and visiting factory farms, slaughterhouses and stockyards, is especially critical of the use of gestation crates in pig operations. He is also against what he says is the practice of over-feeding poultry to fatten them for market. He says there are less inhumane ways to raise animals for slaughter but told his audience there are no humane ways to raise animals for food.
"The killing still is an inherently violent act," he said.
Critics say Baur and others in the vegan movement want to eliminate the use of all animals for food and don't understand the livestock industry. None challenged Baur at the UNC-CH gathering.
The N.C. Poultry Federation says the state's top agricultural industry is worth $12.8 billion a year and employs more than 110,000 people. Hog production is second; in December 2010, hog farmers had 9 million animals worth $792 million, according to the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
