In the landscape of modern social justice, few organizations possess a history as deep-rooted as the Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM), and few activists have a backstory as profoundly moving as its founder, Dr. Alex Hershaft. A vegan legend, if you will, Dr. Hershaft just turned 92 a few days ago and seems to be full of vitality. When I reached out to him about this article, he said, “One of the problems with being old is that one accumulates a lot of history”, so with that in mind, let me tell you a little bit about it.
Born in Poland in 1934, Alex Hershaft survived the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto as a child. After immigrating to the United States in 1951 and earning a PhD in chemistry, he built a successful career as an environmental consultant for various government agencies. However, his life took a radical shift after witnessing a slaughterhouse operation. The systematic processing and the public’s casual indifference triggered deep, personal echoes of the oppression he witnessed during World War II, and Hershaft realized that the social norms and the mindset allowing human-on-human atrocities are fundamentally the same as those that lead to industrial animal abuse.
In 1976, Hershaft launched the Vegetarian Information Service, which distributed vegetarian information, testified at government hearings, and also arranged annual conferences where he met animal rights advocates. In 1981, he arranged a joint conference, which became the birthplace of the U.S. animal rights movement, and the Vegetarian Information Service became the Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM). He spent the next decade championing the issue of farmed animal rights to a movement that was devoted to fighting vivisection. He also arranged 30 annual conferences that brought the movement together for training, networking, and inspiration.
In 1982, FARM pioneered the nation’s first effort to protect animals raised for food through the National Veal Ban Campaign and later instituted major annual public campaigns such as the World Day for Farm Animals, the Great MeatOut, and Compassionate Holidays to promote plant-based eating. Each year, FARM generates dozens of letters to newspaper editors commenting on how national holidays and current events relate to the need for adopting plant-based eating.
Through the years, the organization actively confronted federal policies by organizing dramatic demonstrations and sit-ins at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), bore witness to animal suffering through targeted slaughterhouse vigils and blockades, and successfully executed high-profile media stunts, such as intercepting Burger King’s multi-million dollar “Where’s Herb?” campaign.
FARM also focused heavily on systemic and youth-centered outreach by introducing animal-free nutrition curricula into schools, ultimately helping pass healthy school lunch resolutions in California and New York and capturing 400,000 pledges from young people through its intensive 10 Billion Lives video program. Additionally, the group targeted America’s political power brokers by smuggling animal rights messaging directly into the national Democratic and Republican conventions.
Their advocacy is based on the notion that most people continue to fund animal atrocities with their supermarket dollars because of social pressure from families and friends and because it is part of their identity, rather than lack of awareness of the cruelty and health consequences of animal slaughter. Accordingly, they are placing greater emphasis on the consistency of plant-based eating with people’s current values, along with taste and convenience, rather than on cruelty and health arguments and refrain from using any language suggesting that plant based eating requires a change of identity.
FARM believes in total abolition of animal exploitation, rather than welfare reforms that encourage milder forms of exploitation. It holds the distinction of being the oldest national organization in the U.S. dedicated totally to championing the rights of animals not to be raised for food. Several years ago, Hershaft turned over management of daily operations to Executive Director Eric Lindstrom, who is totally dedicated to preserving and continuing FARM’s tradition and activism. He is now focused on completing and publishing an account of his amazing journey from the Holocaust to animal rights, reminding us all that true justice leaves no sentient being behind.
Today, FARM is active online with special interest websites like veganvideos.org, ditchdairy.com, veganearthday.us, compassionateholidays.org, dayforanimals.org, and meatout.org. They also send a weekly email with items of current interest -you can get on their free mailing list, visiting farmusa.org.
