A Day With Gene Baur

I feel so lucky today. Gene Baur, co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, made a second trip to Arizona on a book tour for his national bestseller Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food. Better yet, Kerri, the director for the Humane Society of the United States arranged for a small number of us to eat lunch with Gene and then attend his talk and book signing. I felt so luck to have such a great resource at our fingertips.

This lunch was so important to me. You see Gene Baur is the person that inspired me to go vegan a little over a year ago on his first book tour trip to Arizona. I was vegetarian for five years before that but honestly I did not fully comprehend the suffering of dairy cows or egg laying hens until I heard Gene speak. My life changed because of that talk. So to hear him again today discussing the same issues made me feel as though my choices are making a difference in farm animals lives. Furthermore, I could sit and listen to every word he said without feeling any sense of guilt or shame for my food choices.

Gene talked about many important issues including gestational crates, battery cages, global warming and the social impact of choosing a vegan diet. I will go into these issues in future posts as each topic deserves one if not several pages unto itself. The things that impacted me the most today were ….

• Seeing so many people attend a vegan event in support of Gene and Farm Sanctuary!
• Gene’s personal stories of interacting with agribusiness and the animals that suffer as a result.
• Gene’s continued commitment to helping people “eat in a way that coincides with their values”.

If you have the opportunity to meet Gene Baur in person and listen to one of his talks, I highly recommend it. Check out the Farm Sanctuary calendar of events.

What I love about Gene Baur is that those of us who have been inspired by him kind of think of him as a big deal. But if you talk to him, he is humble and kind. He is like the friendly neighbor that seems to nice and smart to be real; yet he is. He is dedicated to the animals in a way many of us can’t even conceive. Spending over 20 years advocating for animal rights day in and day out no matter how grisly the statistics or how strong the agribusiness industry may seem, Gene remains committed to inspiring individuals one at a time. He makes me want to work harder at not only living an inspired vegan life but to also stay focused on inspiring others.

Have you inspired someone today?