Paying students a dollar to watch a video, two activists from a group known as 10 Billion Lives visited Cerritos College to teach the students a thing or two about becoming a vegetarian or a vegan on Wednesday.
Todd Lee and Angie Fitzgerald work together as a part of an outreach of the Farm Animals Rights Movement to spread the word on going meatless.
In order for the majority of the organization to receive any attention, they hand out dollar bills to anyone who watches the four minute film.
“We don’t see it as a bribe, we see it as an incentive,” Lee said about paying students.
He talked a little more about the emotions evoked from the video and its purpose.
“We give a dollar so people can watch the entire thing. It’s a really hard video to watch, you see a lot of harsh realities. That’s not easy. No one enjoys watching it, so the dollar is the incentive to stay and finish the video and really receive that positive message at the end,” Lee said.
Fitzgerald added, “We know that students are busy and that they don’t have a lot of time.”
We’re hoping that the dollar is a good enough incentive to get them to stop for the four minutes.”
After watching the video, people are meant to leave wondering what other options they have in order to not eat meat, dairy or anything from a land animal.
Lee recommended Trader Joe’s and Fresh and Easy as some options to shop at for a vegetarian or vegan meal.
“The place that I hit up the most is Trader Joe’s. They got a lot of meat substitutes, they have a lot of dairy substitutes and they are very affordably priced,” Lee said.
Fitzgerald also recommended another market to try.
“Another good place to shop at is Whole Foods. It tends to be on the pricier side. That’s why I go to Trader Joe’s (because) you can get a $2 bag of kale that is organic and (it’s) big,” Fitzgerald said.
Lee also mentioned some good places to eat at for a vegetarian or a vegan which include The Veggie Grill, Chipotle, Z Pizza, Native Foods and the Veggie Wokery.
“My favorite chain is the Veggie Grill. I don’t think there is one near here. The closest one is Long Beach. One hundred percent plant based, all vegan (and) very, very tasty for sure. There’s also the Veggie Wokery (which is) pretty close to campus, (it’s) only a mile away,” Lee said.
“Z Pizza also, they can substitute vegan cheese on any pizza that they make,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald also recommended just simply reading a book to learn tips on becoming a vegan or vegetarian and what either lifestyle consists of.
“There (are) so many books at the local library if you just go to the vegan section,” Fitzgerald mentioned.
“The book that helped me (become) vegan was called ‘The 30 Day Vegan Challenge’ by Coleen Patrick-Goudreau. The book taught me enough to empower me (and) to realize it is important to not be consuming dairy as well,” she said.
Joseph Beshir, a civil engineering major, participated in watching the four minute video. His main reason for stopping by was Lee and Fitzgerald’s offer of a dollar.
“They said that I get a dollar if I watch the video, so it seemed interesting,” Beshir said.
“Not only did $1 take full affect for this tour, but it also handed out some good information on animal farming.”
Beshir thought the video was just for land animals.
“Fish live in the water and I don’t think you can see any fish cruelty.”
The employees of 10 Billion Lives mention that this video was about farmed land animals, but they said that the sea life is also being harmed.
“Sixteen billion aquatic animals are killed every year,” Lee said.
Fitzgerald added, “We are not proponents of eating fish either; our oceans are definitely overfished by catch.”
Lee and Fitzgerald get paid to be full time animal rights advocates by this organization.
“We take this tour all around southern California. We take it to a couple of campuses a week. We also do another tour that’s national. It goes all across the country,” Fitzgerald said.
Becoming a vegetarian can be a huge step forward, but it can also be very difficult. The 10 Billion Lives video can be viewed online and even offers free movie tickets when you watch it online.
