V is for Vegan

Q:	Your book is full of sections devoted to personal stories as well as arguments for veganism. Why?
Marcus:	I have a background in writing and I used the techniques I knew would reach a wider audience. In addition, I tried to have real flesh-and-blood characters inhabiting the pages and not just throw a bunch of statistics around. In doing this I hope to reach a much wider audience than just people concerned about their health or about animals.
Q:	Have the vegetarian and animal rights movements failed to put the individual faces before the statistics in their arguments?
Marcus:	Well, I should say that every time we have the opportunity to put a face onto a deed or an issue, we should. One of the things I think really works about Vegan is that by the time you are done reading it you're acquainted with many of the top people in the vegetarian/vegan movement: people like Dean Ornish, T. Colin Campbell, Henry Spira, Howard Lyman, and so on. So, not only do readers actually learn a lot about vegetarianism, but they have an idea of who's doing what and where they can go to read more books to find out even more.
Q:	You include your own story. Why?
Marcus:	I thought that it was something that a lot of people could relate to. I wasn't born into a vegetarian family. I was born into a family that ate a very typical American diet. I think people become really interested with the motivation behind personal change. I thought that simply by telling what I went through and what I encountered, it would give people who were right on the fence the courage to jump over to the other side.
Q:	Your book begins with the health issues. Is this because you feel we're so selfish a species that we would be unable to cope with the ethical or environmental issues before our health?
Marcus:	I wouldn't put it that negatively. I think that many people are most apt to consider the ethical side of vegetarianism once they know there is something in it for them as well. By showing people first that their health won't suffer and, in fact, will improve, it makes the ethical case all the stronger. There is a minority of people who will do the right thing no matter what they stand to gain or lose. But most people want to first find out how much this will cost them or how much they will get back. Since the health question is such a slam-dunk in favor of vegetarianism, and since vegetarianism looks so much better after you look at the health issue, then we can move on to ethics. I think people will look at it with much more open eyes.
Q:	What was it like writing about factory farming?
Marcus:	It was emotionally draining to get up in the morning and know I was going to write about how chickens were slaughtered, and that perhaps a great deal rested on how well I could write about it. If I could do it in a really persuasive way, perhaps it could prevent some deaths. But if I didn't write persuasively, I feared that I would repel readers. I wanted to give them enough to make an ethical decision, but not so much that they would be frightened away.
Q:	How is your book different from Diet for a New America by John Robbins (1987)?
Marcus:	One of the differences is that it is 1997. While nothing much has changed as far as the ethics go, what has changed most in the last few years has been the health issue. It's my belief that the health argument is going to win over a large number of people. The cancer situation has changed enormously in the last 10 years or so. We have a much clearer picture of how much veganism and vegetarianism can actually not just prevent, but reverse, heart disease. Ten years ago people knew next to nothing about Mad Cow Disease. I talk about these recent developments and Vegan is the first book to tie all these new reasons together.
Q:	What was your biggest concern when writing Vegan?
Marcus:	My main concern was to handle the ethical component in a way that didn't polarize people. I knew that the realities about factory farms could make for difficult, almost impenetrable reading. But at the same time, I knew I had to cover these issues for Vegan to be complete. What I did was to offer a story of rescued animals at Farm Sanctuary after every passage describing systemic animal abuse. This gives the reader a chance to identify with the animals being exploited, and at the same time provides a welcome break from some pretty difficult reading. This way, every few pages you get a story to lift you up so you can see the seven billion animals [slaughtered for food each year in the U.S.] from a hopeful perspective.
Q::	What has been the reaction among non-vegetarians to your book?
Marcus:	Just today, I spoke with a man whose father died of a stroke and he already knew all the many health reasons for considering a vegetarian diet. He had tried it for a while and lapsed. He did not seem like someone who, when I spoke about the ethical side, seemed all that interested in the animals. What do you do with a person like this -- who has some interest in vegetarianism but not much of a commitment to follow through? Vegan may be the first book persuasive enough for somebody like him, not just to move to a vegetarian or vegan diet, but to stick to it. The new health advantages are so clear-cut that we are sure to witness a shake-up in America's eating patterns.

Erik Marcus will be speaking in throughout the Northeast US and Canada in October and November 1997. He will also be doing a series of west coast US dates in late November through December 1997. For further information, please check his tour schedule at http://www.vegan.com/

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