Vegan Justice League Lobbying Group

The 1st ever Vegan Group focused on bringing back supply and demand to the Farm Bill.  Our goal is to become an official lobbying group and drive political change and reform as it relates to Livestock in this country.

If you expected that by becoming Vegan that less animals die, like I did…you will be in for a surprise.  The Industry has rigged the system to where they cannot fail and are incentivized to create a surplus year after year.  Some context to what that means and why this is imperative that we centralize:

First we went Vegan, then we became activists, now we need to centralize and be lobbying members. The Vegan Justice League is the 1st ever Crowd-Fund Group to help get us organized and form a Vegan Lobbying Group.

Let’s use our Inside Voice Vegans — You may not realize this, but our vegan consumerism is NOT affecting the Meat & Dairy Industry like we thought. I, like you believed we lived in a Capitalist Society, and only recently starting digging in deep to find out that this industry is not affected by Supply and Demand, which is the foundation of Capitalism.  I had heard impressive numbers in relation to the growth in the number of  Vegans across the country, and this growth spurt that we are seeing should reflect in Animal Production numbers reducing by about a Billion less animals. But in fact, if you look at production, it has increased every year.

As you know what this industry does to animals to make money is what some might think EVIL. But in the same vein, their EVIL is much more strategic than we ever thought. Farmers and Farm Investors have manipulated the system to make our Veganism not affect them. To put it bluntly, not 1 less animal dies, despite our Vegan numbers growing and demand going to plant based companies. The reason…The Farm Bill. An immensely fascist bill that has been keeping the meat and dairy industry successful since 1933. The Farm Bill has in fact created a situation where Farmers are incentivized to produce a surplus, because they still will get paid for everything they produce regardless of whether or not there is a ready market for it.


****************************************************************************
Here is a summary of some of the things that have been written into this Farm Bill that make our veganism not affect Animal Farmer's production:

1. They fix/manipulate stock prices --- what this means is that supply and demand does NOT dictate price, they dictate their own price. And at the end of the year, if they fall short, they get paid the difference.

2. The USDA uses our taxes to buy what they don't sell back --- the USDA "redistributes unsold items to food banks" --- Over-produced items more than likely get thrown in the trash from there.

3. Our taxes pay their insurance premiums --- There are lots of insurance that insures Farmers get paid even if the animal dies or production is affected by other "reasons" like weather, surplus, etc.

4. Our taxes pay for them to advertise & do trade shows in other countries --- They are constantly driving more demand by marketing to other countries. In fact, up to 25% of our Pork (Pig) production is exported.

5. Agricultural subsidies cost us, taxpayers about $20 billion a year ----which in turn, makes our taxes pay for what our consumerism doesn't pay for.

*****************************************************************************
Learning this shocked me. I have been Vegan for 8 years. I thought my consumerism was saving animals from suffering. I thought that the hours I put into activism and seeing people go vegan was a testament to a future where less animals would endure HELL. So, finding out that this wasn't the case made me go through many steps of confusion, denial and heartache. I spent the 1st month in shock and the last 5 months researching to understand what exactly was going on and how to combat this.

To be extra crisp, what is happening now is that our taxes are paying for, back up plans and bailouts to keep the Meat and Dairy Industries profitable and thriving when in reality they are not, they are simply being propped up by us tax payers. The Meat & Dairy Industry have actually applied SO MANY back up plans and a mix of socialist and fascist practices that they have created a situation where they cannot fail whatever happens to the economy or to the demand for meat and dairy. Not failing means no less animals dying. And in fact, farmers are incentivized to have a surplus. This is a disgusting state of affairs; it is a scar upon the American way of life as it directly hits the pockets of hard working Americans.

*****************************************************************************
In fact, in addition to back up plans, there's more... here are bailouts just in the last 4 years that essentially close the gap on the amounts the farm industry loses from our demand:

Sept. 2018 - $13 Billion Bailout to animal farmers, crop farmers who supply feed to animal farmers and a few other crops. Plus, the USDA buying 11 to 13 million gallons of milk from dairy farmers for $50 million and "planning" to send it to local food banks.

Feb. 2018 - $1 Billion Bailout for Dairy Farmers

2016 - The Dairy Industry received $20 Million from the USDA buying back unsold cheese.

2016 - Dairy Farmers dump 43 million gallons of excess milk.

*****************************************************************************
To expand on failing vs. thriving:

In recent years, demand for dairy has fallen. Plant-based milk alternatives are now 13% of the dairy market. These plant-based producers are prospering despite the government rigging the system against them by distorting the market. And what you'll find is that as some headlines discuss how many dairy operations are closing down, the latest news, largely due to the help of these bailouts and The Farm Bill assistance, is that Dairy Production is actually at a record high. <--UH WHAT? HOW DOES THIS MAKE SENSE??? A RECORD HIGH???

*****************************************************************************
How did this become this way?/A quick history:

I took my research a step further and now understand that this is the United States of Farmerica. You have to understand how this country started with 99% of the original settlers being farmers and the 1st 5 Presidents being Farmers to understand why we are where we are. The most powerful of laws that prevents our Veganism from positively impacting on the number of farm animals slaughtered each year is The Farm Bill which came into existence as the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. At the time, it was designed to help farmers during the Great Depression. They had a giant surplus of Food and the government (using taxes) bought the surplus and began distributing it to feed people in need. At that time, most farmers were small farmers and were aided to not lose their livelihood because it was felt that the agriculture sector was on the brink of collapse. But, it was only supposed to be a temporary solution to deal with an emergency, and instead what came from it, is that Farmers got used to government aid and still to this date are literally incentivized to constantly create a surplus.

There are many other aspects to how this bill even became one of the most controversial bills of our time. In the 1960's, because rural districts were no longer the majority, politicians in urban areas were no longer supporting this Farm assistance. So Lyndon B. Johnson, who was born on a Texas Ranch, made a brilliant move, by combining what is important to Urban Politicians (Food Assistance Programs or Welfare) with what was important to Rural Politicians (Farmer Subsidies). Really both are welfare. 1 being corporate welfare and 1 being public welfare.

This made the debate and resulted in increases in money for each side, and helped push through more and more increases to Agriculture via simply making it an issue both conservatives and liberals alike or urban and rural politicians alike, seek for more assistance and more money from our taxes to help with it.

The hypocrisy though, if you follow The Farm Bill, is that the very Republicans that try to reduce money to public welfare (SNAP) are usually loosening up requirements and adding more "welfare" to these Mega Farmers. And in, fact, small farmers are no longer eligible for these programs anymore, which was the original intent back in 1933. The Farm Bill now IS a welfare program for millionaires and giant agribusinesses.

Beyond being Cowboy Welfare and promoting Fascist Farming Practices...it isn't even doing the job it was supposed to do economically. The program keeps food prices high, costing consumers billions, while funneling most of its aid to giant agribusinesses and wealthy farmers. About 75 percent of total subsidies go to the biggest 10 percent of farming companies.


*****************************************************************************
Now, I know the history isn't the most exciting topic. But it is important to understand the context.

Now, here is the solution:

It's long overdue, but it's serious and time we centralize. And the Vegan Justice League will do just that. It's seriously time we play by the same playbook that the Meat & Dairy Industry plays by and beat them at their own game. And, again the Vegan Justice League is the solution to do just that. There are now more of us, Vegans in the USA than them, but they are highly organized. How they do this is through Lobbying Groups. I know, I get it, people do not want to get involved in politics, it's confusing.  But, we don't actually have to get involved in the politics...if we fund our membership money together, we can hire a team of Professional Career Lobbyists to do it for us.

The Vegan Justice League' goals are to use a mixture of traditional lobbying techniques and advertising techniques to support or expose those Politicians who have a conflict of interest. The problem today is most of the public don't even begin to understand beyond their Party Lines, who politicians largest lobbying money contributors are...and how they vote many times against their party lines to support their contributors. What I mean by that, is a conservative candidate taking giant sums of money from an industry that has 78% of their workforce of illegal immigrants, might be talking about building a wall, but might not be paying attention to the umbilical cord of why those immigrants come illegally in the 1st place.

*****************************************************************************
Why this must happen and why we need your support and membership:

Our vegan numbers have skyrocketed in the last 4-5 years with the help of social media and activism.  We are now at about 15-19 million vegans in the USA alone. If the same increases are seen in the next 4-5 years, we should be at 10% of the population (1 in 10 people) and one of the LARGEST loyal ideological demographics. If we let the next Farm Bill in 2022/2023 continue to kill more animals, WE WILL HAVE FAILED. WE WILL HAVE FAILED ANIMALS AND OURSELVES. We absolutely cannot let this happen again.

How vegan do we feel if we know that our taxes pay for animals to be killed anyways? I know for me, I will not feel like I'm doing everything I can, unless we make this Vegan Lobbying Group the most dominant force in the fight to saving animals!!!

The Vegan Justice League aims to bring supply and demand back to the Farm Bill by 2022/2023 and we have 100 Ambassadors ready to tell that story and help drive membership.

Please join us today. We cannot do this without your help. Beyond fighting The Farm Bill, we will continue rolling out member benefits, giving us scorecards on Politicians' policies as they pertain to animals and understanding if they are in Meat/Dairy back-pockets.

Let's make our activism count. Let's make the increase in Vegans, decrease animal production by coming together. So that while we march they streets, we also have Vegan Lobbyists marching in the White House.

*****************************************************************************
Strategy:

This isn't a pie in the sky dream play. We have meticulously mapped out how to make noise with politicians. Our strategy is to gain votes via the existing politicians. The meat and dairy industry pays for Politicians to vote in their direction, they insert their own Farmer Politicians.  So now it's time that we do the same. The current Farm Bill is being signed right now. And thus, the membership money we get is to aim at changing politicians votes for the next one in 2022. But we have to start now, because each election up until then is important to use our membership money to highlight the politicians that we want elected or ejected.

Memberships:
Membership is $50 for a year.  Donations are also Welcome.  But we encourage you to become members and to start thinking about this being a loyal, centralized membership group.  So that our voice can grow and continuously be represented.  If you donate $50, your email address you will be offered future benefits and alerts.  We aim to provide members with emails to provide Scorecard-like info for all of their local politicians to make it easier for us to Vote them in or out.

Who we are:
We are a group of 50 Ambassadors.  Each dedicating a lot of free time to make this happen in a big way.  Many of the Ambassadors also do activism, some even do activism multiple times a week.  The loyalty and dedication to animals connects us.  If we want a Better World, it's up to all of us.