The Powerful Vegan Social Movement with Robert Grillo (vegan), Part 2 of 2

Robert started Free from Harm in 2009, and later, in 2018, he founded Slaughter Free Chicago, which has now grown into the Slaughter Free Network. One of the success stories of these organizations is how they effectively supported a community to prevent a slaughterhouse from opening in their vicinity. “And we work with the local people to develop an opposition campaign. And people can organize from anywhere; we have people in Africa that we’re working with as well.”

Just as these two organizations defy outdated practices and systems, Robert’s book, Farm to Fable challenges the beliefs that are embedded in people’s minds that sadly enable them to eat dead animal-people. “What I learned about caring for rescue chickens, the kind that lay eggs, that are bred for that purpose, is that they can’t control the number of eggs they lay. She’s laying so many eggs that in 24 to 30 days, it’s the weight of her body. They develop all kinds of physical problems.”

“With the chick hatching programs, we’ve tried to come up with some resources for these schools to show them that they don’t need to do these chick hatching programs. It just shows us a very one-sided thing.” Furthermore, once the chicks have hatched or the science experiment is finished, most of them are killed.

“We need a social movement to make this work. We can’t just try to convert people one by one, we need to create a social movement. And the other part of that is building allies.” “And many people I come across, don’t get active because they think they can’t make a difference and they can’t make change. But small numbers of people can make change, and it has happened. But we have to believe in ourselves and believe enough in the cause, that our role is important, and that it will make a difference.”

Robert is dedicated and persistently striving to educate, carry conversations, and persuade others to turn away from supporting slaughterhouses. “In Milwaukee, we were able to pressure the Milwaukee city council to vote against a proposed slaughterhouse. And we always have to look for those opportunities, and they’re always there. There’s always things that we can do to stop it.”