NH Animal Rights League is pleased to share the news of our successful outreach efforts at the Farm, Forest, and Gardening Expo held at the Deerfield Fairgrounds.
During this 2-day event (May 3- 4), we revealed the dark side of dairy in a welcoming, non-theatening way (or, at least, that was the intent) and made sure everyone who stopped left knowing that despite the idyllic scenes on milk cartons, dairy cows suffer on even the best of farms.
Visitors to our booth were invited to take a quiz in exchange for a plant-based milk or milk chocolate treat!
Quiz for Adults
Answers are at the end of this post.
Quiz for Kids
Answers are at the end of this post.
Reactions and Results
Very few adults or kids got 100% on the quizzes. As we helped people correct their tests, we indirectly revealed the suffering and exploitation that takes place on dairy farms.
The folks who did do well on the quizzes were the dairy farmers and their families. And since the Farm and Forest Expo is a trade show for people who grow crops, trees, and, of course, animals, we met a lot of dairy farmers.
Surprisingly, many dairy farmers happily took the quiz. Some are so steeped in the industry, that they matter-of-factly answered the questions correctly without even recognizing that we were making the point that dairy is cruel.
Others were defensive and wanted to argue. They told us that they take good care of their animals, not like factory farms. We had long conversations with some of these folks, acknowledging that they care but also maintaining that dairy and animal agriculture are fundamentally cruel.
The NH Dept. of Agriculture was at the event, and based on our observations and interactions, there was clearly a contingent who were unhappy with our presence.
On the bright side, we met a handful of vegans and vegetarians, and just about everyone who sampled the Not Milk chocolate milk, Silk vanilla milk, Ripple original milk, plant-based Reeses, or Lindt oat milk chocolate bar, declared it to be delicious. (Of course, some stubbornly refused to even try what we were offering.)
Free Pins!
Kids enjoyed selecting from an assortment of free pins. It was a hoot watching kids from meat-eating families joyfully pinning on “Friends Not Food” buttons.
Lighthearted Posters
We purchased four fun and colorful posters online to make the case for ditching dairy in a lighthearted way.
Quiz Answers!
Answers to the Kids’ quiz:
Answers to the Adult quiz:
We are working on tabulating the answers for the completed quizzes so we can see what percentage of people got each question right or wrong. We’ll post the result here once we have them
Unhappy Sights
Naturally, we saw beasts of burden and other exploited animals at the event.
There was also a distressing exhibit put on by New Hampshire State Parks inviting visitors to match the skulls of dead animals with their pelts and trying to pass itself off as “conservation.” Some of us expressed our dismay and were told that the animals had died of natural causes.
Someone in the parking lot had this poster on their windshield.
Wonder who? 🙂
