Have you ever re-watched one of your favorite childhood films with an adult perspective? Besides the occasional adult innuendo, we often catch a hidden meaning or theme that completely went over our heads as a kid. Compassion for animals is a reoccurring theme in many of our beloved children’s classics. Next time you’re in the mood to “Netflix and chill,” instead of watching a morbid documentary on animal injustices, here are seven light-hearted kid’s films that subtly promote the vegan and compassionate lifestyle. 

1. “101 Dalmatians”
The vegan lifestyle isn’t just about what you eat; it’s also about what you wear. This 1961 “oldie but goodie” Disney film communicates a strong anti-fur message through its evil depiction of the fur-loving antagonist, Cruella de Vil. The lyrics describe her as, “This vampire bat, this inhuman beast,” which suggest that killing animals for the sake of fashion is truly abhorrent. Of course, Cruella takes it to the extreme, but if you wouldn’t wear a puppy, you shouldn’t wear any other animal, be it a fox, rabbit, or cow.

2. “The Little Mermaid”
This 1989 Disney classic is the first of many animated features to personify our seafood. Both Sebastian the lobster and Flounder the…well, flounder, are portrayed as the heroine’s friends – not her meal. The audience roots for Sebastian as he evades Chef Louie‘s assaults to chop and boil him. The point is driven further within the lyrics of “Under the Sea.” Sebastian sings, “The fish on the land ain’t happy. They sad cause they in the bowl. But fish in the bowl is lucky. They in for a worser fate. One day when the boss get hungry, guess who’s gon‘ be on the plate?” Sure, he may be a fictionalized character, but Sebastian’s message is loud and clear: fish have feelings and are not for human consumption. 

3. “Babe”
There’s nothing like watching an adorable bond between a piglet and a Border Collie to make you reconsider your morning bacon. First produced in 1995 by Universal Productions, the story draws empathy for Babe, the piglet, as he searches to find his place on the farm. Apart from the “cute” factor, the viewer becomes attached to Babe as he searches for a sense of purpose. The idea hints that animals, like us, have complex feelings. We don’t want to just live, we want to belong to a family and find meaning in our lives.

4. “Chicken Run”
In 2000, Dreamworks made a fairly bold commentary on both the slaughter and egg-producing industries through this claymation film. Set on a British farm, the plot is centered around four hens and a rooster as they try to escape their deadly fate. If the hens don’t lay enough eggs within a week, they are sent to the potpie factory, run by the evil, greed-driven farmers, Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy. Dreamworks allows the story to get fairly dark; the climax takes place within the slaughter house where the main characters, Rocky and Ginger, nearly lose their heads. In the end, the chickens prevail; they destroy the potpie factory, escape the concentration-camp confines of the farm, and find a safe island to raise their new family. 

5. “Finding Nemo”
“Fish are friends, not food.” The iconic quote from this instant 2003 Disney/Pixar classic says it all. Of course, the audience feels an immediate connection to the main characters – Marlin, Dori, and Nemo – but by the end of the film, the viewer feels sympathy for all fish. During the final conflict scene, Nemo is trapped in a commercial fishing net with hundreds of other fish, struggling to break free. The audience is on the edge of their seat, not only because we want Nemo to reunite with his dad, but because we feel for the nameless fish as well.

6. “The Good Dinosaur”
True, we don’t eat dinosaurs, but this 2015 Oscar nominee by Disney/Pixar invokes compassion for animals nonetheless. Arlo, the main character, cannot bring himself to kill another living being, even when prompted by his father and his unlikely human companion, Spot. In addition to Arlo leading by example, the film also utilizes shock value to invoke sympathy for animals. There is a rather disturbing scene where a group of manipulative pterodactyls pretend to save a furry, defenseless “critter,” only to ruthlessly kill and swallow it seconds later. In comparison to the unfeeling acts of the supporting characters, Arlo’s unwavering sense of compassion and empathy earn him the title “the good dinosaur.”

7. “WALL-E”
Pixar’s Oscar-winning 2008 animated feature gives the audience a somewhat comedic yet equally concerning glimpse into what the future could be like if humans continue down their current path of consumption. In the future, the Earth is a complete wasteland, piled with trash and completely uninhabitable. The humans have evacuated to a space shuttle, where they zoom around in electric chairs due to their flubber-like bodies, unable to perform much physical activity. The current trends of animal agriculture, a leading cause of pollution, and the high consumption of animal products through the standard fast food diet, could make this animated film a reality. WALL-E encourages its viewers to rethink their lifestyle and make healthier, more sustainable choices for themselves and the future of our planet.

Find Tanya on Instagram and The Vegan Potluck Podcast. 

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Asher Brown is no celebrity. Although widely recognized among the vegan creatives and brands of Los Angeles, Brown is little known to the mainstream audience. However, there is no doubt you have seen his work. From Tide commercials to niche animal rights YouTube Videos, Brown helps brands and influencers expand their reach and tell their stories via his creative content lab, Pollution Studios. His exceptional work has allowed him to run a successful business while advancing social change, specifically within the plant-based movement. In between a Little Tykes commercial and a fire dancer shoot, we sat down with Brown over a jug of ginger kombucha to chat about content creation, passion projects, and the power of community.

Unlike many within the film industry, Brown did not grow up with stars in his eyes. He is soft-spoken and relaxed, a complete foil to the megaphone-toting, high energy personality associated with the director’s role. In college, he declared Pre-Med. He said he was a “science and numbers guy.” Brown stumbled into a film course “so [he] could watch movies with [his] friends.” He then found his true calling after enrolling in a film production class.

“Everything changed for me. I had never seen myself as an artist or a creative person, but working in film collaboratively with all these amazing people spoke to me in a way that nothing ever had before that.”

Brown graduated and began working in the industry, first in Australia, then in Los Angeles. He became a set lighting technician and worked on feature films and prime-time television shows, where he was exposed to what could be accomplished with a top budget and unlimited resources. “Even now when I work on small Instagram and YouTube projects, I still come from the idea of what could we do if we had as many resources we needed, and then how do we scale that down to fit the budget.”

During his free time, he shot “passion projects” with his film friends. Eventually, the group decided to take the plunge and devote their time to these projects. Pollution Studios was born. They rented out a warehouse, filming whatever they could get their hands on (mostly music videos). Over the past nine years, the company has blossomed into an expansive, three studio lot with back offices, a kitchen, and parking lot. Pollution is now the go-to for Perrier, Tide, Little Tykes, and a plethora of music artists, such as Charli XCX.

Despite its growth, Brown asserts that the studio’s core has not changed. “Its heart is still this amazing community of creative people. Pollution is a toolkit that everyone can use. We run it like a business but that’s so we can do non-profit work and passion projects. Nobody came out here because they wanted to make money doing things they didn’t love. They do this because they’re passionate about it.”

A vegan for over a decade, Brown’s passion lies within the animal rights and plant-based movement. He uses his platform to advance these causes, from big-budget brands to up-and-coming social media activists and influencers. Established plant-based clients include Gardein, Beyond Meat, Follow Your Heart, Veggie Grill, and So Delicious. In contrast, Pollution has created content for local, home-based chefs, such as The Vegan MacGyver, a YouTube channel showcasing how to make substantial vegan meals out of a hotel room.

No matter the size of the project, Brown is dedicated to helping them tell their story. It’s not about selling, its about creating a narrative to engage the consumer and incite action. According to Brown, “Broadcast commercials aren’t the thing anymore. Its social media content. Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram campaigns. Brands are focusing on social engagement.”

For example, Brown recently produced a social media campaign for GoodBelly Probiotics by partnering with Instagram celebrity, Vegan Fat Kid, and farm sanctuary non-profit, Gentle Barn. The campaign, “How to Hug a Farm Animal,” showcased the celebrity hugging various rescued farm animals. This collaboration between a celebrity, private business, and a non-profit not only spurred business for the brand, but also brought positive attention to Gentle Barn and its animal advocacy. It was a smaller campaign with a restricted budget, but Brown’s excellent reputation made it work. “I am invested in this community. I know if I call them and say this is important to me, I can count on them. For us, its not about money; its about telling a story. These people are my family. We work because we want to do something meaningful.”

On a larger scale, Brown documented Leilani Munter’s campaign at Talladega to introduce vegan food to the masses. Munter, a female NASCAR driver, uses her platform to advance the environmentalist and vegan movements. She partnered with Follow Your Heart and Gardein to serve free samples of vegan chicken wings and ranch dressing to thousands of race attendees. The fans were pleasantly surprised to find that vegan food is just as satisfying (or more so) than its animal counterparts.

Like Munter, Brown leverages his resources to help vegan brands launch into the mainstream, without using bullhorn tactics. “I think we’ve hit critical mass in the plant-based market. People used to buy a product because they felt bad buying something else, but now they buy it because its better than anything else. They might not even care about the issues; they just love the Beyond Burger. With that, plant based food is able to tap into this broader market.”

Brown also helps to connect and expand the vegan community by hosting three annual parties at the studio each year. His Birthday Bash in August, Friendsgving in November, and Spring Fling in May or June draw hundreds of people from a variety of backgrounds. Film makers, freelancers, influencers and creatives all gather to indulge in exceptional vegan food and endless entertainment within an open and accepting environment. Brown hopes to foster relationships and encourage collaborations to support the plant-based community and help it thrive. “I know how incredible each one of these people are. The goal of our parties is all about using our physical space to connect these really great people.”

“In L.A.,” Brown says, “you can be anything.” We all have the power to decide what we want to be, and what we choose to do. Brown reminds us that we are not alone in the pursuit of our passions; it takes a community. “I very intentionally want Pollution to physically and emotionally connect all these people.”

Find Tanya on Instagram and The Vegan Potluck Podcast. 

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The first vegan street art I remember seeing was the “eating animals” sticker plastered onto stop signs around my Pennsylvania hometown  (as in Stop Eating Animals). Fast-forward to today and Los Angeles, my current home, is like the Louvre for street art. It’s also the epicenter of vegan food and culture. And more than ever, they ‘re overlapping in prodigal brilliance. The reigning artist in residence? It’s Constantin Le Fou, a tall, greying European transplant whose iconic Vegan Club artwork has become more than merely an addition to LA’s legendary graffiti scene. It’s becoming the visual voice of the vegan movement.

Le Fou grew up in Greece and France before making his way to Los Angeles back in 1993 in his early 20s. While always an artist, sketching and drawing in school, he chose to study economics instead of entering France’s School of Fine Art (the Beaux Arts). But his passion for art never left him. He made music for a spell (his living room is still packed with instruments and recording equipment), but it would be fine art that finally regained a stronghold on Le Fou, especially once he became vegan.

Like many ethical vegans, Le Fou has a powerful story that pushed him to make the lifestyle shift.

“I was stuck in a bad traffic jam coming from Las Vegas,” he tells me as we sit surrounded by his artwork and three rescue dogs in his Downtown LA studio. “I was stuck next to a truck carrying pigs [to slaughter].”

Traffic was at a standstill for a while, and with two dogs in the backseat, Le Fou turned off the engine, rolled down the windows, and waited for traffic to start moving. A few minutes later, though, his dogs were panting excessively in the desert heat. And as he turned the car back on and began to roll up the windows to contain the cool air-conditioning, he noticed the pigs in the truck — with no cool air or water to drink — but just as stranded as him and his dogs.

“It was profound,” he says.

Following that event, he’d pivot his dogs away from pig products. “It didn’t seem right that they should eat an animal who’s smarter than they are,” he said. Pigs are incredibly intelligent animals – and they are indeed smarter than dogs, yet nearly 115 million are killed each year for food — three times the number of cows. But Le Fou himself was still eating meat. A few weeks later he’d realize the hypocrisy and gave it up completely. That was 2001.

“I had already quit smoking and knew if I could give that up, I can do anything [like quitting meat],” he told me.

Like many vegetarians, Le Fou would evolve his thinking and come to recognize that consuming any animal products – especially dairy – didn’t make sense. “These cows suffer so much more than an animal who’s slaughtered,” he says of the modern dairy industry, as he discusses the pain dairy cows experience being constantly tethered to milking machines and being repeatedly impregnated (typically by artificial insemination) so they’re able to keep producing milk, which, like humans, is made for their offspring.

At the same time Le Fou was adapting his diet, the fan of film and pop art since childhood was also connecting with the overtly political and social street art of Banksy, as well as local LA artist Shepard Fairy, particularly his popular “Obey” work, which features the likeness of the late wrestler and actor Andre Roussimoff, best known as Andre the Giant.

Then, a few years ago, Le Fou heard that “Fight Club” star Brad Pitt was vegan (he is not anymore), and the idea for using the “Fight Club” logo to call out vegan celebrities was born.

From there, Le Fou began collaborating with his vegan celebrity muses to use their likeness –musician, author, restaurateur, and activist Moby; No Doubt’s bassist Tony Kanal; tattoo artist, reality star, and founder of her eponymous vegan make-up line, Kat Von D appear frequently in his work. He’d use other well-known vegan celebs too like the late River Phoenix, Prince, and even Gandhi (who, while not vegan, was a strict pacifist and would likely have abstained from industrial animal products were he alive today).

“I’m very much for open-source,” Le Fou says of his artwork. “I don’t like limitations.” He views the inclusion of other artists and styles like a musician might sample a hook from another artist, saying it’s both a sign of respect and helps to elevate everyone’s efforts. And he gets permission from the celebrities who he says are often flattered by his work. Like pop artist Andy Warhol, the goal is to elevate the simplicity and repetition into the iconic. And it seems to be working; his fans are certainly in agreement, posting selfies in Vegan Club shirts in front of Vegan Club street art on the daily.

A committed activist, Le Fou works with supporters all across the globe to share his posters. At the Eat Drink Vegan festival in Los Angeles earlier this year, a giant Vegan Club installation served as a backdrop to many event-goers’ Instagram pics (including my own).

Most recently, Le Fou used the Vegan Club platform (which now includes customizable t-shirts) to highlight the recently released Netflix film “Okja,” directed by Bong Joon-ho. The feature follows the story of a genetically modified “superpig” and her human companion on a journey through the industrial animal complex, and it’s become a hugely important film to the animal rights movement. “The cruelty ‘Okja’ depicts is super-close to real life,” PETA writes on its blog. “Yes, the film got us all weeping because we imagined our own beloved animal friends in Okja’s position, and we would never want anyone to kidnap, torture, rape, chop up, and eat them. But the images of cruelty and heartache portrayed in the film are a reality for the billions of animals who are killed for food every year.”

Le Fou says his next line of Vegan Club designs will feature some iconic activists who’ve played significant roles in furthering the movement (think Ingrid Newkirk of PETA or Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd).

Recent estimates put vegans at just six percent of the U.S. population. And as “plant-based” eating – like flexitarian dieters who may observe Meatless Monday or VB6 (Mark Bittman’s vegan before 6 pm) — is now the norm for millions of omnivores, the ethics of veganism are not often their first consideration. For many it’s health or the environment. Add to that the uptick in labeling claims like “natural”, “cage-free”, and “free-range,” and consumers are being led to believe their animal products are more ethical than ever. But those marketing tricks are traps, for the conscious consumer, certainly, but they’re even more detrimental for the animals who often see no significant welfare benefits. They may eat a slightly cleaner diet or there may be the addition of a door to the massive metal house they live in, for “free-range” access, but it’s hardly the equivalent of life on an animal sanctuary.

But art, like Le Fou’s Vegan Club, or anonymous efforts like Misteruncertain (best known for “Not Your Mom, Not Your Milk”), and the Vegan Mattress Squad, are helping to redirect the message back to the ever-important ethical discussion. A love for carrots or tofu isn’t enough to keep flexitarians moving toward veganism; they need to have a profound reckoning – perhaps like Le Fou did somewhere near Barstow next to that truckload of pigs. They need to come to terms with the facts that animals are sentient beings, are deserving of our respect, and have every right not to be tortured, be it for food, clothes, deodorant, or entertainment.

Le Fou says that as a child he experienced physical abuse, which has helped him better understand what animals go through.

“It’s not the beating that’s the hard part,” he says with a wince, “it’s living in constant fear of when the next one is going to happen.” This, he says, is what animals in our current state of livestock production endure every day.

A recent exposé by animal rights group Mercy for Animals captured the first ever publicly-released drone footage of egg-laying hen factory farms in three states. There’s nothing “farm” about these industrialized operations, though. And they’re certainly not unique — this is the norm for most animals raised for food in the U.S., and increasingly around the world: giant metal sheds – some ten in a row – with no windows, no air circulation, no light. Instead, the birds are stacked inside the space of an iPad, which isn’t even large enough for them to spread a wing. Outside, there are giant manure lagoons, filled with the noxious waste of tens of thousands of animals not only making it hard for the birds to breathe, but the residents of nearby communities suffer as well. A representative for Mercy for Animals told me one of the “farms” may have as many as one million birds on site.

At a time when the vegan diet is finally getting the credit it deserves as delicious, nutritious, better for the planet, and certainly better for the animals, there’s still a whole lot of work to be done. Artists like Le Fou are playing a critical role in moving things forward by openly having that discussion. Not limited by rules that apply to making health claims, or the industry backlash a brand may face in promoting the horrors of factory farming, artists are in a unique and truly powerful position protected by the First Amendment to say whatever they want. For an artist like Le Fou, it’s more than liberating. It’s a freedom that comes with a huge responsibility.

“If animals could speak to us, they would say we are the devil,” Le Fou says, paraphrasing a quote by author William Inge. And the time to change that, he says, is now — not just for the animals, but also the planet, and the people who will benefit in myriad ways from a shift away from eating animals.

Art is the medium and the message to make it happen, Le Fou says. “It’s a crime right now to have talent and not use it for this.”

Everyone looks good in a Vegan Club t-shirt. Get yours here.

Find Jill on Twitter and Instagram

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images via author unless otherwise noted.

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Chances are, if you are reading this, you are, like me, a white, well-educated woman.

I identify the majority of my readers because considering your audience is one of the most important lessons I learned in activism. So, here’s lesson one: Know your audience. I’m speaking to you, white, well-educated women.

Like many others, my first dip into activism came about recently and unexpectedly: after the 2016 presidential election. I arranged a gathering for peace for hundreds of people after Trump stole the White House because I couldn’t sleep from the horror and anxiety. I didn’t know what else to do.

Like so many other white, well-educated women, I also invested in an IUD  (grab that, Drumpf). Like so many others, I didn’t talk to my father for the first month after the election, because I felt betrayed by him for supporting you-guessed-who.

As an amateur organizer – “activist” as people started to call me – I made the mistake of planning my gathering for peace at a local park. Hugh MacRae Park is one of the largest, most beautiful parks in Wilmington, North Carolina. It also just happened to be named after a white supremacist who promoted the lynching of black people.

I didn’t know the history of Hugh MacRae. I quickly learned it when I received a stream of public and private messages berating me for planning to have the event at a racist park. Four out of five angry messages were from white, well-educated women. I felt terrible and quickly changed the event location.

I had an idealistic aim, but I am, deep-down, an idealist. The news emphasized the story that we weren’t having an #ImWithHer party, but it wasn’t a Drumpf-themed gathering by any means, either. We welcomed everyone. Mostly, progressives came. They also started a new organization to pull together disparate leftist groups called the Wilmington Progressive Coalition. And this is what I love about progressives in my area: They are legitimately welcoming, they listen to their audiences, and they act accordingly. They know activism.

Lesson one: Know your audience.

My audience was the entire community – everyone needed to feel welcome.

Your audience is one you have either been ignoring, openly detesting as a whole, or at the very least, keeping at a comfortable distance: other white people who aren’t as well-educated.

I’m talking about the guy who is buff and gorgeous but also, as you learned the hard way, a Trump supporter. The guy you may have unfriended after an unsuccessful conversation that turned into a rant. I’m talking about the neighbor you got along with so well – until you saw them put the Make America Great Again sign out on their front lawn.

Our country is fractured, and hatred breeds best in cracks between different people and points of view. Realize this: the people you don’t really want to talk to are the people you probably need to talk to more than anyone else.

Lesson two: Listen to your audience.

I carefully listened to my community’s concerns about the event location. And this translates in all activist pursuits. Ask yourself: Is it my goal to be well-educated and correct about politics and to educate other people on how correct I am, or is it my goal to make lasting, positive social change?

Lesson three: Take what you’ve learned, and act accordingly.

I changed the event location. Simple, right?

Use your resources to forge connections rather than create divisions. Make sacrifices when it makes sense. And above all, make every effort to act for the greater good.

Lesson four: Invite your detractors (or challengers) to work with you.

I didn’t want people protesting a peace gathering. So, after I changed the location, I also reached out to those who had (rightly) called me out. Unfortunately, the majority of the detractors who said they’d work with me if I moved the location mysteriously disappeared when I asked them to join me.

Nothing shuts down an angry, armchair activist more than inviting them to pick up a shovel and start digging ditches for peace. But it also makes your life much easier (less work, more networking, more outreach). Armchair activism is easy. Actually doing something isn’t. Sometimes, though, you can convince people to become involved. And when you do that, everyone wins.

Activism: How You Can Actually Do Something

As an apprehensive activist, what interests me most is creating lasting, positive social change. In my research, I discovered intergroup conflict theory (ICT). Put simply, ICT is placing people who disagree in the same room and making them hold a conversation (you can read a great primer on ICT here). Since first tested out, numerous groups have self-reported reduced prejudices as a result of ICT. Activists, policymakers, and peacemakers around the world use ICT.

For an extreme example of ICT, consider Daryl Davis, a black man who befriended numerous KKK members with one simple question in mind: “How can you hate me if you don’t even know me?” Davis successfully convinced Roger Kelly, the former Imperial Wizard of the KKK, to quit the hate group entirely. He’s also converted at least 12 other KKK members.

Like so many others, Davis showed that it works. While shallow conversations help make a dent in prejudice, it’s deeper connections – like the friendships Davis goes out of his way to forge – that research has shown make the most lasting change.

A Difficult But Necessary Call to Action

After putting together my own Gathering for Peace, reading up on intergroup conflict theory, and attending my own local YWCA’s Potlucks for Peace, I have a difficult but necessary call to action for you: try to connect to other people in the hopes that this connection will reduce prejudice and hatred.

Using the lessons above:

1. Invite someone you disagree with to a neutral and safe place, like a coffee shop or Potluck for Peace.
2. Listen to them: Before you meet this person, check in with yourself. Then, listen to how they feel, what they value, and where they’re coming from.
3. Find what you have in common with this person.
4. Invite collaboration: Invite this person to volunteer with you for a cause you both care about. Ignore the impulse to lecture or educate. Show what you value by example first. Try to connect. In time, the tough conversations will come.

In your new life as an activist, remember to also take care of yourself. Know when to walk away (at least, for a while). Activism is tough work, and real change takes time to create. But keep coming back. Peace and love are worth trying for. What other choice do we have?

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The post 4 Lessons in Activism from an Apprehensive Activist (And a Difficult Call to Action) appeared first on EcoSalon.

When I first became a vegetarian in 2004, after reading an article by Michael Pollan in the New York Times about the treatment of steers on American beef farms, many of my friends scoffed at my meager attempt at changing the face of Big Food.

“You think you’re going to change anything just by not eating meat?” they would say. “They’re still going to produce it, whether you eat it or not.”

I hope they’re surprised now: according to a new article by Hank Cardello, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute for Forbes, food activists have taken on the role previously held by brand managers in deciding what is produced, what is sold, and which Big Food companies are successful.

“Only the food companies that recognize this shift have a hope of maintaining or regaining consumer trust and loyalty,” Cardello writes.

For examples, we need not look far.

The buzz in the media over GMO labeling, before a bill for a national labeling law had even been approved, forced brands like Campbell’s, a long-time opponent of GMO labeling, to slap that information on its packaging or risk losing customers.

Meanwhile, consumers voting with their dollar essentially forced big companies like McDonald’s, Costco, and Walmart to make the switch to cage-free eggs, to such an extent that caged eggs will likely become obsolete in the U.S. within the next few years.

While these companies have learned to respond to consumer activists, others seem stuck in the 1930s, when food marketing was less about health and more about value. According to Cardello, companies that stick to this traditional model of “delivering the optimum combination of taste, convenience, and value, regardless of impact on consumers’ health or environmental sustainability” are in for a rude awakening when the realize that that just doesn’t jive with modern shoppers.

This model of “taste, convenience, and value” is translating to the current generation of shoppers as “unhealthy, unnatural, and cheap.”

For most consumers, the voices of Big Food are no longer trustworthy or even worth listening to, now that citizen journalists and activists have taken over. According to the Natural Marketing Institute, 72 percent of Americans believe that most food and beverage companies are more focused on profit than health; when consumers have the choice of listening to a big company in it for the buck or a mom blogger just looking to feed her family healthfully, it’s not surprising which opinion they are going to trust.

“People want to be told what to do so badly, they’ll listen to anyone,” Don Draper famously said in “Mad Men.” It seems the time of consumers blindly following food brand managers is over, and a new age – the age of the conscious, conscientious, activist consumer – has arrived.

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Supermarket image via Shutterstock

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Erin Schrode is a social activist by choice and a politician by chance. But just because Schrode isn’t a natural politician doesn’t mean she isn’t suited for the job. In fact, it probably makes her more qualified.

While Schrode is known for her activism and veganism, her star also is rising in the political sphere. Why? Because she supports smart environmental policy, fights for the little guy, and believes in supporting women of all ages—oh, and she’s only 25 and running for Congress in California’s District 2.

EcoSalon recently interviewed Schrode about what got her into activism to begin with, why she’s now a politician, and her ideas about how young people can get involved with issues they are passionate about.

Image via Lauren Angueira

EcoSalon: When did you get into activism?

Erin Schrode: I’ve been an activist my entire life. I’m a proud co-founder of Turning Green, a nonprofit that was started 11 years ago.

I got involved because Marin County, the place where I was born and raised, had the highest breast, prostate, and melanoma cancer rates in the world—that didn’t sit right with me. When this study came out, linking the ingredients in personal care products to cancer, birth defects, and reproductive harm, I suddenly felt large issues, [such as] health epidemics, climate change, environmental toxins, and public health, were relevant—even to 13-year-olds.

What struck me most was the fact that there was no government oversight. There was no regulation at all and that was the inspiration to start Turning Green. We started from a grassroots, solution-oriented approach. That was the best response we could have as 13-year-olds! We worked with high school and college students to inspire, educate, and mobilize.

But after literally decades of doing this, working on projects, spending time studying, and looking through an environmental lens by visiting Ghana to work on recycling infrastructure in public schools, the Middle East to build an environmental curriculum for an eco-education center in the Palestinian authority to bring together Israeli and Palestinian youth, I saw the incredible power of environmental education; of individual responsibility to galvanize populations—particularly young people. And I just kept going. I went to Haiti after the earthquake and worked in disaster relief and launched an education project. And I’ve been back and forth to Lesbos, Greece, working with refugees for the past six-eight months, earlier this fall, winter.

EcoSalon: How did activism lead you to politics?

ES: People asked, ‘are you just going to keep going back? are you going to keep doing?’ I said no. We need policy changes and we want the impact to last.

I’m not a politician—I’m an environmentalist, a social entrepreneur, and community organizer—but for me, I saw the need. I gave a speech about two months ago. When I walked off stage, people asked, ‘how do we get you to run for office?’

I don’t fit the mold of someone I think should or could be a politician. However, after talking to friends over that very long week and a half between that speech and the filing deadline, I repeatedly heard, ‘we need that voice in government; we need your voice.’ That’s why I’m running. I believe in a representative democracy. And the decisions we make today will disproportionately affect us. There is so much that needs to be done. So, I did it. I filed and I’m running for Congress.

Image via Lauren Angueira

EcoSalon: What issues are you most passionate about?

ES: Environmental public health is where the lion’s share of my expertise and passion are. We hear a lot about climate mitigation strategies—preparing for the changing climate. But what about reversing the degradation that’s already been done? I have become incredibly passionate about soil, dirt—about what lies beneath our feet. And the opportunity to sequester greenhouse gases into soil, remove atmospheric carbon and put it back where it belongs—in the ground rather than where it acidifies the ocean. We have this unbelievable resource—it’s economically viable, technologically available, and we are not using it to the best of our ability.

But from a policy standpoint—to incentivize that for farmers to use cover crop methods, agroforestry, no-till—I have introduced a very aggressive carbon sequestration timeline to remove atmospheric carbon. I was in France for COP 21 with a lot of groups and panels concerned this incredible idea of carbon farming—of sequestration as a viable option that also benefits farmers. In our district, it is such a huge piece of our economy. I’m excited about that—to coalesce people on a commonsense solution for the common good in D.C.

The other passion is in the public health arena—where I began and became passionate about toxins reform. We haven’t had comprehensive toxins reform in this country since the 1970s. And that affects the most vulnerable populations—children, babies, women, low-income neighborhoods—they often bear the brunt of the largest toxic burden. For me, it’s important to have safety assessments, proper timelines for the banning or removal of hazardous chemicals, chemical data information, proper labeling, and disclosure.

Image via Lauren Angueira

EcoSalon: What is your recommendation to young women who want to get involved and support these types of policies?

ES: Start local. Look in your own backyard. My activism journey began because of a need that I saw in my hometown as a young woman. I didn’t set out to launch a movement, or run for office, or to impact someone a world away—it started with myself, my peers, and my backyard.

I think in a world where there is so much information and an overload of content, an overload of problems—how do we “do”—that act of doing is far too rare in today’s world. And I think we as women, in particular, we should speak up for ourselves. We don’t want to do it—we’re unsure, we wait. We need to just do it—take a risk—start something. Because when you find a solution, guess what? People pay attention to you because that’s noteworthy, applicable, scalable—that’s something you can be proud to stand upon and coalesce people behind.

Ladies, the other thing is: we have to stop tearing each other down. And I mean that. I see it every day in ways that we’re not necessarily even aware of—but women supporting women of all ages, mentorship programs—the deck is stacked against us. We represent 19.4 percent of Congress—that’s not that much better than the 13 percent of engineers. Those numbers have got to change and the only way they will change is if we believe we can fill those positions. So do it. If you’re interested in policy and government, run locally!

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

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The post For Erin Schrode, the Environment, Women, and Social Justice Pave the Road to Congress appeared first on EcoSalon.

Democracy only works if you work at it. Become a more active citizen with these tips.

While the Presidential election season may have you doubting our political system (not to mention whether you want to remain a citizen of the United States of Trump or not), we actually have a pretty good thing going on here. We may not have the “more perfect Union” envisioned by the founders of our nation, but there are plenty of opportunities for each and every citizen to get involved and contribute to that vision. And there is plenty our Founding Fathers didn’t envision that we can improve upon now, too. So, read on to discover ways that you can become a more active, engaged, and informed citizen.

Be a More Active Citizen

1. Get a library card and check out the library programs.
2. Support and read the local paper.
3. Attend city council meetings.
4. Write letters to the editor of your local paper.
5. Start a blog about local issues.
6. Organize a community garden.
7. Work on raising the awareness around a particular issue impacting your community.
8. Read the Constitution of the United States of America.
9. Volunteer at a local food bank.
10. Learn the laws of your local community.
11. Organize neighbors to influence legislators to overturn unjust laws of your community.
12. Organize neighbors to influence legislators to enact laws that will benefit your community.
13. Visit and support local parks and other open spaces.
14. Volunteer on local clean up days to help keep your community beautiful.
15. Regularly contact legislators to let know them know your views on upcoming legislation.
16. Join the social media platform Nextdoor to connect with your neighbors.
17. Join organizations like the League of Women Voters, Americans for Democratic Action, Common Cause, and others dedicated to protecting open and transparent government.
18. Attend school board meetings–even if you don’t have children.
19. Learn about your community’s history at your local historical society and/or history museum.
20. Check out your community’s calendar of events for ways you can get involved.
21. Support local businesses by frequenting them and organizing shop local events to raise the importance of shopping locally.
22. Attend performances of the local ballet, theater, musical, and other local cultural groups.
23. Walk or bike where and when you can to get to know your neighbors and your community.
24. Start a Little Free Library.
25. Volunteer as a volunteer firefighter, mentor, or neighborhood watch member.

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Community kids image via Shutterstock

The post 25 Super Rewarding Ways to Become a More Active Citizen appeared first on EcoSalon.

The last year saw a whirlwind of environmental news stories. Here are the ones that ended in victory (or at least not defeat).

2013 was a big year for the environment, although most of the stories were downright dismal. We went over the atmospheric carbon tipping point, escalated natural gas fracking instead of banning it, and the fate of the Keystone XL is still up in the air.

Despite many disappointing milestones, the year’s top environmental stories show that 2013 wasn’t a complete loss. There were more than a couple of small, albeit significant, victories that should inspire you to keep up the good fight in 2014.

Top 5 Environmental News Stories That Ended Well In 2013

1. The Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement – Tired of trying to convince federal leaders that America needs to move away from fossil fuels, local governments, organizations and, perhaps most significantly, educational institutions began to take a stand. Fueled by grassroots leadership and fearless college students, dozens of city governments, universities, religious groups and even financial organizations have joined the divestment movement, pledging to take their money out of investment funds that support coal, oil and gas companies.

2. Coloradans Reject Dirty Energy  – Xcel Energy is a major regional power company that while better than some, has used underhanded tactics to block and slow clean energy adoption. In one of the biggest environmental news stories of the year, grassroots groups led by student-run organization New Era Colorado were successful in crowdfunding a public information campaign that allowed the City of Boulder to buy out Xcel and establish their own electric power system.

3. California Launches a Cap-and-Trade System – Although the federal plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a cap and trade system failed in 2010, California pursued the idea–successfully–at the state level. In 2013, the country’s first carbon trading system went into effect. At the end of the year, officials were thrilled to report that carbon credits issued and bought generated almost $1.1 billion in revenue.

4. The War On Coal – As one of the world’s dirtiest and most dangerous fossil fuels, eliminating coal fired power plants would go a long way toward reducing global carbon emissions. In 2013, “the World Bank, the U.S., the U.K., and several Scandinavian countries have all pledged to no longer fund traditional coal plants abroad, representing a sea change in energy financing,” reports Mongabay. And instead of backing down from industry threats, President Obama and new EPA chief Gina McCarthy proposed new Clean Air Act standards that will cut carbon pollution from new power plants in order to combat climate change and improve public health.

5. National Climate Action Plan – Just a few months before the International Panel on Climate Change declared (with 95 percent confidence) that humans are making climate change worse, President Obama said the words that few environmental advocates thought we would ever hear: that climate change is no longer a distant threat — it’s here and we’re already experiencing the negative impacts. That day in June, the President introduced a National Climate Action Plan that would cut carbon pollution and better prepare our nation–and the world–for life on a changing planet, though it remains to be seen how many of the recommendations made that day will come to pass, or whether they’ll be implemented in time.

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The post Top 5 Environmental News Stories That Ended Well In 2013 appeared first on EcoSalon.

10 American women we owe everything to.

Even slavery, religious oppression and complete isolation due to deafness and blindness couldn’t stop these 10 remarkable American women from standing up and speaking for what they believed in. Each of these female political activists changed the course of history as advocates of equal rights for all, including women, racial minorities, immigrants, LGBT people, the poor and the disabled. As founders and key players of some of the nation’s most enduring movements and organizations, these activists broke through the social, economic and religious restrictions of their time to amplify the voices of those who had previously been ignored.

Sojourner Truth

Abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth was born into slavery with the name Isabella Baumfree in New York in 1797. After escaping to freedom with her infant daughter and then going to court to recover her son, she became the first black woman to win a case against a white man. Truth helped recruit black troops for the Union Army during the Civil War and tried unsuccessfully to secure land grants for former slaves from the federal government. She joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, which was founded by abolitionists and focused on women’s rights, religious tolerance and pacifism, and gave a famous speech at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851 entitled “Ain’t I a Woman?”

“I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I have heard much about the sexes being equal. I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am as strong as any man that is now.”

Susan B. Anthony

After taking a prominent role in anti-slavery movements during the lead-up to the Civil War, Susan B. Anthony attended a Women’s Rights Convention in Massachusetts that changed the course of her life, leading her to become a crucial figure in the fight for women’s suffrage. Working closely with fellow activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anthony published the women’s rights weekly journal The Revolution, which had a motto that read “The true republic – men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.”

Anthony was arrested for voting in the 1872 Presidential Election and convicted despite pointing out in her arguments that the privileges of American citizenship contained no gender qualification, giving women the right to vote; she was fined rather than imprisoned. Along with Stanton, Anthony went on to found the National Woman Suffrage Association.

“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

More radical than Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton aimed to take women’s rights beyond suffrage, freeing half the population of the religious and social restrictions placed upon them due to gender. Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments, which she presented at the first women’s rights convention in 1848, is credited with launching the women’s rights and suffrage movements in the United States. The Declaration of Sentiments was based on the United States Declaration of Independence, and according to Frederick Douglass, who helped pass the resolutions contained within it, the document  was the “grand basis for attaining the civil, social, political, and religious rights of women.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”

Margaret Sanger

After watching her mother endure 18 pregnancies in 22 years and die at age 50 of cervical cancer, Margaret Sanger became a pioneer birth control activist, sex educator and nurse. Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in 1916, leading to her arrest for distributing information on contraceptives; five years later she founded the American Birth Control League and opened the first birth control clinic staffed by all-female doctors as well as a clinic in Harlem with an all-African American staff. The American Birth Control League later became Planned Parenthood of America.

“No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.”

Jane Addams

The first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Jane Addams was a social and political activist, community organizer and one of the most prominent reformers of the Progressive Era. Addams co-founded the first settlement house in America, where middle-class volunteer “settlement workers” would assist and live alongside low-income neighbors in an effort to relieve the tensions of the economic class structure. Residents at the house studied the problems that plague poor urban areas including overcrowding, drug use, infant mortality and literacy.

An outspoken pacifist during World War I and tireless defender of immigrants’ rights, Addams was elected national chairman of the Women’s Peace Party and president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

“The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.”

Helen Keller

Despite the limitations of being both deaf and blind, Helen Keller managed to achieve much more in her lifetime than most of us who have all of our senses intact. The first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree, Keller was an outspoken anti-war activist, an advocate for people with disabilities, a member of the Socialist Party of America and a campaigner for women’s suffrage and labor rights. Though best known for her remarkable ability to communicate – often giving speeches and lectures – Keller was also a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and actively campaigned in support of the working class.

“The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all… The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands – the ownership and control of their livelihoods – are set at naught, we can have neither men’s rights nor women’s rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease.”

Rosa Parks

Called “The First Lady of Civil Rights” by the United States Congress, Rosa Parks was an African-American civil rights activist who famously refused to give up her seat in the “colored section” of a public bus to a white passenger, when the white section was full.  At the time, parks was secretary of the NAACP and had recently attended a Tennessee training school for activists in workers’ rights and equality. Her arrest cost her her job, but led to a lifetime of involvement in the modern Civil Rights Movement, leading her to collaborate with other leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, and was the first woman to lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda after her death.

“I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.”

Betty Friedan

Once women’s suffrage was won, the fight was hardly over. Betty Friedan‘s 1963 nonfiction book The Feminine Mystique is widely credited for reigniting American feminism in the 20th century, with many a housewife seeing her own domestic and social repression reflected all too clearly within its pages when it was excerpted in McCall’s and Ladies’ Home Journal. It became a bestseller, helping to launch the women’s movement of the 1960s and 70s. Betty Friedan served as the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), and founded the National Women’s Political Caucus along with Gloria Steinem. Under Friedan’s leadership, NOW lobbied for enforcement of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963. She also organized the national Women’s Strike for Equality, and led a march of 50,000 women in New York City.

“The problem that has no name – which is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities – is taking a far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease.”

Gloria Steinem

Perhaps the best known American activist for women’s rights, Gloria Steinem has been a prominent political figure since the early days of the modern women’s movement in the 1960s. A writer, journalist and activist, Steinem co-founded Ms. Magazine as well as Choice USA, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the National Women’s Political Caucus and the Women’s Media Center. Her first article for Esquire magazine, which focused on the choice that many women have to make between a career and marriage, preceded Freidan’s book, The Feminine Mystique by a year. She actively campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on its behalf, and earned national fame as a feminist leader after publishing the article “After Black Power, Women’s Liberation” in 1969. Steinem is also active in civil rights, animal rights and LGBT rights.

“There is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race because they are easy and visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labor in which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism.”

Dolores Huerta

Labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which later became United Farm Workers (UFW). An avid campaigner for workers, immigrants and women’s rights, Huerta is a recipient of the United States Presidential Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In addition to her work as an organizer and advocate, Huerta has helped to pass a number of California and federal laws including the 1960 bill to permit people to take the California driver’s examination in Spanish, and 1963 legislation to extend Aid to Families with Dependent Children to California farmworkers. Huerta stood beside Robert F. Kennedy as he delivered a victory statement to his supporters just after winning the California Democratic presidential primary election, moments before he was assassinated.

“Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk.”

The post Stand and Speak: 10 American Female Political Activists appeared first on EcoSalon.

A company driven by values, but are they divisive?

Think of LUSH Cosmetics and images of all-natural soaps, gooey organic facial masks, and fizzy bath bombs come to mind… and, depending on your activism awareness, so might controversial protests related to causes like animal cruelty, Canadian oilsand development, and shark finning.

The Britain-based company is one of the few to successfully bring natural beauty products to the mainstream. It’s also one of the most controversial retail presences on the High Street, thanks to its alignment with various ethical campaigns and its somewhat radical approach to protest. But how does the LUSH’s activism align with its products and larger mission?

The history of LUSH is told in detail on the company’s corporate website. In 1977, Liz Weir and Mark Constantine met while working together at a hair and beauty salon in Poole, a town on the south coast of England. Within a few years, they had left the salon and broken out on their own, launching an “Herbal Hair and Beauty Clinic” that sold natural beauty products and cosmetics. One of their first customers was The Body Shop, for which they formulated popular products like Body Butters, Honey Beeswax Cleanser, and Peppermint Foot Lotion. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Weir and Constantine led the company through many incarnations. After their partnership with The Body Shop dissolved, they created a mail order business called Cosmetics to Go and a retail boutique called Cosmetic House, which was later rebranded LUSH.

The Good

From the beginning, LUSH has been a pioneering force in the natural beauty space, with its offering of items that now includes soaps, shampoos, bath products, facial cleansers, fragrances, and a recently launched line of cosmetics called Emotional Brilliance. LUSH’s products are 100 percent vegetarian and 81 percent vegan, and about 70 percent of them are formulated without preservatives. The remaining 30 percent are liquid products that need some kind of preservative (in LUSH’s case, methylparaben and propylparaben) in order to keep bacteria from growing.

LUSH’s Green Policy is holistic, encompassing a general approach to business, as well as a number of different but interrelated initiatives. The company makes limited use of packaging, offering about 40 percent of its products, like bath bombs, massage bars, and solid shampoo bars, as “naked,” with absolutely no packaging. When packaging is necessary, it’s primarily made from recycled, recyclable, and biodegradable materials. On the energy front, LUSH employs energy optimization methods and energy retrofits throughout its supply chain, with similar approaches taken toward water, transport, and operations. Its raw materials are sourced sustainably, with controversial ingredients like palm oil relegated to a “little black book” of ingredients not to use.

LUSH has also made progress on the ethical front, with a notable long-running campaign against animal cruelty. Not only does the company refuse to test its products on animals, but it also refuses to buy ingredients from suppliers that test on animals.

To LUSH, there’s absolutely no reason for guinea pigs choking to death after being force-fed shampoo and rabbits going blind from having mascara dripped into their eyes … Products that you use on your body should be safe to use but they do not have to be tested on animals to assure public safety.

The Bad

While LUSH has always had an ethical approach to business, it didn’t fully enter the activism space until 2006, the same year that businesswoman and activist Anita Roddick sold The Body Shop to L’Oreal. According to LUSH, the timing was no accident.

In response to the sale of The Body Shop and the reaction of staff and customers it became clear that another campaigning voice was needed on the high street… Right from the very beginning, Lush’s campaigns were somewhat different from those that had been seen in shops before.

Indeed, LUSH has become known for its radical and somewhat offbeat protest methods. In 2006, for instance, LUSH dumped two tons of manure in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, to protest the use of animals in chemical testing.

Then there was the time in 2008 when performance artist Alice Newstead was hung from a shark hook in the window of LUSH’s Regent St shop to protest the practice of shark finning.

And most recently, LUSH raised eyebrows when it enlisted performance artist Jacqueline Traide to graphically simulate an animal being tested in a laboratory. (Warning: The video is not for the faint of heart.)

While these stunts were certainly controversial, they were for causes that most of the general public can get behind. Other LUSH campaigns have been a bit more divisive. For instance, LUSH has long supported the “Freedom for Palestine” initiative and refuses to open stores in Israel because it wants “everyone in the country where we are trading to be on an equal footing as far as basic human rights go” – yet it is fine with opening stores in countries with blatant histories of human rights abuses, like Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka.

LUSH has also drawn criticism for a recent campaign that attacks oilsands development in Canada. Supporters of the plan say that increased oil development in Canada will help to reduce America’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil, which would hopefully have a positive effect on the nation’s foreign policy. Critics, on the other hand, decry the environmental damage that would result from the project. For its part, LUSH has called the oilsands development “the most destructive project on Earth” and earlier this year turned its 44 Canadian locations into polling stations. The move spurred critics to question the company’s motives, and in an editorial for Canada’s National Post, Adam Daifalleh wrote:

You’re probably asking yourself — as I did — how a soap company has the authority to get involved in a Canadian energy project, particularly when it has no specific expertise in the field and no hard facts to support its public relations crusade… If you haven’t heard about Lush and its holier-than-thou moral crusades, you should — because a close examination of its record lays bare a stunning lack of consistency, and hypocrisy of the highest degree. Lush has no authority to give ethical lectures to anyone.

The Questionable

On its website, Lush is saucily defined as “fresh, green, verdant, and drunken women,” a definition that is “more than a little fitting for who we are and what we do.”

That statement perfectly encapsulates my view on LUSH – as a company that is socially responsible, sustainable, and progressive, but also unpredictable, contradictory, and somewhat of a wild card. And in a way, LUSH owns up to the fact that its views may not be for everyone.

We know not everyone wants “politics in their bath water.” But we feel privileged to be in a position where we have the resources to help those who work tirelessly and selflessly for equality, peace and justice for all. We hope that you will continue to support us as we support them.

But when the causes that LUSH backs are divisive, it can be difficult for the company to garner the support of all customers. Plus, LUSH’s activism puts its customers in the difficult position of prioritizing what matters most to them — choosing a product that is natural and socially responsible, or supporting a company that stands for values it can get behind. That disconnect appeared in the recent Chick-Fil-A scandal, where company president Dan Cathy made public remarks against gay marriage that led to a nationwide boycott of the fried chicken chain. And it also appears when LUSH aligns itself with controversial – but seemingly disparate — issues like the Israel-Palestine conflict, Canadian oil development, and shark finning. With LUSH, it seems that you have to take the good with the… well, questionable.

SEE ALSO:

Behind the Label: The Body Shop’s ‘Against Animal Testing’ Campaign

Behind the Label: Avon’s Crusade Against Breast Cancer

Behind the Label: Burt’s Bees

Read more Behind the Label here.

Images: Memphis CVB

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