18-Year-Old Launches Animal Freedom Day

Nadia Masoudi is an animal rights activist who directed and produced a film called Don't Eat Me which is sponsored by PETA. She is hosting the first worldwide Animal Freedom Day on July, 24, 2010. She has received support from celebrities such as Woody Harrelson, Nigel Barker (of America's Next Top Model) and environmentalist David Suzuki. Oh yeah, and Nadia Masoudi is 18 years old.

The headquarters of Animal Freedom Day will be in Canada at the vegetarian Burlington Jazz and Blues Festival, where Don't Eat Me will be screened for the first time. The festival will be streamed online, but people worldwide can actively participate in Animal Freedom Day by pledging on the website to abstain from all animal products on July 24th. Each year, Nadia Masoudi intends to extend Animal Freedom Day by just one day, until the entire world is vegan by the year 2375.

An all-vegan world is an ambitious goal, but it's possible. And it may even be necessary as the world population continues to grow.

According to a 2008 New York Times article, we will eventually face a world shortage of food if we don't change our food production practices. However, there is enough grain already grown worldwide to feed ten billion vegetarians, but a large percentage of that grain is now fed to cattle. The UN predicted that the world population will plateau at around ten billion people by the year 2060.

The UN also reported recently that the agriculture industry accounts for 70 percent of global freshwater consumption, 38 percent of the total land use and 19 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The UN recommended the adoption of a vegan diet to save the world population from hunger and the impacts of climate change.

Given the UN's findings, the world may adopt a plant-based diet before the year 2375. But the point of Animal Freedom Day is to end animal suffering and exploitation, and hopefully our attitudes towards animals will shift along with the change in our diets. Animal Freedom Day also asks the participants to not wear leather or support companies that test on animals and businesses that use animals for entertainment.

The slogan for Animal Freedom Day is: "One day, one year, one life at a time we can bring freedom to animals throughout the world." Change doesn't happen overnight, and slowly weaning the world off meat may be an effective strategy. However, I don't think one day a year is enough, and a one day a week commitment with Meat-free Monday is a reasonable first step, given the aggravated cruelties in factory farming and the pressing global warming crisis.

Still, Nadia Masoudi's mission is extremely admirable. She hopes to have 1 million people participate in Animal Freedom Day. Go to the website to register your pledge to go vegan for 24 hours to support Animal Freedom Day and this inspiring young woman.

Photo Credit: Animal Freedom Day