Activist examines impact of meat

Noted animal and environmental activist Mia MacDonald will speak on campus today about the negative global effects of the animal production industry.

The lecture, entitled “Your Burger or Your Car?” will take place in Smith Memorial Student Union, room 229, at 1:30 p.m.

The lecture is sponsored by Vegans For Animal Advocacy and Northwest VEG, a vegetarian education and empowerment group, which is also hosting this weekend’s Portland Vegfest. MacDonald will also speak during Saturday’s Vegfest fair at Benson High School.

MacDonald has worked for numerous foundations and national organizations in promotion of her concern on the “impacts of animals, the environment, people’s livelihoods, and public health of the globalization of factory farming,” according to the biography on her Web site.

MacDonald has also worked on human rights and has a background in working for the United Nations and the Sierra Club. She received her master’s degree in international development from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

“MacDonald provides fascinating and compelling evidence on how animal agriculture is at the root of a host of environmental problems, including deforestation in the Amazon, desertification and climate change,” said the Vegans For Animal Advocacy’s Web site.

Recently, MacDonald has directed the New York City-based Brighter Green program, which is described by the group as a public policy “action tank that aims to raise awareness and encourage dialogue on issues that span the environment, animals and sustainable development both globally and locally.”