As part of the farm sanctuary movement, cattle ranchers and animal farmers are making a transition to plant-based farming. and many of them are becoming vegan in the process.
When transitioning to compassionate farming, some turn their ranches and farms into sanctuaries for their animals. Other people find sanctuaries like Farm Sanctuary, where they can re-home their farm animals.
The Mad Cowboy Howard Lynan
Animal activists can take heart from the fact that a growing network of farmers and ranchers have stopped farming animals and are now operating vegan businesses.
The “Mad Cowboy” Howard Lyman was one of the first American farmers to transition to plant-based farming from animal agriculture. In 1997 he won the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for leadership in the animal rights movement. He advocates for animal welfare in lectures across the country and is prone to telling audiences, “No animal needs to die in order for me to live. And that makes me feel good.”
Howard was a multi-generational cattle farmer who, for more than 20 years, ran a huge factory-style feedlot operation with 7,000 dairy and beef cattle along with chickens, pigs, and turkeys.
In 1990, he became vegetarian in order to reduce health problems related to obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The vegetarian diet turned his health around, which prompted him to go vegan a year later.
After becoming vegan, Howard began questioning the ethics of eating animals. Animal agriculture causes immense pain and suffering of animals, harms the planet and our health, and hurts workers and communities,
Howard converted his confined animal feedlot operation into an animal sanctuary. Since 1991 he has been traveling the world speaking and advocating on behalf of veganism, compassionate farming, and animal rights. His book Mad Cowboy recounts his story of transitioning from animal agriculture to animal rights activism. You can watch the documentary Mad Cowboy on YouTube.
Richard and Cindy Traylor
Rowdy Girl Sanctuary’s Rancher Advocacy Program (RAP) facilitates the transition from animal agriculture to plant-based farming by connecting ranchers, businesses, and investors. RAP helped sixth-generation cattle rancher Richard Traylor and his wife Cindy re-home their cows to a farm animal sanctuary. The couple is now considering growing hemp, bamboo, fava beans, and micronutrient-rich foods on their ranch land. Richard credits Renee Sonnen-King, founder of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, with helping him transition to veganism and plant-based agriculture.
“I used to laugh at veganism and now it’s my way of life,” Richard said during a presentation at the first RAP Summit in 2020. Richard and Cindy attended the summit to listen and learn how to make farming profitable without having to slaughter. The next RAP Summit is on July 24, 2021.
Bob Comis, former pig farmer
Bob Comis became vegan and converted his hog farm to a veganic vegetable farm when he could no longer live with his conscience. Before becoming vegan he wrote on his blog, “…What I do is wrong, in spite of its acceptance by nearly 95% of the American population. I know it in my bones, even if I cannot yet act on it. Someday it must stop. Somehow we need to become the sort of beings who can see what we are doing when we look head on, the sort of beings who don’t weave dark, damning shrouds to sustain, with acceptance and celebration, the grossly unethical. Deeper, much deeper, we have an obligation to eat otherwise.”
Bob now publishes widely on the question of eating animals. The award-winning documentary film about his transition, The Last Pig, chronicles the changing landscape of animal agriculture and one farmer’s ethical crisis. After years of raising pigs for meat, he no longer can bear the ultimate act of betrayal. With bittersweet detail, the film offers an entirely new view of small-scale livestock farming and raises crucial questions about the ethics of eating.
Today Bob spends his time promoting veganic farming and refining the process of his own transition so that his journey can serve as a general road map for other farmers to follow.
The above story was published by Transition to plant-based farming and animal sanctuaries (veganstoryteller.com)
