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When animal rights activists with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) planned a disruption at a NYC Wine & Food Festival symposium celebrating the consumption of meat, even they didn’t anticipate shutting it down. But that’s exactly what happened during the Q&A at the sold out event hosted by the Wall Street Journal.

Several minutes after the activists stood up – one by one –  to draw attention to the violence inherent in the meat industry, attendees in the audience began filing out of the auditorium.

Angry audience member grabs poster out of activist’s hands

An organizer of the event, who was visibly exasperated by the disruption, stood up and said “No one here is listening to what you are saying.”  Based on the number of people who left, however, her remark was incorrect.

“While some people would urge us to be nice, our goal at this event was to send a message that, if you host an event that celebrates violence, then you will be disrupted by nonviolent direct action,” said Zach Groff, an organizer with Direct Action Everywhere.

A visibly frustrated event organizer fails to silence the DxE activists

In its advertisement for the event, the NYC Wine & Food Festival writes, “Putting the environmental and health considerations aside, we’ll focus on the culinary and cultural aspects of eating meat, its enduring appeal and shifting significance.” Notably absent from the ad was the “ethical consideration.” The activists, however, ensured that every attendee left the room thinking about the ethics of slaughtering animals.

Exasperated audience members leave meat symposium during DxE disruption

To learn more and/or join DxE, please visit Direct Action Everywhere.

Wearing t-shirts with slogans like “Climate Justice Starts Here,” hundreds, if not thousands, of Climate March participants in NYC lined up at food trucks at the street fair after the parade to buy meat, fish and dairy products, demonstrating either a lack of awareness or disregard for what the United Nations says is, by far, the number one contributor of climate change and the planet’s biggest polluter — animal agriculture.

How can the nation’s leading environmental groups expect the general public to make eco-friendly choices if their own members engage in the most environmentally destructive activity — and if they themselves don’t promote a plant-based diet? Can we really expect world leaders at this week’s United Nations’ Climate Summit to take drastic measures to reverse climate change if “environmentalists” can’t take the most basic one?

At Climate Change marches around the world, plant-based/vegan participants displayed compelling posters and distributed information about the impact of animal agriculture on the environment, and their efforts will assuredly effect some change. However, as evidenced in the groundbreaking documentary film Cowspiracy, animal agriculture must be eliminated altogether in order to reverse climate change and save the planet.