Gene Baur Biography

American author and activist

Gene Baur (born July 24, 1962), formerly known as Gene Bauston, is an author and activist in the animal rights and food movement. He’s been called the "conscience of the food movement" by Time magazine, and opposes factory farming and advocates for what he believes would be a more just and respectful food system. Baur is president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, a farm animal protection organization. He is vegan and has been involved with animal rights since he co-founded Farm Sanctuary in 1986. Baur has aut*d two books and various articles.

Early life and education

Baur was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Hollywood, California, the oldest of six siblings. He went to Loyola High School. He attended Cal State Northridge where he obtained a bachelor's degree in sociology. He paid for college, in part, by doing background work in television and movies which included commercials for McDonald's and KFC.

To better understand agribusiness and its mindset, Baur obtained a master's degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University.

Animal rights work

Farm Sanctuary

Gene Baur at the Farm Sanctuary 25th Anniversary Gala in New York City

In the 1980s, after traveling around the United States and learning about agriculture, Baur began investigations into factory farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses. He believed the conditions he observed were unacceptable, and these experiences helped motivate the creation of Farm Sanctuary, which created the sanctuary movement in North America.

Farm Sanctuary's first rescued animal was a downed (i.e. unable to stand) sheep who had been discarded on a pile of dead animals behind Lancaster stockyards in Pennsylvania in 1986. The sheep, who regained her health and lived for more than ten years, was named Hilda. Farm Sanctuary continued to investigate farms, speak out against factory farming, and rescue animals, funding the fledgling organization by selling vegan hotdogs out of a VW van in the parking lots at Grateful Dead concerts.

Baur has expressed concern about the impact factory farming has on the environment, on workers and consumers, and on rural communities. He has visited communities and witnessed the impact of large scale animal agriculture.

Legislative action

Baur has testified before local, state and federal legislative bodies and spoken to farming and policy organizations in efforts to reform the industry and improve farm animal welfare. In 2004, Baur gave a talk en*led "Animal Rights and Human Responsibility" at the United States Department of Agriculture headquarters in Washington, D.C., and in 2007, he was called to testify before the U.S. House agriculture subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry about the inhumane conditions common on factory farms.

Baur in 2007

Farm animal confinement

Baur played a role in p*ing the first U.S. laws to restrict industrial animal farming systems. In 2002, Baur led a campaign in Florida to p* a ballot initiative banning gestation crates for pigs. After the Florida campaign the Florida Elections Commission found that Farm Sanctuary, and Baur personally, had broken campaign finance laws. Farm Sanctuary and Baur consented to pay a fine of $50,000.

In 2006, Baur was involved in getting a ballot measure introduced and p*ed in Arizona which banned gestation crates and veal crates. Baur and Farm Sanctuary were also sponsors of a California initiative (Proposition 2) to ban veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages which p*ed on November 4, 2008, approved with over 63% of the vote.

Foie gras

Baur played a role in a California law that went into effect in 2012, banning the production and sale of foie gras, which is made by force feeding ducks and geese and causing their livers to expand up to ten times their normal size. He was also involved in p*ing a 2006 (repealed in 2008) Chicago ordinance banning the sale of foie gras.

Vegan advocacy

In 2012, Baur started competing in marathons and triathlons to demonstrate how plant foods can fuel athletic performance. In July 2013, Baur participated in his first full Ironman Triathlon in Lake Placid, New York. As a vegan runner, Baur was featured in the May 2013 issue of Runner's World magazine.

Baur participated in an Intelligence Squared debate on December 4, 2013, along with Neal D. Barnard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine arguing for the motion "Don't Eat Anything with a Face." Debating against the motion during the Oxford–style debate were Chris Masterjohn of the Weston A. Price Foundation and farmer Joel Salatin. The Baur/Bernard team was declared the winner after the majority of the audience voted in favor of their position.

Baur was also interviewed on Tony Robbins' Blog and was regarded as "The Change Cultivator" which featured him as a man on a mission to change cultural norms about the way society views animals and as someone who is influential in promoting a plant-based lifestyle.

Media appearances

Baur's investigative exposés and advocacy activities have been covered by ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Time magazine, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In the early 1990s, Baur debated a meat industry representative on Larry King Live. Baur has been featured in do*entaries, including Forks Over Knives and A Cow at My Table. He was an *ociate producer of the 2011 do*entary, Vegucated. Also in 2011, Baur appeared on The Martha Stewart Show's hour-long episode on veganism. In 2016, Baur was selected by Oprah Winfrey as an "inspired leader" honoree of Oprah Winfrey Network's “SuperSoul 100".

Books

In 2002, Baur wrote a chapter for A Primer on Animal Rights: Leading Experts Write about Animal Cruelty and Exploitation, edited by Kim Stallwood.

Baur was cited in the book, The Longest Struggle: From Pythagoras to PETA by Norm Phelps, published in 2007.

Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food, was released in March 2008, written by Gene Baur, and published by Simon & Schuster. It appeared on bestseller lists including those of the Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe, and it was named as one of Booklist's Top 10 Sci-Tech Books in 2008.

In the book, Eating Animals (2009), Baur was interviewed by author, Jonathan Safran Foer, about how he started Farm Sanctuary and his first rescue of downed sheep, Hilda.

In 2011, Baur was included as a contributor in Forks Over Knives, a do*entary film about plant-based eating and health. The film has resulted in a website, companion book and cookbook for healthy eating.

In Voices of the Food Revolution, a book about healing through food which was published in 2013, Baur was interviewed by author, John Robbins.

Baur also wrote a chapter for Running, Eating, Thinking - A Vegan Anthology (2014), edited by Martin Rowe, which delves into the mindset and dietary choices of vegan athletic runners.

Living the Farm Sanctuary Life: The Ultimate Guide to Eating Mindfully, Living Longer, and Feeling Better Every Day, is Baur's second book, coaut*d with Gene Stone (author of Forks Over Knives), and was published in April 2015 and includes 100 vegan recipes selected by chefs and celebrities. It is Winner of a Books for a Better Life Award, appeared on Publishers Weekly's national bestsellers list and was named the 2015 book of the year by VegNews magazine.

In 2016, Baur wrote the foreword for the book, Vegan 1 Day: Stories of Living the Good Life by John and Carol Merryfield.

Awards

In 1996, the Peace Abbey awarded Baur with its Courage of Conscience Award. He was inducted into the United States Animal Rights Hall of Fame in 2001.

Baur received the 2017 Peace Award at the Golden West College's Peace and Equity Conference "for his lifelong dedication to animal welfare, sustainable farming practices, and comp*ion for all living beings."

Books

• Bauston (Baur), Gene (October 1, 1996) Battered Birds, Crated Herds: How We Treat the Animals We Eat. Farm Sanctuary. ISBN:978-0965637701.
• Baur, Gene. Forward. Peace to All Beings: Veggie Soup for the Chicken's Soul by Judy Carman, (June 1, 2003). Lantern Books. ISBN:978-1590560051.
• Baur, Gene (November 4, 2008). Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food. Touchstone. ISBN:978-0743291590.
• Baur, Gene; Stone, Gene (April 7, 2015). Living the Farm Sanctuary Life: The Ultimate Guide to Eating Mindfully, Living Longer, and Feeling Better Every Day. Rodale Books. ISBN:978-1623364892.

See also

• List of animal rights advocates
• List of vegans

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gene Baur.

• Farm Sanctuary home page
• "Making Hay with Gene Baur" - Gene Baur's blog
• Gene Baur talks about his book Farm Sanctuary in mp3 recorded July 25, 2008, in Sacramento, California
• Gene Baur's Facebook
• Gene Baur at IMDb

Cases

• Brown Dog affair
• Cambridge University primates
• McLibel case
• Monkey selfie copyright dispute
• Pit of despair
• SHAC
• Silver Spring monkeys
• University of California, Riverside 1985 laboratory raid
• Unnecessary Fuss
• War of the currents

Methodologies

• Direct Action Everywhere
• Hunt sabotage

Observances

• World Animal Day
• World Day for the End of Speciesism
• World Day for Laboratory Animals
• World Day for the End of Fishing

ActivistsParties

• Animal Justice Party (Australia)
• Animal Politics EU (Europe)
• Animal Protection Party of Canada (Canada)
• Animal Justice Party of Finland (Finland)
• Animals' Party (Sweden)
• Animalist Movement (Italy)
• Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (Spain)
• DierAnimal (Belgium)
• Human Environment Animal Protection (Germany)
• Italian Animalist Party (Italy)
• Party for the Animals (Netherlands)
• People Animals Nature (Portugal)
• V-Partei³ (Germany)

Activism

• Animal Rights National Conference

Albums

• Animal Liberation (1987)
• Tame Yourself (1991)
• Manifesto (2008)
• Salvation of Innocents (2014)
• Onward to Freedom (2014)

Fairs and exhibitions

• Holocaust on your Plate (2003)

• Category ( 137 )

EthicsFood
and drink

• Agave syrup
• Chicken fillet roll
• Coconut burger
• Coconut milk
• Fruits
• Grains
  • cereals
  • legumes
• Gelatin subs*utes
  • Agar
  • Carrageenan
  • Gulaman
  • Konjac jelly
  • Microbial cellulose
• Jambon
• Meat alternative
  • List of meat subs*utes
• Miso
• Mochi
• Mock duck
• Nutritional yeast
• Plant cream
• Plant milk
• Quinoa
• Quorn
• Seitan
• Soy yogurt
• Tempeh
• Tofu
• Tofurkey
• Cheese
• Vegepet
• Vegetables
• Hot dog
• Vegetarian mark
• Sausage
• Sausage roll
• Beer
• Wine
• Veggie burger

Groups
and eventsCompanies

• List of vegetarian and vegan companies

Books,
reports,
journals

• On Abstinence from Eating Animals (3rd century)
• An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty (1802)
• Vegetable Cookery (1812)
• A Vindication of Natural Diet (1813)
• Reasons for not Eating Animal Food (1814)
• Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
• Nature's Own Book (1835)
• Fruits and Farinacea (1845)
• The Pleasure Boat (1845)
• The Ethics of Diet (1883)
• What is Vegetarianism? (1886)
• Shelley's Vegetarianism (1891)
• Behind the Scenes in Slaughter-Houses (1892)
• Why I Am a Vegetarian (1895)
• Figs or Pigs? (1896)
• Thirty-nine Reasons Why I Am a Vegetarian (1903)
• The Meat Fetish (1904)
• The New Ethics (1907)
• A Fleshless Diet (1910)
• The Benefits of Vegetarianism (1927)
• Living the Good Life (1954)
• Ten Talents (1968)
• Diet for a Small Planet (1971)
• The Vegetarian Epicure (1972)
• Moosewood Collective Cookbooks (1973)
• The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook (1975)
• Laurel's Kitchen (1976)
• Moosewood Cookbook (1977)
• Fit for Life (1985)
• Diet for a New America (1987)
• The Sexual Politics of Meat (1990)
• Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (1997)
• The China Study (2005)
• Skinny * (2005)
• Livestock's Long Shadow (2006)
• The Bloodless Revolution (2006)
• Eating Animals (2009)
• Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows (2009)
• The Vegan Studies Project (2015)
• Animal (De)liberation (2016)
• The End of Animal Farming (2018)
• Vegetable Kingdom (2020)
• Making a Stand for Animals (2022)
• Meat Atlas (annual)

Films and shows

• The Animals Film (1981)
• Diet for a New America (film) (1991)
• A Cow at My Table (1998)
• Meet Your Meat (2002)
• Post Punk Kitchen (2003–2005)
• Peaceable Kingdom (2004)
• Earthlings (2005)
• A Sacred Duty (2007)
• Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (2010)
• Planeat (2010)
• Forks Over Knives (2011)
• Vegucated (2011)
• Live and Let Live (2013)
• Cowspiracy (2014)
• PlantPure Nation (2015)
• What the Health (2017)
• Carnage (2017)
• Dominion (2018)
• Eating You Alive (2018)
• The Game Changers (2018)
• You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment (2024)

Magazines

• Naked Food
• Satya
• Vegetarian Times
• VegNews
• The Animals' Agenda

Academics,
authors,
physiciansChefs and
cookbook authors

• Nava Atlas
• Mayim Bialik
• Gypsy Boots
• BOSH!
• Edward Espe Brown
• Tabitha Brown (actress)
• Suzy Amis Cameron
• Hannah Che
• Pinky Cole
• Chloe Coscarelli
• Yamuna Devi
• Sue Donaldson
• Crescent Dragonwagon
• Rose Elliot
• Rip Esselstyn
• Carol Lee Flinders
• Dick Gregory
• Richa Hingle
• Madhur Jaffrey
• Mollie Katzen
• Frances Moore Lappé
• Deborah Madison
• Linda McCartney
• Mary McCartney
• Tracye McQuirter
• Joanne Lee Molinaro
• Moosewood Collective
• Isa Chandra Moskowitz
• Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
• Gaz Oakley
• Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
• Mathew Pritchard
• Satchidananda Saraswati
• Derek Sarno
• Miyoko Schinner
• Alicia Silverstone
• Bryant Terry
• Anna Thomas
• Haile Thomas
• Lauren Toyota
• Jeeca Uy
• Umberto Veronesi
• Nisha Vora
• Alan Wakeman

Restaurants

• Ben & Esther's Vegan Jewish Deli
• Cinnaholic
• Crossroads Kitchen
• Greens Restaurant
• Little Pine (restaurant)
• *ty Vegan
• Souley Vegan
• Veggie Grill

Related

• Vegetarian and vegan symbolism
• List of vegan media
• Juice fasting
• Vegetarian and vegan dog diet
• Vegaphobia
• Plant-based diet
• Sustainable diet
  • Low-carbon
  • Planetary health
• Flexitarianism
  • Pescetarianism
  • Pollotarianism