Telluride Mountainfilm: Gene Baur

19 May Telluride Mountainfilm: Gene Baur

[Click the "Play" button to hear Gene Baur]

Editor's note: Animal activist/author Gene Baur is coming to Telluride for Mountainfilm's Moving Mountains Symposium about food.  Listen to his podcast to learn more about his Farm Sanctuary and how the one-time McDonald's talking head wound up rescuing and providing refuge for farm animals.

Fido au gratin? Perish the thought. For activist/author Gene Baur of the Farm Sanctuary, dining on Babe is no different.

The cover of his best-seller, "Farm Sanctuary, Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food" says it all: there's Babe, alive and well. On the back cover, you will find an image of The Man cuddling up to a Holstein. The endorsement by Dr. Jane Goodall (the gorilla lady) is the final nail in the coffin: "Filled with hope, this book is written for all who strive for a more compassionate world. I highly recommend it." Who doesn't want to be considered compassionate, especially when it comes to our four-legged friends? The package is enough to make a person swear off bacon cheeseburgers forever.  And that's Gene's point.

Baur became vegan in 1985. One year later, the Los Angeles native co-founded Farm Sanctuary, in Watkins Glen, New York, the nation's largest farm animal sanctuary and a leading farm animal advocacy group. Gene spends his days campaigning to raise awareness about the negative consequences of industrialized factory farming and our cheap food system.

He is speaking out at Mountainfilm's Moving Mountains Symposium on Friday, May 22.