One year ago, Kaylee Carr attended her first Local Herbivores meeting. At the time she was not vegan or vegetarian. However, after listening to what people in club had to say, she eventually became vegan.
The Local Herbivores (TLH) is a club at the University of Idaho with the goal
in mind to promote veganism and spread awareness about it. This month TLH turns two years old.
Two years ago, UI students Danielle Solberg and Josef Foote decided to start a vegan club that would spread awareness about veganism to those who are curious about it, and that’s how TLH was started.
According to their website, TLH “has grown into a community for vegan and veg-curious individuals. This club is tied to the University of Idaho to focus on events and meetings around the student and faculty community in Moscow.”
Carr, a UI second year student studying environmental science, decided to become involved in the club because her friends asked her to come with them to a meeting, and she wanted to try something new.
“I never really thought about veganism before that, but then hearing a lot of stuff in the club about the environmental impacts and the ethical concerns (about eating meat), I decided to give it a try,” Carr said.
Nicole Hindberg | Argonaut
After former TLH president and founder Solberg graduated from UI, she trained Carr to take over for her. The club currently focuses on events and meetings in order to discuss and raise awareness about veganism.
Carr said the club is open to everyone regardless if they are vegan, vegetarian or otherwise. TLH Vice President Nicolas Toryanski agrees that having the club open to everyone is important.
“I think it’s very important to have dialogue with people,” Toryanski said. “Like friendly conversations with people, and get to know what they believe
and communicate with them what I believe and find common ground there and actually find what your beliefs are actually based upon and talk about why you do what you do.”
Toryanski, a UI student studying philosophy, said he is an ethical vegan
and has been for the last two years. An ethical vegan means that someone is vegan for ethical reasons. This means they find it ethically wrong to consume animal products, rather than being vegan for environmental or health reasons.
Carr said this semester the club has many ideas for events, such as an event about veganism and its effects on health, an event raising awareness about spaying and neutering cats and dogs, vigils, tabling and other events.
Carr hopes that students who do fall into that veg-curious category come to their meetings.
“We’re a really open community and we have a lot of information and resources that we can give students who are really curious,” Carr said.
On the TLH website there are resources for those who are just starting out or for those who want to learn more information.
TLH meet every Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the Integrated Research and Innovation Center in room 105.
“The club is full of friendly people, we always love when people who aren’t vegan or vegetarian or people who just to even have completely opposing viewpoints to come to our meetings and talk with us, and we find it very productive when people come and listen to what we have to say, and we listen to what they have to say,” Toryanski said.
Nicole Hindberg can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @HindbergNicole.