Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Reporter: When 8-year-old Genesis Butler was just three years old, she asked her mom where
her chicken nuggets came from.
Genelle: So I told her the truth, I said “You know what, we kill animals for it, sweetheart,”
and she was devastated. She said: “You know what, I don’t want to do this again.”
Reporter: That day, the 2nd grader decided to become a vegetarian, and three years later,
she went vegan.
Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. Today I have the
honor of introducing you to eight-year-old Genesis Butler. Named PETA’s Cutest Vegan
Kid 2015 out of thousands of applicants and having received The Paul McCartney Animal
Hero Kids Young Veg Advocate Award for her veganized version of Dr. Martin Luther King’s
“I Have A Dream” speech, Genesis is making waves in the vegan community and beyond.
I have a dream that all animals on earth will have peace in their lives.
We all deserve it, human or not. For this I have fought.
It's just that simple: don't eat meat. This is my vegan dream.
Genesis is the third Animal Hero Kid in my series highlighting extraordinary vegan kids
making a difference for the planet, the animals, and the people. You can see the other incredible
kids and learn more about the amazing Animal Hero Kid nonprofit organization on the playlist
linked here and below.
I’ll let Genesis introduce herself:
Genesis: Hi, my name is Genesis, I'm eight years old, and I'm an animal rights activist. I
live in the City of Long Beach, California. I went vegan when I was six years old, and
I went vegan because I don't believe animals should be killed.
Having converted her entire family to veganism by the age of five, Genesis set her sights
on the rest of the world.
Genesis: I go to a bunch of protests against SeaWorld, Ringling Brothers, and all animal
abusers. I've done hunters protests where I'm against trophy hunters.
While lobbying her local government to implement Meatless Mondays, and succeeding by the way,
Genesis brought vital arguments about animal agriculture into the public eye.
Genesis: I was like “mhmm, mhmmm” on my chair, bouncing around, doing a little dance.
Reporter: That’s 8-year-old Genesis Butler and her response to Long Beach’s City Council
Council: Motion passes 7 – 2
Reporter: Members voted to call for a draft resolution to declare Monday’s meatless.
Genesis: 18% of greenhouse gas emissions are from animal agriculture.
Reporter: Butler, a student at a Long Beach elementary school, charmed the council with
her passion as a vegan.
Genesis: When I eat my lunch with my friends they always throw away all their school lunch
and only eat the piece of fruit or desert because they say the rest is nasty.
The water footprint for meat and dairy is 47%. It makes much more sense to urge people
to limit eating meat. The footprint is a lot higher than the footprint for direct household
use. I am a kid and I am really scared about the drought. I’m afraid I won’t have water
in the future. We can do something about this.
When I spoke with Genesis I asked her what kept her motivated to keep fighting for the animals.
Genesis: What motivates me is because every time that I don't eat meat, I know that I'm
saving one animal's life. And every single day that I don't eat meat I know that I'm
saving one animal's life. So I know that just by all that that I do,
I save an animal's life, and that makes me really happy.
Having begun her vegan journey at the age of 3 and a half, Genesis firmly believes that
kids can make a huge impact.
Genesis: Young people can make a difference, because some children don't think that they could,
but they really can. Because every child does have a voice, there's more children like me
that show it and they should just get out of their house. A bunch of children play video
games, but instead they should go and look for protests and stuff and just protest. And
keep on doing it and they’ll be someone like me!
I asked Genesis how she deals with questions from other kids at school about what she eats.
Genesis: They ask it, and when they ask it I just say that I eat plants, then they're
like "flowers and stuff?", and I'm like "I don't eat flowers, I eat soy beans and stuff.
They're blended up and they're made into food."
And then...I bring...like, my mom packs me extra food, because they always try to eat my food.
Because the cafeteria lunch, they don't have anything good in there, so they just eat mine.
And my mom packs me extra lunch and I share it with them at lunch time and I tell them
what my food is made out of. And they're like 'oh, that's really cool!' I have two vegetarian friends now.
I just tell them -- there used to be this boy and he always was like--
I had a salad at school and he was like "eww you have a salad" and he had bacon so I was
like "well, eww you have bacon, that's a pigs butt!" and he just left me alone.
If you want to find out more about Genesis and follow her work, check out her links in
the video description below. I have no doubt that she’s just getting started.
Stay tuned to the channel to hear from more Animal Hero Kids and check out the playlist
linked below and in the sidebar.
If you were inspired by Genesis, do give the video a thumbs up and share it around to help show
what kids can accomplish. If you’re new here, I’d love to have you as a subscriber.
I put out fresh content covering all aspects of veganism every Monday, Wednesday and some
Fridays. To help support Bite Size Vegan’s educational efforts, please see the support
links below or click on the Nugget Army icon or the link in the sidebar. Now go live vegan,
speak up no matter your age, and I’ll see you soon.
Reporter: But not everyone was swayed. City council member Stay Rose Mungo voted against
Meatless Mondays.
Rose Mungo: I’m really going to stand with the businesses today.
I do support eating salads. I had a salad for dinner last night.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community