A visit to America’s Dairyland, home of all things meaty, must have been somewhat daunting for the folks at PETA.

PETA Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs Bruce Friedrich visited the University of Wisconsin this past Thursday to hold a forum with students on the merits of a plant-based, vegan diet. The theme of the talk was the proposition that veganism can help end world hunger.

PETA’s reputation has not always held steady, even among liberal college students. While stunts like suggesting Ben & Jerry’s use breast milk instead of cow’s milk in their ice cream are meant more to create attention than be taken literally, they can often rub people the wrong way. I imagine PETA doesn’t mind — and may even like — being labeled as a bunch of nut jobs, but it may have inadvertently been chasing away otherwise interested people. Not everyone is comfortable dousing people in pig’s blood, you know.

Of course, PETA’s extreme campaigns are extreme for a reason — they get noticed. Started in 1980, the non-profit organization has grown to 187 employees, running on a budget funded almost entirely by its league of viciously loyal members. Its first major case, the discovery that a primate research facility in Silver Springs, Md. was severely mistreating its animals, put them on the map and transformed them from what co-founder Ingrid Newkirk called “five people in a basement” to a very influential national organization.

PETA has made other huge advances in the way of animal rights, but not without the cost of a heavy dose of criticism. While helping pass and modify countless animal rights laws, bringing light to cruel and illegal practices and turning attention to vegetarianism and veganism when little was known about either, PETA has been criticized for allegedly improperly euthanizing animals, as well as standing in the way of important medical research.

While Friedrich’s talk on Thursday did include discussion of animal welfare, its main focus was on how a vegan or vegetarian diet can improve the environment as well as stop millions from going hungry. The vice president of policy for PETA discussed how the Western diet’s food production requires six to twenty times the resources a plant-based diet would require, including excessive fossil fuels.

I must admit, although I am a big supporter of PETA, I too have been turned off by some of their campaign strategies. While I think getting the public’s attention with dramatic advertisements and demonstrations is one good way to get the message out, it should not be the only way. PETA’s finger-wagging-mother strategy can alienate and patronize, and often does not explain better alternatives without a holier-than-thou attitude.

This attitude, however, could be counteracted if PETA keeps up what they are doing here at UW. Coming down to the students’ level, explaining why a vegan diet is positive instead of simply preaching the sins of sirloin in a fire-and-brimstone-type sermon is what is going to open people’s minds to a new way of eating. You can’t take away a dog’s bone and tell him it’s because it’s the right thing to do — he could care less, he just wants his bone back. While I don’t associate human meat-eaters with dogs, it works in the same way. While their flashy scare tactics may turn some minds around, it certainly doesn’t work for everyone.

PETA’s strategy of speaking to college students in an intimate, accessible setting is an excellent move, and will certainly work in their favor if they keep up the positive, less condemning attitude. And while I am all for flour-bombing Lindsay Lohan (fur coat or not), I think it might be a good idea to cool it on the vandalism for a bit.

Laura Brennan ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in communicative disorders