Persuasive speech on veganism. Help!
Posted by vegan_julia on Feb 22, 2009 · Member since Jul 2008 · 3 posts
fellow vegans,
For my speech class at school we are doing persuasive speeches, and I of course chose to speak about why people should be vegetarian (not vegan because I know people in the class probably won't even consider veganism :( better to ease them in with vegetarianism.)
Any general advice? good quotes? and how would you summarize the reasons in a sentence or two for the "claim"?
I really think I could be able to reach some of them so it is important that I do this right!
Thanks! :)
I would follow a general 3-point framework of environmental reasons, health reasons, and animal rights reasons.
Environmental - talk about the effects of factory farming on the environment - greenhouse gas emissions, high resource consupmtion
Health - talk about the effects of meat on health and the health findings for vegetarians compared to meat eaters (heart disease, weight control, life span)
Animal Rights - talk about the cruelty involved in meat production
I put the animal rights part last on purpose because I feel, for whatever reason, people are less likely to be receptive to animal rights arguments. You can decide the order based on what you think the mindsets of your audience are. Health and environment are less altruistic reasons than animal rights, so I think that's why people might be more receptive to them.
That's just how I would organize it. I'd be happy to help you find resources for each particular topic if you are not sure what to say.
Good luck! Let us know how it goes!
what kmk said, plus talk about how we could help with world hunger if we stopped eating meat. i don't know the numbers, but if you take the grain fed to livestock, you could feed a ton of people. good luck with your speech!
what kmk said, plus talk about how we could help with world hunger if we stopped eating meat. i don't know the numbers, but if you take the grain fed to livestock, you could feed a ton of people. good luck with your speech!
Oooh, good idea! So a fourth reason would be humanitarian/human rights reasons. That would be a very strong argument.
I gave a speech on the subject for my AP language class in high school. If there is a segment for questions, make sure you're anticipating the smartass questions, and you have civil answers for them.
another point is much better eat helthty and not have seek in the year. than eat regular food and have cold, fever every season and you need to visit the doctor and buy medicines and is more expencive for use. I try to explain I'm from Puerto Rico is dificult to me write in english. I give vegetarian class in puerto rico and thats part of my point I have 18 person that not are ve getarian and somes in trsnsition. i hope that can help. :)
Does your public library have either Diet for a New America or The China Study? You could get good info in those.
ohoh! i forgot to say talk about how it's cheaper! since money stuff is an issue these days ("in these uncertain times" according to pretty much all of the commercials on tv haha), hitting on a point like that could interest people. the best thing to do is have main points that everyone can relate to. not everyone cares about animal rights like kmk said, but a lot of people care about the environment, more people care about health, and i think everyone is concerned about money. also, instead of vegetarian, maybe talk about plant-based diets. the word vegetarian makes a lot of people think of peta and automatically think it's crazy :\