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Harold Brown: From Cattle Farmer to Animal Advocate - P1/2
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I spent most of my life
in agriculture; I grew up
on a cattle farm
in Michigan (USA).
And now I am a vegan
and animal rights activist.
Compassionate viewers,
welcome to Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants.
Today’s program
features the first of
a two-part interview with
Harold Brown of
the United States who
grew up on a cattle farm
and also worked
in the dairy industry
for three years.
He eventually left
the farm and became
an animal advocate,
a promoter of
plant-based agriculture,
an environmentalist
and a vegan.
He has formed his own
non-profit group called
“Farm Kind” and travels
across North America to
talk to audiences about
sustainability, veganism,
kindness to animals,
and his experiences
as a farmer.
Harold Brown appears
in two documentaries by
US director Jenny Stein –
“Peaceable Kingdom”
released in 2004 and the
re-make released in 2009,
“Peaceable Kingdom:
The Journey Home.”
The films focus on
farmers who were
in the animal agriculture
industry, but ultimately
rejected their profession
because of
the inhumane treatment
and slaughter of animals
and the severe damage
to the Earth caused by
livestock raising.
During childhood, Harold
felt deeply disturbed by
the animal cruelty occurring
on his parent’s farm.
When my brother and I,
were fairly young,
my grandfather had
bought this dairy steer,
he was a Holstein,
a black and white cow
to the farm.
He was big, and
we named him Max.
Max, he liked being petted,
and we grew attached
to him.
Well one day I came
home from school, and,
Max was gone, and
I asked my grandfather,
“Where's Max?”
He said “Oh
we had to butcher Max.”
I cried; I was so sad that
they killed Max.
Due to
his heavy consumption
of animal products,
Mr. Brown had
his first heart attack
at the mere age of 18.
But he did not actually
realize that is what
he had experienced until
his father’s heart began
failing many years later.
It wasn't until thirteen,
fifteen years later
my dad had his first
heart attack and bypass,
and I was the one person
in the family who believed
in cause and effect.
These just don’t happen;
there is a cause and effect
to most things in a way,
at least with our health.
Eventually Harold
made a choice to leave
his family’s
cattle business and seek
an alternative career.
There came
a transition point where
my brother and
I were going to
take over the farm,
and I had decided that,
because there were some
changes that I had made
in my lifestyle for the
sake of my heart health.
The family were frustrated
with me and so on and
it created a lot of stress,
so my wife and I we just
packed up our stuff
and left the farm and
we moved to Cleveland,
Ohio (USA).
Now working as
a auto mechanic, Harold
learned from a customer
about a compassionate
concept that would
transform his life.
And I was actually
working as a mechanic
and the very first car
I worked on had
this bumper sticker and
I could not figure out
that bumper sticker.
I fixed her car.
I delivered the car to her
and I said, “Do you mind
if I ask you about
your bumper sticker?”
And she said, “Sure.”
I said, “It says,
‘I don’t eat my friends.’”
I said, “Is that a joke that
you’re not a carnivore?”
And she said “No,
I am vegetarian.”
I said, “What’s that?”
And she looked at me
with astonishment, and
said, “You don’t know
what a vegetarian is?”
I said, “No I’m
31 years old, and I have
never heard that word.”
This encounter inspired
Harold to learn more about
this beautiful lifestyle
and he reached out
to vegetarians
in his community
for more information.
I found a vegetarian
group in Cleveland (USA).
My wife and I
went to a potluck and
at the potluck we met this
amazing group of people
that were concerned with
environmentalism,
but also spiritual growth
and psychological healing.
They created through
this multi-disciplinary
way of approaching life
a safe place for me
to deconstruct my past.
It was an enormous
challenge for Mr. Brown
to re-orient his views
on the place of animals
in our world given
his farming background.
To question that
indoctrination is difficult
and most people
aren’t willing to
( Right.)
because it's frightening.
They live in this
irrationality that
they are living the best
that they can.
( Yes, yes, yes.)
There is a lot of wisdom
out there and
good teachers and so on.
It's just whether we have
the eyes to see them and
the ears to hear them.
We tend to shut our eyes
and shut our ears
to these teachers
and this wisdom
The thing that validated
my cattle culture
was television.
And it was the commercials
on television because
every time you turn on
TV you see commercials
selling you
a food product that has
animal product in there.
So I was looking at that,
(feeling) I’m going great.
I am helping to
feed a hungry world.
I’m meeting the demand
for consumers.
I worked three years
in the dairy industry also
and, especially
when it comes to cheese,
I was just seeing
all these commercials
and all these franchises
and I’m just going
“Yes, I am doing
the good work.”
So how would I ever
question that?
Why would I question that?
That’s
the dominant culture.
Well it took a crisis and
I started to wake up.
When we come back,
we’ll learn more about
Harold Brown’s
amazing journey
from cattle rancher to
compassionate
animal advocate.
Please stay tuned to
Supreme Master
Television.
It’s like that old saying,
“It’s better to
light one candle than
to curse the darkness.”
Well I could curse my
past and play the victim,
or I could light
one candle and
reverse that darkness.
And I did;
I chose to do that.
Welcome back to
Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants
featuring the story of
Harold Brown,
a former cattle farmer
who transformed his life
and became an animal
advocate and a vegan.
Harold now speaks about
how through
a loving bovine friend,
his compassion
for animals which he had
suppressed for years
because he had
butchered them for meat,
was restored.
I had adopted a cow
at a sanctuary,
his name is Snickers.
I visited him two or three
times I think and then
about six or eight months
had past and I hadn’t
seen him and there was
this event where there
were a whole bunch of
people in the sanctuary.
And I went into
the cow barn and
there were people in there
petting the cows
and talking to them.
And over in the corner
was Snickers chewing
his cud and
nobody was petting him.
Well, I thought “I wonder
if he remembers me,”
and I walked in just
inside the gate and
I just called his name.
I said “Snickers” and
put out my arms and he
came running over to me
and just slammed
his head into my chest
and just leaned against
me and I just wrapped
my arms around his neck
and gave him a hug and
then I just broke down.
Mr. Brown then realized
that all this time
he had relied on
repeating a certain phrase
in his mind in order to
ignore his conscience
when he harmed animals
as a farmer.
I had this immediate
mental image of
a light switch right over
my heart and I call it
my “compassion switch”
and I could turn
this compassion switch
on and off, depending
on circumstances,
on who is involved.
I could turn it on for
some people and turn it
off for other people.
Turn it on
for some animals, and
turn it off for the ones
that I had to butcher.
To turn my compassion
off, to turn my love off,
to turn my empathy
and sympathy off was
three words. A phrase.
And if I had the power to
take this phrase out of
the English language
I would.
It was the phrase
“I don’t care.”
Any time I had to do
something that I thought
was objectionable,
something that I thought
was not right,
I would just say,
“I don't care.”
And from that point,
looking, from
this new perspective,
I realized that every time
I said that it disconnected
me mentally, emotionally,
and even spiritually,
from that other
so that I could do
whatever needed
to be done.
Whether it was to kill
them, and butcher them,
or to eat them.
If I had an emotional
connection with that
animal, but I ended up
butchering and then
eating them,
I'd feel "yes, yes" but I
don't care, I need to eat.
Or if I went out hunting,
it's, "I don't care."
Harold now speaks about
the pressing issues
he believes that humanity
must address and how
we can move toward
a constructive future.
People will look at
environmental and
social justice,
animals’ rights, and
veganism; they look at
all these different things
as different issues.
They’re actually
not different issues.
They’re all part of
the same problem; there
is systemic problem
in human culture.
I really feel it’s our ego
that keeps us tied up
to these things and it’s
those attachments that
keeps us from seeing that
how we treat the animals
is how we treat
each other, and how we
treat the environment.
If we are able to easily
look at animals
as being a commodity,
an economic unit, then
we will always look at
the other human beings
as the same.
It is this kind of
worldview that
we developed and then
it becomes this kind of
destructive cycle of
not looking beyond
our own self
and what we want.
We have to open our eyes
and open our hearts
to what we all need –
what the Earth needs
and what all of creation
needs and
not just what we want.
Farm Kind is
Harold Brown’s effort to
help elevate the world’s
consciousness and
open people’s hearts.
I’m developing
my own non-profit;
it’s called Farm Kind.
I travel around
North America
giving talks about
environmental issues,
social justice issues,
animal rights,
and veganism.
I advocate for
all of these things.
I try to bring all these
things together, so people
can see that it’s really a
whole with the end result
hopefully being
a more peaceful and
compassionate world.
We would like to convey
our appreciation to
Harold Brown
for sharing his life story
with us and others.
May Harold Brown’s
work and the initiatives
of like-minded people
promoting
the protection of animals
soon change hearts
so that all embrace
the organic vegan diet.
For more details on
Farm Kind, please visit
To learn more about
“Peaceable Kingdom:
The Journey Home,”
please visit
Benevolent viewers,
we enjoyed your company
today on Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants.
Please join us again
tomorrow for
the second and final part
of our interview
with Harold Brown.
Coming up next is
Enlightening
Entertainment,
after Noteworthy News.
May we always
take deep care of
our animal friends and
our awe-inspiring world.
Do you know why
it is not easy for people
to quit eating meat, cheese,
and refined sugars?
They’re eating a diet with
so much processed foods
and so many
animal products,
and so much sugar,
and so much salt,
and so much soda drinks.
They keep craving
to eat more food because
you become addicted,
you become a food addict.
Please join us for
“Understanding
the Cravings:
Food Addiction”
Monday, March 22
on Healthy Living.
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