Vegetarian Star

Ady Gil

Ady Gil is a successful entrepreneur who, as a founding partner of American Hi Definition (AHD) and Sweetwater Digital, has made contributions to digital services for film and television. This year, Ady is matching Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt-A-Turkey adoptions up to $50,000. Vegetarian Star had the opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview with Ady about animal welfare, the Thanksgiving holiday and his vision for former president of the United States Bill Clinton.

How did you get involved with Farm Sanctuary and the Adopt-A-Turkey campaign?
It was my ex-girlfriend who in 1999 told me that she was adopting a turkey. She was a vegetarian, and she told me for Thanksgiving she was adopting a turkey. I didn’t know exactly what it meant then, but she told me you had to send the fee. It was $20 at the time. It was sort of symbolic, but you get a card with the picture of the turkey. The year before I ate turkey for Thanksgiving, and that year I did not. It did not make my Thanksgiving any worse. Not at all did it affect my life to not eat turkey. I adopted the turkey, and I felt proud like I saved a life, without touching it. Not always can you save a life by touching it – sometimes you can, like with an injured dog or a bird you find you might bring it to the vet, but most of the time you can’t touch the lives you save and you need an organization that can touch the lives. I see Farm Sanctuary as an avenue to save farm animals.

Recently, two large chicken producers in the U.S, Bell & Evans and Mary’s, announced they’re changing the way they slaughter chickens. Instead of electrical stunning, they’ll be using methods similar to what many in Europe and the UK do by knocking the birds out with gas first. What are your thoughts on this more “humane” way of killing and do you view changes like this as real progress for animal welfare?
I cannot put the two words together – killing and humane. I do not believe they can really coexist in one sentence. Is it less cruel? I think it is. But is it still cruel? Sure it is. Is it more humane? Sure it is. But is it humane? No. Is it better? Sure it is. But is it still evil? Yes. But it’s less evil, and so less evil is better than more evil, right? If in the last ten seconds they don’t suffer, that’s better. If they suffer their whole lives and we can give them their last ten seconds without suffering, then that’s better. Any second counts. But I do not think that killing can be humane.

Learn Ady’s wish for Bill Clinton after the jump.

Do you have a vegetarian or vegan celebrity or well known person you admire for their activism?
I think there are a few, maybe. Ellen DeGeneres, vegan and activist, Pamela Anderson, Daryl Hannah. And one man I want to be a leader in this, and maybe he’s on the track: Bill Clinton. By this interview here, I’m encouraging Bill Clinton to become an activist, because coming from him, the message will be heard. He has more influence than most of the people in this country. If Bill Clinton says adopt a turkey, go vegan, whatever the message is people will listen. I am searching for a male activist and I’m hoping that next year I will have Bill Clinton on my list.

Obviously turkey isn’t on the menu for your Thanksgivings. Tell us what you usually eat during the Holidays.
The holidays don’t mean that much to me really, so I don’t change much what I eat on the holidays. I just eat what I normally eat, which is vegetarian or vegan. I don’t really have special meals or change my menus based on the holidays. This year, I am invited to a Thanksgiving holiday meal at a friend’s house. So I don’t know what she will serve, but it will be vegan.

I read somewhere that Julia Child didn’t think twice about meat until someone took her to a farm where she witnessed a slaughter. Her response was something like, “I didn’t realize it was that brutal.” Do you think the general public is aware of the conditions animals undergo on farms and the reality of the way they’re slaughtered. What do you feel is the best way to educate about this to effectively get consumers thinking about the ethics of their food.
The general public has no freaking idea what’s going on. They are completely ignorant about where their food is coming from. So to educate the public you take a movie like Earthlings, and you show it on HBO. But this will never happen because we like to bury the movies like this because they are not popular to show.  Even if things like this were paid for and shown on commercials, I still don’t even know if they would allow it to be shown, because of pressure from Tyson and the big companies like that. It’s all about the money, they don’t want to piss off the big corporations like McDonald’s and KFC, it would hurt their business and so they want to bury it. So they’re not going to show the public. It’s really up to us, the animal rights and animal welfare activists to show people what goes on behind closed doors. It is up to just a handful of people to show the majority the cruelty to animals that is going on minute by minute all over the world.

A few months ago, I read you were planning to turn The Hump, now defunct seafood restaurant which illegally served whale meat, into a vegan restaurant. Is this still a possibility and where are you in your plans for that.
Well, these were just rumors. I was part of the group that maybe affected the last days of the Hump as The Hump, and we talked about how great it would be if that happened, which I guess is how these rumors got started. The building was owned by the City of Santa Monica, and we thought it would be really great to have a vegan restaurant in that space, but I’m not sure if the lease was up for renewal. I’m not really in the restaurant business, you know, I’m in television, so it’s not really something that I do – you know, you need someone who can partner and bring chefs and the menu and all of that, and that’s not me.

Finally, tofu, tempeh or seitan? Which do you prefer and why?
I think tempeh. I don’t know – I think tofu is a little too mushy. I think tempeh’s what I get when I go to Veggie Grill, here in Hollywood. What I like the most, I think is the vegetarian duck – it’s made in China, even. I like the taste – I like the bbq sauce – I like the taste of these things, I’m not doing any of it because I didn’t like the taste. So there’s nothing wrong with eating something that tastes like a chicken if it’s not a chicken and if nothing died.
I like vegetarian hamburger, too, there’s nothing wrong with a nice juicy burger if nothing died for it. But on the top of the list, I’d have to say, is the vegetarian duck. Tempeh’s good, too, though, and I like that I can get that right at Veggie Grill.

There’s still time to sponsor a turkey and have Ady match your donation! Visit Adoptaturkey.org to learn more!

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