By Alliance Communications Coordinator Amy Durr
We’d like to share this just-released TV interview Alliance President Terry Gips did on the award-winning Mary Hanson Show, the longest-running independently produced cable show in the US (40 years old, like the Alliance). As Host Mary Hanson shared, “Terry debunks so many myths and helps the public understand the wins in going green.” The interview also embodies both the amazing creation story of the Alliance and its unique DNA, values and perspectives.
“In this interview, Terry shares stories about his earlier days as an advocate and his current thoughts about the fragility of the planet, as well as positive ideas and policies we can put into effect,” said Hanson. The show was taped in November and covered an amazingly wide-range of topics in 30 minutes, including:
- Shifting from eating meat 3 times a day to becoming a vegetarian (and then a vegan)
- Terry’s first near-death experience in Sri Lanka and the messages he got from God
- Co-founding the International Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture (now the Alliance for Sustainability)
- Terry’s falling into a depression because those he knew weren’t willing to address what was happening to people, animals and the planet
- His transformative meeting Horst Rechelbacher and then working for Aveda
- The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Why he has hope
- The difference each of us can easily make in the world
- Work-life-family balance
- The Alliance’s Pledge and Campaign for Sustainability, Health, Equity and Kindness (S.H.E. Kindness), including our Akepa Youth & School Program
You can see the interview now on YouTube. It aired in primetime the week of March 25 on MCN6, cable Channel 6, which interconnects the 14 cable systems in the Twin Cities seven-county Metro, reaching 2.3 million people. The interview will also air on other cable stations later, including PACT in Duluth and Superior.
Highlights from the Interview: From Eating Meat to Becoming Vegan and Overcoming Pushback to Bring Change
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the interview. I hope you find them as helpful and energizing as I do, and that they move you to transform your life and our world.
Shifting from eating meat 3 times a day to becoming a vegetarian (and then a vegan)
“At the age of 21 I became a vegetarian, which was way ahead of its time…I love animals. I’ve always loved animals. I said to myself, ‘Terry, if you’re going to eat them, you should be willing to kill them. If you’re not willing to kill them, don’t let other people do that for you. You have to step up.'”
“I know that the environmental movement was there for a long time before it started having an impact, and we still have a long way to go. I guess what I would say is that as I’m become aware of each of these different movements, I think that we can work together and collaborate more to help bring about the shifts so that we really can create a healthy society.”
Have you had pushback in a way that slowed you down in terms of speaking and writing?
“I haven’t been pushed back so much as I know what we need to do. And how fast we need to do it. That’s what’s frustrating. That we have a choice. We have options to change the way we grow food, to change how we live, and these options actually can save us money and have us be healthier. They’re win-win-win options, and I wonder why aren’t we doing that more quickly?”
“Often the question I get from people is ‘How do you keep going?’ in the face of the opposition in many ways. And my answer is really very simple: There are a lot of people and animals who don’t have a choice about what’s going on. I do. Regardless of how hard it may be for me or the Alliance for Sustainability or our country, I know that we do have power. And we can use our power, we can use our voice, and we can make a difference. That is what I focus on.”
From Depression to Hope: The Difference One Person Made in Terry’s Life through Their Care and Support
“Like all people, there have been times that I’ve been really struggling. I had the chance to travel around the world, in 1980 and ’81, to document organic and sustainable agriculture…When I came back to the United States I was speaking around the country and everybody was so excited. But I couldn’t get people to change. I couldn’t get my own family to change, I couldn’t get my friends to change, I knew politicians, an anchorwoman, I couldn’t get the media to do anything. It was very frustrating and I became really depressed.”
“[In the midst of my hopelessness and depression about the state of the world and not getting others to care and help change things, I was asked to give a talk to a class at the U of MN and afterwards, a guy came up to me and said he shared my concerns and wanted to help. That was Horst Rechelbacher, the founder and head of the Aveda Corporation, the world’s largest natural personal care company. That] really shifted things and I came out of my depression. I was just looking for one person who cared and was committed to making a difference.”
“That’s why I had hope. Because I realized that in the depths of my depression there was still this possibility. So my life is really committed to helping to bring about this shift that we can do. This is not hard. This is not a bad thing. It’s a huge opportunity. And I would just like people to understand that their lives can really be transformed. That we can meet everybody’s fundamental needs on this planet. And we don’t have to wait for centuries.”
How The Average Person Watching Can Be Impactful
“I don’t think that there is a ‘best area’ [in which to work on change]. I think it’s really what you’re called to do, the things that you enjoy that actually feed you, that inspire you, that move you, whatever that is. It can be very simple — it can be supporting a neighbor. All kinds of simple things that we can do that can make a difference. All of that is what we think of as part of sustainability, and I think it’s all really essential.”“The place that we have to begin is really acknowledging whatever feelings we’re having. Whether it’s hard, whether it’s being depressed, being overwhelmed, feeling hopeless, fear, all of those things. We have to start with acknowledging that. Then, once we acknowledge that, we can see that there are possibilities. And that’s really the work that we do at the Alliance for Sustainability.”
“[We show people] that we can turn things around. That there are these possible changes that we can make easily. These are not hard. They don’t have to take a lot of time. They don’t have to cost a lot of money. When people know that I think they can feel empowered.”