Sun June 3rd: Toronto Vegetarian Association: Making the Switch to a Plant-Based Diet

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE IN A DIFFERENT BUILDING FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING- Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St George St., Room 2111.

Our featured speaker will be Jess Bootsma.  Experiences growing up on a dairy farm prompted Jess to question the validity of eating meat. After moving to Toronto, she heard about the Toronto Vegetarian Association (TVA) and promptly became a member. At the time, 32 years ago, she borrowed John Robin’s books, Diet for a New America and Diet for a New World from their lending library. These books solidified for her that she was on the right path by cutting out meat. Many of the things Robbins talked about she knew to be true but he also made her think about things she’d never thought about before such as how much more a cow eats than a human and why not reduce land use by feeding plants to humans instead of channeling them through animals.

Jess Bootsma

Since joining TVA Jess has learned so many more benefits to cutting animal products from the menu. These are some of the things she will talk about during the presentation along with easy ways to swap out meat for plant-based products and which foods to eat for protein, iron and calcium.

As a retired graphic designer, Jess often does outreach work for TVA at events such as the Toronto Veg Fest, Veg Spring Market, Vegan Bake-off, Gay Pride Festival and many more. Other retirement pastimes include back-country canoe trips, cross country skiing, hiking, yoga and artwork. This will be her very first time presenting about TVA and ways to make the switch to a plant-based diet.

Our featured musician will be Adam Faux.  Adam Faux is a composer, singer and songwriter, producer, teacher and sound engineer based in Toronto.  He has a masters specializing in music composition from York University in Toronto, teaches at the Regent Park School of Music, and is leader of the band, the Luck Factory.

Adam Faux

Adam’s debut album was recorded in 1987 as a member of the indie band Pigfarm. Pigfarm charted # 34 in the U.S. and top 10 continuously on college radio in the 80’s and 90’s. He recorded and mixed the Gemini award winning film the Film Club and the award-winning documentary the Jews of India.  Most recently, Adam produced, mixed, co-wrote and played on the 2014 debut release, Brooklyn Doran’s there’s a Light On, which was nominated for a Toronto music award for “Best Contemporary Album”. Many of the songs featured in the 2015 feature movie, the Cocksure Lads, were mixed and edited by Adam in 2010.

During the past 10 years, Adam has done live sound for over 3000 shows.

As a performer, Adam has shared the stage with performers such as the Barenaked Ladies, Randy Bachman, and Big Sugar, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Jim Carol and Blair Backham.

To RSVP to this event, visit our Meet up page.