 I'm Frank Tifano, I am here in New York City at Madison Square Park where we have a vegan activist event being conducted by the Anonymous for the Voiceless. Let's see if they have any voices to share with us today. Alright so we walked around, tried to hand out a couple of flyers, you know informing people on why a vegan diet isn't optimal and maybe like a handful of people wanted to read it, was met with a pretty hostile response, maybe I should not have dressed up as cave boy today. Some people were kind of nice and open but that was maybe two out of about 40 people so I think we do have a few people to talk to and interview. So what's going on man what's your name? Ryuji, what's your name? Frank right? Yeah I'm Frank. How are you? Sean I'm doing good man, did you want to discuss any topics in particular? No I'm just wondering what you are doing here right now and I would love to because I'm sure you know what we're doing here, I'm sure everyone looking here is aware like what we're doing so I'd love to know what your perspective is. Yeah sure I came down I actually I made some flyers that just had some bullet points on you know some drawbacks to a vegan diet and you guys didn't seem interested in reading the flyers so I just decided to start walking around and talking to people and asking if they were interested in being interviewed. You know I asked about like 20 or 30 people if they wanted to read or they were open to more information and they were not open to more information on the vegan diet so you know I'm presenting flyers, I'm trying to give people an opposite perspective and they didn't really seem to Okay so what are the drawbacks? Well there's three, the nutritional drawbacks of a vegan diet, you have the moral and ethical drawbacks of a vegan diet. So this is the guy that's the party pooper, he doesn't want me to entertain you guys, he doesn't want me to talk to anyone. You see these two girls right here? These two girls right here are talking probably to a vegan maybe he's trying to convince them or something but there's entertainment in every aspect of life. These girls are being entertained by his idea of a vegan diet. If you don't have entertainment you will not capture someone's attention so saying that oh you're here for entertainment that doesn't make any sense. What about my channel? What's the focus of it? The name is my name, my YouTube channel is my name, it's Frank, yeah Frank Tufano. It's in my car, it's in my car. Oh look we got another one, they got the witch from the, what is it, what's the show? What's the card, what's that stupid Dorothy? No not no the yellow brick road, the yellow brick road, what's that called? No no what's the movie with the yellow brick road? Wizard of Oz, yeah we got the wicked witch of the west from the Wizard of Oz over here. What's the name of the channel? It's Frank Tufano, T-U-F-A-N-O, F-A-N-O. Can you roll, can you roll the camera? Let's follow Captain Dush nozzle around. Where do you fucking go? Where do you go? All right so we got Captain Kiljoy over here, the blonde guy with the, he says German and Dutch on his shirt, he's walking away from us because he wants nothing to do with us. This gentleman has been going up to every single person I've tried to spoke into and he has told them not to speak with me, for what reason I don't know, but he's not getting paid by these people, they're not paying him anything. So he has some incentive to discourage other people from learning more about the diet and keeping people from hearing anything that detracts from their message. And he's not too happy that we're following him around. We tried speaking to about half a dozen people and every single time we spoke to someone that wasn't affiliated with the event, someone from the event came up to them and told them not to talk to us, said something negative about us. So as usual, vegans are trying to silence the truth and they don't want to listen to contrary opinions, they don't want to be open minded or anything. So what turned you on to a vegan diet? Animal rights. Animal rights. So I mean the three main arguments for a vegan diet are maybe nutrition, animal rights, as well as the environment, right? I mean that would be a plant-based diet, but yeah. What turned you on to the vegan diet? 15 years ago I found out about the process by which animal products come to my plate and I decided I was not comfortable with that and didn't do it overnight but I know, I know, it's fine. I know, it's fine. Yeah, I decided that that wasn't for me and I've been vegan since. I mean have you been made aware of conventional, we got Captain Killjoy number two over here, walkie-talkied up and dressed in black. I'm going to be honest, man. I feel like sometimes I'm missing part of my brain when I talk to people, but I feel bad. Sue's giving me one word of answers, did not really think it for herself. It's unfortunate that these people get exposed to this information at such a young age. Sir, did you have any opinions on a vegan diet? No, I don't have it. I wouldn't want one. I agree. This guy said he would interview with us and now he doesn't want to, so the vegan hive mind changes mind. Yeah, you changed your mind after he told you. So he speaks for what you think? I mean we have the same, the vegan message is the same everywhere. What is the vegan message? The vegan message is stop killing animals, it's that simple. So stop grinding animals up in conventional monocropping? Stop killing animals. Yeah, so stop buying food from the supermarket. Oh, we got Captain Killjoy's back. He's back. I've never seen someone so pasty in the middle of the summer, to be honest. Why don't vegans ever promote pastured animals? Why don't they mention that they're much better alternatives to these animals that are being tortured? It's Mr. Killjoy One. It's Mr. Killjoy One. I need to go in a bit anyway, but I mean I can answer your question. Wait, what was your question? I'm sorry. You know, this is a public space. I understand this is their event and that we're going to their event to try to present contrary information, but none of their stuff has merit to it. They don't want to answer questions. They don't really want to address anything we spoke about. And that interview earlier, that guy was completely rude and just kept interrupting me. We're just going to ask some random strangers on the street and see if they're interested in talking to us. Any opinions on the vegan diet? I think that it's important to be vegan. Are you vegan? Kind of. It's really cool. I try to be vegan some days of the week, or like days without eating any meat. I've tried it in the past. It's difficult. I love the taste of beef, so it's something I've got to be, you know, deprogrammed to be able to make it happen. What's going on? Do you guys like vegans? Yeah. Did you want to talk about a vegan diet for a few minutes? No? Okay, sure, yeah. Did you want to talk about a vegan diet? Vegan, I am vegan. Oh, you are vegan? Yes. Did you want to discuss possibly like the nutrition, environmental, or moral aspects of a vegan diet? Local. I agree. 100% eat local. Yes. Because local bacteria, that's what you need in your gut. Not something for Brazil if you live in New York City. Have you heard anything about a vegan diet? A little bit. I once had a workmate who was a vegan eater. It doesn't sound like fun at all. I mean, vegetarian would be bad enough, but vegan I agree 100%. I mean, was he like unusual compared to anyone else or? No, she wasn't. Pinion's on the vegan diet? Oh, I am a vegan. Oh, you are? Yeah. So when did you start being vegan? Well, I started vegetarian 13 years ago and vegan only a year ago. So you think a lot of vegans are that like going to supermarkets that just buy whatever and aren't really mindful of their food choices or where they're coming from. That could, that's maybe an issue. Absolutely. That's an issue. Yes. Because you need, again, local bacteria for the local environment. Otherwise you're messing up your own gut. In the context of a vegan diet, most people talk about, you know, the environment, the animals, the health and nutritional aspects. But have you looked into like counter opinions on any drawbacks to it? No. Do you think people are under the perception that a vegan or vegetarian diet is healthier? I think so. It probably is, but I don't know that. Are you trying to be vegan? Is it for the health, the environment, for the animals? Yeah, mostly. It's okay. I mean, meat being the only real source of certain vitamins and nutrients in the human diet, you don't think that... Buckwheat, look it up. Buckwheat has what? What vitamins? Complete source of protein. Buckwheat. Complete source of protein. But what about vitamin B12? Vitamin B12, you can get from other things. Let's see. Well, except now, awful food. That's where it comes in. Awful food, and I'll tell you why. The awful food is not something you have to kill for, but if it's dead, you end up eating it, right? I'm sorry, can you just clarify, what do you mean by awful food? Awful food is internal organs, basically. Yes, that's where you get your vitamin B. So vitamin B is a problem, yes. I do take supplements for vitamin B. I have to. But other than that, I supplement everything else. Full protein source is buckwheat for me. There are several nutritional issues with the vegan... I mean, we know vegans have to supplement a lot, and supplements aren't really spoken a lot about in the context of the vegan diet. They kind of brush it off, right? Yeah. Oh, 100%. And I had a real issue. I tried it a few years ago, and I was an unhealthy vegan eater. So I think there's a correct way to do it, because I don't always think it's the healthiest option. Have you been led to believe that a vegan diet is better for you? I do believe it's good. I did it like in the past, and I think that it's good. But personally, I need to eat some protein in order to be healthy. But in general, I think it's important that we can survive without meat. It's fine. On the topic of the nutritional downsides of a vegan diet, I mean, those aren't really touched on too much. Yeah, well, I guess there's a lot of propaganda out there about animal protein as compared to plant protein. So I think that's pretty important to get the information out there about animal protein not being superior to plant protein. Do you think vegans need to be more aware of the nutrients that they need to supplement, such as vitamin B12? Do you feel as if that's not talked about enough in the context of the vegan diet? Absolutely, yes. B12 is a big problem. There's scarcity or scarcity of B12 in vegetable diet. Yes, you have to admit that. So I do have to supplement either with supplements or I go for awful food sometimes. Do you feel as if you're being a little bit misled when people come to you about the vegan diet? Oh, it's so good for the animals. Oh, it's so good for the environment. But they don't tell you that, oh, you need to do it this way or at least there are some drawbacks to it from a nutritional standpoint. 100%. I don't think it's as easy as it sounds. I mean, I don't even know if people think it sounds easy. I think it's a very difficult thing. I think a lot of research needs to go into it as well. Where did you get the idea that a vegan diet is better for you on those aspects? It's to keep everything in an equilibrium or simple and good. Okay, yeah. Thank you, guys. Did you have any thoughts on the omega fatty acids as well, like EPA and DHA and the conversion? Bukweed has all of that. So you're saying that buckwheat has alpha linolenic that converts? Everything. Yes, absolutely. It's a seed, remember. It's just like sunflower seeds. Okay, so I mean, it does need to be converted in the body. I mean, are you concerned that there haven't really been a lot of studies done on the conversion of these foods in the body? Well, I take it raw. I literally, I blend it with water and I just intake it. It's raw. You just turn it into a powder and mix it with a yogurt if you can because I take yogurt. I have to. You want to talk about the vegan diet? No? Okay, I blame you. Miss, I'm sorry. Did you want to talk about the vegan diet? No? All right. She looks pale enough to be a vegan. Do you take any sort of vitamin A supplements? Vitamin A? No, not at all. Again, buckwheat going back, it's got everything. So the carotene and buckwheat would convert in the body to vitamin A? Yes, because what I do, I'm a vegan, but I have to take dairy. I have to. That takes me out of the vegan, but you see, you cannot be strictly vegan, strictly vegan. You have to have a comprehensive diet where your bacteria has to come from somewhere. I eat a lot of raw stuff because if you cook it, you kill it and you're just eating dead food. I take raw milk sometimes. I eat raw eggs. I eat raw buckwheat and you can't eat raw meat. That's naturally out. But you have to take sometimes the awful food because you have heart, lungs, liver. That's B12 right there, complex B. Any opinions on the vegan diet? No, thank you. You know what likes the vegan diet, right? Sir, you think a vegan diet is ridiculous? No, I'm just saying this whole, yeah, I'm not going to. I agree, 100%. Whole thing is completely out there. What are you going to do, though? Problem is that what we do with the live. In a nutshell, go to the beach. Get your vitamin D. Eat local. You must have local biodome. Eat pizza? No. Cheese or not? Well, unless, you know, unleavened food, no yeast. Yeah, stay away from yeast. That makes your feet stink, by the way. The moral and ethical aspects of a vegan diet are pretty foggy when it's a choice between grinding up rodents and deer and insects and literally destroying the environment. To grow crops or you can kill an animal. That's, those are the two options. Either way, you're killing animals, but when you do the former, you're just not directly involved in the process of harming those animals. It's kind of hiding it. The environmental aspect, that's a whole debacle, but, you know, you have periods of time like in the medieval period, the medieval warm period. There are, you know, very short periods of time in human history, you know, a few dozen years, 30, 40 years, where the temperature has drastically changed. A large variance of degrees. And then you also have the, what is it? The nutritional aspects of a vegan diet. People don't usually discuss this because their point is that veganism and the point of being a vegan is, you know, it's for the animals. It's a moral or ethical obligation. So some people might be open to discussing the nutritional aspect of a vegan diet and that's what we wanted to find today. Absolutely, yes. This is about... Vegan is about living a wholesome life. Vegan, absolutely. What is your understanding of the vegan diet and the environment? That, you know, most people are led to believe it's better. I have no understanding of it, I guess. I mean, do you care about, you know, how the food is grown, what types of foods you're choosing in particular or... Well, it has to be natural without any pesticides, that's for sure. Because that comes in your body and that does kill the bacteria. It's all about the bacteria. It's all about the biodome in your gut. All diseases start from the gut. That's it. That's how it goes. The meat, you definitely want to stay from meat products because it takes the longest to digest. We're not tigers. We're not dogs. We don't have the capacity, natural capacity to digest that food. Our stomachs are only made for digesting berries, nuts, fruits and veggies. That's it. Do you think it's a possibility that the reason meat takes longer to digest is because we're extracting more nutrition from it? No, because it takes longer to break it down. What initially got you to try the vegan diet? I have a hard time, you know, seeing stuff like that with animals being mistreated and it makes me sick to my stomach to think about it. On the topic of, like, the moral and the environmental aspects, I mean, most people are saying it's better for the animals and it's better for the environment as well. True, but if animals aren't eaten, they'll disappear anyhow. I mean, for example, if we didn't eat cows, there wouldn't be many cows around. So you wouldn't be killing as many, but their population would go down to a small fraction of what it is now. Out of all the aspects of the vegan diet, you know, we have the nutritional aspect, we have the environmental aspect, and we have the moral and ethical aspect. Did you have, like, a brief opinion on each of those? Well, I would say the moral and ethical aspect is probably the strongest one for me. Like, when we get a rotisserie chicken, I've got to have somebody else tear it apart because I can't go and if I can identify it as an animal, it makes me sick to my stomach to even think about trying to tear it apart to eat it. What's the reason you became vegan? Animal rights. Animal rights? Yeah. So did you look into any other aspects of the vegan diet outside of that when you started it or...? No, it was very much about animal rights and the environment. Why did you stop being a vegan? Was it a craving? Was it... I don't want to impose anything. Was it because of the difficulty of the social situation? I mean, it's just the taste. I just love cheese and eggs and meat. Brought up on it. I grew up on a farm. We had to go out and pluck our chickens. I had a cow that was my best friend. Her name was Lucille. We had her slaughtered one day and came home to find her head buried in our yard. But then we had hamburgers and steak for the next two years. So it was... Maybe it was being so young and having that sort of trauma, having to bury it because I got to eat it, you know? Well, you know, the cow had a beautiful and happy life on the farm and then it gave you, you know, beautiful and nourishing food for two years. Yeah, that's true. But I wish we didn't have to kill her. Her head buried in the yard and I had to watch my dad chop the heads off of chickens and I had to pluck them. And then we had some pigs and we had them taken to the slaughterhouse. And, you know, I think I learned to bury all those emotions about them as individuals. In nature, there are literally thousands of species of animals. And in the United States, we eat beef, pork and chicken. It's like we took these animals out of nature and now we're raising them on feed lots, treating them horribly, and the meat's making us sick because of how we're raising the animals. Now, you know, that meat in the supermarket, you know, when you look at that meat, you think of, you know, the animal. But there's a problem with conventionally grown plant foods, too. You know, when you till the soil, you know, when you spray pesticides and herbicides, you're killing trillions of animals and displacing millions of animals as well. And vegans avoid this. Vegans avoid addressing the issue that, you know, you're still killing rodents, you're still killing insects, you know, when you're purchasing plant foods and it becomes a tough line, you know? What do you care more about? You know, those insects, those rodents, those animals are, you know, I guess that's a moral decision most people like to have to make. But the one thing vegans tend to avoid and the reason I'm going through all of this is they don't talk about supporting local agriculture and supporting local farms. That's very important to support the local farms. I mean, I think that's where you should get most of your produce and meats from. And I don't think that's as bad. I have a friend that supports all local farms and I think that that's just as good as being a vegan as well. You think it's easier for people to just, you know, go into the supermarket and pick up some fruits or some vegetables or some grains and not think about the animal that was slaughtered yet. You know, they're not considering, you know, all those insects, rodents, deer, you know, all those creatures that were displaced and killed in the farming of those plant foods. Do you think there's a detachment in our modern context of how we buy food? Completely. Yeah, because I don't, if I get a burger, I don't, for once, think about that it's an animal. I just think it's a burger. And I'm thinking about the flavor and I'm thinking about, you know, that I'm going to be full and that's it. And you know, they do that from meal to meal to meal. You just kind of forget that they're actual living creatures. So you don't think vegans have a lot of, like, you know, foresight. They're not really thinking too far into the future. They're not thinking about how we've always lived. I think they think about what they're doing quite a bit. You know, you being on a farm is a perfect example. You know, those, you know, it's an unfortunate part of the life cycle that we have to kill these animals. But you know, it's what humans have done for many, many years. And as we've lost our natural instinct, our hunting instinct and all that stuff, and as we've domesticated animals, it's created a tough situation. You know, and I think a lot of, you know, the misconceptions about the plant-based diet, you know, people don't really understand them and they need to be made a little bit more aware of them. That's true. But no, thanks again, guys. I'm going to let you go, okay? Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much, guys. Thank you. That was nice. That was pleasant. You know, it shows you that even people that, you know, don't appear to really be too aware of, I mean, the guy literally tried to vegan diet for a period of time, but I mean, he wasn't even aware too much of all of the arguments. Just the emotional aspect resonated with him so much that it convinced him to be vegan. And I guess he just wasn't sucked into it as much as everyone else. But what's really interesting about this is he was exposed to the contrast. As a child, he grew up on a farm. He had the animal foods in his diet, the high quality, nourishing animal foods. And that's very important. And even after being exposed to that information, you know, the vegan diet still clicked in his head to some degree. So there's definitely a lot of social conditioning going on here. Any opinions? Oh, I like it. I like it. No, okay. There you go. You're doing a wonderful job. So thank you. Thank you so much, Miss. You enjoy the rest of your day, okay? Thank you. Thank you. No, that was... I was really excited for that because I saw she was pregnant. And, you know, it's unfortunate. You know, you have pregnant women, young women being misled, you know, about the nutritional aspects of their diet. And, you know, it's one in millions. It's one person in millions. There's only so much we could do. You know, you see how, you know, I'm bringing up all of these things. And if I started talking about, you know, deep nutrition and metabolic pathways, it's just too much information for these people to understand. It's, you know, you have to start very basic and just kind of ease your way in there and be approachable. But people simply aren't aware of the nutrition of animal foods and how important they are. What's going on, man? Any opinions on the vegan diet? No. All right. Do you ladies like the vegan diet? No, not really. No. Yeah. Nasty stuff. I mean, do you have any, like, thoughts or opinions on general, on the vegan diet outside of that? Not really. Thank you so much. Thank you. I don't know how these people have been standing out here all day since about 10 a.m. It's like four o'clock now, dressed in full black, wearing masks, not getting paid. Definitely some form of mental illness. But I guess it's all for the animals, right? Let's let humans suffer dozens of humans sweating their guts out in the middle of New York City to convince other people to join their cause. You cannot be extreme on either side of the aisle. You have to be in the middle, just like Buddha said. The happiness is the middle. All right, man. Thank you so much. My name is Frank, man. Hey, thank you. Thank you. Nice meeting you. Enjoy the rest of your day. Take care. It's not going to get better than that. Not going to get better than that. That was, that was, like, if you told me that I was going to come down here and meet that guy randomly today, I would have told you to shut up because, yeah, and yeah, I know you guys might be like, oh, Frank, why don't you correct him on this or that? Look, he's a nice guy. He's 90% of the way there. He knows what he's talking about. The guy drinks raw milk. You know, he knows about the gut microbiome. And, you know, he might not be aware of conversion rates of certain nutrients. He might not be aware of, you know, I mean, buckwheat. I don't want to have to debacle that. But compared to what we've seen today and what we're used to speaking about, I think out of any vegan thing I've seen online, by far the most intelligent conversation I've ever had or seen. At heart, vegans may have good intentions, but it's very clear there are misled on the nutrition environment as well as moral and ethical aspects of a vegan diet. Let's continue the promotion of high quality nutrient-dense animal foods.