Kicking off World Vegan Month, which begins today, rapper and entrepreneur Styles P appears in a new video campaign for PETA in which he discusses everything from the way vibrant vegan food keeps him feeling good to the need for greater access to healthy food in low-income communities.
“A plant-based diet kinda makes your soul lighter,” he begins in the video. “I had a newfound respect for all life.”
The campaign was shot at the star’s Brooklyn-based vegan juice shop, Juices for Life, and co-owner Styles P explains that he wants to take the brand’s “love is love” message global because, for him, it’s personal: “Coming from a poor community and [as] a brown man, I fully understand mistreatment,” he says. “It kinda made me have a deeper understanding for the animals.”
PETA, whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat,” isn’t surprised that Styles P feels so good, since every person who goes vegan reduces his or her own risk of suffering from heart disease, obesity, cancer, and strokes—and helps spare nearly 200 animals every year daily misery and a terrifying death.
Animals used for food experience joy, pain, fear, love, and grief and value their lives, just as humans do. But in today’s meat and dairy industries, cows are forcibly separated from their beloved calves, chickens’ throats are cut while they’re still conscious, piglets are castrated without painkillers, and fish are cut open while they’re still alive.
Styles P is part of a growing list of celebrities—including Jermaine Dupri, RZA, Masta Killa, Paul McCartney, Eve, Kesha, and P!nk—who have teamed up with PETA to promote kindness to animals.
PETA offers a free vegan starter kit (available here) full of recipes, tips, and more. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
