Hunrter Burgan en Peta 2

Peta 2 tuvo la oportunidad de entrevistar a Hunter Buegan sobre su nuevo zapato "Macbeth" y sobre el nuevo disco "Crash love"

We hear that you are Macbeth's new vegan ambassador for 2009. How did the partnership come about?

I've been working with Macbeth for a while now, and I feel like I'm the person to best represent veganism for the company. Either that or I'm just totally forcing myself on them.

Why was it important for you to design an all-vegan shoe, even down to the glue used?
First off, have you ever worn a pair of shoes without glue? They just fall apart. So, if they are going to use glue, it's going to have to be vegan glue. You know, animals don't wear shoes with human glue—it's just disrespectful.

At what moment did you decide that being vegan is the best choice for you and for animals?
Well, I sat down with the animals …. No, actually I've been vegetarian for 16 years and vegan for eight, and from the moment that I realized that you can be vegetarian, I immediately decided that that's what I wanted to do. It just made the most sense to me. It was the most conscientious choice that I could make.

I think that back in 1992, especially where I grew up, it was certainly not easy to be vegan. Now, I think it is so simple. The world has definitely become more vegan-friendly, and now it would just be silly not to be vegan.

Was there a band that influenced you or a video that you saw that triggered it? Or did it just sort of happen?
No, I grew up in a really small, isolated town, and my exposure to things was very limited. I didn't even know what vegan meant until 1994, at which point I was already vegetarian. So naturally, I was very curious about it. I had two friends who were vegan, and they weren't very preachy—which prevented me from learning from them, because they weren't going to explain anything. The one thing that they did provide, though, was a sense that this is a lifestyle you can choose that isn't going to be detrimental to your health. Later, as I was exposed to more bands and whatnot, I continued to learn and read more about it, but there was never a certain band that influenced that.

My transition from being vegetarian into being vegan was very smooth. It took about eight years. In the summer of 2000, I realized, "Hey, wait a second. I can do this; why aren't I doing this?" Let me just say that being in a band with Davey and also touring with bands like Good Riddance showed me, "You can do this; you aren't going to get sick and die."

Being on tour with AFI and Hunter Revenge has given you the opportunity to travel to every major city in the world. In your opinion, what city is the most vegan-friendly?
I would have to say New York. You know, New York has an amazing variety of restaurants and stores. Los Angeles does too, but many people in Southern California have the impression that veganism is just a diet fad: "Oh, vegan, is that the new trend? Should we check that out? Maybe it's raw? I don't know." Some people do not take it seriously. Whereas in New York it's a no-nonsense approach. So I'm going to say New York.

Our "Meat's Not Green" campaign focuses on a report from the U.N. that says factory farming of livestock is the number one cause of climate change and produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation industry combined. Do you have any thoughts on this?
A lot of people, I think, just simply don't know the facts, or are just unwilling to be open to the idea that factory farming is such a major contributor. So, it's good!

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