-
-
related tags:
- slaughterhouses
- Turkeys
- veganism
- farmed animals
- Animal Acres
- Animal Rights - Not Welfare
- Farmed Animal Sanctuaries
- animal exploitation
- calves
- De-Beaking
- FARM SANCTUARY
- Factory farming
- Cows
- hens
- Animal Cruelty Investigations
- Mercy for Animals
- animal cruelty
- Piglets
- Battery Cages
- Veal Calves
- Egg Farms
- Farmed Animals Sanctuaries
- Chickens
- Steer
- Animal Rights = Veganism
- factory farms
- dairy farms
- Lambs
- Sentient Beings
- Animal Protection
- Animal Rights
- Pigs
- Goats
- Dairy Cows
- Dog Meat
- dairy products
- "Humane" Killing
- Gentle Barn
- Egg-Laying Hens
- Vegan Diet
- animal brutality
- animal torture
- Sheep
- animal sanctuaries
- humane education
- animal compassion
- Animal Slaughter
- chicks
- Humane Treatment of Animals
- Undercover Video
tagged w/ Go Vegan!
-
Ever-Changing/Increasing List of Vegan "Notables"
Wikipedia...
.
List of Vegans
.
This is a list of notable people who are reported to have adhered to a vegan diet at some point during their lifetime, listed by nationality.
.Wikipedia... . List of Vegans . This is a list of notable people... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 30 days ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Animal Acres
. Animal Acres is a lovely, inspiring farmed animal sanctuary. .-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 1 month ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Chinese Restaurant Busted For Serving Dog Meat
[IMG]http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m265/Plukx/korea-dog-meat.jpg[/IMG]
Fido, Rover & Lassie On the Menu watch video at link
http://waneenterprises.ning.com/video/chinese-restaurant-busted-for-serving-dog-meat[IMG]http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m265/Plukx/korea-dog-meat.jpg[/IMG] Fido,... more-
- Wizzane
- added this
- 2 months ago
- |
- 20 comments
-
-
Bees Without Borders Is Spreading The Gospel Of Beekeeping Around The World
Co.Exist. ...
.
Bees Without Borders Is Spreading The Gospel Of Beekeeping Around The World
Take a look at the organization sending beekeeping missions around the world. If all our bees are going to die, it’s important that we preserve everyone else’s (and get them some honey profits in the process).
Even if you, for some insane reason, hate honey and never touch a drop of the stuff, you’ve probably eaten a bee-pollinated food today. Coconut? Bee pollinated. Almonds? Those too. Soybeans? Another bee-pollinated product. The list goes on. But our bee supply is in trouble. A slew of problems, including viruses, fungi, and pesticide poisoning, are threatening to kill off the bees, putting the world’s food supply in peril.
Bees Without Borders, a nonprofit founded by New York City beekeeper Andrew Coté, aims to grow the number of beekeepers in impoverished areas--a move that will help communities gain new sources of income (from honey production) and help ensure that at least some bees survive in the face of colony collapse disorder, a recent phenomenon where bees disappear permanently from their hives.
Bees Without Borders volunteers have been all over the world--Iraq, India, Uganda, and most recently Kenya--in an attempt to preserve the art of beekeeping through education.
In an expedition this past January that was partially funded by the Buy a Bottle, Save a Bee campaign, Bees Without Borders brought bee suits, a solar wax melter, hive tools, smokers, and a beehive to Kenya’s Samburu tribe. The tribe had been keeping bees for hundreds of years, but didn’t know much about modern beekeeping techniques (i.e., the Langstroth hive, which has been around since the 1800s) until Bees Without Borders arrived. The tribe had previously been given dozens of Langstroth hives, but didn’t know how to use them until the nonprofit arrived.
The hope is that expeditions like this will help local beekeepers to increase honey yield and make more money. Coté told The New York Times in 2008: “We may not be able to do much more than lay some ground for the future. Slowly, well-tended colonies of pollinators can help bring back devastated areas. And honey is always a miracle. It’s the one food on earth that does not spoil. It can be eaten, sold, traded for just the tiniest edge to survive.”
While Bees Without Borders doesn’t have much money outside of donations, it’s gradually spreading the beekeeping gospel--something that can be a real moneymaker if you know how to use it. Another trip to Kenya is planned for next year.
.Co.Exist. ... . Bees Without Borders Is Spreading The Gospel Of Beekeeping... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 4 months ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Butterball Turkey Farm Raided As a Result of Underground Video Filmed by Mercy For Animals (November/December 2011)
ButterballAbuse.com...
Mercy For Animals....
.
Butterball has become synonymous with turkey. But how do the millions of turkeys who end up in the grocery store, or served at restaurants, under the Butterball brand, really live and die?
A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation reveals the truth: extreme cruelty and violence is the harsh reality for birds on Butterball's factory farms.
Between November and December of 2011, an MFA undercover investigator documented a pattern of shocking abuse and neglect at a Butterball turkey semen collection facility in Shannon, North Carolina.
Hidden-camera footage taken at Butterball reveals:
Workers violently kicking and stomping on birds, dragging them by their fragile wings and necks, and maliciously throwing turkeys onto the ground or into transport trucks in full view of company management;
Employees bashing in the heads of live birds with metal bars, leaving many to slowly suffer and die from their injuries;
Turkeys covered in flies, living in their own waste, with some unable to access food or water and suffering from severe feather loss
Birds suffering from serious untreated illnesses and injuries, including open sores, infections, rotting eyes, and broken bones; and
Severely injured turkeys, unable to stand up or walk, left to die without any veterinary care, because treating sick or injured birds was too costly and time consuming, as the farm manager explained to MFA's investigator.
After viewing the undercover footage, Dr. Sara Shields, research scientist, poultry specialist and consultant in animal welfare, said, "Turkeys are fully capable of feeling pain, fear, stress and of suffering, and the way they are treated in the video is clearly abusive."
Dr. Debra Teachout, a practicing veterinarian with experience in farmed-animal welfare, agrees, stating, "The birds are not living a life remotely worth living. Their world is full of fear, distress, pain, injury and illness as witnessed by this video. A culture of blatant and severe animal mistreatment has been allowed to flourish unchecked, and for that reason, this facility should be shut down immediately."
Following the investigation, MFA immediately went to law enforcement with extensive video footage and a detailed legal complaint outlining the routine violence and cruelty documented by the investigator at this Butterball facility. On Thursday, December 29, state law enforcement officials obtained a warrant and raided the facility on grounds of cruelty to animals.
Unfortunately, the lives of turkeys in Butterball's factory farms are short, brutal and filled with fear, violence and prolonged suffering. While wild turkeys are sleek, agile and able to fly, Butterball's turkeys have been selectively bred to grow so large, so quickly, that many of them suffer from painful bone defects, hip joint lesions, crippling foot and leg deformities, and fatal heart attacks.
This genetic manipulation creates birds that are so large they cannot even reproduce naturally, meaning that artificial semen collection and insemination have become the sole means of turkey reproduction at Butterball facilities.
Even though domestic turkeys have been genetically manipulated for enormous growth, these birds still retain their gentle, inquisitive and social natures. Oregon State University poultry scientist Dr. Tom Savage says that turkeys are "smart animals with personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings." In fact, animal behaviorists, veterinarians, and scientists now agree that turkeys are sensitive and intelligent animals with their own unique personalities, much like the dogs and cats we all know and love.
While MFA works to expose and end animal abuse at Butterball and other giants of the meat, dairy and egg industry, consumers can help prevent the needless suffering of turkeys and other animals by adopting a compassionate vegan diet.
.
.
http://a.abcnews.com/images/Blotter/ht_butterball_abuse_tk_111228_wg.jpg
.
.
Click here to view undercover video:
http://www.butterballabuse.com
.ButterballAbuse.com... Mercy For Animals.... . Butterball has become... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 5 months ago
- |
- 34 comments
-
-
Obama Legalizes Horse Slaughter for Human Consumption
Technorati...
Obama Legalizes Horse Slaughter for Human Consumption
Author: madeline bernstein
Published: November 28, 2011 at 2:52 pm
.
Horse slaughter plants are legal again in the United States. Restrictions on horse meat processing for human consumption have been lifted.
In a bipartisan effort, the House of Representatives and the United States Senate approved the Conference Committee report on spending bill H2112, which among other things, funds the United States Department of Agriculture. On November 18th, as the country was celebrating Thanksgiving, President Obama signed a law, allowing Americans to kill and eat horses. Essentially, one turkey was pardoned in the presence of worldwide media while in the shadows, buried under pages of fiscal regulation, millions of horses were sentenced to death.
Horse slaughter has been prohibited in the United States as funding for inspections of horses in transit and at slaughter houses was non-existent. This worked because the horse meat cannot be sold for human consumption without such inspections. The House version of the bill retained the de-funding language and the Senate version did not. The conference committee charged with reconciling the two opted to not include it. The result is that it is now legal to slaughter horses for humans to eat.
Notwithstanding that 70% of Americans oppose horse slaughter, that President Obama made a campaign promise to permanently ban horse slaughter and exports of horses for human consumption (horses can be sent to Mexico and Canada), that documentation of animal cruelty, slaughterhouse stench, fluid runoff and negative community impact exists, it is taxpayers that will bear the costs!
Wyoming state representative Sue Wallis and her pro-slaughter group estimate that between 120,000 and 200,000 horses will be killed for human consumption per year and that Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Georgia and Missouri, are considering opening slaughter plants.
During these trying times, is the only thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on is that Americans need to eat horses?
.
Read more: http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/obama-legalizes-horse-slaughter-for-human/#ixzz1fG00lE9y
.Technorati... Obama Legalizes Horse Slaughter for Human Consumption Author:... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 6 months ago
- |
- 192 comments
-
-
University of North Texas First to Open All-Vegan Cafeteria
Newser...
Texas College Opens All-Vegan Cafeteria
By John Johnson, Newser Staff
Posted Aug 19, 2011 6:02 PM CDT
(Newser) – A sign of the times, and possibly the makings of an epic food fight: The University of North Texas is opening a cafeteria devoted exclusively to vegan fare—and it appears to be the first such college dining hall in the nation, reports Inside Higher Ed. This being Texas, the school also is opening a separate hall that will specialize in fried chicken and barbecue.
Still, the vegan decision is winning praise from the likes of PETA and marks a general trend of college students requesting meatless options, notes the journal. Many campuses offer vegan or vegetarian options within a larger cafeteria, but North Texas "wanted to step outside the box a little bit and take it to that next level," says a school official. A certain former president would no doubt approve.
.Newser... Texas College Opens All-Vegan Cafeteria By John Johnson, Newser... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 9 months ago
- |
- 2 comments
-
-
From Omnivore to Vegan: The Education of President Bill Clinton | Video
From omnivore to vegan: The dietary education of Bill Clinton
By David S. Martin, CNN
August 18, 2011 7:15 a.m. EDT
CNN...
Editor's note: Tune in as Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores the signs, tests and lifestyle changes that could make cardiac problems a thing of the past on "The Last Heart Attack," Sunday 8 p.m. ET.
[Click on photo to watch video.]
.
(CNN) -- By the time he reached the White House, Bill Clinton's appetite was legend. He loved hamburgers, steaks, chicken enchiladas, barbecue and french fries but wasn't too picky. At one campaign stop in New Hampshire, he reportedly bought a dozen doughnuts and was working his way through the box until an aide stopped him.
Former President Clinton now considers himself a vegan. He's dropped more than 20 pounds, and he says he's healthier than ever. His dramatic dietary transformation took almost two decades and came about only after a pair of heart procedures and some advice from a trusted doctor.
His dietary saga began in 1993, when first lady Hillary Clinton decided to inaugurate a new, healthier diet for her husband. In a meeting, she asked Dr. Dean Ornish to work with the White House chefs, who were accustomed to high fat, French cuisine.
"The president did like unhealthy foods, and we were able to put soy burgers in White House, for example, and get foods that were delicious and nutritious," said Ornish, director and president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California. Other new menu items included such healthy fare as stir fry vegetables with tofu, and salmon with vegetables.
Even with the revamped White House menu, Clinton battled his weight throughout his two terms as president. At his annual physical in 1999, the White House physician noted the president had put on 18 pounds since a checkup two years earlier. The prescription: refocus on exercise and a low-calorie diet.
Clinton didn't know it, but weight was not his biggest health concern. The 42nd president has a family history of heart disease, and plaque was building up in the coronary arteries leading to his heart, undetected by White House doctors.
In 2004, less than four years after leaving office, the 58-year-old Clinton felt what he described as a tightness in his chest as he returned home from New Orleans, where he was promoting his memoir, "My Life." Days later, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery to restore blood flow to his heart.
"I was lucky I did not die of a heart attack," Clinton told CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. After the surgery, the former president cut down on his calories and lowered the cholesterol in his diet, but his heart troubles were not over.
Last year, the former president went to Haiti to support the relief efforts but he felt weak. When he returned home, he learned he needed another heart procedure: two stents to open one of the veins from his bypass surgery, which had become, in Clinton's words, "pretty bent and ugly."
Ornish recalls meeting with Clinton a few days after his angioplasty. "I shared with him that because of his genetics, moderate changes in diet and lifestyle weren't enough to keep his disease from progressing. However, our research showed that more intensive changes change actually reverse progression of heart disease in most people."
"I told him, 'The friends that mean the most to me are the ones that tell me what I need to hear, not necessarily what I want to hear. And you need to know your genes are not your fate. And I say this not to blame you but to empower you. And I'm happy to work with you to whatever extent you want,'" Ornish recalled. They met a few days later, he said.
"I essentially concluded that I had played Russian roulette," Clinton said, "because even though I had changed my diet some and cut down on the caloric total of my ingestion and cut back on much of the cholesterol in the food I was eating, I still -- without any scientific basis to support what I did -- was taking in a lot of extra cholesterol without knowing if my body would produce enough of the enzyme to support it, and clearly it didn't or I wouldn't have had that blockage. So that's when I made a decision to really change."
The former president now says he consumes no meat, no dairy, no eggs, almost no oil.
"I like the vegetables, the fruits, the beans, the stuff I eat now," Clinton told Gupta.
The former president's goal is to avoid any food that could damage his blood vessels. His dietary guides are Ornish and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., who directs the cardiovascular prevention and reversal program at The Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. Both doctors have concluded that a plant-based diet can prevent and, in some cases, actually reverse heart disease.
"All my blood tests are good, and my vital signs are good, and I feel good, and I also have, believe it or not, more energy," Clinton said. His latest goal: getting his weight down to 185, what he weighed when he was 13 years old.
Clinton is trying to spread his newfound zeal for healthy eating to children. The Clinton Foundation has teamed up with the American Heart Association and is helping 12,000 schools promote exercise and offer better lunches so decades from now, today's children will not face the same heart troubles he has.
"It's turning a ship around before it hits the iceberg, but I think we're beginning to turn it around," Clinton said.
.From omnivore to vegan: The dietary education of Bill Clinton By David S. Martin,... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 10 months ago
- |
- 1 comment
-
-
-
I Was Vegan When Vegan Wasn't Kool | Barbara Mandrell Parody
I Was Vegan When Vegan Wasn't Kool-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 11 months ago
- |
- 1 comment
-
-
Whole Foods Market Scam: Why Animal Welfare Isn't Animal RIGHTS
__________________________________________
Please click on the above link, so you can see for yourselves their bullshit ratings charts for what they think of as animal welfare. These poor animals are still killed, and that makes this an issue for animal RIGHTS.
Don't buy into Whole Foods Market's approach. Killing is killing. Exaggeration is exaggeration. Selling is selling. Slaughterhouses are slaughterhouses.
WARNING! There are four graphic photos following WFM's grandiose 5+ steps.
__________________________________________
From their website........
"The more you know about our meat, the better"
At Whole Foods Market, we're dedicated to helping you make informed choices about the food you eat. It's often easy to forget that the burger, steak or drumstick on your plate was once an animal. How was that animal raised? How was it treated? Where did it come from? What about added hormones and antibiotics? Was its growth artificially accelerated to get to market sooner and reduce feed cost? We are committed to answering these questions.
The 5-Step™ Animal Welfare Rating Standards
Global Animal Partnership
We've chosen to partner with Global Animal Partnership to certify our producers' animal welfare practices. We're rolling out their 5-Step™ Animal Welfare Rating Standards in every Whole Foods Market store in the United States.
Global Animal Partnership is a non-profit organization dedicated to continually improving the lives of farm animals. They have developed the 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating Standards that rate how pigs, chickens and cattle are raised for meat. Standards for other species (turkeys, lambs and others) are in development, so stay tuned and be sure to look for Global Animal Partnership 5-Step ratings the next time you stop by our meat department.
It's important to note that getting to Step 1 is a great accomplishment! Step 1 requires more from our farmers and ranchers than we have ever asked before. The Step ratings are assigned by independent third-party certifiers using auditors trained by Global Animal Partnership.
Look for this rating system when you choose our beef, pork or chicken. It's your way of knowing how the animals were raised for the meat you are buying.__________________________________________ Please click on the above link, so you... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 14 comments
-
-
6 Things Oprah Viewers Should Know About Veganism
Catskill Animal Sanctuary Director and Huffington Post Blogger Kathy Stevens shares a few practical tips about veganism with Oprah viewers taking the vegan challenge.
Originally posted at: http://casanctuary.org/2011/02/6-things-oprah-viewers-should-know-about-veganism/
Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m excited about the attention that Oprah’s Tuesday show is bringing to veganism, a lifestyle to which I’m passionately committed. And I’m equally excited to do my part to support anyone eager to consider making this life-affirming, health-affirming, planet-saving change! So here, in no particular order, are six things you need to know about veganism.
1. Help is everywhere you turn! There’s a whole web-based world eager to THANK YOU and to hold your hand on this exciting journey! If you’re inclined to begin at the beginning and learn what we’re doing to the animals, I heartily recommend these books: Eating Animals, Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals, Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy, and The Food Revolution. There are countless others. Do your own google search. Rather watch a film? Try: Death on a Factory Farm, Glass Walls, or Earthlings. Want to bypass the suffering and instead see cows, pigs, and chickens (and a host of other critters) for who they truly are? Check out my books: Where the Blind Horse Sings and the newly-released Animal Camp: Lessons in Love and Hope From Rescued Farm Animals. Don’t think it’s possible to love a pig? You’ve got some surprises coming!
2. You CAN treat your tastebuds! At least once a month for the last dozen years, my dad calls and asks, “Whatcha havin’ for dinner tonight? Sticks and leaves?” Folks: let’s dispel the myth that veggie cuisine is bland!! For general info and advice about nutrition, try the Vegetarian Resource Group, Savvy Vegetarian, VegSource, or The North American Vegetarian Society. To bypass the BS and get right down to cookin’, try these recipe databases: VegWeb, International Vegetarian Union, and VegFamily. Finally, check the Catskill Animal Sanctuary website, for regular updates from Chef Kevin Archer, director of Compassionate Cuisine. Far as we know, Catskill Animal Sanctuary is the only sanctuary in the world to offer a vegan cooking program. Join us, either onsite or via podcast, coming in February!
3. You can date without committing! Not sure you’re ready to strip the fridge bare? There’s nothing wrong with dating before you commit. Try choosing vegetarian restaurants to discover how varied and delicious veggie diets can be! Happy Cow is a database of vegan, vegetarian, and veg-friendly restaurants around the world. Just plug in your city or zip code and the distance radius you wish to search. If you’re a New Yorker, you’ll love SuperVegan’s “The Amazing Instant New York City Vegan Restaurant Finder“.
My advice? Choose the vegetarian and vegan restaurants rather those that have “vegan options.” You’ll find that restaurants truly committed to the lifestyle offer far more inventive, satisfying meals. Go ahead: tantalize your tastebuds!! Check out the menus from my favorite local restaurants: Garden Café in Woodstock, Luna 61 in Tivoli, and Karma Road in New Paltz.
4. A word of caution: Vegan does not equal healthy. There’s a lot of processed vegan CRAP out there filled with ingredients I can’t pronounce (and I ain’t stupid!). If you want to use this opportunity to take charge of your health, focus on simple, whole foods. Want some great advice? Grab a copy of my pal Kris Carr‘s just-released, New York Times-bestselling Crazy Sexy Diet: Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It!
5. A new, better you awaits! I may not know you, but I know this about you: you’re a good person who values kindness, and who likely works hard to ensure that your actions embody this highly-cherished value. Just for a moment, let in the uncomfortable notion that every time you eat an animal, you’re subjecting an innocent sentient being–an animal who, when you get right down to it, is very much like us in ways that count–to a level of suffering you wouldn’t wish upon a child molester or rapist. Acknowledge your role in the suffering, and when you choose to go vegan, celebrate your choice to honor not only the animals, but also, and most importantly, yourself, for in embracing veganism, you’ll be aligning your lifestyle with the values you prize most deeply. And that feels good.
6. It’s okay to stumble. Let’s face it: change is challenging! Even vegan poster girl Alicia Silverstone has stumbled a few times – and that ‘s OK!! As someone who took several years to go vegan, I know what the resistance is about: habit, convenience, concern about family members’ reactions, lack of knowledge about what else to cook. If you decide to take the plunge, or even just to dip your toe in the water, be prepared to encounter resistance, even if it’s just from, well, your own noggin. Be kind to yourself in your heroic effort to be kind to all beings and to the fragile planet we inhabit..
The vegan train’s pullin’ out of the station people! Grab a seat for the ride of your life, and be sure to tell us about your journey.Catskill Animal Sanctuary Director and Huffington Post Blogger Kathy Stevens shares a... more-
- markandphil
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 3 comments
-
-
You've Come a Long Way, Vegan | Vegan Diets Becoming More Popular, More Mainstream
washingtonpost.com
By MICHAEL HILL
The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 5, 2011; 2:47 PM
-- You've come a long way, vegan.
Once mocked as a fringe diet for sandal-wearing health food store workers, veganism is moving from marginal to mainstream in the United States.
The vegan "Skinny Bitch" diet books are best-sellers, vegan staples like tempeh and tofu can be purchased at just about any supermarket, and some chain restaurants eagerly promote their plant-only menu items. Today's vegans are urban hipsters, suburban moms, college students, even professional athletes.
"It's definitely more diverse. It's not what you would picture 20 years ago, which is kind of hippie, crunchy," said Isa Chandra Moskowitz, author of vegan cookbooks like the new "Appetite for Reduction." She says it's easier being a vegan now because there is more local produce available and more interesting ways of cooking.
"It's not just steamed vegetables anymore and brown rice and lentils," she said.
Veganism is essentially hard-core vegetarianism. While a vegetarian might butter her bagel or eat a cake made with eggs, vegans shun all animal products: No meat, no cheese, no eggs, no honey, no mayonnaise. Ethical vegans have a moral aversion to harming animals for human consumption, be it for a flank steak or leather shoes, though the term often is used to describe people who follow the diet, not the larger philosophy.
It's difficult to come up with hard numbers of practicing vegans. There's a blurry line between people who define themselves as vegan and vegetarian and some eaters dip in and out plant-only diets. For instance, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman has described his "vegan till 6" health plan, in which he becomes more omnivorous in the evening.
In a 2009 survey, advocates at the not-for-profit Vegetarian Resource Group reported about 1 percent of Americans are vegan, roughly a third of the people who reported being vegetarians. A separate survey released last year by the same group found a similar breakdown for Americans aged 8 to 18.
That makes veganism something short of a fad sweeping the nation like low-carb once did. Consider that while Kraft Foods reports that it shipped out more Boca Original Vegan Burger Patties and Boca Ground Crumbles last year, the increase was a modest 1 percent. Still, there are plenty of signs that vegans have pushed beyond their old, exclusive cocoon that once inspired celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain to mock them as the "Hezbollah-like splinter faction" of vegetarians.
Exhibit A would be the "Skinny Bitch" diet books, which provide vegan lifestyle tips in a blunt, girlfriend-on-the-phone style (Sample passage: "Soda is liquid Satan. It is the devil."). Actress Alicia Silverstone added a dose of star power to the vegan cause more recently with "The Kind Diet," a No. 1 best-seller. Vegan diets also have been touted by other celebrities, including Emily Deschanel in "Bones" and Lea Michele of "Glee."
Veganism has been buoyed by the same health-conscious wave that has drawn Americans in unprecedented numbers to low-fat, vegetarian and organic foods. The idea of eating lower on the food chain is especially attractive to environmentally conscious consumers, since large-scale meat production is a major source of greenhouse gases.
Veganism also provides a safe harbor for the growing number of people concerned about where their supermarket meat comes from. Critics of industrial-scale food processing like writer Michael Pollan have been gaining a wider audience in recent years.
And - sign of the times - some famous guys are eating vegan now, too.
Bill Clinton, known for his burger-loving ways when president, has credited his trim build at his daughter Chelsea's wedding this summer to a "plant-based diet" (though he eats a little fish sometimes). Even former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has talked up his vegan diet.
And vegan cookbooks, once a niche product, are coming out at such a fast clip that there are now sub-niches. Da Capo Press' 20 vegan cookbooks in print include one on vegan soul food and another with Latin vegan recipes. A book of vegan recipes containing alcohol, "The Tipsy Vegan" is upcoming.
Abstaining from animal products is an ancient practice found in cultures worldwide. But veganism never got traction in meat-loving America. Tracye McQuirter, a vegan for 23 years and author of "By Any Greens Necessary," a vegan guide aimed at black women, said things were different until about a decade ago. While she was part of a vegan community in her hometown of Washington, she says there was little understanding beyond it.
"People did not know what it meant," McQuirter said. "There were not a lot of options in terms of grocery stores. There was no Whole Foods... We had to basically cook everything for ourselves."
That's changed. More than half the 1,500 chefs polled by the National Restaurant Association for its new "What's Hot in 2011" list included vegan entrees as a hot trend. Vegan entrees came in at No. 71 out of 226 trends (beating out organic beer and drinkable desserts) - that's far from No. 1, but evidence of veganism making inroads beyond urban strongholds like New York City and Los Angeles. Some chain restaurants like Souplantation and Pizza Fusion even mark vegan items on their menus.
In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Roseann Marulli Rodriguez, a blogger for the SuperVegan website, said while there are not many vegan restaurants in her area, her local supermarket has "fake" chicken tenders and "fake" bacon.
"It's definitely widening in scope," said Rodriguez, a recent New York City transplant who has been eating vegan for five years, "and I think that's why more people are doing it, because it's getting easier."washingtonpost.com By MICHAEL HILL The Associated Press Wednesday, January 5,... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 8 comments
-
-
Illegal Gourmet Chimpanzee: Cooking in the Danger Zone
Food journalist Stefan Gates investigates a community appetite for bushmeat in Cameroon. Though it's illegal to hunt or purchase meats from animals like the porcupine, gorilla, and chimpanzee, a local woman explains that she can still get a lot of money for preparing them in secret.
If Vanguard did a food show, it'd be Cooking in the Danger Zone. Gates goes on a worldwide odyssey to check out the crazy (to us) foods that people eat in the far flung corners of the globe. In each episode he samples the culture and meets the locals before diving into the local delicacy.
Tune into Current TV on Sundays at 10pm to watch more.Food journalist Stefan Gates investigates a community appetite for bushmeat in... more-
- MikeBunnell
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 10 comments
-
-
U.S. Marine Fights Vietnam's Dog-Meat Tradition
Los Angeles Times...
Marine fights Vietnam's dog-meat tradition
Robert Lucius is on what may be his toughest mission: trying to convince the Vietnamese that cruelty to dogs is an idea whose time has passed
Robert Lucius
Robert Lucius has started a nonprofit aimed at persuading Vietnamese people to stop eating dog meat. (December 12, 2010)
By Steve Chawkins, Los Angeles Times
December 13, 2010
More than three decades after the war in Vietnam, a Marine named Robert Lucius had a moment of reckoning on the road to Lai Chau.
A naval attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, he was bound for a rural clinic with a donation of medical equipment.
When his car was passed by a motorbike with a wicker basket full of dogs, he locked eyes with one of them. "There was an immediate sense of connection," he said. "You could see the fear, the dread, the helplessness."
A vision raced through his mind: Liberate the dogs. Have his driver overtake the bike and dig into his wallet — anything to keep them from being served up in restaurants down the road.
Lucius, now 42, did nothing. He didn't, he said, want to be seen as a "cultural imperialist" bent on changing a local custom merely because it offended him. But later that day, after a celebratory meal with Vietnamese colleagues, he saw a dog skinned and splayed out on a restaurant kitchen floor.
"That dog was every dog," he said. "Like a light switch, my life flipped … from darkness to light."
Lucius renounced meat. Then he became a vegan. Now, two years after his return from Vietnam, he has started the Kairos Coalition, a nonprofit aimed at ending animal cruelty and making amends for what he sees as his cowardice on the road to Lai Chau that day in 2006.
Kairos is a Greek term loosely translated as "timely opportunity." For Lucius, who today is a lieutenant colonel and assistant provost at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., that means training young people in Vietnam to stage performances about the immorality of animal cruelty. He calls it "humane edutainment."
Like the wandering "culture and drama teams" that Ho Chi Minh employed to rally support decades ago, the Kairos troupe is being trained to use puppets and masks, songs and dance. The members have put on a couple of events and have more scheduled at schools and universities throughout Hanoi.
The idea is to draw audience members into the action, getting them to think about everyday cruelty.
At a workshop in Hanoi last month, Lucius and two American volunteers gave their players a situation that called for quick ethical thinking: A couple comes upon a suffering watchdog, chained outside a shop with no food or water. After discussing a number of alternatives, the actors decided to pressure the shop owner indirectly — by appealing to his neighbors.
One of the subjects that Lucius and his students discussed was the eating of dog meat. It was a touchy area, he said, particularly because of the torture and beatings suffered by many dogs bound for the table. In Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia, some believe that dog meat enhances the male libido — especially if the dogs are stressed before being killed.
"What we did agree on is that it's unnecessary to treat the animals so cruelly in the run-up to the slaughter," said Lucius, who has received a grant from Humane Society International.
Andrea Nguyen, an expert on Vietnamese cooking, said Lucius' group is fighting an uphill battle in taking on the dog-meat tradition.
"I certainly respect his effort to change people's minds, and Vietnam is indeed changing," said Nguyen, a Santa Cruz cookbook author whose family fled to the United States in 1975.
"On the other hand, there's this whole thing of how wonderful the meat is supposed to taste. Then there's the virility thing, and the fact that it's a longstanding source of protein. He's up against all that."
Dog is not part of everyday cuisine in Vietnam, Nguyen said: "It's nhau — noshing food. It's for when you and your buddies get together on the weekend over some beer, some rice wine, some moonshine."
In Vietnam, as elsewhere, people have consumed dogs and cats in times of privation. But many Vietnamese also have dogs as beloved pets.
"One of my biggest traumas was to leave my dogs behind when I was 11," said Andrew Lam, a Vietnamese American writer based in San Francisco. "We couldn't take them when we fled as refugees."
Lam, whose latest essay collection is "East Eats West," said Lucius' campaign "could be interpreted as a very condescending Western attitude."
"I doubt this one man will be able to change the mindset whatsoever," he said. "I see it as a quixotic effort."
Lucius is an optimist.
"We have a huge animal rights movement here jousting against factory farming, but they're making headway," he said, referring to the U.S. "Some people would say that's quixotic too."
In Asia, he said, local organizations are shifting public opinion against inhumane practices such as extracting bile — a traditional medicine — from the gallbladders of living bears.
As Vietnam prospers and more people have pets, attitudes toward eating dog have changed — but not, Lucius said, fast enough.
He has been a Marine for 22 years, trained to shoot down enemy aircraft and missiles. Then he was selected as a foreign affairs officer for Indonesia and then Vietnam.
In 2008, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals named him "the sexiest vegetarian" in the Marine Corps. He chuckles over the honor, but he's dead serious about the cause: When he retires next year, he may devote himself completely to animal rights.
"My time in the Marines has made me more sensitive," he said. "I've seen how cultures and traditions change over time."Los Angeles Times... Marine fights Vietnam's dog-meat tradition Robert... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 4 comments
-
-
Santa's Secret!
Have you been naughty or nice this year? The answer may surprise you. Santa is watching.
Produced by Ciddy Fonteboa. Directed by Gabriel Sabloff.Have you been naughty or nice this year? The answer may surprise you. Santa is... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
At Thanksgiving, Some Folks Adopt a Turkey Instead of Eating One
At Thanksgiving, some adopt a turkey instead of eating one
By Stephanie Chen, CNN
November 25, 2010 9:04 a.m. EST
Mordecai and Fiona, two heritage turkeys, would have been slaughtered if Joan Poster hadn't adopted them.
(CNN) -- Only two weeks into the adoption, Mordecai and Fiona are already exhibiting distinct personalities.
Mordecai, the male heritage turkey, is outgoing and playful, bobbing his head happily as his neck changes color from bright red to blue, depending on his mood. Fiona, the mellower of the two, prefers to sit next to her new parents.
They will not be on the table this Thanksgiving.
"They are wonderful," says Joan Poster, 66, of Westport, Connecticut, who adopted the turkeys last month from Farm Sanctuary's Adopt-A-Turkey Project. "They are just really sweet turkeys."
Come Thanksgiving, turkey is often a quintessential part of the celebration for many American families. The National Turkey Federation estimates that Americans consumed more than 46 million turkeys last Thanksgiving. Nearly 88 percent of Americans surveyed by the organization say they eat turkey during Thanksgiving.
But a few animal lovers and meatless eaters are saving a turkey this Thanksgiving rather than feasting on one.
Gobbling and hobbling at about 15 pounds each, Mordecai and Fiona are organic heritage breed turkeys, cherished for their rich flavor and colorful plumage. Heritage turkeys have become more popular to eat in recent years, Poster said.
The birds would probably have been Thanksgiving dinner if not for Poster, a veterinarian who does not eat meat, and her husband, Dennis, who figured their spacious farm could be a refuge for the desperate birds.
Poster is one of dozens of volunteers this year who have agreed to welcome a turkey into their home. Since 1986, Farm Sanctuary, a nonprofit that works on saving farm animals from slaughter, has placed more than 600 turkeys into homes through the Adopt-A-Turkey Project.
Animal activists say they do this because the turkeys are often treated inhumanely, living in cramped and unsanitary holdings.
Most of the spared birds are commercial turkeys, bred for the dinner table. Commercial turkeys tend to be larger than wild or heritage turkeys; many of them are overweight because of hormone injections that take them up to about 30 pounds. As pets, commercial turkeys can be more of a challenge since they often suffer from arthritis in their old age.
Like in any proper adoption, volunteers must pass a screening process. Although it's not a requirement, a majority of them are vegetarians or vegans. The individuals must have an adequate facility to care for the bird, such as a barn or a sizable yard. The organization prefers adoptive "parents" who don't have other domestic animals or children who might chase turkeys.
The nonprofit will deliver the turkey to the adoptive homes.
Adopting a turkey, some volunteers say, is no different from having a dog or a cat.
"Thanksgiving is a difficult holiday for vegetarians and for people who care about animals on farms," explains Gene Baur, co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary. "There is this celebration that revolves around these tortured bird bodies. We wanted to come up with a Thanksgiving tradition that honors animals and that is humane and compassionate."
Baur, a vegan, says there are plenty of alternative dishes to turkey. His Thanksgiving meal will be complete with butternut squash, beet casserole, mashed sweet potatoes and a spread of whole-grain breads.
He says the public is becoming more receptive to his turkey adoption project as a burgeoning food revolution -- thanks to films such as "Food, Inc." and "Super Size Me" and books such as "The Omnivore's Dilemma" -- continues to change the way Americans think about food. He points out that alternatives such as Tofurky, a vegetarian "turkey" made of soy, are being substituted for turkey.
The food awareness is a contrast from when Baur started the Adopt-A-Turkey Project in the 1980s. Back then, people were shocked at the idea of liberating a turkey from the farm.
"People thought we were crazy to rescue these animals," he said. " 'Why are you saving them?' You know, that kind of attitude."
Although not every family can welcome a turkey into their home, people can donate money to sponsor a turkey to live at one of Farm Sanctuary's spacious farms in New York and California. The turkeys are placed in a new home along with other pigs, goats and cows the organization has saved from slaughter.
The official tradition of pardoning turkeys has been going on at the White House since 1989. This week, President Obama pardoned two 45-pound turkeys named Apple and Cider. They will live the rest of their lives in Mount Vernon.
Others have taken up the turkey saving cause on their own.
Karen Dawn, an animal rights activist and author in California, rescues two turkeys each Thanksgiving. She drives to the local slaughterhouse, where she purchases the birds for $1.59 a pound. She named the two female commercial turkeys Portia and Ellen after celebrity vegans Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres.
After a few months, she usually donates them to a larger farm that houses rescued animals.
When the fluffy white birds arrived at her home, she washed them in her bathtub and blow-dried their feathers. She lets them live in her backyard, where the children in the neighborhood can visit them.
"They would have been dead in a day or so if they hadn't come home with me," Dawn said.At Thanksgiving, some adopt a turkey instead of eating one By Stephanie Chen, CNN... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Humane Society Accuses Top Turkey Hatchery of Cruel and Inhumane Treatment of Birds
Humane Society accuses top turkey hatchery of abuse
By Emanuella Grinberg, CNN
November 24, 2010 10:40 p.m. EST
The Humane Society says birds at the Willmar Poultry hatchery are subjected to inhumane treatment.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Humane Society investigator shoots undercover video at a turkery hatchery
* Video purports to show live birds tossed in grinder, injured poults left on ground to suffer
* Willmar Poultry head says firm is committed "to meeting or exceeding" industry standards
* Richard VanderSpek says some employees' actions violate company's policies
(CNN) -- Undercover video shot at one of the nation's largest turkey producers shows what an animal rights group calls cruel and inhumane treatment of birds.
The Humane Society of the United States released its findings this week from an 11-day undercover operation in October at the Willmar Poultry Company in Willmar, Minnesota. The hatchery, described on the company's website as the nation's largest, produces more than 30 million poults, or young turkeys, each year and delivers more than 600,000 a week to customers nationwide.
A Humane Society investigator worked at the hatchery and shot video that appears to show employees cutting the toes off poults before tossing them down a chute to a bloody conveyor belt. The video, which is posted on the group's website, also shows an employee scooping up a handful of poults and tossing them into a bin, dropping some on the floor and leaving them there. The video also purports to show an employee pulling a cart of injured animals over to a grinder and throwing them in.
"Our latest investigation exposes a callous disregard for animal welfare in the turkey industry, including practices such as grinding alive sick, injured and even healthy but unwanted turkeys," said Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society of the United States president and CEO. "It's unacceptable for workers to leave injured and nonambulatory animals to suffer on the floor for hours on end, only to then send them to their deaths in a grinder."
Willmar Poultry Company President Richard VanderSpek defended the company's animal welfare practices and policies and said in a statement that the video depicted "the actions of some employees that violate the company's animal welfare policies."
"We condemn any mistreatment of the animals in our care and will take swift action to investigate and address these issues. Willmar Poultry will also review its policies, procedures, employee training and site monitoring to help ensure that our employees understand and follow company animal welfare policies and procedures," VanderSpek said in a statement.
VanderSpek said the company was committed "to meeting or exceeding" industry standards for animal welfare practices and policies, including the National Turkey Federation's Animal Care Guidelines.
"The No. 1 priority for our turkey industry is to provide the safest, highest quality products possible. Therefore, it is essential for the industry to ensure the well-being of the turkeys it raises. Whether it is on the farm or in the processing facility, the turkey industry acts responsibly in the raising, breeding, transporting and processing of all turkeys," he said.Humane Society accuses top turkey hatchery of abuse By Emanuella Grinberg, CNN... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 4 comments
-
-
COK Investigation at a North Carolina Turkey Hatchery | Graphic Video One Day Before Thanksgiving
Video shot by hatchery employee includes scenes of chicks gasping for air as they slowly suffocate in plastic bags. While employed at a North Carolina turkey hatchery that now supplies Butterball, a COK investigator documented the conditions forced upon newly-hatched chicks.
As the investigation video shows, from the moment they're hatched, these turkeys are submerged into a world of misery. Dumped out of metal trays and jostled onto conveyor belts after being mechanically separated from cracked egg shells, the newly-hatched turkeys are tossed around like inanimate objects -- they are sorted, sexed, de-beaked, de-toed, and in some cases de-snooded before they are packed up and shipped off to a "grow out" confinement facility.
The video further reveals that not all chicks survive this harsh process. Countless chicks become mangled from the machinery, suffocated in plastic bags, or deemed "surplus" and dumped (along with injured chicks) into the same disposal system as the discarded egg shells they were separated from hours earlier.Video shot by hatchery employee includes scenes of chicks gasping for air as they... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 3 comments
-
-
Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Free-Range Turkeys
10 Things Everyone Should Know About Free-range Turkeys
posted by: Angel Flinn 1 day ago
Care2.com
Over 280 million turkeys are slaughtered annually for human consumption in the United States, despite the fact that such consumption is unnecessary for humans and absolutely horrifying for turkeys. 45 million of those deaths occur for the ritual of Thanksgiving alone.
Increasingly, as consumers are becoming more aware of the extreme cruelty of animal farming, free-range, organic and ‘natural’ animal products are gaining popularity. What many people don’t realize, however, is that animals raised under these labels frequently suffer through much of the same torment as those in standard factory farming operations.
1) According to the USDA, the terms “free range” and “free roaming” can be used to describe animals that “are allowed access to the outside for 51% of their lives”. There are no other requirements, including the amount of time spent outdoors or the quality and size of the outdoor area. For this reason, contrary to popular belief, “free-range” facilities are generally no more than large sheds in which tens of thousands of turkeys are crammed together on filthy, disease-ridden floors, living in their own waste. The conditions are often so poor that many turkeys die simply from the stress of living in such an environment.
2) Lighting is often kept dim to discourage aggression, since birds can engage in feather plucking and even cannibalism when they become highly stressed. Low lighting can cause reduced activity levels and result in abnormalities in growth, such as in the eyes and legs.
3) When raised for food, turkeys (even those described as free-range) are genetically modified to grow abnormally large -- often twice their normal size -- for producer profits. This genetic modification causes severe health problems, but since turkeys are generally slaughtered five months into their natural life span of 10 years, most are killed prior to the heart attacks or organ failure that would otherwise occur after six months. (This becomes apparent when genetically modified turkeys are rescued and allowed to live out the rest of their lives in sanctuary situations.)
4) “Natural”, “free range,” and “organic” turkeys are routinely subjected to debeaking, which is intended to prevent overcrowded birds from pecking at each other. Debeaking involves slicing off about one-third of a bird’s beak with a red hot blade when the turkey is around 5 days old (or often even younger).
5) To prevent cannibalism due to stressful conditions, turkeys sold under the above labels are just as likely to be subjected to detoeing. Detoeing is a very painful procedure which involves cutting off or microwaving the ends of the toes of male turkeys within the first three days of life.
6) Free-range, organic and natural operations are also allowed to practice desnooding, which consists of the cutting off of the snood (the fleshy appendage above the beak). Desnooding is an acutely painful procedure, and is often done with scissors, or using methods that are too brutal to describe here.
7) By the time the birds are sent to slaughter, as much as 80 per cent of the litter on the floor of the shed is their own feces. This results in a buildup of ammonia, causing turkeys to develop ulcerated feet and painful burns on their legs and bodies.
8) When they reach market weight, free-range turkeys generally undergo the same horrifying conditions on their way to slaughter as does any factory-farmed animal. Workers gather these birds up to four at a time, carrying them upside down by their legs and then throwing them into crates on multi-tiered trucks. During transport, they are at the mercy of the elements, sometimes enduring extreme cold, and are denied access to food or water.
9) After transportation, free-range turkeys arrive at the same slaughterhouses as turkeys from any other facility. In these places, workers often torture the turkeys – kicking them, throwing them into walls, and breaking their necks and bones.
10) Even when turkeys are not intentionally tortured during transportation or at the slaughterhouse, the killing process itself would certainly be considered torture if done to a human being. The birds are hung upside down by the legs, and dipped in an electrical bath that is supposed to “stun” them, but often only causes convulsions and terror. If they miss the stunning bath, their throats are slit while they’re still conscious. Sometimes, because they are flailing around, they miss both the bath and the blade, and end up alive in a scalding tank designed to remove feathers.
As anyone familiar with animal sanctuary operations will tell you, turkeys are intelligent, social beings who nurture and protect their young and thrive in their natural habitat. Even when they are stressed and confined in “free-range” concentration camps, they have an amazing will to live, as do all sentient beings.
In the extremely rare cases where turkeys are raised gently in someone’s backyard, slaughter by any method is intentional killing of the innocent and clearly unnecessary for humans, and is therefore wrong and logically indistinguishable from murder.
Instead of practicing the primitive ritual of making the sacrifice of a turkey the focus of Thanksgiving dinner, consider giving thanks for all life by having a vegan thanksgiving. Being vegan inspires a new sense of self-esteem which comes from not contributing to the unnecessary and heartless killing of those who simply want to live their lives, as you do.
with Dan Cudahy10 Things Everyone Should Know About Free-range Turkeys posted by: Angel Flinn 1 day... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 27 comments
-
