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Pass the veggies, please
The Columbus Dispatch
April 23, 2008
Most days at lunch, Burson Sprague finds the selections in the school cafeteria tough to swallow.
The sixth-grader from Milford Center isn't a picky eater. He's a vegetarian.
The 11-year-old doesn't eat beef, fish or poultry.
While he opts for pasta or a salad from home, his classmates usually munch on items such as corn dogs or pepperoni pizza -- foods that he prefers not to touch or smell.
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Loyola Students Speak For Animal Rights
Loyola Writes
March 27, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, as a part of this spring’s Seasons of Non-Violence lecture series, Heather Patrick, the Chicago campaign coordinator of Mercy for Animals, spoke in Galvin Auditorium about the inhumane treatment of animals used for food consumption.
“I think in terms of non-violence, we often think about it as a theory or an ideal and not as something that we can practice in our everyday life,” Patrick said. “But there are nonviolent choices we can make about the food we eat everyday in order to counter the violence that occurs in our society.”
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Recipe for climate change
Minnesota Daily
March 27, 2008
Climate change has emerged as perhaps the single biggest threat to the future of our planet and its inhabitants. While some may view it as a distant problem, its effects have already begun to take their toll.
Given the breadth and urgency of climate change and its impact, what actions can we as individuals take to mitigate this crisis? Just as consumers have switched to compact fluorescent light bulbs and are driving and flying less, each of us can, and must, take a closer look at the amount of meat, egg and dairy products we consume and how they were produced.
Click here to read the entire article.
Vegetarian friendly
Fast Casual
March 25, 2008
Since 1990, the number of strict vegetarians in the U.S. has hardly fluctuated. But the demand for meat-free meals has spiked, and restaurants have responded by ramping up the number of vegetarian items on their menus.
An estimated 1.5 percent of the U.S. population is vegetarian, says Harry Balzer, vice president of The NPD Group, a consumer and retail market research organization. That percentage does not account for the vast number of people who frequently choose to forgo meat for the day. According to The NPD Group, less than a third of American meals and snacks include meat, fish or poultry.
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Slaughterhouse had previous abuse citations
MSNBC
March 12, 2008
Excerpt:
Two of Mendell's employees were caught on undercover video abusing disabled, or "downer" cows with forklifts, water hoses and electric prods. The graphic torture of the sick animals triggered the nation's largest beef recall last month and forced Mendell to shut down the plant, now under federal investigation.
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Vegan dinner shocks, inspires
The Lantern
February 21, 2008
Tiffany Langenderfer showed support for her boyfriend's vegetarian lifestyle by accompanying him to the Ohio State chapter of Mercy for Animals' monthly dinner and presentation in Derby Hall Tuesday night.
The theme of the evening, Animal Defense is Common Sense, was devoted to raising awareness of the abuses that occur within the pork industry.
Langenderfer clutched his hand and had to look away from the video of a 600-pound pig being bludgeoned repeatedly in the head with a lead pipe. Its throat was slit, then the pig was skinned alive with a small cutting utensil no bigger than an exacto knife.
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Animal rights groups sues egg producer, trade group over logo
AP
February 20, 2008
TRENTON, N.J. - An animal rights group said Wednesday it is suing a large egg producer and an industry trade group, accusing them of breaking New Jersey's consumer fraud law and violating legal agreements with the federal government and 16 states by using a questionable claim on egg cartons.
Click here to read the entire article.
Vegan Valentine: Healthier Sweets for Everyone
NPR
February 6, 2008
Today's vegan sweets bear little resemblance to the heavy, fruit-and-nut-filled offerings I remember from my college co-op — and thank goodness for that. As more people are diagnosed with food allergies or have to limit their fat intake due to cholesterol or other issues, vegan options are cropping up at coffee shops and even some non-vegetarian restaurants. In short, vegan has become more hip than fringe.
Not to mention that it's kind of fun to put a twist on classic recipes and adapt them to suit new needs and tastes.
Click here to read the entire article.
Vegetarian lifestyle catching on
Beacon Journal
February 2, 2008
The love of pets has led more than a few local folks to make hard choices where their diet is concerned.
The link between animal people and the vegetarian lifestyle is nothing new, but perhaps more obvious since Akron rocker Chrissie Hynde opened her flashy new restaurant, VegiTerranean at Northside.
Click here to read the entire article.
Video Reveals Violations of Laws, Abuse of Cows at Slaughterhouse
Washington Post
January 30, 2008
Video footage being released today shows workers at a California slaughterhouse delivering repeated electric shocks to cows too sick or weak to stand on their own; drivers using forklifts to roll the "downer" cows on the ground in efforts to get them to stand up for inspection; and even a veterinary version of waterboarding in which high-intensity water sprays are shot up animals' noses -- all violations of state and federal laws designed to prevent animal cruelty and to keep unhealthy animals, such as those with mad cow disease, out of the food supply.
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The 247 lb. Vegan
The Wall Street Journal
January 25, 2008
The protein-rich bounty of the football training table is supposed to grow the biggest and strongest athletes in professional sports. Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Tony Gonzalez was afraid it was going to kill him. "It's the Catch-22," says Mr. Gonzalez, 31. "Am I going to be unhealthy and play football? Or be healthy and get out of the league?"
So last year, on the eve of the biggest season of his career, Mr. Gonzalez embarked on a diet resolution that smacked head-on with gridiron gospel as old as the leather helmet. He decided to try going vegan.
Click here to read the entire article.
Are you eating your way to global warming?
lexpress.com
January 23, 2008
Which causes more greenhouse gas emissions, rearing cattle or driving cars?
Surprise! According to British physicist Alan Calverd, giving up pork chops, lamb cutlets and chicken burgers would do more for the environment than burning less oil and gas - “global warming could be controlled if we all became vegetarians and stopped eating meat”, he writes in the monthly Physics World.
Click here to read the entire article.
Eating As If the Climate Mattered
AlterNet
January 23, 2008
Last week in our nation's capital, the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) held a climate change conference focused on solutions to the problem of human-induced climate change. And in Paris the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is sharing the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, held a press conference to discuss to discuss "the importance of lifestyle choices" in combating global warming.
Notably, all food at the NCSE conference was vegan, and there were table-top brochures with quotes from the U.N. report on the meat industry, discussed more below. And the IPCC head, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri declared, as the AFP sums it up, "Don't eat meat, ride a bike, and be a frugal shopper."
Click here to read the entire article.
Check That Chicken Nugget: It Might Just Be a Plant
Washington Post
January 9, 2008
To meet the rising demand for more salubrious cuisine, mock meats have been vastly improving and evolving, earning a place on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food pyramid (look under "Meat & Beans") and in the kitchens of many professional and home chefs. From 1992 to 2006, the Soyfoods Association of North America reported a spike in soy food sales from $300 million to $3.9 billion nationwide. Soy also received a boost in 1999, when the Food and Drug Administration approved the health claim that the protein reduces heart disease. A soy chicken a day. . . .
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The true cost of cheap chicken
The Independent
January 4, 2008
A covertly filmed video of factory-farmed chickens struggling to walk and enduring distressing and unnatural conditions is set to ignite a growing campaign to improve the lives of Britain's 800 million "broiler" chickens.
The animal welfare group Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) shot the film at a farm which supplies meat to the country's leading supermarkets to illustrate the grim life inside chicken "coops" designed for 25,000 to 50,000 birds.
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Still Skinny, but Now They Can Cook
New York Times
January 2, 2008
GRAPEFRUIT, cabbage soup and maple syrup have had their moments. Now a new weight-loss ingredient is all the rage: Rage.
“Skinny Bitch,” a diet book that is political, profane, passionately pro-animal rights — and hard-core vegan to boot — was published in 2005 and sold more than 850,000 copies. With its drawing of a svelte “Sex and the City” type on the cover, “Skinny Bitch” looked like a beach read, but it read like boot camp.
The authors, Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman, dressed readers down for following low-fat and low-carb diets, drinking diet soda, entrusting their health to the Food and Drug Administration, and most of all for ignoring the miserable realities of the American meat and dairy industries.
Click here to read the entire article.
Taking Global Warming Personally
The Huffington Post
November 28, 2007
After the tradition of Thanksgiving overindulgence, wouldn't it be nice if we had a good reason other than vanity to start eating healthfully, some other incentive to help us get on a better track in the wellness arena? Luckily, the United Nations just gave us one.
The U.N.'s latest report on global warming has bad news and good news. On the downside, a lot of scary stuff is heading for us at breakneck speed. On the upside, we still have time to do something about it -- and one thing we can all do is actually fun and delicious.
Click here to read the entire article.
Undercover at a Turkey Slaughter Plant
Scoop
November 20, 2007
The alarms rings at 3:45 AM. I reach for the ibuprofen. Without it my hands are too sore and swollen to even close....much less hold a turkey's legs. Wearing a pair of rubber gloves, cotton gloves and taping them doesn't help when you're banging into shackles all day. The flesh is still raw and exposed.
I dress with the video cam that's become part of my daily outfit carefully hidden and fortify myself with enough food to get through the work day.
When we arrive at House of Raeford the trucks full of live turkeys are already waiting to be unloaded; it's not even 5:30 AM.
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Vegetarians, Meat-Eaters Dig In To Send Sales of Tofurky Soaring
The Washington Post
November 17, 2007
Seth Tibbott was just an ordinary hippie living in a treehouse when inspiration struck.
The year was 1986, and Tibbott had hoped for six years that his small business selling vegetarian meat alternatives in rural Washington state would catch on. Success proved elusive -- the treehouse was the only place he could afford to live -- until he developed a soy-based version of the traditional Thanksgiving turkey. He called it Tofurky.
Click here to read the entire article.
Water we waiting for?
Philadelphia Daily News
November 16, 2007
WATER IS the one thing none of us can live without. But it now seems the well may be running dry, and closer to home than expected.
Water woes in developing countries are no secret. But the Associated Press recently noted the U.S. government's prediction that 36 states, including Pennsylvania, will have a water shortage within five years. Even now, a drought in Georgia has led to severe cutbacks, governmental prayers for rain and an ongoing "water war" with Florida and Alabama.
Click here to read the entire article.
Tips for teens on becoming vegetarian
PhillyBurbs.com
November 15, 2007
Teens around the world are increasingly making the transition to a vegetarian lifestyle. But like any diet, vegetarianism requires that teens develop good eating habits. With the right knowledge, teens can become vegetarians without relying on a diet of soda and potato chips.
Being a teen vegetarian can be healthy and rewarding. The American Dietetic Association says, "Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence".
Here are some tips for embarking on a well-planned vegetarian diet.
Click here to read the entire article.
Hanging of pigs prompts complaints
AP
October 22, 2007
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Animal rights groups are calling for the Iowa Department of Agriculture to investigate a veterinarian who they claim testified in an Ohio court that a pig farm humanely killed hogs by strangling them to death.
The groups, including the Humane Farming Association, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and The Humane Society of the United States, are calling for sanctions against Dr. Paul Armbrecht, a veterinarian in Lake City, Iowa.
Click here to read the entire article.
Article: More young people go the vegetarian route
USA Today
October 15, 2007
Excerpt:
There is not a glut of research and statistics on vegetarian children and their diet habits, but a poll by independent market research firm Harris Interactive in 2005 showed that 3% of Americans ages 8 to 18 are vegetarians — meaning they do not eat meat, poultry or fish but may consume eggs and dairy. That figure is up 1% from a previous poll.
Many nutrition experts say they've seen changes in the food landscape over the past five to 10 years that suggest a growing popularity of vegetarianism among young people. Families with herbivore children say it has become much less taxing to find kid-friendly vegetarian staples — such as soy milk, meat-free broths, lard-free refried beans and veggie burgers — in mainstream grocery stores.
Click here to read the entire article.
Killer cow emissions
Los Angeles Times
October 15, 2007
It's a silent but deadly source of greenhouse gases that contributes more to global warming than the entire world transportation sector, yet politicians almost never discuss it, and environmental lobbyists and other green activist groups seem unaware of its existence.
That may be because it's tough to take cow flatulence seriously. But livestock emissions are no joke.
Click here to read the entire article.
Eating Less Meat May Slow Climate Change
Associated Press
September 12, 2007
LONDON — Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on Thursday.
In a special energy and health series of the medical journal The Lancet, experts said people should eat fewer steaks and hamburgers. Reducing global red meat consumption by 10 percent, they said, would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming.
Click here to read the entire article.
Kids: The New Vegetarians
Good Morning America
August 29, 2007
There are many reasons why teens choose a vegetarian lifestyle, including health concerns and love for animals. Whatever the reason, their numbers are surprisingly high, especially for girls.
The American Dietetic Association estimates that a whopping 11 percent of girls, ages 13 to 17, have given up meat and meat products.
Click here to read the entire article.
The Vegan Crusade
Tucson Weekly
August 16, 2007
When it comes to weaning people off meat, animal-rights activists are finding that the soft touch yields better results than clubbing people upside the head like seals. Activists' tactics have evolved during the past decade, as groups have broadened their focus from areas like fashionable furs and scientific vivisection to the food supply. At the same time, they've embraced incremental progress by working through the government at all levels, with fewer shocking stunts meant to spur immediate change à la PETA, aka People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
They've had successes here in Arizona, with last year's overwhelming approval of Proposition 204, or the Humane Treatment of Farm Animals Act. That initiative will amend the state criminal code in 2013 to prevent farmers from confining calves and pigs in pens that don't permit them to turn around or extend their legs.
Click here to read the entire article.
Veggie Tales
TBO.com
August 11, 2007
Study Roger McDowell's bulging biceps and washboard abs, and you might not believe he's vegan. It takes effort to maintain his muscular 6-foot-1, 174-pound frame, and not a bit of that has come from eating filet mignon. At least not for the past 12 years.
In 1995, McDowell's cholesterol was 240 - the same as his dad's. When his father had a heart attack, McDowell decided to do something about his own health.
"I figured I'd go down the same road as him if I didn't," says McDowell, 47, a real estate investor.
He turned vegetarian and watched his cholesterol plummet 100 points. He shed 20 pounds in a year. "I started to get the pep back into my step."
Click here to read the entire article.
Eating to live: Vegan diet suits many
The Register
August 10, 2007
Joanne Irwin’s family history portends a long life. An only child, she watched her parents live robust lives well into their 90s, eating primarily vegetarian pasta dishes that boosted both their energy and their spirits.
Until a year ago, Irwin, a semi-retired social worker, ate a diet that included chicken, beef, pork, lamb and her personal favorite, cheese. But last summer, when Irwin’s routine blood test revealed that her LDL [bad cholesterol] level had skyrocketed far above normal, she consulted Dr. Kumara Siddhartha at Emerald Physicians Services in South Yarmouth.
Click here to read the entire article.
From eggs to landfills
The Capital Times
August 7, 2007
Liz and Garrett Perry were dropping off scrap lumber and old shingles from a garage roofing project at the Deer Track Park landfill when they saw what appeared to be a bloody chicken darting between the big trash bearing rigs roaring through the massive dump just off of Interstate 94 near Johnson Creek.
It was a hot, windy day in May and Liz Perry remembers being eager to leave the bleak moonscape of the landfill, where debris and dump dust blew in her eyes and mouth.
Click here to read the entire article.
Go vegetarian to save money
MSN Money
July 24, 2007
In a world of $1 double cheeseburgers, it's no wonder that many people suspect that a vegetarian diet is more expensive than one that includes meat.
But that's generally not true. And though it's difficult to tally the savings of illnesses or diseases avoided with a plant-based diet, the financial worth of good health is unquestionable.
Click here to read the entire article.
Miserable lives, deaths for chickens
Akron Beacon Journal
July 14, 2007
The topic of animal cruelty, generally considered the providence of kooks, has been making inroads lately.
Writer Daniel Zwerdling's story titled A View to a Kill in the June issue of Gourmet set off a firestorm of recognition of the elephant in the kitchen.
Amid its slick color photos of exquisitely appetizing cuisine came the ugly truth about how chicken gets to the plate.
The story of factory-farmed chickens and the conditions under which they are grown and slaughtered is not a pretty picture.
Click here to read the entire article.
Farmer paints case for vegan lifestyle
The Chronicle
June 29, 2007
A few years ago, Robert Farmer’s family made — in his opinion — a change for the better. They became vegetarians out of medical necessity, but he took an additional step to a complete vegan diet and lifestyle because of his sense of moral responsibility. Vegans don’t consume any animals or animal byproducts, such as milk, cheese or honey.
Click here to read the entire article.
The veggie kid
The Philadelphia Inquirer
June 28, 2007
Some kids don't like meat. But vegetarianism is also hot with lots of preteens and teenagers for moral, ethical and health reasons. When your child goes to the trouble of researching the nasty things done to animals en route to our tables and then commits to changing behavior so he or she is not supporting inhuman treatment, it's hard not to support that.
Click here to read the entire article.
Vegetarians, have no fear, help is here
The Cincinnati Enquirer
June 27, 2007
Just because you don't eat meat doesn't mean you have to miss out on barbecue favorites.
When Eric Lusain, owner of Healthy School Catering and the former Manna Vegetarian Deli, lights up the grill, he throws on Gardenburger's BBQ Riblets.
Click here to read the entire article.
Choosing a vegetarian diet changed their health
Dallas Morning News
June 21, 2007
Though no physician ever suggested that Barbara Bush of Carrollton become a vegetarian, the assistant professor at the University of North Texas realized that she inherited a legacy of diet-related diseases that included diabetes and heart problems.
A dozen years ago, she began as a vegetarian, then transitioned to a vegan, someone who eats no animal products whatsoever, including dairy and eggs.
Click here to read the entire article.
Geese get revenge: Pate may cause rare disease
Reuters
June 18, 2007
Geese force-fed and then slaughtered for their livers may get their final revenge on people who favor the delicacy known as foie gras: It may transmit a little-known disease known as amyloidosis, researchers reported on Monday.
Click here to read the entire article.
Denny's Dumps Supplier Following Graphic Video of Bird Abuse
OpEdNews.com
May 31, 2007
A graphic undercover video of turkey and chicken abuse at a poultry slaughterhouse in Raeford, N.C., has prompted Denny's Corp. to suspend its relationship with the poultry supplier. An investigation by national animal welfare group Mercy for Animals found workers at House of Raeford, also an Arby's supplier, punching and throwing poultry for entertainment and invading birds' cavities for eggs which they then threw at each other.
In one scene captured by a hidden camera a worker places a turkey under the tires of a truck to be run over; in another, a thrown bird misses a ledge and falls a full story. Beneath bleeding and dismembered birds hanging upside down and flapping futilely, birds' violent, drawn out death convulsions can be clearly seen. www.mercyforanimals.org/hor
The unidentified Mercy for Animals investigator worked in the live hanging area of the slaughterhouse, where arriving birds are pulled from crates and snapped into moving shackles on the slaughter line, from January 2007 to February 2007.
Click here to read the entire article.
Turkey abuse unacceptable, group says
The News & Observer
May 21, 2007
RAEFORD - A national animal rights group is seeking animal cruelty charges against a major North Carolina poultry producer, claiming that workers at a Raeford plant punched, tossed and mutilated live turkeys for fun.
Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals in Columbus, Ohio, said his group found numerous violations of state law in a monthlong undercover investigation at a House of Raeford Farms slaughterhouse. He said the practices went beyond what is allowed under food processing regulations.
Even animals that are being processed for food have a right "not to be tortured," Runkle said.
The group, which plans a news conference today in Raleigh to discuss its claims, also plans to turn over photos, videotapes and affidavits to a Hoke County prosecutor.
Click here to read the entire article.
Vegetarian cuisine gains mainstream momentum
Associated Press
April 26, 2007
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The fake meat at this upscale vegan eatery doesn't taste like mystery meat. Depending on the night, it's more like hearty meat loaf with a mushroom sauce, pork tenderloin or Mediterranean grilled chicken skewers.
At Sublime, cascading waterfalls trickle from 10-foot windows in a low-lighted dining room filled with live palm trees and customers sampling $19 caviar -- made of seaweed, not fish eggs.
Once a network of grungy, obscure cafes, the vegetarian and vegan experience in some cities has blossomed on par with its carnivorous counterparts, complete with Zagat ratings and celebrity clienteles.
Click here to read the entire article.
Arsenic in chicken feed may pose health risks to humans
American Chemical Society
April 9, 2007
Pets may not be the only organisms endangered by some food additives. An arsenic-based additive used in chicken feed may pose health risks to humans who eat meat from chickens that are raised on the feed, according to an article in the April 9 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society.
Roxarsone, the most common arsenic-based additive used in chicken feed, is used to promote growth, kill parasites and improve pigmentation of chicken meat. In its original form, roxarsone is relatively benign. But under certain anaerobic conditions, within live chickens and on farm land, the compound is converted into more toxic forms of inorganic arsenic. Arsenic has been linked to bladder, lung, skin, kidney and colon cancer, while low-level exposures can lead to partial paralysis and diabetes, the article notes.
Click here to read the entire article.
Meat substitutes pass the taste test
The Paramus Post
April 7, 2007
You can call it mock meat. Fake steak. Pretend pork. Faux franks. Truth is, many meat substitutes are remarkably close in appearance and taste to the original. In fact, a recent test of these products produced encouraging results.
The most believable of the bunch might be the hot dogs. The vegetarian version, made from soy, actually has more protein than meat dogs. Top that veggie wiener with mustard and vegetarian coney sauce and most folks won't notice the difference.
One remarkably tasty mock meat is the "chicken" nugget from Quorn Foods Inc. The seasoned coating crisped nicely in the toaster oven, and the "meat" was similar in texture to chicken.
Click here to read the entire article.
Eat Veggies, Help World
Hartford Courant
April 3, 2007
So you're using the air conditioner a bit less and you replaced your old light bulbs with high-efficiency ones. Perhaps you've traded in the Hummer for a Prius or, better yet, are giving public transportation a spin. Those steps, big and small, will all help slow down global warming and otherwise be helpful to the environment.
Stick with `em.
But if you want to help even more, consider that you have three more opportunities every single day to do something for your planet: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Click here to read the entire article.
Lawmakers right to defend animals
The Connecticut Post
March 15, 2007
The comfort and security of egg-laying hens does not, understandably, rise to the level of a crisis for most people. But while talk of rising taxes and foundering schools has dominated the state Capitol of late, the Assembly's Environment Committee heard testimony last week on the moral and financial implications of a ban on cages for hens, and a consequent ban on the state buying eggs from caged hens.
It's an important discussion, and one that shouldn't be dismissed. Factory farming as practiced in this country is an abomination, and one needn't be an animal-rights activist to believe there should be changes. The Connecticut egg industry is nowhere near the depths of other types of food production, but it's worth exploring ways to make changes.
Click here to read the entire article.
Vegetarians becoming more accepted
McClatchy Newspapers
March 13, 2007
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - For Keirsten Mihos, the decision to become a vegetarian 16 years ago was fueled by family genetics.
"My dad had high blood pressure and he died of a heart attack at the age of 56," says Mihos, 34. "I realized at an early age that I needed to take care of my health and keep my cholesterol low, so I stopped eating meat. Actually, it was an easy decision for me because I never really had much taste for meat."
But Mihos remembers when those who chose a vegetarian lifestyle were viewed in a different way.
Click here to read the entire article.
Mount Joy egg-farm cruelty case resumes
Intelligencer Journal
March 2, 2007
The owner of one of the state's largest egg farms was back in court Thursday facing animal-cruelty charges in a case that left off nearly six months ago.
Charged with 35 counts each of animal cruelty are Esbenshade Farms' chief executive H. Glenn Esbenshade and farm manager Jay Musser.
Each violation carries a potential fine of $50 to $750 and up to 90 days in prison.
The case stems from a videotape reportedly made in December 2005 by undercover animal-rights activist John Brothers, who took a job maintaining chicken houses at the Mount Joy farm where an estimated 600,000 laying hens are kept.
Click here to read the entire article.
One Bite at a Time
The Huffington Post
February 27, 2007
I've argued in two recent essays, "A Few More 'Inconvenient Truths'" and "Vegetarian Is the New Prius," that a plant-based diet is a good choice for the planet, our health, and animals. Of course, there are other things we should be doing -- from cutting down on our consumption to working for governmental change to buying organic and on and on -- but where diet is concerned, a vegetarian diet is the hands-down best choice for those of us who care about animals and the environment.
Click here to read the entire article.
'Factory farming like Holocaust'
News24.com
February 22, 2007
Sydney - Nobel Prize-winning author JM Coetzee has compared the modern treatment and slaughter of animals to the Nazis' mass murder of Jews.
The South African-born author, who is now an Australian citizen, made the comparison in a speech prepared for delivery at the opening in Sydney on Thursday of an art exhibition entitled "Voiceless: I feel therefore I am".
The Holocaust was a "warning on the grandest scale that there is something deeply, cosmically wrong with regarding and treating fellow beings as mere units of any kind," Coetzee said, in an extract published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Coetzee, a vegetarian, wrote that most people have an equivocal attitude to the industrial use of animals.
Click here to read the entire article.
Humans' beef with livestock: a warmer planet
The Christian Science Monitor
February 20, 2007
American meat eaters are responsible for 1.5 more tons of carbon dioxide per person than vegetarians every year.
As Congress begins to tackle the causes and cures of global warming, the action focuses on gas-guzzling vehicles and coal-fired power plants, not on lowly bovines.
Yet livestock are a major emitter of greenhouse gases that cause climate change. And as meat becomes a growing mainstay of human diet around the world, changing what we eat may prove as hard as changing what we drive.
Click here to read the entire article.
A Few More 'Inconvenient Truths'
The Huffington Post
February 2, 2007
The report released today by the world's leading climate scientists made no bones about it: global warming is happening in a big way and it is very likely man-made. So, if we are indeed the bulk of the problem, we ought to step up and start doing things differently. Now.
My last post ("Vegetarian Is the New Prius") got a lot of traction, and I think it's because there is a realization that being "part of the solution" can be a whole lot simpler -and cheaper - than going out and buying a new car.
We can make a huge difference in the environment by eating a plant based diet instead of an animal based one. Factory farming pollutes our air and water, reduces the rainforests, and goes a long way to create global warming. And although the vast majority of responses to the piece were positive, there were some environmentalists for whom the idea of giving up those chicken nuggets was impossible to swallow.
Click here to read the entire article.
Kids Veering Toward Vegetarianism
CBS 13
January 26, 2007
Cathie and Harold Winters like a good steak.
"We're a meat eating family,” said
But their 12-year-old son Dean is not interested. When mom and dad eat steak, he has a protein substitute. Dean has been a vegetarian since he was in first grade.
"I love animals a whole lot, and I really don't care for meat that much,” said 6-year-old Dean.
Click here to read the entire article.
Pork giant to phase out gestation crates
MSNBC
January 25, 2007
NORFOLK, Va. - Pork processor Smithfield Foods Inc. said Thursday it will phase out gestation stalls or crates at all 187 sow farms it owns in eight states and replace them with "more animal-friendly" group housing pens over the next decade.
Smithfield's sows, which the company says grow to an average of 400 to 450 pounds during gestation, are kept in 2-by-7-foot metal crates in order to monitor their progress during their four-month pregnancies.
Animal-rights groups argue that confining pigs in crates is inhumane because the sows don't have room to turn around, they develop leg problems and they suffer from boredom and frustration. Group pens give sows some room to move and the ability to socialize.
Click here to read the entire article.
Strict Vegan Ethics
The New York Times
January 24, 2007
ISA CHANDRA MOSKOWITZ, a vegan chef, does not particularly like to talk about tofu. Ditto seitan, tempeh and nutritional yeast.
“I think vegan cooks need to learn to cook vegetables first,” she said last week during a cupcake-baking marathon. “Then maybe they can be allowed to move on to meat substitutes.”
Ms. Moskowitz, 34, was born in Coney Island Hospital, lives in Brooklyn, and is a typically impatient and opinionated New Yorker. She can’t stand how slowly most cooks peel garlic, makes relentless fun of Rachael Ray and rolls her eyes at the mention of California hippies.
Click here to read the entire article.
Smart, soulful, sexy people don't eat meat
Miami Herald
January 18, 2007
Smarter kids make healthier adults. It's a fact. And in one of the findings linking higher IQ to better health, a British research team found smarter kids are more likely to become vegetarian when they grow up.
The study, published last month in the British Medical Journal, reports that if you became a vegetarian by 30, chances are your IQ was at least 5 points higher than that of your peers back when you were 10.
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Vegetarian is the New Prius
The Huffington Post
January 18, 2007
President Herbert Hoover promised "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." With warnings about global warming reaching feverish levels, many are having second thoughts about all those cars. It seems they should instead be worrying about the chickens.
Last month, the United Nations published a report on livestock and the environment with a stunning conclusion: "The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." It turns out that raising animals for food is a primary cause of land degradation, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, and not least of all, global warming.
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Fast Food, Hold the Meat
Chicago Reader
January 12, 2007
WHEN THE FAST-FOOD joint Veggie Bite opened in Mount Greenwood, on the southwest side, less than a year ago, says co-owner Sylvia Watycha, "we had a lot of walkouts." Veggie Bite looks like your basic flesh-and-dairy operation -- the fiesta-bright yellow-and-blue color scheme, the backlit menu sign with pictures of burgers and nuggets, the stainless-steel shake machine, the piles of ketchup packets. But there's a stack of "Why Vegan?" brochures on the counter, the Italian "beef" is made out of wheat gluten, and the "cheese" fries are covered in something called golden sauce.
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Find help if you resolve to go veggie
Quad-City Times
January 11, 2007
The season of decadence is ending, and the season of promises is beginning.
In honor of each new year, many of us resolve to try new things. If you would like to go veggie in 2007, plenty of tricks can ease the lifestyle transition.
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Tethered by the wallet
The Guardian
January 3, 2007
Amid all the excitement about the Democrats gaining control of Congress in the November elections, one big election result was largely ignored. Although it illuminated the flaws of America's political system, it also restored my belief in the compassion of ordinary Americans.
In Arizona, citizens can, by gathering enough signatures, put a proposed law to a direct vote. This year, one of the issues on the ballot was an act to prohibit tethering or confining a pregnant pig, or a calf raised for veal, in a manner that prevents the animal from turning around freely, lying down, and extending its limbs. Those who know little about modern factory farming may wonder why such legislation would be necessary.
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Vegetarian diets provide all the nutrients you need
Asheville Citizen-Times
December 19, 2006
Question: I am a vegetarian. Should I add meat to my diet if I want to train hard?
Answer: No, meat is not needed in your diet to support intense training. Misconceptions regarding exercise and the vegetarian diet are widespread, and I will clear these up for you.
A vegetarian diet is defined as one that does not include meat, fish or fowl. A lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet includes dairy products and eggs but no meat. Vegetarian diets, when properly planned, provide all the nutrients you need, and help prevent and treat disease. Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E. Vegetarians tend to be leaner than nonvegetarians, have lower blood cholesterol and blood pressure levels, and suffer less from heart disease, type 2 diabetes and prostate and colon cancer.
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Kids With High IQs Grow Up to Be Vegetarians
HealthDay Reporter
December 15, 2006
As a child's IQ rises, his taste for meat in adulthood declines, a new study suggests.
British researchers have found that children's IQ predicts their likelihood of becoming vegetarians as young adults -- lowering their risk for cardiovascular disease in the process. The finding could explain the link between smarts and better health, the investigators say.
"Brighter people tend to have healthier dietary habits," concluded lead author Catharine Gale, a senior research fellow at the MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre of the University of Southampton and Southampton General Hospital.
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New Jersey suit a test case on farm animal cruelty
Reuters
December 13, 2006
TRENTON, New Jersey (Reuters) - New Jersey allows cruelty to farm animals by failing to ban practices such as castration without anesthetic, animal rights activists said on Wednesday in a lawsuit that might help set national standards for the treatment of livestock.
Groups including the Humane Society of the United States and Farm Sanctuary said the state Department of Agriculture had failed to establish humane standards for farm animals as required by a law implemented in 2004.
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Boss Hog
Rolling Stone
December 1, 2006
America's top pork producer churns out a sea of waste that has destroyed rivers, killed millions of fish and generated one of the largest fines in EPA history. Welcome to the dark side of the other white meat.
Smithfield Foods, the largest and most profitable pork processor in the world, killed 27 million hogs last year. That's a number worth considering. A slaughter-weight hog is fifty percent heavier than a person. The logistical challenge of processing that many pigs each year is roughly equivalent to butchering and boxing the entire human populations of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Detroit, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, San Francisco, Columbus, Austin, Memphis, Baltimore, Fort Worth, Charlotte, El Paso, Milwaukee, Seattle, Boston, Denver, Louisville, Washington, D.C., Nashville, Las Vegas, Portland, Oklahoma City and Tucson.
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Livestock a major threat to environment
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
November 29, 2006
Which causes more greenhouse gas emissions, rearing cattle or driving cars?
Surprise!
According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.
Says Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior author of the report: “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”
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A Tale of Two Turkeys
Mercury
November 22, 2006
Think last year's pardoned birds 'Marshmallow' and 'Yam' are on a free-range farm somewhere living the good life? Think again, says CHRISTA ALBRECHT-VEGAS
Of the 300 million turkeys bred for slaughter in the United States each year, 45 million are destined to become Thanksgiving centerpieces. Of those 45 million, one lucky bird and a runner-up will receive a presidential pardon in a ceremony at the White House and be granted the opportunity to live out the rest of their natural lives.
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Salmonella on the Rise in Chicken Meat
Forbes.com
November 20, 2006
A type of salmonella found in eggs is turning up more often in chicken meat and needs to be reduced, according to the Agriculture Department.
From 2000 through 2005, there was a fourfold increase in positive test results for salmonella enteritidis on chicken carcasses.
"It still continues to rise, even though the overall incidence of salmonella in general has fallen," said Richard Raymond, the Agriculture Department undersecretary for food safety. "It's one that we still don't have all the scientific evidence we need to know how best to attack it."
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Vegetarian Diet Melts Fat Away
FOX News
November 15, 2006
Researchers have found that people who stuck to a vegetarian diet for at least one year lost more weight than those on a standard low-fat diet. And they shed considerably more excess flab than those who didn’t stick with the meatless plan.
Additionally, levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol dropped after six months on the vegetarian diet, although they started to rebound when people went back to their normal eating habits a year later, says Lora A. Burke, PhD, professor of nursing and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh.
If you adhere to the vegetarian diet, “you will lose weight and have significant improvements in your heart disease risk profile,” she tells WebMD.
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Activist doctor touts benefits of meatless diet
The Columbus Dispatch
November 9, 2006
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has become a lightning rod for radical dietary change in the United States. The organization supports research that repeatedly demonstrates the benefits of a vegetarian diet.
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Activists vs. factory farms
The Toronto Star
November 6, 2006
Smelling blood in the food industry, animal welfare activists in Canada and the U.S. are preparing to step up their campaigns against factory farming, with much of their focus on how eggs and pork are produced.
"Eggs are the new veal," Paul Shapiro, of the Humane Society of the United States, told a conference on humane food in Toronto.
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World's Fish Supply Running Out, Researchers Warn
The Washington Post
November 3, 2006
An international group of ecologists and economists warned yesterday that the world will run out of seafood by 2048 if steep declines in marine species continue at current rates, based on a four-year study of catch data and the effects of fisheries collapses.
The paper, published in the journal Science, concludes that overfishing, pollution and other environmental factors are wiping out important species around the globe, hampering the ocean's ability to produce seafood, filter nutrients and resist the spread of disease.
"We really see the end of the line now," said lead author Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Canada's Dalhousie University. "It's within our lifetime. Our children will see a world without seafood if we don't change things."
The 14 researchers from Canada, Panama, Sweden, Britain and the United States spent four years analyzing fish populations, catch records and ocean ecosystems to reach their conclusion. They found that by 2003 -- the last year for which data on global commercial fish catches are available -- 29 percent of all fished species had collapsed, meaning they are now at least 90 percent below their historic maximum catch levels.
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Restaurants Offer More Vegetarian Options
NBC 17
November 2, 2006
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Local restaurants are making vegetarian eating easier by providing more menu options.
More restaurants, from fast-food to high-end, are answering the growing demand for vegetarian meals and that's good news for Joy Anandi, a Triangle vegan.
"I'm finding that so many restaurants are vegetarian sensitive, not only here, but everywhere," Anandi said. "You can eat in any Italian restaurant, any Chinese restaurant. You just have to ask questions. ... Is this cooked in chicken stock?"
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Don't Have a Cow, Mom
The Washington Post
October 31, 2006
When Leslie Calman's 16-year-old son, Ben, came home from school one day last year and announced he was going vegetarian, Calman and her partner, Jane Gruenebaum, did what few families do when a child decides to stop eating animals: They immediately supported his decision.
"I like a family meal ritual, and so embracing rather than fighting it seemed like a good idea on every ground," remembers Calman.
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A simple case of decency
The Arizona Republic
October 19, 2006
Look into the eyes of an animal. What responsibilities come with the power humans have over such a creature?
We think part of the answer lies in Proposition 204, the Humane Treatment of Farm Animals Act.
It imposes restrictions on a particularly egregious practice in which pregnant pigs and baby cows are kept in enclosures so small that the animal cannot turn around.
Click here to read the entire article.
That Fish You Caught Was in Pain
Los Angeles Times
October 8, 2006
Every year, sportsmen around the world drag millions of fish to shore on barbed hooks. It's something people have always done, and with little enough conscience. Fish are … well, fish. They're not dogs, who yelp when you accidentally step on their feet. Fish don't cry out or look sad or respond in a particularly recognizable way. So we feel free to treat them in a way that we would not treat mammals or even birds.
But is there really any biological justification for exempting fish from the standards nowadays accorded to so-called higher animals? Do we really know whether fish feel pain or whether they suffer — or whether, in fact, our gut sense that they are dumb, unfeeling animals is accurate?
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Veg Week encourages meatless diets
The Minnesota Daily
October 4, 2006
Cows can be moody, sheep can remember faces, chickens are good problem solvers and fish feel pain.
Those are a few tidbits animal behaviorist and biologist Marc Bekoff used at Coffman Theater on Tuesday night to urge the audience to rethink eating meat.
Click here to read the entire article.
It's a good time to go vegetarian
The Oakland Press
October 2, 2006
At age 18, Amber Poupore put down greasy burgers and processed lunch meat in exchange for a vegetarian diet of fresh, organic fare.
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Poupore was turned off when she learned hormones and chemicals are fed to farm animals in mass production, to meet the high demands of human consumption. "Beyond the physical rewards, vegetarianism is also mentally and spiritually rewarding," said Poupore, now 27. "When we consume animals, it's a dead energy. But with plants, we're consuming living, colorful, vibrant foods that internalize in you."
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Bodybuilder puts a new face on veganism
Marin Independent Journal
September 16, 2006
Kenneth Williams pretty much has the division to himself.
If there were a division.
Williams stops short of calling himself the world's only vegan bodybuilder É but not much short. "There's one other guy," says Williams, taking a break from his at workout at Gold's Gym in Larkspur. But the other guy, he says, is "just getting going."
Williams could easily call himself the world's pre-eminent vegan body builder, but the job description goes way beyond that. Williams is a charismatic spokesman for Marin-based In Defense of Animals. He hosts IDA's "Undercover TV" show (8:30 p.m. Tuesdays on Comcast Cable channel 26). He has a Web site for his particular wisdom, www.veganmusclepower.com.
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Put the Knife Down
The Huffington Post
September 7, 2006
Chicago has just become the first city in the country to ban the sale of foie gras. In the wake of this progressive legislation, a media controversy is now swirling around some chefs who are declaring their intention to serve the fatty liver from force-fed ducks and geese in spite of the law.
But in their short-sighted indignation, they are forgetting that the new regulation was passed for the simplest and very best of reasons-the production of foie gras is cruel.
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Court keeps poultry slaughter case alive
Reuters
September 6, 2006
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a victory for animal-rights supporters, a U.S. district court ruled on Wednesday that members of The Humane Society of the United States can sue the federal government over the way chickens and turkeys are slaughtered.
U.S. federal judge Marilyn Hall Patel of California's northern district opposed a motion by the U.S. Agriculture Department to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to broaden a 1958 law requiring the humane slaughter of cattle and pigs to include poultry.
Several organizations including the Humane Society and the East Bay Animal Advocates were dismissed from the lawsuit but individual members still have standing within the court, the judge decided.
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Liver studies hint vegies suit humans
Stuff-NZ
August 31, 2006
The discovery was made when the placement of an enzyme known as AGT, which is linked to the rare kidney-stone disease PH1, was found in one area of the liver in herbivores and another in carnivores, Professor Chris Danpure, of University College London, said yesterday.
Evolutionary science indicated that about 10 million years ago the distribution of the enzyme in human ancestors appeared to change from favouring a omnivorous diet to plant eating.
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Lawmaker proposes banning production of foie gras in New Jersey
The Press
August 26, 2006
TRENTON — To some, it is a fine delicacy in French cuisine. To others, it is the diseased liver of a bird that was abused and then slaughtered.
“Some customers love foie gras,” said Jeremy Duclut, executive chef for Mia in Caesars Atlantic City. “And some are against it.”
Now a state lawmaker has proposed banning the “inhumane process” used to produce the gourmet food.
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Vegetarianism is the only humane path
Home News Tribune
August 21, 2006
I am a vegetarian in a world of bacon and cheeseburgers.
People constantly ask me why. They want to know how it is I woke up one day and went from fried chicken to faux chicken without ever looking back.
That's a big decision for a notoriously indecisive person like me, who gets stressed out, for example, trying to choose the best banana at the grocery store.
But this time, there was no list of pros and cons. There were no lingering doubts, no second-guessing.
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Animal cruelty charges come home to roost
LancasterOnline
August 12, 2006
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - The bird in the video is gray and decomposing, having been stepped on and perhaps defecated upon by the other snow-white chickens that mill about inside the wire cage.
A gloved hand reaches in and pulls the carcass out, turning it slowly that the camera might see, ultimately, that the world might see.
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Why Do Young Children Choose to Become Vegetarians?
Harvard
August 8, 2006
Alejandra Tumble, 10, doesn’t eat meat and really doesn’t like ham. But, her reasons for not eating meat might surprise you. Alejandra talks at length about her choice not to eat meat, and how strange it seems to her that a pig can be processed into a thin slice of pink meat. She thinks it’s wrong—not for everyone, but at least for her.
HGSE Doctoral Student Karen Hussar’s research examines children aged 6–10 who have become vegetarians. As with Alejandra, for most children Hussar studied, the decision has more to do with morals than with personal choice. This is contrary to the theories of famed psychologists Lawrence Kohlberg and Jean Piaget—both pioneers in moral development—that children aren’t capable of making independent moral decisions at this age.
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Group Wants Increased Protection For Farm Animals
Palm Beach Post
August 3, 2006
About 10 billion animals are slaughtered for food annually in the United States.
At some point in their lives, most of these animals are on the road, being moved by truck, usually to the slaughterhouse.
From January 2000 to May 2006, there were 233 accidents involving farm animals in transport. A significant percentage of the animals in these crashes were killed or severely injured.
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Inconvenient Truth: Meat is a Global Warming Issue
E Magazine
August 1, 2006
Al Gore’s movie (and book), An Inconvenient Truth, is playing to rave reviews. His laudable project is an urgent message on the vital issue of global warming. We all must heed the call.
If we didn’t realize it already, we now know that we are overheating our planet to alarming levels with potentially catastrophic consequences. 2005 was the hottest year on record. Think of an overheated car; now imagine that on a planetary scale.
Organizations from Greenpeace to the Union of Concerned Scientists, World Bank and the Pentagon, all agree that global warming is, perhaps, the most serious threat to our imperiled planet. The Pentagon report, for example, states that climate change in the form of global warming “should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a U.S. national security concern,” higher even than terrorism.
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Low-Fat Vegan Diet May Treat Diabetes
WebMD Medical News
July 26, 2006
July 26, 2006 -- Eating a low-fat vegan diet may be better at managing type 2 diabetesdiabetes than traditional diets, according to a new study.
Researchers found 43% of people with type 2 diabetes who followed a low-fat vegan diet for 22 weeks reduced their need to take medications to manage their disease compared with 26% of those who followed the diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).
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Meat production today is not just inhumane
Guardian
July 12, 2006
Global meat consumption is predicted to double by 2020. Yet in Europe and North America there is growing concern about the ethics of the way meat and eggs are produced. The consumption of veal has fallen sharply since it became widely known that, to produce so-called "white" - actually pale pink - veal, newborn calves are separated from their mothers, deliberately made anaemic, denied roughage and kept in stalls so narrow that they cannot walk or turn around.
In Europe mad cow disease shocked many people, not only because it shattered beef's image as a safe and healthy food, but also because they learned that the disease was caused by feeding cattle the brains and nerve tissue of sheep. People who naively believed that cows ate grass discovered that beef cattle may be fed anything from corn to fish meal, chicken litter (complete with chicken droppings) and slaughterhouse waste.
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Living life as a vegan
Westborough News
July 7, 2006
For Rose Lee life has always been about cooking.
She's written her own cookbook, formerly owned a cooking school in town, catered, worked in restaurants and hosted a cooking show. For the last two years she's been giving demonstrations on healthy cooking across the state as an instructor for The Cancer Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization.
This month she will give Westborough residents another taste of life as a vegetarian at the public library during her four-part "Food for Life: Nutrition & Cooking Class."
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Delicacy or Cruelty
The Epoch TImes
July 6, 2006
To most people, the word "delicacy" brings to mind a culinary oddity that is both rare and expensive. If individuals who partake of such indulgences can face revulsion from those of less sophisticated palates, a high price tag becomes the only obstacle to enjoyment. However, on July 26, one such delicacy will become illegal in Chicago.
In April, the Chicago City Council voted overwhelmingly (49 to 1) in favor of a ban on the sale of foie gras—the enlarged, fatty livers of geese and ducks. The measure makes Chicago the first city to implement this type of legislation.
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Matthew Scully
Los Angeles City Beat
June 29, 2006
You think happy cows come from California? Think again. Or better yet, pick up a copy of Matthew Scully’s alarming 2002 book, Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy. In it, Scully addresses the realities of factory farming, trophy hunting, and whaling, and questions the dignity of a society that inflicts misery on animals for our “convenience and pleasure.” Perhaps most surprising is that this same man also wrote many of President George W. Bush’s speeches while serving as special assistant and senior speechwriter between January 2001 and June 2002. Prior to that, he worked on Bush’s 2000 campaign from Austin, Texas, and has written for vice presidents Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney. He is also former literary editor for the National Review.
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Vegetables may help arteries stay clear
Reuters
June 19, 2006
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A healthy dose of vegetables every day may help keep the heart arteries clear, a study in mice suggests. Researchers found that lab mice given a diet full of broccoli, carrots, green beans, corn and peas developed far less artery narrowing than those reared on a veggie-free diet.
For humans, the findings offer more support for the advice health experts and mothers have long given: eat your vegetables.
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Whole Foods Market bans sale of live lobsters
Associated Press
June 15, 2006
AUSTIN - Customers craving fresh crustaceans will have to look beyond Whole Foods Market Inc. after the natural-foods grocery chain decided Thursday to stop selling live lobsters and crabs on the grounds that it's inhumane.
The Austin-based grocer spent seven months studying the sale of live lobsters from ship to supermarket aisle, trying to determine whether the creatures suffer along the way.
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Life without the meat
Fort Frances Times
June 14, 2006
It could be said that there are two kinds of people in the world—those who eat meat and those who don’t.
But not many decisions in life are that black and white, including the why’s and why not’s about the consumption of animal protein.
It’s generally known that if you don’t eat meat, but include eggs, cheese, and milk in your diet, you’re a vegetarian. If you say “no” to meat and dairy products, it’s “V for vegan.”
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Humane Society tags Michael Foods egg farm
Lincoln Journal Star
June 13, 2006
The Humane Society of the United States, continuing a nationwide campaign, accused an egg producer in Wakefield of “shocking cruelty” to its laying hens.
The society said an undercover volunteer got a job and shot photos and video footage to document inhumane conditions at what it called a “factory farm” in Wakefield owned by Michael Foods, a publicly traded company headquartered in Minnetonka, Minn.
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The Healing Power of Food
San Leandro Times
May 30, 2006
An interactive cooking class — the new initiative by the Eden Medical Center — was filled to capacity last Thursday at the San Leandro Marina Community Center.
To educate the public about healthy food, the Cancer Center hosted "The Power of Positive Eating," presented by Colleen Patrick-Gourdreau of The Cancer Project.
During the class, Patrick-Gourdreau demonstrated some recipe preparations from the book, "The Survivor's Handbook, Eating Right for Cancer Survival," published by The Cancer Project in Washington, D.C.
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Veganism creates $2.8B market
Arizona Daily Star
May 15, 2006
The shoes are fashionable.
And the food isn't bad either.
No longer considered a "hippie fad," the vegan lifestyle is translating into business opportunities for some local entrepreneurs, resulting in part from a growing $50 billion a year natural-products industry.
"People think vegans are grungy, granola eaters," said Ana Terrazas, who has been a vegan for 25 years.
"But it is becoming more mainstream, and businesses are thinking about that."
Click here to read the entire article.
Want to help the planet? Eat a salad
The University of Chicago Chronicle
May 11, 2006
The food that people eat is just as important as what kind of cars they drive when it comes to creating the greenhouse-gas emissions that many scientists have linked to global warming, according to a report published in the April issue of the journal Earth Interactions.
Both the burning of fossil fuels during food production and non-carbon dioxide emissions associated with livestock and animal waste contribute to the problem, the University’s Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin wrote in the report.
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Italy restaurant fined for "cruel" lobster display
Reuters
April 28, 2006
ROME (Reuters) - An Italian restaurant was fined 688 euros ($855) for displaying live lobsters on ice to attract patrons, in an innovative application of an anti-cruelty law usually affecting to household pets.
A court in the northeastern city of Vicenza ruled the display was a form of abuse dooming the crustaceans to a slow death by suffocation.
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Chicago Prohibits Foie Gras
New York Times
April 27, 2006
CHICAGO, April 26 — The City Council voted Wednesday to make Chicago the first city in the country to outlaw the sale of foie gras, the fatty livers of geese and ducks that many consider a delicacy but animal rights advocates describe as a product of inhumane treatment.
The ban, adopted on a vote of 48 to 1, makes "food dispensing establishments" — restaurants and retail stores — subject to a fine of $500 for selling foie gras. The ordinance, which takes effect in 90 days, will be enforced by means of citizen complaints, said Joe Moore, the alderman who sponsored it.
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Animal agriculture stresses Earth
Herald Tribune
April 20, 2006
One of the greatest ways we can acknowledge Earth Day Saturday and protect the environment is to shift toward a plant-based diet, centered on fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes, while eliminating meat and other animal products.
Raising animals for food is a leading cause of resource depletion and environmental degradation. Meat production is inefficient and results in the needless waste of precious environmental resources. One acre of land could produce 50,000 pounds of tomatoes, 40,000 pounds of potatoes, 30,000 pounds of carrots or just 250 pounds of beef. In the United States and around the world, millions of acres of forests are cleared and burned to create grazing land for cattle and crop lands to grow animal feed.
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Study: Vegan Diets Healthier For Planet, People Than Meat Diets
Medical News Today
April 16, 2006
The food that people eat is just as important as what kind of cars they drive when it comes to creating the greenhouse-gas emissions that many scientists have linked to global warming, according to a report accepted for publication in the journal Earth Interactions.
Both the burning of fossil fuels during food production and non-carbon dioxide emissions associated with livestock and animal waste contribute to the problem, the University of Chicago's Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin wrote in the report.
Click here to read the entire article.
Treats for vegans
The Columbus Dispatch
April 12, 2006
Chocolate-chip cookies without butter, eggs or bleached flour and less refined sugar?
Yup, and they taste good, too.
At least that’s what more consumers say as they flock to buy locally baked vegan cookies and cakes now sold at several coffeehouses and grocers throughout Columbus.
Pattycake Vegan Bakery, 3009 N. High St. in Clintonville, has developed a healthy following.
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Review hails vegetarian diet-weight loss claims
NutraIngredientsUSA.com
April 4, 2006
People who follow a vegetarian diet are likely to have body weights as much as 20 per cent less than non-veggies, and are at lower risk of serious diseases, says a new review.
Although the precise definition of vegetarianism is open to debate, the number of people choosing to exclude meat from their diets seems to have followed a steady upward curve over the past decade.
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Study Confirms Vegetarian Diet Takes Pounds Off
ConsumerAffairs.com
April 4, 2006
A scientific review in April's Nutrition Reviews finds that, as expected, a vegetarian diet is highly effective for weight loss.
Vegetarian populations tend to be slimmer than meat-eaters, and they experience lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other life-threatening conditions linked to overweight and obesity. The new review, compiling data from 87 previous studies, shows the weight-loss effect does not depend on exercise or calorie-counting, and it occurs at a rate of approximately 1 pound per week.
Click here to read the entire article.
Factory farming: A moraI issue
By Peter Singer, Printed in The Minnesota Daily
March 22, 2006
There is a growing consensus that factory farming of animals — also known as CAFOs, or concentrated animal feeding operations — is morally wrong. The American animal rights movement, which in its early years focused largely on the use of animals in research, now has come to see that factory farming represents by far the greater abuse of animals. The numbers speak for themselves. In the United States somewhere between 20 million and 40 million birds and mammals are killed for research every year. That might seem like a lot — and it far exceeds the number of animals killed for their fur, let alone the relatively tiny number used in circuses — but 40 million represents less than two days’ toll in America’s slaughterhouses, which kill about 10 billion animals each year.
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Speaker: Don't trust those 'certified' labels on grocery eggs
The Athens News
March 16, 2006
At the supermarket, some conscientious shoppers may look for a carton of eggs labeled "Animal Care Certified" or "Free Range," thinking that the eggs in the carton have come from a chicken that has been treated humanely.
In actuality, that could not be further from the truth, said Nathan Runkle from Columbus-based Mercy for Animals, during a presentation at Ohio University's Baker Center Tuesday evening.
"When we look at eggs in the supermarket, we don't necessarily associate eggs with animal cruelty," Runkle said. "Egg-laying hens, in my opinion, are the most abused and mistreated animals on the face of the planet."
Click here to read the entire article.
An ethical diet: The joy of being vegan
The Independent
March 15, 2006
Wendy Higgins is pleased that her beliefs, her most passionate beliefs, are ridiculed by comedians. At least the gibes about vegans are evidence that vegetarians are now so numerous that they represent a substantial part of the audience.
Making jokes about veganism is hardly likely to result in a mass walkout. But Ms Higgins has taken comfort from knowing that at least people know what it is.
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Vegan diet holds lessons for others
The News & Observer
February 23, 2006
Ever eat a cheeseless pizza or dunk a cookie into a glass of soymilk? For about one out of every 100 people, avoiding all animal products -- meat, fish, poultry, eggs and dairy products -- is second nature.
They're vegan (VEE-gun) -- vegetarians who go a few steps farther than the rest. In fact, most vegans also steer clear of honey, and some avoid refined sugar (much of it is whitened with bone char).
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A sunless hell
The Arizona Republic
February 19, 2006
Arizona voters will be asked this fall to weigh in on a ballot measure called the Humane Treatment of Farm Animals Act, which is now in the signature-gathering stage but, by November, is certain to be one of our livelier election-year debates.
The initiative, modeled on a reform passed by Florida voters, would prohibit the factory-farming practice of confining pigs and veal calves in crates so small that the animals cannot even turn around or extend their limbs.
Factory farming, in general, is no one's favorite subject, and the details here are particularly unpleasant to think about: masses of creatures enduring lives of unrelieved confinement and deprivation. But if you're in need of reasons to sign the petitions and vote for the initiative, they are easy to find, and our discomfort with the subject is a good place to start.
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It's hip to go veg
Indystar.com
February 15, 2006
From movies such as "Finding Nemo" ("Fish are friends, not food") to bands such as Goldfinger ("Free Me"), kids today are hearing a message that it's not cool to eat meat, a message that more and more are taking to heart.
"In the past few years, vegetarianism and veganism have become very common among high school students," 18-year-old Jessica Collins, a 2005 Brownsburg High School grad who attends IUPUI, said in a recent e-mail, "especially those associated with the hardcore music scene."
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Compassionate conservatives for animals
The Minnesota Daily
February 6, 2006
In his renowned ethical treatise "Animal Liberation" philosopher Peter Singer remarked, "When non-vegetarians say that "human problems come first,' I cannot help wondering what exactly it is that they are doing for human beings that compels them to continue to support the wasteful, ruthless exploitation of farm animals." Singer could not have made the point any better that working against human suffering and animal suffering are not mutually exclusive.
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"Not Milk?"
The Chicago Tribune, written by Julie Deardorff
February 5, 2006
If you can't imagine life without a daily dose of dairy, consider new research that questions the value----if not the safety----of this dietary staple.
You know it like the Pledge of Allegiance: "Milk helps build strong teeth
and bones."
But does it really? Or, as nutrition researchers from Harvard and Cornell
Universities are radically suggesting: Have we all been duped by the dairy
industry's slick, celebrity-driven "got milk?" advertising campaign?
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Battle over ban on horse slaughter pits Congress against federal regulators
The Christian Science Monitor
January 30, 2006
HOUSTON – In the weeks between hurricane Katrina and the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, Congress was bombarded with e-mails, phone calls, and faxes - about horse slaughter.
The reason? The Senate was considering an obscure amendment in the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) spending bill that would "end the slaughter of America's horses for human consumption overseas," says cosponsor Sen. John Ensign (R) of Nevada.
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Faux fare for the vegan palate
Toronto Star
January 27, 2006
Sarah Kramer has written her third vegan cookbook with the help of fans and friends. And she has plenty of those.
According to Herbivore magazine, Kramer is a contender for the title, "The World's Coolest Vegan."
La Dolce Vegan! Vegan Livin' Made Easy is fun to flip through. It's kitschy and hip, and seems to speak to the tattooed generation. But the recipes seem solid, too. There's even a section on "Faux Fare." (Think fake ham, fish, mayo ...)
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Humane society alleges pig abuse in Panhandle
KRIS TV
January 23, 2006
PERRYTON, Texas -- United States Humane Society officials on Wednesday accused owners of a Panhandle pig farm of cruelly beating young swine and leaving them to die slowly, a letter to the farm said.
The society accused employees of Texas Farms Inc. in Ochiltree County of regularly practicing "a particularly cruel and barbaric method" of thumping, where baby pigs are beaten against the floor until they die.
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Uncruel beauty
New York Times
January 11, 2006
NEW YORK - Hadass Kantorowicz is on the fence. "I eat less meat than I used to," said Kantorowicz, a self-described tantric healer who stopped in last week at Organic Avenue, a vegan general store in downtown Manhattan. "I'm definitely a lot more conscious than I used to be." While she appreciates the virtues of a meat-free diet, she stops short of embracing a vegan way of life, one that would ask her to forsake a croc-embossed bag or patent leather pumps. "And I'm not ready to wear hemp," she confided.
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Lancaster County egg farm is cited for animal cruelty
The Philadelphia Inquirer
January 10, 2006
The owner and the manager of a Lancaster County egg farm were charged yesterday with 35 counts of animal cruelty in a case reflecting a national battle between animal-rights advocates and agribusiness over the treatment of laying hens.
Video shot by an animal-rights activist employed at Esbenshade Farms in Mount Joy for 10 days last fall showed hens impaled on loose wires, hens unable to eat or drink because they were entangled in the wire cages, and hens left to die in aisles without food and water.
Johnna Seeton, the Pennsylvania humane society police officer who filed the citations with a district justice in Elizabethtown, described the conditions for the estimated 600,000 laying hens on the farm as "very, very bad."
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Eating veg 'cuts blood pressure'
BBC News
January 10, 2006
A vegetable-rich diet can help to reduce blood pressure, researchers say.
A team led by Imperial College London, which studied 4,680 people aged 40-59, said it was not clear why eating more vegetable protein had such an effect.
But amino acids - the building blocks of protein - or vegetable components, like magnesium, may be key, they said.
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Logan students satisfy vegan cravings
The Argus
January 9, 2006
UNION CITY — For years Seema Rupani, a slender long-haired high school senior, has carried her own lunch to school. As a strict vegetarian who later became a vegan, cutting out all dairy and other animal byproducts from her diet, there wasn't much — if anything — she could eat from James Logan High School's cafeteria.
But Rupani and other members of the Youth Humane Society student club hope to change that. They envision a high school cafeteria where students choose between bulgur and burgers, soup and salami, and beans and burritos, where the line for natural fruit juice, nuts and vegan soups stretches as long as the queue for pepperoni pizza.
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High School Opens Vegetarian Lunch Line
By DANIEL YEE, Associated Press Writer
January 9, 2006
ATLANTA - Miriam Archibong remembers the food offerings her high school cafeteria used to serve for vegetarians: bland salads and greasy cheese pizza.
But salads are "not sufficient to survive," she says. "Cheese pizza — that's not healthy because of all that grease."
Archibong often brought her own food, lunching on applesauce, carrots and water. Finally, she and other vegetarians at Grady High School demanded — and won — some changes two years ago.
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Hard to swallow
The Guardian
January 4, 2006
New research indicates that gas-guzzling cars are a much less important factor in climate change than the huge amounts of food devoured by carnivorous 'burger man'.
Of all the seasonal homilies about "green" Christmases and "sustainable" new year pledges - an oxymoron if ever I've heard one - only one stuck in my mind: each of us could make a bigger contribution to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases by becoming a vegan than by converting to an eco-friendly car.
Researchers at the University of Chicago have calculated the relative carbon intensity of a standard vegan diet in comparison to a US-style carnivorous diet, all the way through from production to processing to distribution to cooking and consumption. An average burger man (that is, not the outsize variety) emits the equivalent of 1.5 tonnes more CO2 every year than the standard vegan. By comparison, were you to trade in your conventional gas-guzzler for a state of the art Prius hybrid, your CO2 savings would amount to little more than one tonne per year.
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Fowl Play In the Slaughterhouse
By Stan Cox, AlterNet
January 4, 2006
In my hometown of Gainesville, Ga., there's a statue of a broiler hen, a monument to one of the longtime mainstays of the region's economy. Today I live in Kansas, where beef is king and bovine statuary is common. And over in the Corn Belt, the winner of the annual football game between the universities of Iowa and Minnesota takes home a big bronze hog representing both states' favorite farm animal.
Public art honors these doomed objects of our affection for their contribution to the American diet and economy. Recent years have also brought growing awareness of the often-cruel conditions under which they are raised and slaughtered.
But as far as I know, there are no monuments to the workers who kill and process cattle, hogs, chickens or other livestock. And in one of the nation's most grueling and dangerous industries, laws meant to protect those workers are often inadequate and getting worse.
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Humane Society sues USDA over poultry slaughter
Reuters
November 21, 2005
WASHINGTON - U.S. poultry slaughter methods are cruel and raise the risk of consumers contracting a foodborne illness, the Humane Society of the United States said in a lawsuit that seeks to ensure birds are unconscious before being slaughtered.
U.S. industry practices include hanging live birds upside down in metal shackles, then moving them through an electrified water bath that paralyzes them while still conscious, the lawsuit claimed.
The slaughter plant treatment increases the chance that a bird will inhale feces in the water, leading to a higher bacteria level in its meat, the lawsuit said.
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Vegetarian Food may protect against cancer
MedIndia.com
November 1, 2005
Research studies presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting in Baltimore has shown that eating vegetarian food protects the host body from cancer occurrence. Two studies has shown the benefits of eating broccoli sprouts which is found to be effective against infection of the mouth which may lead to stomach and oral cancers. An other study has shown that the chemicals in the sprouts have found to be effective in reducing the incidence of stomach cancers and skin cancer.
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Force feeding of birds a sin
Printed in the Chicago Sun-Times, Editorial Written by Mathew Scully
October 24, 2005
Gluttony, like any other vice, turns to anger when asked to explain itself. And so a few epicures and touchy French chefs are all worked up about Ald. Joe Moore's proposal to ban foie gras from Chicago restaurants. Foie gras is French for "fatty liver," but more precisely translated as the grossly enlarged liver of a tortured duck or goose.
The details behind the delicacy became a matter of controversy when Chicago chef Charlie Trotter decided a few years ago to see for himself whether the reports of cruelty were true. They were, he concluded -- the scene "was grisly, to put it mildly." Trotter removed foie gras from his menu. A hundred other Chicago restaurants followed, and when the issue came to Moore's attention he decided that foie gras -- already banned in nations from Israel to Austria, and scheduled for extinction in California -- was something the city could do without.
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The best kind of veggie burger
MSNBC
October 14, 2005
Veggie burgers are now standard all-American fare, served at fast food restaurants, sports arenas, amusement parks and schools. But are they really more healthful than a burger made of extra lean ground beef or turkey? Moreover, how should one choose among the array of veggie burgers in the grocery store?
One of the best reasons for choosing a veggie burger is to cut saturated fat. Depending on its size, a regular hamburger’s four to seven grams of saturated fat are a significant part of the recommended daily limit of 15 to 25 grams, which varies according to a person’s calorie needs and blood cholesterol level. Most veggie burgers contain from zero to 1 gram of saturated fat.
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Tofu outmuscles red meat at firehouse
Austin American-Statesman
October 9, 2005
They used to eat big, fat, juicy steaks. One-pound hamburgers. Lots of fried fish.
Then one of the firefighters at Austin Fire Station No. 2 got a cholesterol reading over 300 — high enough above the American Heart Association's threshold of 200 that he was at high risk for a heart attack.
That was enough to persuade James "J.R." Rae — the one with the high cholesterol — and other firefighters on his shift to give up the fatty food. Go vegetarian.
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Egg Producers Relent on Industry Seal
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