Lifestyles & Trends    

Vegans can put their money where their mouth is
Full story: The Toronto Star

MooShoes, (a Manhattan boutique) is one in an expanding roster of shops (and designers) catering to people who, from motives of conscience or style, have banned animal products from their diets and, often, their wardrobes as well.

Vegan products are finding takers not only among those who call themselves vegetarians, but also among shoppers attracted to prices that are often 60 per cent to 75 per cent lower than leather.

The Toronto Star - November 7, 2004

You are what you wear?
Full story: CNNMoney.com

NEW YORK - Whole Foods Market will soon give its die-hard shoppers of organic and gluten-free foods the chance to dress the part -- think T-shirts made of soy and pants tailored from hemp.

Marci Zaroff, founder and CEO of Boca Raton, Fl.-based "Under the Canopy," an online retailer of organic fiber fashion, (said) that her company's products will start selling at Whole Foods new megastore slated to open in February in Austin.

CNNMoney.com - November 1, 2004

There IS a free lunch, if you like veggies that is
Full story: Kansas City Star

For telephone company CEO Norm Mason, a strict vegetarian and lifelong animal lover, there was never any doubt what he would offer at his company cafeteria. Soy steaks and soy sloppy joes, veggie burgers, nachos and other meatless, eggless, butter-free delicacies are cooked daily using texturized vegetable protein.

If that doesn't sound to your liking, consider this: It's all free. Mason says he created the "Vegeteria" out of concern for the well-being of his 200 employees of Cat Communications International in Roanoke, Va.

Kansas City Star - November 2, 2004

New BMOC (Big Menu on Campus) is vegan
Full story: BusinessWire.com

Their recent nationwide survey of over 100,000 college students has prompted ARAMARK to add dozens of vegan menu items as part of the company's Just4U(TM) menu program, available in nearly two dozen college cafeterias managed by them.

"Our research demonstrated that demand for vegan is especially strong among college students, as fully 24% of students indicated that vegan dishes were important to them versus only 18% for low-carb," said Ginger Strano, RD, Director of Nutritional Program Development for ARAMARK.

BusinessWire.com - October 19, 2004

  Health    

Red, processed meats up diabetes risk; veggies lower it
Full story: PlanetArk

U.S. investigators found that people that ate mostly Western foods - including sweets, French fries, refined grains such as white bread, and red and processed meats (such as hot dogs) - were nearly 50 percent more likely to develop diabetes than people who ate minimal amounts of Western-type foods.

The researchers analyzed data on almost 70,000 women (over) 14 years. The researchers also found that (for) women who followed a largely so-called "prudent" diet - consisting of high amounts of fish, legumes, fruits, vegetables and whole grains - the risk of diabetes appeared to decrease.

PlanetArk - November 10, 2004

Milk and lactose intakes increase ovarian cancer risk
Full story: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Swedish researchers concluded that high intakes of lactose and dairy products, particularly milk, are associated with an increased risk of serous ovarian cancer (but not of other subtypes of ovarian cancer). Women who consumed 4 servings of total dairy products per day had a risk of serous ovarian cancer twice that of women who consumed less than 2 servings per day.

This was a prospective population-based cohort study of 61,084 women aged 38 to 76 who were enrolled in the Swedish Mammography Cohort.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition - November, 2004

High-fat diet is bad for the brain
Full story: Nature.com

When the star of the movie Super Size Me ate only McDonald's for a month, his physical health went down the tube. Now researchers have warned that such diets could hit mental abilities too.

A slew of animal studies conclude that learning and memory suffer when fat intake rises. Rats and mice raised on the rodent equivalent of junk food struggle to learn their way around a maze and take longer to recall the solution to problems they have already solved, researchers said at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held in San Diego. "But we need a note of caution: we work on rats and this may not extrapolate to humans". (VegE-News editor's note: That is just ONE of the reasons we object strenuously to such animal tests, however happy we are to see conclusions that may help the general population to move away from animal exploitation.)

Nature.com - October 26, 2004

Excuse me, is that a fish in your beer?
Full story: HindustanTimes.com

In a bit or a rant, this article points out that non-vegetarian ingredients aren't always clear or aren't even listed, since they're used in the manufacturing process, not in the actual product.

Fish sauce is often a flavoring in Thai restaurant "vegetarian" dishes. Cochineal, a red food color used in colored pasta, sweet drinks like strawberry Nesquik, etc. is made by crushing a beetle to extract the red dye. Wine, beer and even fruit juices are often processed with animal or fish bones.

HindustanTimes.com - November 3, 2004

Study concludes that soy doesn't affect fertility
Full story: Yahoo! News

The plant estrogens found in soy don't impair fertility in female monkeys (which have a menstrual cycle similar to women). That's the conclusion of a study by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and Emory University School of Medicine.

"Soy treatment did not change any characteristics of the menstrual cycle, including length, amount of bleeding or hormone levels. This suggests that any protection that soy may provide against breast cancer does not come from changes in the menstrual cycle," Kaplan said. (It had been theorized that such changes contributed to breast cancer protection, but might inhibit fertility.)

Yahoo! News - October 20, 2004

  Ethics & Advocacy    

Stuffing a turkey takes on new meaning
Full story: Yahoo! News/U.S. Newswire

Farm Sanctuary, the farm animal rescue and protection organization, is asking people to feed a turkey this (American) Thanksgiving, rather than eat one in its annual Adopt-A-Turkey Project.

Since Farm Sanctuary's unique holiday project began in 1986, hundreds of turkeys have been rescued, and thousands of people have decided to celebrate turkeys as friends, and not the main course. This holiday season, millions of compassionate consumers will sit down to a vegetarian Thanksgiving feast across America.

Yahoo! News/U.S. Newswire - November 8, 2004

UK: Smarties urged to wise-up
Full story: just-food.com

The UK's Vegetarian Society has called for Swiss food giant Nestle to reformulate its confectionery product Smarties to make it suitable for vegetarians.

At the Vegetarian Society's annual awards, Smarties was named the winner of the Imperfect World category for products that are almost vegetarian, but not quite; red Smarties are coloured with cochineal from crushed beetles. Vegetarians were asked to vote for products they would most like to see made completely vegetarian.

just-food.com - November 1, 2004

PeTA calls on Wendy's to phase out abusive chicken slaughter
Press release: PeTA Media Center

PETA has filed a shareholder resolution with Columbus-based fast-food chain Wendy's, focused on having its chicken suppliers phase in a more humane method of slaughter known as controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK).

Currently, chickens raised for Wendy's are hung upside-down by their legs in painful metal shackles and run through an electrified stun bath that often gives them painful shocks without rendering them insensible to pain. Many are still fully conscious when their throats are slit or when they are dunked into tanks of scalding-hot water for feather removal. "Controlled-atmosphere killing will save Wendy's money, help workers, and save chickens from a horribly cruel death," says PeTA Vegan Campaigns Director Bruce Friedrich.

PeTA Media Center - November 8, 2004

"Babe" star calls on veterinarians to stop crating of pregnant pigs
Full story: Chicago Sun-Times

The American Veterinary Medical Association gathered in Chicago on Nov. 5 to discuss a topic that is very dear to (James Cromwell's) heart: the treatment of pigs.

Imagine being shoved inside a small closet with barely enough room to move. Your feet begin to ache from the hard floor so you contort your body just enough to sit down. But after a while, this position offers no more comfort and you struggle to stand up again. The lack of room to walk or turn around starts to atrophy your muscles, and festering sores on your feet make every movement agony. Now imagine spending six years like this -- and you'll begin to understand what life is like for nearly 6 million pregnant or nursing pigs in the United States.

Chicago Sun-Times - November 6, 2004

Animal welfare campaign forces change in Australia
Full story: Melbourne Herald Sun

AUSTRALIAN sheep and wool industry leaders have responded to animal welfare group campaigns by promising to phase out the practice of mulesing by 2010.

WoolProducers president Robert Peitsch said the industry was speeding up research and development programs to enable an end to mulesing and interim measures to improve animal welfare. Mulesing involves cutting skin and wool away from the backsides of sheep with shears to counter blowfly infestation.

Melbourne Herald Sun - November 9, 2004

Humane-sounding egg labels not all they're cracked up to be
Full story: The Christian Science Monitor

Chickens are perhaps the least protected of farm animals, exempt from individual state laws prohibiting cruelty to animals and from the federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.That's why (some) consumers select egg cartons that carry labels like "Animal Care Certified" or "cage free."

"The ("Animal Care Certified") logo is a scam," says Paul Shapiro, executive director of Compassion Over Killing. The (certification) guidelines allow the hens to live in (wire) "battery cages" with as many as eight hens in a cage of 67 square inches. The guidelines also allow the practice of trimming chicken's beaks to prevent excessive pecking, as well as "force molting," which involves underfeeding hens to extend their capacity to lay eggs. Eggs labeled "cage free" often come from hens packed side by side in massive sheds, Shapiro says.

The Christian Science Monitor - October 27, 2004

  Environment    

New Zealand's lush, clean environment at risk from intensive farming
Full story: MediaCorp News/Agence France Presse

AUCKLAND: New Zealand's celebrated rural landscape is facing major environmental damage due to increasingly intensive farming practices, a government report has warned. A dairy-led boom had resulted in growing use of nitrogen-based synthetic fertilizers, increased stock rates and greater irrigation -- all putting "our natural capital .. under intense pressure," parliamentary commissioner for the environment, Morgan Williams, warned.

"There is strong evidence our waterways and lakes are becoming nutrient enriched and degraded from nitrogen, animal faecal matter, and eroded sediment," the report said. Most of the low-lying rivers and lakes in farming areas were harmed, some to the point that they were unfit even for stock to drink from.

MediaCorp News/Agence France Presse - November 6, 2004

Livestock grazing and agriculture contributing to extinction danger
Full story: AP/Environmental Network News

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico - Environmentalists asking for federal protection of the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse say the bird is in danger of becoming extinct, in part because its native habitat across the West is being lost to livestock grazing and agriculture.

Historically, the grouse's habitat stretched across nine western states into southwest Canada. Hunting pressure in the 19th century along with conversion of native habitat to farmland is what biologists believe caused the decline of the bird, named for the short, wedged tail that tops out in a point.

AP/Environmental Network News - October 20, 2004

  Book review    

It's not your fault: cheese is addicting
Full story: Houston Chronicle

Dr. Neal Barnard, psychiatrist and nutrition researcher, tackles the must-have-now nature of chocolate, cheese, meat and sugar in his book Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings - and 7 Steps to End Them Naturally.

He's a vegetarian who considers a diet free of meat and dairy crucial to good health, and he wants you to try it. Start small. In three weeks, "something happens," he says. "Tastes change." It's up to you to decide if those changes become permanent. "We have addictions that we don't think of being addictions," Barnard says. "Don't stick your toe in the swimming pool. Jump in."

Houston Chronicle - November 1, 2004