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In this edition...
Health |
 | New avian influenza flare-ups: Virus remains a global threat |
| | Tuna sushi's trendy, if you're into mercury! |
| | Obesity becoming world crisis |
| | Veganism is taking root, but is it healthy? |
Environment |
| | Rethinking the meat-guzzler |
| | Eating as if the climate mattered |
| | Boycott called for soybeans coming from the deforested Amazon region of Brazil |
| | Search for "night time spinach" threatens wildlife, local livelihoods |
| | Sharks disappearing as fin chopping rises |
Lifestyles and Trends |
| | Are you a philosphical or a pragmatic vegetarian? |
| | Q&A with celeb veggie and anti-KFC campaigner Pamela Anderson |
| | Whole Foods CEO lays out the 'Future of Food' |
| | Vegans can still love carnivores |
| | Veggie experiences: The 247 lb. vegan |
Animal Issues and Advocacy |
| | Coming home: 'Free-range' hens get first taste of true freedom |
| | Video reveals violations of laws, abuse at slaughterhouse |
| | Animal rights groups pick up momentum |
| | Widespread kosher slaughter method scrutinized for cruelty
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| | Exposed: The long, cruel road to the slaughterhouse |
Books and Perspectives |
| | Sensitising children towards animals |
Of Note |
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(Excerpts are included from current news stories. Click on the "Full story" link to read the full article.)
Health 
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New avian influenza flare-ups: Virus remains a global threat
Full story: AllAfrica.com/FAO
Recent avian influenza outbreaks in 15 countries demonstrate that the H5N1 virus remains a global threat and requires close monitoring and strong control efforts, [the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said January 24]. Since December 2007, Bangladesh, Benin, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Myanmar, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Viet Nam have confirmed new H5N1 outbreaks in poultry stocks. Except for a few cases in wild birds in China, Poland and United Kingdom, most of the confirmed outbreaks occurred in domestic poultry, including chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks.
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AllAfrica.com/FAO - January 24, 2008
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Related:
Indonesian boy dies of bird flu
Environmental News Network (February 18, 2008)
Book review: "Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching"
Journal of American Medical Association (October, 2007)
Tuna sushi's trendy, if you're into mercury!
Source: New York Times
Recent laboratory tests found so much mercury in tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants that at most of them, a regular diet of six pieces a week would exceed the levels considered acceptable by the [U.S.] Environmental Protection Agency. Although the samples were gathered in New York City, experts believe similar results would be observed elsewhere. The city has warned women who are pregnant or breast-feeding and children not to eat fresh tuna, Chilean sea bass, swordfish, shark, grouper and other kinds of fish it describes as "too high in mercury." (Cooking fish has no effect on the mercury level.) Over the past several years, studies have suggested that mercury may also cause health problems for adults, including an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and neurological symptoms.
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New York Times - January 23, 2008
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Obesity becoming world crisis
Full story: Toronto Star
It's already being called the next deadly global pandemic. Projected to be a bigger threat to life than AIDS and malaria combined, obesity is quickly becoming the world's most severe health-care crisis... The United Nations says there are now more overweight people in the world than starving people. Obesity is not new, but what's surprising is that it now plagues the developing world, too. Obesity is on a dramatic rise in poor states, as impoverished locals are increasingly introduced to mass-produced imported food that's often cheaper than their local fare... Big Macs are taking the place of traditionally prepared plantains and sweet potato biscuits.
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Toronto Star - February 4, 2008
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Veganism is taking root, but is it healthy?
Full story: USA Today
It's hip to be a vegan: Best-selling books tout the no-meat, no-eggs, no-dairy eating style. Celebrities such as actress Natalie Portman and former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich reportedly eat the vegan way, for reasons ranging from ethics to weight control. So veganism is in. But is it healthy? Short answer: Yes, [of course!] it can be... eating a healthy vegan diet "is not difficult once you get used to it," says Jack Norris, a vegan and registered dietitian who offers tips at VeganHealth.org.
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USA Today - January 27, 2008
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| Environment
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Rethinking the meat-guzzler
Full story: New York Times
A sea change in the consumption of a resource that Americans take for granted may be in store - something cheap, plentiful, widely enjoyed and a part of daily life. And it isn't oil. It's meat. The two commodities share a great deal: Like oil, meat is subsidized by the federal government. Like oil, meat is subject to accelerating demand as nations become wealthier, and this, in turn, sends prices higher. Finally - like oil - meat is something people are encouraged to consume less of, as the toll exacted by industrial production increases, and becomes increasingly visible... If price spikes don't change eating habits, perhaps the combination of deforestation, pollution, climate change, starvation, heart disease and animal cruelty will gradually encourage the simple daily act of eating more plants and fewer animals. [The full article covers many topics, including meat's impact on world hunger, and is highly recommended.]
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New York Times - January 27, 2008
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Eating as if the climate mattered
Full story: Huffingtonpost
[Recently in Washington], 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 "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 ["Livestock's Long Shadow"]. And the IPCC head, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri declared "Don't eat meat, ride a bike, and be a frugal shopper." NCSE, IPPC, and the U.N. deserve accolades for calling on people to stop supporting the inefficient, fossil fuel intensive, and polluting meat industry. Thus far, among the large environmental organizations only Greenpeace ensures that all official functions are vegetarian. Other environmental groups should follow suit.
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Huffingtonpost - January 24, 2008
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Related:
Green life challenge 3: Moooo-ve away from meat
Toronto Star Blogs, Canada (February 4, 2008)
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Boycott called for soybeans coming from the deforested Amazon region of Brazil
Full story: Environmental News Network
The greatest emerging threat to Amazon rainforests and communities is industrial soy plantations. Huge mechanized, soy monocultures destroy tropical ecosystems, accelerate climate change and cause human rights abuses primarily to produce agrofuel and livestock feed. The soya industry wipes out biodiversity, destroys soil fertility, pollutes freshwater and displaces communities. Soybean production expands the agricultural frontier not only through fire and deforestation to clear ancient rainforests, but more importantly by pushing cattle ranches and displacing forest peoples further into natural rainforest ecosystems. [Discuss/take action here.]
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Environmental News Network - February 14, 2008
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Search for "night time spinach" threatens wildlife, local livelihoods
Full story: Environmental News Network
Meat hungry refugees are sustaining a thriving wildlife poaching trade in Tanzania, according to a report by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. Wild meat, cooked after dark in the refugee camps of northern Tanzania, is called "night time spinach." Generally cheaper than beef and culturally more appetizing, poaching or trading wild meat [including chimpanzees, buffalo and zebra] is one of the few income earning opportunities available to refugees. But the decimation of local wildlife in widening areas around camps is threatening the viability of established local non-refugee communities that traditionally supplemented their diet and income with wild foods.
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Environmental News Network - January 22, 2008
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Related:
Refugee link to wildlife decline.
BBC (January 22, 2008)
Sharks disappearing as fin chopping rises
Full story: Environmental News Network
Populations of tiger, bull, dusky and other sea sharks have plummeted by more than 95 per cent since the 1970s as fisherman kill the animals for their fins [an extremely cruel practice!] or when they scoop other fish from the ocean, according to an expert from the World Conservation Union, or IUCN. At particular risk is the scalloped hammerhead shark, whose young swim mostly in shallow waters along shores all over the world to avoid predators. The numbers of many other large shark species have plunged due to increased demand for shark fins and meat, recreational shark fisheries, as well as tuna and swordfish fisheries, where millions of sharks are taken as bycatch each year, said [an IUCN spokesperson].
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Environmental News Network - February 17, 2008
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Related:
Global trade in tiger shrimp threatens environment
Environmental News Network (February 19, 2008)
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| Lifestyles and Trends
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Are you a philosphical or a pragmatic vegetarian?
Full story: Washington Post
Allison Don is not a paranoid eater, but when faced with dishes made with mock meat, the vegetarian occasionally has one of her carnivorous friends take the first bite - just to be certain it isn't the real thing. As sales have grown, so has the intrigue about these plant-based meat substitutes, which strongly resemble butcher's wares and fishermen's daily catches. Why, carnivores might ask, would someone who shies away from meat want to dine on a simulacrum of it? Why not just eat your veggies? It all depends on what kind of non-meat eater you are: philosophical or pragmatic. Philosophical vegetarians, says Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, avoid meat for ethical reasons and prefer foods that taste and look like plant life. Conversely, pragmatic vegetarians love meat but not the nutritional pitfalls that come with it. "They want [vegetarian food] to taste like ground beef," Wansink said, "but without the animal fat."
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Washington Post - January 9, 2008
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Q&A with celeb veggie and anti-KFC campaigner Pamela Anderson
Full story: Guardian, UK
Pamela Anderson, 40, was born and raised in Ladysmith, Canada. Her father was a furnace repair man, her mother a waitress. Her modelling career began after she was filmed at a football game wearing a Labatt T-shirt. In 1992, she was cast as CJ Parker in the hit television series Baywatch, a role that made her a sex symbol worldwide. What is your most treasured possession? My Linda McCartney Memorial Award for promoting vegetarianism. What makes you depressed? That people who call themselves environmentalists still eat meat. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Diverting the ridiculous amount of attention heaped upon me to my activism with PETA.
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Guardian, UK - January 19, 2008
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Whole Foods CEO lays out the 'Future of Food'
Full story: ENN
John Mackey, co-founder and chief executive officer of Whole Foods Market Inc., has a good idea as to what the future of global organic and alternative food production should look like. Despite consumers' "willful ignorance" toward how their food is made and the "lies" fed to consumers by the industrial agriculture industry, a new era of food prodcution is on the horizon, Mackey declared during a presentation at the American Grassfed Association's Grazing America '07 Conference... Mackey showed a clip of PETA's previously released "Meet Your Meat" video narrated by actor Alec Baldwin. The footage (much of it undercover) was obviously shocking to some audience members. Mackey [also] pointed out that dairy cows make milk for their young, but being hooked up to milking machines three times a day means many young are denied the milk and go into veal production. "If you're supporting milk, you are supporting the veal industry," he said.
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Vegans can still love carnivores
Full story: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA, US
Erica Lynn and her boyfriend, Tony Cebzanov, have a harmonious relationship, but it takes effort in the area of food, where the two are opposites.
Lynn, 25, is a vegetarian, while Cebzanov "eats more meat than anyone I've ever met." Yet, with extra effort, they make things work, despite the differences. "We don't have arguments about it," says Lynn, who is from Latrobe but recently moved to Robinson. "He knows not to talk about where the food came from ... that's a ground rule." Many successful couples find that, in one or more areas, they have opposite tastes, particularly when it comes to food preferences and dietary choices.
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Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA, US - February 19, 2008
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Related:
I love you, but you love meat
New York Times - requires free registration (February 13, 2008)
Odd couples - Culinarily mismatched mates achieve harmony in the kitchen
San Francisco Chronicle (February 13, 2008)
The diviseness of diets
University of Michigan Daily (February 19, 2008)
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Veggie experiences: The 247 lb. vegan
Full story: Wall Street Journal
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... As the season progressed, the team lost more games than it won. But Mr. Gonzalez managed to stick to his diet and hold onto the football. He broke the touchdown record before midseason and was within reach of the career reception record [which he attained]. "I was like, 'OK, this is working,'" he says. "I have so much more energy when I'm out there."
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Wall Street Journal - January 25, 2008
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| Animal Issues and Advocacy
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Coming home: 'Free-range' hens get first taste of true freedom
Full story: Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary
I don't know how they experienced their arrival at the sanctuary - that moment when the van doors opened and the light of day filled their eyes for the first time in their lives - but I know that, for one breathless moment, when we first looked at the 100 souls safely tucked inside, we didn't see the tangled mess of soiled feathers, the open sores, the broken bones, the chopped off beaks, the mocked lives. All we saw - in one breath of infinite relief and elation - was 100 souls who will go on breathing. And, for one instant, the glow of their living presence obscured everything else - the wreckage we'd made of their lives for our amusement, the despair still engulfing the 50 billion left behind, the darkness of a humanity that imposes untold misery for a taste. The 100 birds who were now gazing at the open sky for the first time in their lives, were industry trash, "spent" hens rescued from a "free-range" [our emphasis] egg facility where they had endured a lifetime of physical, social and psychological deprivation. [If you only read one full article in this issue, please make it this one.]
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Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary - November 13, 2007
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Related:
"The Faces of 'Free-Range' Farming"
Video related to above article (December 17, 2007)
PETA Video
Tyson workers caught torturing birds, urinating on slaughter line
Video reveals violations of laws, abuse at slaughterhouse
Full story: Washington Post
Video footage [released January 30] 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. The footage was taken by an undercover investigator for an animal welfare group, who wore a customized video camera under his clothes while working at the facility last year. "These were not rogue employees secretly doing these things," the investigator said in a telephone interview on the condition of anonymity because he hopes to infiltrate other slaughterhouses. "This is the pen manager and his assistant doing this right in the open."
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Washington Post - January 30, 2008
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Related:
HSUS: Watch the video/take action Updates Video library
USDA recalls 143 million pounds of beef products already consumed by schoolchildren
Natural News (February 18, 2008)
USDA's oversight of meat safety criticized
Los Angeles Times (February 7, 2008)
Quote: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has 7,800 pairs of eyes scrutinizing 6,200 slaughterhouses and food processors across the nation. But in the end, it took an undercover operation by an animal rights group to reveal that beef from ill and abused cattle had entered the human food supply. The incidents recorded occurred under the noses of eight on-site USDA inspectors [our emphasis].
NYC schools go burger-free after cruelty charges
Newsday, NY (February 8, 2008)
Inspectors verify abuse of cows in California
Washington Post (February 7, 2008)
Editorial: Hard to stomach
Los Angeles Times (February 9, 2008)
Huge meat recall prods further reforms
Christian Science Monitor (February 20, 2008)
Stop eating meat, says Jewish Vegetarians of North America
Centre Daily Times, PA, US (February 18, 2008)
In light of largest beef recall in US history, Farm Sanctuary asks, "Why not pork?"
Farm Sanctuary No Downers Campaign Press Release (February 20, 2008)
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Animal rights groups pick up momentum
Full story: USA Today
The growing influence of animal rights activists increasingly is affecting daily life, touching everything from the foods Americans eat to what they study in law school, where they buy their puppies and even whether they should enjoy a horse-drawn carriage ride in New York's Central Park. Animal activist groups such as the Humane Society of the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) say they are seeing a spike in membership as their campaigns spread. "Animals are made of flesh and blood and bone just like humans," says Bruce Friedrich, PETA's vice president for campaigns. "They feel pain just like we do. Recognition of that grows year by year. The animal rights movement is a social justice movement (similar to) suffrage and civil rights."
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USA Today - January 28, 2008
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Widespread kosher slaughter method scrutinized for cruelty
Full story: The Jewish Daily Forward
Over the past few decades, kosher meat producers have learned what many others in the industry know: The broad expanses of rural Argentina and Uruguay have everything needed to make great beef, with a stable climate and seemingly endless pastures for grazing. The labor is cheap, and the open pastures on which the cows are raised mean that much of the meat can be marketed with those increasingly alluring tags of "natural" and "free range." As a result, a majority of Israel's beef - and a large portion of America's kosher meat - now comes from South America. In recent years, every major American kosher meat producer has set up a South American operation. There is just one, big problem: the way the animals are killed.
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The Jewish Daily Forward - February 13, 2008
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Related:
View undercover PETA video and sign petition
Why do the OU and Israel's rabbinate condone barbarity?
Jerusalem Post (February 13, 2008)
Rabbinate to phase out 'shackle and hoist' animal slaughter
Jerusalem Post (February 19, 2008)
Jewish Vegetarian Group commends Israeli chief rabbis for plans to phase out shackling and hoisting/urges further steps
Jewish Vegetarians of North America Press Release (February 20, 2008)
Exposed: The long, cruel road to the slaughterhouse
Full story: Independent, UK
Millions of animals are suffering unnecessarily at the hands of meat traders by enduring cruel, drawn-out journeys across the world to be slaughtered on arrival. The alarming evidence of their suffering has been revealed after a secret investigation by 10 major animal charities, including the RSCPA, Compassion in World Farming and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). In shocking footage, animals including horses, pigs, sheep and chickens are seen being transported thousands of miles across the world, when they could as easily be carried as meat. Thousands of animals die en route from disease, heat exhaustion, hunger and stress. The others escape the intolerable conditions only to confront, immediately, the butcher's knife. [Video can be accessed from the article.]
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Independent, UK - February 13, 2008
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Related:
Handle With Care
WSPA campaign - video and action
Australia as world leader in live export cruelty
WSPA
Call for ban on live exports
Courier Mail, Australia (February 13, 2008)
Alberta-Hawaii hog shipments dubbed 'worst' cruelty
Country Guide Canada (February 13, 2008)
Long journey to slaughter can be torture to livestock
Owen Sound Sun Times, ON, Canada (February 20, 2008)
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| Books and Perspectives
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| Of Note
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Meatout 2008 - March 20
The first day of spring can be a new healthy start for people and the planet if we all participate in Meatout 2008. It's easy with great faux foods like those from It's All Good™. On (or around) March 20 thousands of caring people in all 50 U.S. states and two dozen other countries will host informative and educational Meatout events. Check out the events in your area at the website below.
Meatout 2008: Info Events
Being veggie is music to his ears!
Lance Morrison, a California police officer, has set his passion for being veggie to music in an 18-track CD called "Pasture Prime." He says his songs are designed to create a smile as they inspire. Several songs are from the perspectives of the animals.
www.vegantunes.com
New free veggie community sites
ShalomVeg.com is a comprehensive free online community for Jewish vegetarians, vegans and animal rights activists to learn, network and build connections with each other. Not to mention find something good to cook for dinner! VegBang is a social network for people to share vegetarian related internet content - from recipes to health documents.
ShalomVeg.com
VegBang.com
Veggie Pride Parade - May 18
The first Veggie Pride Parade took place in Paris in 2001 and has been going on annually since then. This year the first Veggie Pride Parade in America will take place in Greenwich Village, New York City. Sounds like a good reason for a trip!
www.veggieprideparade.org
Save the Planet petition
The Argentinean Vegetarian Union (UVA) is asking all caring people to sign their petition that calls on the United Nations and through it every government in the world to sensitize the world population about the importance of basing our diet on vegetables and to promote a dietary change as the main measure to diminish greenhouse gas emissions.
UVA Save the Planet - Change Your Diet Petition
On the lighter side
PETA's U.S. presidential race spoof is great fun! Watch as a wide selection of prize vegetables debate some of the most pressing issues facing the country in the closely fought race to the Greenhouse.
Debate 2008: Road to the Greenhouse
VegE-News recipes and tips
Looking for tips on going veggie or recipes for Meatout? Click on the tabs at the top of this newsletter! Or bookmark our VegE-News site where you can also find archives of past issues.
www.vege-news.com
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Note:
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Whenever possible, stories are linked to the original source. Some sites may require registration, and/or not archive the stories. All links were active at the time of publication.
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