 |
In this edition...
Health |
 | Politics of the plate: Playing chicken with our health |
| | Superbug found in Canadian pork products |
| | Low-fat diet reduces vascular heart disease risk |
| | Soy reduces breast cancer risk: Japanese study |
| | Mad cow disease strikes again in Canada |
Environment |
| | How true are claims that going veg benefits the environment? |
| | London council's green advice to staff: Go vegetarian |
| | Half a good idea: Manitoba bans new hog barns in half of province |
Lifestyles and Trends |
| | Increasing demand for meat contributes to world hunger and high prices |
| | Veggie celebs: Diet fit for a Prince |
| | Will that big U.S. beef recall steer people to veggies? |
| | Vegetarian fast food enjoys more and more popularity
|
| | Interview: Professor Richard H. Schwartz, President of Jewish Vegetarians of North America |
Animal Issues and Advocacy |
| | Humans inherently owe animals |
| | Meat: An ugly reality show |
| | USDA could install cameras in slaughterhouses |
| | Three U.S. agencies aim to end animal testing |
| | Australia: Call to alter labels for animals' sake |
Books and Perspectives |
| | Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the cruelest species of them all? |
| | Activist doc maker asks: How can pet lovers eat meat? |
Are They Serious? Unfortunately Yes |
| | 'Eat whale and save the planet' says Norwegian lobby |
Of Note |
Please help support VegE-News!
We'll say thanks with a special gift. Click here.
|
|
(Excerpts are included from current news stories. Click on the "Full story" link to read the full article.)
Health 
|
Politics of the plate: Playing chicken with our health
Full story: Gourmet
American chickens are fed a steady diet of tetracycline and other antibiotics, not to keep them from getting sick, but simply because the treatment makes healthy birds grow faster. The downside is that some bacteria mutate and develop resistance to drugs that once would have destroyed them. These drug-resistant "superbugs" can sicken and even kill people who eat undercooked meat. Now, researchers have discovered another way that these virtually indestructible germs can spread. A study published by a Johns Hopkins University research team in the December issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives shows that workers in poultry slaughterhouses are 32 times more likely than the rest of the population to carry drug-resistant E-coli bacteria in their intestines. The scientists' disturbing conclusion: Poultry workers may be "an important route of entry for antimicrobial-resistant E. coli into the community."
|
Gourmet - February 20, 2008
|
Superbug found in Canadian pork products
Full story: Toronto Star, Canada
Canadian researchers have found antibiotic-resistant Staph bacteria in pork products purchased in retail stores across the country - a discovery that raises questions about how the contamination occurred, how frequently it happens and whether it has implications for human health. Just under 10 per cent of sampled pork chops and ground pork recently purchased in four provinces tested positive for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, lead researcher Dr. Scott Weese reported [March 19] in a presentation to the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta. The bacteria would be destroyed by proper cooking, so Staph food poisoning is not a major concern, said Weese, an expert on zoonoses, the pathogens that pass back and forth between people and animals. But he wondered whether people handling meat with MRSA on its surface would end up inadvertently "colonizing" themselves. People who carry the bacteria on their skin or in their nostrils are at greater risk of going on to develop a Staph infection, which can range from a hard-to-heal boil to pneumonia to a potentially deadly bloodstream infection.
|
Toronto Star, Canada - March 19, 2008
|
Low-fat diet reduces vascular heart disease risk
Full story: NutraIngredients, Europe
A diet's composition may impact on vascular health, with low-fat diets being more effective than low-carb diets in reducing the risk of heart disease, according to a new study. The study adds to the debate on diet types, following on from findings that a low-carbohydrate diet, like the once fashionable Atkins diet, may put followers at a higher risk of clogged arteries and heart attack in the long-term, and adversely affect the numbers of certain types of bacteria in the gut of obese men. This recent study, published in Hypertension, [involved researchers] from the Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of Illinois.
|
NutraIngredients, Europe - March 3, 2008
|
Soy reduces breast cancer risk: Japanese study
Full story: AFP
Women who eat traditional Japanese soy-based foods on a regular basis face lower risks of breast cancer, a government-sponsored study showed. Women who had high levels of genistein, a compound found in soybeans, had less of a chance of developing breast cancer than women with less of it, said the study by the National Cancer Center in Tokyo. Soybeans in Japan are eaten as tofu, miso soup or Japanese fermented beans known as "natto." The study followed approximately 25,000 women aged between 40 and 69 throughout Japan for an average of 10 and a half years. Another recent study showed older women who eat soy-based foods faced lower risks of heart disease. The study was published in the U.S.-based Journal of Clinical Oncology.
|
Mad cow disease strikes again in Canada
Full story: Regina Leader-Post, SK, Canada
A six-year-old dairy cow from Alberta was confirmed [February 26] to have mad cow disease, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said. The thin cow from a farm in the Edmonton area was in failing health and collapsed about 10 days ago, said George Luterbach, a senior veterinarian with the agency. All such cows who stagger and collapse are supposed to be tested for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), with two stages of testing required to confirm the diagnosis. No part of the animal's carcass entered the human food or animal feed systems, but the 12th case of BSE in Canada raises questions about the efficacy of the feed ban established in 1997. This cow was born several years after the introduction of a ban on feed containing cattle or other ruminant parts.
|
Regina Leader-Post, SK, Canada - February 27, 2008
|
More health news:
The cruelest cuts
Charlotte Observer, NC, U.S. (February 20, 2008)
Quote: The sad, simple truth is if you are eating meat and you do not specifically know exactly where it came from, chances are that many human beings were exploited to produce it.
Deaths may be linked to mad cow
Canada.com (March 13, 2008)
Video: "All Jacked Up"
Clips from a doc on the dangers of eating beef and processed meats - Natural News (February 18, 2008)
Vegetables may slash diabetes risk
Nutraingredients Europe (February 25, 2008)
Go nuts! Almonds are nature's whole heart package
Fox Central Oregon, U.S. (February 29, 2008)
Quote: A new study from the University of Toronto suggests that eating a healthy diet, including almonds, reduces inflammation by about the same level as taking a first-generation statin drug.
|
| Environment
|
How true are claims that going veg benefits the environment?
Full story: E/The Environmental Magazine (scroll to second entry)
Q: Vegetarians and vegans are so self-righteous about not eating meat and how meat eating is so bad for the environment. How true are these claims? A: Mounting evidence suggests that meat-based diets are not only unhealthy, but that just about every aspect of meat production is an environmental disaster with wide and sometimes catastrophic consequences. There are 20 billion head of livestock on Earth, more than triple the number of people. According to the Worldwatch Institute, global livestock population has increased 60 per cent since 1961, and the number of fowl being raised for food has nearly quadrupled in the same time period, from 4.2 billion to 15.7 billion. Food First's Frances Moore Lappé says to imagine sitting down to an eight-ounce steak. "Then imagine the room filled with 45 to 50 people with empty bowls... For the feed cost of your steak, each of their bowls could be filled with a full cup of cooked cereal grains." Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer says that reducing U.S. meat production 10 per cent would free grain to feed 60 million people.
|
E/The Environmental Magazine (scroll to second entry) - February 24, 2008
|
London council's green advice to staff: Go vegetarian
Full story: This is London, UK
A London council wants to encourage its staff to help the environment by going vegetarian. Cutting meat and dairy products from canteen menus will reduce carbon emissions, according to Camden's climate change group. Councillors will vote on the proposal at the end of May after examining a report setting out a raft of measures designed to reduce the borough's environmental impact. Camden's "eco champion" Alexis Rowell said the idea of taking meat off the menu was based on United Nations data showing that the livestock industry is responsible for 18 per cent of the world's carbon emissions. He said: "At some point we have to get to grips with the Western diet, which contains so much meat and dairy and is part of the carbon problem and the obesity problem. We are not talking about turning everyone into vegetarians but about eating more vegetables and fewer pieces of meat."
|
This is London, UK - March 18, 2008
|
|
Half a good idea: Manitoba bans new hog barns in half of province
Full story: Environmental News Network
Manitoba will permanently ban new hog barns and expansions in the eastern half of the province, where the industry is most concentrated, according to its conservation minister. The government will immediately lift a temporary ban on new and expanding hog operations in the rest of the province, Stan Struthers said, but he said the entire industry will be subject to more environmental rules and scrutiny. "Quite clearly our focus is and will continue to be the protection of Manitoba's water, the protection of Manitoba's environment," Struthers told reporters. Canadian hog numbers dropped 6 per cent last year to 14 million head as of January 1, Statistics Canada said.
|
Environmental News Network - March 4, 2008
|
|
| Lifestyles and Trends
|
Increasing demand for meat contributes to world hunger and high prices
Full story: Guardian, UK
A record was set on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange [recently], when U.S. spring wheat surged above $20 a bushel. Interest in such news would not normally reach beyond the ranches of the mid-western prairies. But it is only the latest sign that the long era of cheap food is finally over. It arrives at the end of a month when the implications have started to be felt around the world... Demand, not supply, is the motor of the current food inflation. A growing taste for meat and dairy in newly prosperous parts of the world is one important factor. When it takes 10 kilos of feed to make one of beef, farming animals swallows land that might otherwise be feeding people. But the new middle classes of Beijing and Shanghai will not easily be persuaded that eating meat is a bad idea, especially if the persuasion comes from western countries that are far from vegan.
|
Guardian, UK - February 26, 2008
|
Related:
2008: The year of global food crisis
Sunday Herald, UK (March 9, 2008)
Fight rising food costs with meat-free diet
Hartford Courant, CT, U.S. (March 18, 2008)
Veggie celebs: Diet fit for a Prince
Full story: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI, U.S.
[Major league baseball player Prince] Fielder is known as a large, imposing figure on the field. He was a home run machine last season, a most valuable player candidate and one of the game's brightest young stars. He has personality and a first name that takes someone special to bear. What else can one share about the 23-year-old first baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers that hasn't been said or written? Try this: Prince Fielder is a vegetarian. That 6-foot, 260-pound build is powered by wheatgrass, soy and tofu nowadays. No meat. Not even fish. Fielder used to enjoy a stacked burger or a juicy steak as much as any carnivore, but a few weeks ago he received a book [Skinny Bitch we're told] from his wife, Chanel, that changed his outlook on what he puts in his massive frame. The book described how certain animals are treated and slaughtered for food. "After reading that, (meat) just didn't sound good to me anymore," Fielder said. "It grossed me out a little bit. It's not a diet thing or anything like that. I don't miss it at all." Fielder said he has a lot more energy than he did before the new diet, and his body feels cleansed.
|
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI, U.S. - February 20, 2008
|
More veggie celebs:
Paul McCartney: I realised I'm a murderer
News 24, South Africa (March 12, 2008)
Quote: "Something inside me clicked. I realised, as I watched [the fish] fight for breath, that his life was as important to him as mine is to me."
Bryan Adams: What's in your basket?
Guardian, UK (January 27, 2008)
Will that big U.S. beef recall steer people to veggies?
Full story: Philly.com, PA, U.S.
This is it, your friends are saying: It's finally time to go vegetarian.
Past time, maybe, what with government meat inspectors renewing calls for more staff, and school districts nationwide still trying to sort out, even a week later, whether they got any of the 143.4 million pounds of beef the U.S. Department of Agriculture recalled. It's a mess, people are saying, crazy and inhumane and out of control. Cancel the tenderloin, break out the tofu. But could a beef recall, even an epic one, really end up altering the culture and breeding vegetarians like ranchers breed cows? Americans changed their attitudes toward tobacco only after thousands died from smoking-related illness and the government put its weight behind antismoking campaigns. Prying a quarter-pounder out of someone's hands is quite another story. The notion that recalls will change the American lifestyle is fairly far-fetched, food experts believe. Kathy Stevens, a nationally known animal advocate [and author of Where the Blind Horse Sings], said that after a large animal recall she notices a "dramatic" increase in people asking questions about vegetarianism." 'I know it's time,' people say to me," she said. " 'How do I get started?'"
|
Philly.com, PA, U.S. - February 26, 2008
|
Vegetarian fast food enjoys more and more popularity
Full story: Foodweek Online
More and more restaurants and chains are offering solely vegetarian food, a trend that reflects consumer awareness of the environmental impact of eating meat. [Recently], we wrote about Zen Burger, a chain of vegetarian restaurants in the U.S. that specialises in meatless fast foods that copy those sold in traditional fast-food chains. Although Zen Burger founder James Tu had launched the first vegetarian chain, his business idea is not wholly new. Yellow Sunshine, a vegetarian diner, has operated in Berlin, Germany since a few years. Just like Zen Burger, Yellow Sunshine offers a wide range of fully vegetarian or vegan fast food, like the "Miss Piggy Burger" - faux pork chops on a bun.
|
Foodweek Online - March 7, 2008
|
Related:
Vegetarian fast food chain launched in the U.S.
Foodweek Online (February 18, 2008)
Korea: It's getting easier to go vegetarian
Chosun Ilbo, South Korea (March 13, 2008)
Interview: Professor Richard H. Schwartz, President of Jewish Vegetarians of North America
Full story: EVANA
Q: It is obvious that you feel very passionately about the vegetarian lifestyle. Why do you think Jews should be vegetarians? A: The mass production and widespread consumption of meat harms people, communities, and the planet and is in conflict with Judaism in at least six important areas... In view of these important Jewish mandates to preserve human health, attend to the welfare of animals, protect the environment, conserve resources, help feed hungry people, and pursue peace, and since animal-centered diets violate and contradict each of these responsibilities, committed Jews (and others) should sharply reduce or eliminate their consumption of animal products. One could say "dayenu" (it would be enough) after any of the arguments above, because each one constitutes by itself a serious conflict between Jewish values and current practice that should impel Jews to seriously consider a plant-based diet. Combined, they make an urgently compelling case for the Jewish community to address these issues. [Rabbi Schwartz is the force behind the compelling documentary "A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal the World."]
|
Related:
Christian Concern for all God's creatures
God's Creatures Ministry www.all-creatures.org/
|
| Animal Issues and Advocacy
|
Humans inherently owe animals
Full story: Daily Evergreen
Because other animals are unable to communicate and conceive of themselves collectively, they cannot tell us to stop killing them. They are the silent victims whose voices can never be heard. And because they cannot protest our exploitation of them, we excuse our behavior as a process of nature. Yet, if we are moral animals, we are obligated to take notice of the harm and suffering we cause other beings. "The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk, but, Can they suffer?" Jeremy Bentham wrote, forming the foundation for his ethical philosophy in the 1700s. I know many people who love their pets, recognize their emotional states and intelligence, but still support the slaughter and consumption of nonhuman meat. Because they are aware of their complicated biological and emotional lives, dog and cat lovers would never consume their pets - even if they were factory-farmed and cheaply available. Yet, if animals are not cute, furry and domesticated, it is acceptable to farm, kill and eat them. Our moral consideration should not stop merely at our level of familiarity.
|
Daily Evergreen - March 4, 2008
|
Related:
The Compassion Campaign
Earthsave Canada - Remarkable video footage of an Indian saint's love for his cow and the cow's deep devotion to the saint
Minds of their own: Animals are smarter than you think.
National Geographic (March, 2008)
|
Meat: An ugly reality show
Full story: Philly.com, PA, U.S.
So it's official: Downers - cows too sick to stand, the ones at highest risk for mad cow disease - were indeed getting into the [U.S.] food supply and being fed to our nation's children in the school lunch program. Steve Mendell, CEO of the meat plant made infamous by undercover Humane Society video footage, said so himself while testifying before Congress... There's a holiday coming up March 20: The Great American Meatout. It's a chance to step back and look at what you believe and vote your conscience when you sit down at the table. At the very least you may want to restrict your meat purchases to sources you know personally. If ignorance is bliss, it's also just about impossible now. The reality of factory-farming animal abuse is clear. It's a toss-up whether animal cruelty being ignored and denied or the rise in food-borne diseases like E. coli is a bigger problem. Either way: Let's open our eyes, and cut the crap.
|
Philly.com, PA, U.S. - March 14, 2008
|
Related:
Cartoon: "Doreen the Downer" by Mark Fiore
San Francisco Chronicle (February 20, 2008)
USDA could install cameras in slaughterhouses
Full story: CNN
Cameras could be placed in about 800 U.S. slaughterhouses to watch for improper procedures and inhumane handling of cattle, a federal official said. A Senate committee recommended installing the cameras three years ago, but the proposal is getting new consideration in the wake of a massive recall of beef last month, Agriculture Undersecretary Richard Raymond told a House committee. The recall was initiated after the release of videotape taken by a Humane Society of the United States employee with a hidden camera over a six-week period while employed at the Westland/Hallmark Meat Packing Co. in Chino, California.
|
Three U.S. agencies aim to end animal testing
Full story: USA Today
An ambitious program announced [February 14] by a coalition of government agencies could lead to the end of animal testing to evaluate the safety for humans of new chemicals and drugs. Three agencies - the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Toxicology Program and the National Institutes of Health - have signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" to develop and implement the new methods. The agreement is a "milestone" says Martin Stephens of the Humane Society of the United States. "We believe this is the beginning of the end for animal testing. We think the (conversion) process will take about 10 years." Although there are no actual figures, Stephens says his "best guess" would be that about 10 million animals a year are used in toxicity testing, mostly mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, and then lesser numbers of dogs, monkeys and other species. [That's a lot of suffering before it takes effect; however, it's a positive step.]
|
USA Today - February 15, 2008
|
Australia: Call to alter labels for animals' sake
Full story: Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Food labels should be overhauled to include information on the treatment of animals, says [Australia's] chief law reform commissioner, David Weisbrot, who believes a push for animal rights could be the next great progressive movement in Australia. Professor Weisbrot said labelling laws have not kept up with demand for organic and free-range products and could include a "trustmark" logo to show animals had been treated ethically... Professor Weisbrot told the Herald consumers were likely to begin pushing for environmental labelling and governments should consider law reform in the area.
|
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - March 4, 2008
|
Related:
Australian RSPCA slammed for backing egg farms
North Queensland Register, Australia (March 3, 2008)
Quote: Campaigners have called on the RSPCA to stop endorsing all barn-laid eggs saying customers are being misled about the welfare standards behind such products.
Video of cruelty at Australian egg facility
|
| Books and Perspectives
|
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the cruelest species of them all?
Full story: Alertnet.org
We are, of course, but a new book on animal cruelty will make your jaw drop about how vicious humans can be to other animals. Shamu's mother was harpooned. She was killed in the wild by the crew that captured the first in a series of young orcas that have since been trained to do tricks at San Diego's Sea World marine park, known sequentially as America's most famous performing sea mammals. And maybe that's all you need to know to realize just how far humans will go. Maybe that's all you need to know to see blood, even faded and vestigial, on your hands. Erin E. Williams and Margo DeMello's Why Animals Matter: The Case for Animal Protection is a book so jam-packed with literal crimes against nature that it's hard to read more than a few pages in one go. "Perhaps the biggest reason why society tolerates routine abuse of animals is that for the most part, these abuses are hidden."
|
Alertnet.org - February 23, 2008
|
|
Activist doc maker asks: How can pet lovers eat meat?
Full story: goTriad.com, NC, U.S.
Director Eleni Vlachos freely admits she is not a trained filmmaker. But when the vegan activist felt the call to make a documentary on the subject of animal rights, she bit her lip, worked four years off and on and learned what she could as she went along. The result is Seeing Through the Fence, a plucky little film that is as much personal as it is political. Armed solely with a mini-DV camera and microphone, Vlachos interviews vegetarians and meat eaters alike across the United States, as well as in Greece, where her father currently lives. She interviewed fellow activists, family members and strangers. The main question she asks: If a person loves his pets or animals in general, how can he ethically support the meat industry? Although nearly half of the people she interviews enjoy eating meat, Vlachos never comes off as being pushy or confrontational during their discussions. In fact, she claims to owe her compassion toward animals to her grandmother, one of the many meat eaters in her family. The title of the film was inspired by her grandmother's decision to buy a cyclone fence for her dog instead of a wooden one. "I remember at some point her telling me that the reason she got that fence was so the dog could see through it, and it sort of just clicked for me," Vlachos says
|
goTriad.com, NC, U.S. - Febrary 28, 2008
|
|
| Are They Serious? Unfortunately Yes
|
'Eat whale and save the planet' says Norwegian lobby
Full story: Environmental News Network
Eat a whale and save the planet, a Norwegian pro-whaling lobby said of a study showing that harpooning the giant mammals is less damaging to the climate than farming livestock. Environmental group Greenpeace dismissed the survey, saying almost every kind of food was more climate friendly than meat. The survey, focused on whale boats' fuel use, showed that a kilo (2.2 lbs) of whale meat represented just 1.9 kilo (4.2 lbs) of greenhouse gases against 15.8 for beef, 6.4 for pork and 4.6 for chicken. Greenpeace said the threat of extinction was more important.
|
Environmental News Network - March 4, 2008
|
|
| Of Note
|
Meatout 2008 - March 20
The first day of spring will be a new healthy start for people and the planet if we all participate in Meatout 2008. On (or around) March 20 thousands of caring people in four Canadian provinces, all 50 U.S. states, Australia, and dozens of other countries will host informative and educational Meatout events. Check out the events in your area at the website below.
Meatout 2008: Info Events
VegE-News recipes and tips
Looking for tips on going veggie or recipes for Meatout - or any day? 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
New site saves dogs in danger
A new web portal is providing a last ditch hope for shelter dogs about to be euthanized. It as a specialized "adoption portal" only for animal control shelters. The site is urging everyone to demand that their local animal control agency shelter or municipal animal pound register and start posting their dogs. After all, it is all free, and who can argue against saving lives and governmental monies! The March issue of People magazine featured the site. Perhaps you can encourage the site to include other countries and cats too!
www.DogsInDanger.com
The 38th World Vegetarian Congress - July 27-August 2, 2008
This year's congress in Kulturpalast, Dresden, Germany will celebrate 100 years of the International Vegetarian Union. More info at the website below. (The 2010 congress will be in Jakarta, Indonesia.)
World Vegetarian Congress
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
|
|
Note:
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
Prepared as a public service by:
|
|
|
|
|
Don't forget to visit:
|
|
|
|
To ensure that you continue to receive the VegE-News, please add the sender to your address book or safe list. This will help ensure that it doesn't get zapped by your spam filter and wind up in your JUNK or TRASH folder.
|
|
