Tag Archive for 'vegan'

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Fowl Play Columbus Premiere

November 7, 2009 0 Comments Tags: , .

Mercy For Animals proudly presents a special Columbus premiere screening of Fowl Play, an award-winning documentary that exposes the plight of factory-farmed egg-laying hens through interviews with people who are fighting to save them. Fowl Play leaves viewers with a ground-breaking message of personal change and community outreach.

From FowlPlayMovie.com: National surveys show that the majority of Americans are opposed to the inhumane treatment of farm animals. In fact, Americans are in opposition to the very treatment animals face every day on factory farms. This disconnect that people have between the food they buy and the industries they support is exactly what agribusiness counts on to maintain its bottom line.

However, a growing movement of people are opposed to factory farming and the commodification of animals. They are organizing, documenting the living nightmare that animals face, and speaking out against animal agriculture.

Fowl Play illuminates the plight of factory-farmed laying hens through interviews with people who are fighting diligently to save them. A story of hope emerges as footage recorded inside battery cage and other facilities is balanced with personal accounts of the individuals working to protect the often-forgotten victims of the egg industry.

The film also introduces us to animals who survive the system: Hope, a hen left to die in a garbage can but then rescued by activists; and Consuela, a hen gassed on a farm when she was no longer useful but who survives to be rescued at a landfill.

The suffering that animals face on factory farms won’t end until enough people are motivated to change it. Fowl Play connects the dots between consumers and the practices they support, and leaves viewers with a groundbreaking message of personal change and community outreach.


(Can’t see the video? Click here.)

Date: Sunday, November 8, 2009
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Location: Studio 35 Cinema, 3055 Indianola Ave., Columbus
Tickets: $2

Screening to be followed by a Q & A session with several of the filmmakers and individuals featured in the film, including MFA’s Executive Director, Nathan Runkle.

For more information, please visit FowlPlayMovie.com.

Two Powerful Visualizations for Animal Rights

April 22, 2009 0 Comments Tags: , .

Often times numbers alone won’t penetrate the hearts of people who refuse to feel compassion for animals. Massive amounts of death mean nothing to them, they’re unfazed. That’s when powerful visualizations can be a big help.

The two I’m sharing below were created by Mark Middleton, an artist, web developer, and animal advocate who’s posted them for public use at his website: AnimalVisuals.org.

The first makes use of statistics from the USDA NASS Livestock Slaughter 2008 Summary, showing how many animals were killed PER SECOND in the United States last year:

The second visualization is a “Virtual Battery Cage” which gives you the perspective of a “layer” hen (the ones who supply with cheap eggs for omelets and McMuffins) in a factory farm. Press play and you’ll become one of those chickens, crammed in a wire cage with no space to open your wings, no room or material on which to comfortably lay down, no windows, no natural light, sick and/or dead chickens next to you, and the deafening noise of suffering is all you can hear.

There is NOTHING natural about the way these chickens live, it’s pretty much hell:

Thank you to Mark for creating these visualizations, I hope other activists find and use them on their own websites and outreach projects.

* Thanks to @veggietweets and @liberationbc on Twitter for directing me to this.

This Easter, Go Veg.

April 10, 2009 0 Comments Tags: .

People keep asking me what I’m doing for Easter this weekend. I’ll tell you what I’m NOT doing — I’m not gonna eat a plate full of ham. Here’s why:

  • As babies, piglets are subjected to painful mutilations without anesthesia or pain relievers. Their tails are cut off to minimize tail biting, an aberrant behavior which occurs when these highly intelligent animals are kept in deprived factory farm environments.
  • At 2 to 3 weeks of age, the piglets are taken away from their mothers, by which time, approximately 15% will have died. The surviving piglets are crowded into pens with metal bars and concrete floors.
  • The air in hog factories is laden with dust, dander, and noxious gases which are produced by the animals’ urine and feces … respiratory disease is rampant.
  • Modern breeding sows live a continuous cycle of impregnation and birth, having more than 20 piglets per year. After being impregnated, the sows are confined in small pens or metal gestation crates which are just 2 feet wide. At the end of their 4 month pregnancy, they are transferred to farrowing crates to give birth. They barely have room to stand up and lie down, and many suffer from sores on their shoulders.
  • Prior to being hung upside down by their back legs and bled to death at the slaughterhouse, pigs are supposed to be ’stunned’ and rendered unconscious. However, ’stunning’ is terribly imprecise, and this results in conscious animals hanging upside down, kicking and struggling, while a slaughterhouse worker tries to ’stick’ them in the neck with a knife. If the worker is unsuccessful, the pig will be carried to the next station on the slaughterhouse assembly line, the scalding tank, where he/she will be boiled alive.
  • And more…

Watch the video below. The WHOLE thing. If you can’t stand to watch it, how can you stand to EAT it?

I’ll be honest, I hope that made you lose your appetite. I hope you look down at your plate stacked with ham on Sunday and a queasy feeling quells up inside your stomach and you opt for seconds on the pasta salad instead. This would be a good sign, it means you have feelings! It also means it’s time to examine what happens to your food before it arrives beautifully packaged on Easter Sunday. There is nothing honey-baked about the path on which your cruel and inhumane feast traveled.

If you wouldn’t get up from your computer right now and go inflict all this torture on a pig directly, why is it okay to have somebody else do it while you’re not looking?

Also, there’s every reason to believe that Jesus was a vegetarian:

The Garden of Eden, God’s perfect world, was vegetarian (Gen. 1:29-30). Immediately, God calls this ideal and non-exploitative relationship “good” (Gen. 1:31). There follow many years of fallen humanity, when people held slaves, waged war, ate animals and committed various other violent acts. But the prophets tell us that the peaceable kingdom will be nonviolent and vegetarian; even the lion will lie down with the lamb (e.g., Isaiah 11). Jesus is the Prince of Peace, who ushers in this new age of nonviolence. When Christians pray, “Your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven,” the one prayer given to us by Jesus, this obligates us to change our lives, to make choices that are as merciful and loving as possible. There will be no factory farms and slaughterhouses in heaven.

Jesus’ message is one of love and compassion, yet there is nothing loving or compassionate about factory farms and slaughterhouses, where billions of animals live miserable lives and die violent, bloody deaths. Jesus mandates kindness, mercy, compassion, and love for all God’s creation. He would be appalled by the degree of suffering we inflict on animals to indulge our acquired taste for their flesh.

Christians have a choice. When we sit down to eat, we can add to the level of violence, misery, and death in the world, or we can respect His creation with a vegetarian diet.

The choice is up to you. I hope you choose compassion, otherwise you might be missing the point of Jesus’ teachings, in which case — should you really be celebrating Easter?

“As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal… All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return…”

- Ecclesiastes 3:18-20

P.S. Don’t even get me started on Easter eggs…

Prevent Cancer with Apricot Kernels

December 19, 2008 5 Comments Tags: , , , .

apricotkernels

Want a cheap and natural way to protect yourself from cancer? Ever heard of apricot kernels and vitamin B-17?

A bit of research will reveal that societies that include eating foods rich in B-17 don’t get cancer: Eskimos, Hunzas, and the Hopi and Navajo Indians, for example. And when you combine B-17 AND a vegetarian diet (as Seventh Day Adventists do) — look out!

Why haven’t you heard of this before? To put it simply: the FDA, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, doctors, and other groups that claim to be looking out for your health don’t want a cheap and natural way to prevent cancer to get much attention.

How dare I say such a thing! Keep in mind the FDA, NCI, and NIH are government organizations, and we all know how resistant the gov’t. is to bribery and corruption… NOT. The big pharmaceutical companies LOVE to bribe the government and doctors. After all, cancer treatment is a great way to make money. So, rather than advocate a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition, they’d prefer to tout a treatment that includes some profit for the HMO’s, pharmaceutical companies, and the banks who have to loan you money in order to pay your hospital bills.

My final argument against mainstream health advice: the FDA and all their friends are the same guys telling you to:

  • drink 8 glasses of fluoridated water a day
  • consume 2-3 servings a day of fattening and diseased meat from animals that lived torturous lives and were slaughtered in the most inhumane ways possible
  • …or you could eat 2-3 servings of eggs instead of meat. “Cage free” and “free range” means the chickens are frolicking on a farm somewhere, happy as can be
  • use aspartame (rat poison) and saccharin (carcinogen) instead of sugar if you want to lose weight
  • consume at least 2-3 servings of hormone and pus-laden cow’s milk a day and don’t worry about the tortured dairy cows that gave it to you
  • keep eating mercury-filled fish, it’s perfectly safe and healthy, especially for pregnant women
  • accept genetically-modified corn as a modern marvel that will save the planet from starvation
  • consume 3-5 servings of fruits and vegetables sprayed with pesticides a day
  • keep using high-fructose corn syrup because it’s “fine in moderation” and better than natural alternatives like stevia or xylitol

You really think they’re telling you the truth about cancer?!

Now the good news: Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s carry apricot kernels!

I’ve shopped at both places for years but only very recently discovered they carried them, so I want to get the word out. You won’t see anything on the label about B-17 or its cancer-prevention benefits, but it’s the same thing you’ll find for sale online for way more. So instead of paying $13/lb., just head over to one of these stores and get the same thing for about half the price: $7/lb @ Whole Foods or $4/lb. @ Trader Joe’s.

One last note: apricot kernels are not the only source of B-17, these foods are also good sources:

Apple seeds, alfalfa sprouts, apricot kernels, bamboo shoots, barley, beet tops, bitter almond, blackberries, boysenberries, brewer’s yeast, brown rice, buckwheat, cashews, cherry kernels, cranberries, currants, fava beans, flax seeds, garbanzo beans, gooseberries, huckleberries, lentils, lima beans, linseed meat, loganberries, macadamia nuts, millet, millet seed, peach kernels, pecans, plum kernels, quince, raspberries, sorghum cane syrup, spinach, sprouts (alfalfa, lentil, mung bean, buckwheat, garbanzo), strawberries, walnuts, watercress, yams.

Bush Pardons ALL Thanksgiving Turkeys

November 14, 2008 0 Comments Tags: .


(Can’t see the video? Click here.)

Wouldn’t that be a dream come true!

Unfortunately, over 5 MILLION turkeys will be slaughtered for this gluttonous tradition. I think if everybody watched this video though, they would think twice about eating turkey (or any meat) for Thanksgiving.

No Turkey on Thanksgiving?!

Yes, it can be done. A Google search for “vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes” gave me 283,000 results. I promise it’s possible.

In support of a Gentle Thanksgiving, PeaceChicken.com is asking you to pardon YOUR Thanksgiving turkey this year!

Cruel Canada

April 3, 2007 0 Comments Tags: , .

Yesterday marked the first day of Canada’s commercial seal hunt.

270,000 is the official quota. This makes me sick. Physically sick. This disgusting act of cruelty and complete lack of feeling is incomprehensible to me. I wrote about this last year, hoping I wouldn’t have to ever again.

They beat them, mothers and their babies, with clubs so as not to damage the pelt with a bullet hole. And we call ourselves civilized? Still running around like cavemen, killing animals and skinning them for their fur?

You think people would still wear it if they saw the bloodied and skinned animal it came from? Where’s that marketing campaign? Don’t believe me? Think it’s a painless and beautiful process? Go to images.google.com and do a search for “seal hunt.” See how luxurious that fur really is.

If this is turning your stomach, good– that means you have a heart. And that’s a pretty good sign you should do something, anything.

“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
- Gandhi

Continue reading ‘Cruel Canada’

Being Veggie in Columbus

December 31, 2006 Closed Tags: , .

* These are not comprehensive lists by any means, just some of my personal favorites around town. For a more complete listing of resources check out VegOhio.com

thanks for not eating meat!

Grocery Stores

  • Clintonville Community Market: A community-operated natural foods grocery. Offers organic and locally produce. Grains, beans, nuts/seeds, herbs, meat and dairy alternatives, vitamins, cruelty-free products, and more. Also have a deli offering vegetarian/vegan items such as sandwiches, wraps, and salads.
  • Raisin Rack: Offers a variety of bulk grains, herbs, nuts/seeds as well as organically grown fruits and vegetables and a complete selection of vitamins, minerals, and herbals nutrients. Deli and smoothie bar offers vegetarian/vegan items.
  • Trader Joe’s: Some organic items & produce, meat and dairy alternatives, vitamins, and more.
  • Whole Foods: The nation’s largest natural and organic food retailer featuring many vegan and vegetarian options, including cruelty-free body care, household cleaning products, organic produce, vegan foods, meat and dairy alternatives, and more.
  • Wild Oats Market: A natural foods market offering a large selection of grocery items, including organic and conventional produce, bulk foods, meat and dairy substitutes, and frozen foods. Deli, juice bar, salad bar, and bakery have several vegan selections.

Restaurants

  • Aladdin’s Eatery: Mediterranean food with many vegetarian and vegan choices: hummus, stuffed grape leaves, falafel, baba ghanouj, smoothies, pita sandwiches/pockets, salads, mujadara (rice with lentils), jasmine rice with vegetables, and more. Meals cost about $6.
  • Benevolence Cafe: Vegetarian café. Most items are vegan. Soups, salads, and bread made from scratch daily. Sandwiches include oven-baked tofu, hummus salad, and vegetarian sloppy joe. A meal costs around $7.00.
  • High Five Bar & Grill: Large selection of clearly marked vegetarian/vegan sandwiches and pizzas. Also offers nightly live music and art gallery.
  • North Star Cafe: Cafe that makes most dishes from scratch with organic ingredients. Vegetarian offerings include the Buddha Bowl, Northstar Burger, and the High Street Veggie. Items indicated on menu can be made vegan upon request. Meals cost about $8.
  • Pattycake Vegan Bakery: Vegan bakery that offers several varieties of cookies, muffins, and cakes made with organic ingredients, no hydrogenated oils, no animal products, and less refined sugars. Items include tollhouse cookies, banana walnut muffins, and chocolate raspberry cake. Gladly accepts special orders and wholesale orders.
  • Taco Ninja: Many vegetarian/vegan items including Big Bad Buddha’s Black Bean Hummus with Chips, Gandhi’s Veggie Burger Burrito and Falafel Salad. Delivery available to OSU campus area. Meals cost around $3-5.

Organizations

  • Central Ohio Vegetarian Society: The Central Ohio Vegetarian Society is a 501(c)(3) organization, operated for charitable and educational purposes to provide support for the growth and development of a vegan lifestyle.
  • Mercy For Animals: a 501(c)(3) non-profit animal advocacy organization that believes non-human animals are irreplaceable individuals who have morally significant interests and hence rights, including the right to live free of unnecessary suffering. MFA is dedicated to promoting nonviolence towards all sentient beings through public education campaigns and demonstrations, undercover investigations, and open rescues.
  • VegOhio.com: the easy guide to vegetarian eating in Ohio, including grocery, organization, and restaurant listings.