We did discuss the Great America Meat-Out at the January potluck. Quite a few
possibilities were suggested for presentations or tablings, including at UWM,
Alverno College, MATC, and the Unitarian Church’s after-service coffee
gathering, as well as the possibility of seeing if we can get on the public
radio station’s “Lake Effect” show or public access TV. Various people were
asked to investigate each of these possibilities. Stay tuned – or if you have
any additional ideas, let us know, either by coming to the February potluck, or
phoning me and Chuck at 414-962-2703 or Jody and David at 414-764-7262, or
emailing us at chuckgyver@aceweb.com The more different things we can do, the
better we spread the message – though it’s also clear that if we end up with
several events on the same day, we’ll need some volunteers to help do them all.
It should all work out, however, since Meat-Out events are often held over the
several days leading up to March 20 (which is a Tuesday this year), so if we do
have several things to do we could do them on several days – and in any case,
volunteers have always come forward in the past when they were needed.
Before that time, though, we need to decide if we want to participate in a
Vibrant Living wellness fair at the Waukesha Expo Center on Feb. 25 – on the one
hand we could hope for some good exposure but on the other hand a booth there is
a bit pricey. And beyond the Meat-Out, there will be Earth Day events in April.
So we should be busy over the next few months. This is good.
Sun., Feb. 5, 5 PM, regular potluck at the Friends’ Meeting House, 3224 N.
Gordon Pl. in Riverwest (from Humboldt Blvd., go east on Auer a few short blocks
to the parking lot). Theme will be book reviews.
Subsequent regular potlucks will be on Mar. 4, Apr. 1, and May 6.
Great American Meat-Out: March 20 presentation at senior center plus ??
The Feb. macrobiotic potluck will be hosted by Pat O’Neill on Sun., Feb. 19
at 5:30 PM at 2431 N. Bartlett. Phone 414-964-9759.
The Urban Ecology Center’s vegetarian potluck should be on Thurs., Feb. 16 at
6:30 PM at 1500 E. Park Pl., call 414-964-8505 to confirm. Bring plate and fork
and your meatless dish.
To find out about Vegan Meetup’s February events, check
http://vegan.meetup/401/
Scientific American recently ran an article, quoted in the Mercy for Animals blog, on the environmental impact of livestock raising, pointing out the “huge outlays of pesticides, fertilizer, fuel, feed, and water” that are involved and the massive amounts of “greenhouse gases, manure and a range of toxic chemicals” that are produced, and concluding that animal agriculture is taking “a serious toll on the environment.”
There was a variety of Bad Animal Food news this month.
Cargill recalled over 36 million pounds of ground turkey products due to
possible salmonella contamination, while Nordic Creamery, which sells cheese in
Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California, recalled its “Grumpy Goat Shreds” shredded
cheese due to possible listeria contamination. Meanwhile, China found that high
levels of a cancer-causing toxin had been discovered in milk from China’s
biggest dairy and another smaller one, probably from giving mildewed feed to the
cows. And here in the U.S., the NY Times reported on a shortage of organic milk
for the increasing numbers of people seeking a safer kind of milk than the stuff
from industrial dairies.
Bird flu is rearing its ugly head again, with a second death reported from China
as well as the deaths of a two-year-old Cambodian boy after contact with
infected poultry and a Vietnamese duck farm worker. Bird flu only attacks people
who have close contact with poultry flocks.
Nearly 100 residents of a rural Illinois area have signed a petition against
allowing yet another factory hog farm in their area, citing these operations’
foul odors, overuse of water supplies, and general negative impact on the
environment. And on a different note, E Magazine ran an article on the newest
challenge for animal rescue operations: chickens and goats that would-be urban
farmers acquire and keep for a while but then find they can no longer deal with.
In a completely different matter, federal drug regulators announced with some
fanfare that they will now ban some antibiotics used in raising cattle, pigs,
chickens, and turkeys, due to concerns that such use may be creating drug
resistant bacteria. Critics, however, promptly pointed out that the antibiotics
to be banned, called cephalosoporins, actually account for only a tiny
percentage of the antibiotics that livestock raisers use, and thus this measure
will have little if any real effect.
Wisconsin State Farmer reported that honeybees are still in trouble, with the
latest theory being that a parasitic fly might explain the die-offs of bees that
are called Colony Collapse Disorder . There is still speculation that the
likeliest probability remains a combination of factors including pesticides,
inadequate availability of pollen-producing flowers, and various disease-causing
factors. The article did not note that the problem lies almost exclusively in
commercial hives that are often trucked about the country to wherever an orchard
needs pollination and whose bees are often fed sugar-water, while very little
colony collapse has been reported from backyard beekeepers who treat their bees
more naturally.
Finally, it looks as if awareness of the nasty environmental impacts of
livestock-raising is becoming mainstream. Now not only has Bill Clinton gone
vegan, but Al Gore is reported to (finally) be speaking out about the need to
reduce meat consumption as a way of fighting climate change. And VegNews had a
feature showing how meat consumption is rising in the developing world yet
hurting the planet and decreasing the number of calories of food produced per
person – and naturally pointing out that dedicating croplands to producing food
directly for people would help a lot.
On the other hand, there is some good news. Consumption of meat in the U.S. has
dropped 12 percent over the last few years, and the downturn is expected to
continue. The New York Times ran a whole article on vegan body builders, and
another Dining section article on a reporter’s tribulations and coping
techniques as a vegetarian in the Midwest. And while only a few percent of
Americans are fully vegan or vegetarian, VegNews reports that as many as 40% of
us have become “flexitarian,” eating meat only occasionally instead of all the
time.
And this is good, for plant foods are still good for you. A new study
released in American Journal of Epidemiology reports that a plant-heavy diet can
reduce the risk of some breast cancers by 20 %. Harvard researchers have
confirmed that a vegetarian diet not only fights cancer and heart disease, but
diabetes as well. Another new study, in Neurology, found that higher levels of
omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins B, C, and D are associated with better mental
function in the elderly, and the lead author noted that instead of trying to
figure out how much of each supplement to take, the best way to get these
nutrients is to eat fruits, vegetables, and omega-3 sources (for vegetarians,
these are dark green leafy vegetables, flax and hemp seeds and oil, and
walnuts).
Prevention magazine ran an article on eating for heart health. Besides
recommending sardines for omega-3s (see above), the foods suggested were vegan:
oranges, whose fiber and potassium reduce cholesterol and blood pressure and
whose pectin neutralizes a heart-scarring protein; kale, with its antioxidents,
fiber, omega-3s, folate, potassium, vitamin E, and lutein, which last fights
early atherosclerosis; garlic which reduces blood pressure and plaques; red wine
which aids good HDL cholesterol levels plus helps keep arteries flexible; dark
chocolate and lentils to reduce blood pressure; almonds to reduce bad LDL
cholesterol and fatal arrhythmias; and pomegranates to reduce atherosclerosis.
A VegNews article on people whose adoption of vegan diets saved them from various horrible medical problems included as a sidebar some good foods to note: Swiss chard for plenty of vitamin A, raspberries and grapefruits and red cabbage for vitamin C, walnuts to fight type 2 diabetes, bok choy for potassium, edamame for protein, iron, calcium, and fiber, carrots for a substance called falcarinol that fights tumors, and broccoli for cancer protection. And it was noted that eating eight servings of produce per day lowers risk of cardiovascular disease by 20% compared to eating only three.
E Magazine pointed out the advantages of eating seasonally, including environmental sustainability, taste, health, and variety. And more than one source celebrated cruciferous vegetables as currently in season. Cabbages (red, green, savoy, napa, and bok choy) are good in slaws, salads, and stir fries, and along with other cabbage-family vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, arugula, and collard greens are nutritional powerhouses that also provide important cancer-fighting compounds.
Finally, Prevention noted that one expert has questioned whether modern whole wheat bread is really good for you, while another opines that chewy dense whole wheat breads, as opposed to breads that try to be like white bread, are very good indeed.
Madison, Wisconsin’s Alliance for Animals will be holding its 4th annual
Vegantines Dinner and Celebration on Saturday, Feb. 11 from 6 PM to 10:30 at the
East Side Club, 3735 Monona Drive in Madison. A Mediterranean cuisine will be
featured, and the guest speaker will be Melanie Joy, author of Why We Love Dogs,
Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows. Tickets are $38 each. Contact Rick Bogle and Lynn Pauly
at 5133 Maher Ave., Madison, WI 53716 by Feb. 7 if you want to go.
I’m not going to tell you what to think on this one: I’m just going to report
what the controversy is all about.
It started with the concerns about the cruelty of cramming egg-laying hens into
tiny cages in factory farms, with no room to even move or stretch themselves
normally or engage in any natural behaviors. This led to an initiative in
California (where else?) to mandate the end of such conditions. That in turn
scared the factory-farm egg industry which responded by reaching out to the
Humane Society of the United States – HSUS – in the hope of forging a deal that
the industry could live with.
The HSUS responded positively, and now the HSUS and the egg industry are jointly
lobbying Congress for a national standard that would require egg factory hens to
be in cages that are about twice as large as before and include nest boxes.
This development has ruffled feathers, as it were, in all directions.
Factory-farm egg raisers outside of California are all in a tizzy, wondering
what they’ll have to do to comply with such a new rule if it’s passed, and how
much it will cost them.
Animal rights activists are outraged at the HSUS for compromising on the
subject. They feel that egg farm cages should be completely banned, and that in
order to slightly improve hens’ lives, the HSUS has involved itself in
perpetuating a cruel and evil practice that will then continue to place millions
of hens in unnatural and only slightly less inhumane conditions than before, and
for the foreseeable future. On the other hand, representatives of factory-farm
livestock operations that raise pigs, cattle, and turkeys in equally horrendous
conditions are equally appalled. Their concern is that any federal regulation of
the conditions in which factory farmed animals are kept could open up the
floodgates of regulation of their own operations. And they’re afraid that rules
which make small changes, such as the one being proposed in this instance, could
be the figurative camel’s nose under the tent flap that lead to further and
progressively more restrictive rules down the road.
So is HSUS a good guy or a bad guy in this? Are animal rights advocates correct
that this move will result in nothing further being done, and thus in the
continuation of factory farming of eggs in conditions that remain pretty
miserable? Or are the factory farmers of broiler chickens, hogs, cattle,
turkeys, and so on right to be terrified that this could be just a first step,
upon which HSUS and many other groups will build to slowly but inexorably make
factory farming less and less viable until it is finally completely ended?
Anybody out there have a crystal ball?
In the absence of clairvoyance on this matter, what do you think? Is HSUS right
or wrong to lend itself to making a small but real improvement in the lives of
egg-laying hens at this time and without knowing whether doing so will help or
hurt making greater efforts in future? Contact us with your thoughts: let’s get
a real dialog going.