In this edition...
Health |
 | The island where people live longer |
| | Farmed fish may pose risk for mad cow disease |
| | Is 'Eco-Atkins' diet a good idea for vegans? |
Environment |
| | Sweden promotes climate-friendly food choices |
| | Brazilian beef industry blamed for Amazon deforestation |
| | The cost of making milk in the desert |
| | Sobering statistics about factory farming |
Lifestyles and Trends |
| | Guevara's vegetarian revolution takes root |
| | How the coming vegetarian revolution will arrive by force |
| | No more veg-scuses |
| | Myths and truths about a vegan diet |
| | Flexitarian - vego with a twist of meat |
Animal Issues and Advocacy |
| | When you look at an animal, what do you see? |
| | Common fish species has 'human' ability to learn |
| | Rooks reveal amazing tool use |
| | Politics of the plate: Humane beings |
| | Canada lags behind on animal welfare reform |
Books, Films and Perspectives |
| | Animals 'can tell right from wrong': Scientists suggest it's not just humans who have morals |
| | An interview with the author of 'The Vegan Cook's Bible' |
| | Meet your new farmer: Hungry corporate giant |
Of Note - Recipes, Video Shorts, Calls to Action, and More |
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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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The island where people live longer
Full story: NPR
Making it to 90 years old is awe-inspiring in much of the world. But on a tiny Greek island in the North Aegean Sea, nonagenarians barely merit a second glance. The island of Icaria could be the newest of the world's so-called blue zones - places where residents have unusually long life spans. [Researchers] found Icaria had the highest per centage of 90-year-olds anywhere on the planet - nearly 1 out of 3 people make it to their 90s. Plus, [study author Dan] Buettner, says "they have about 20 per cent lower rates of cancer, 50 per cent lower rates of heart disease and almost no dementia. They also have a diet that's very interesting. It's very high in olive oil; it's very high in fruits and vegetables." It's also very high in greens; about 150 kinds of veggies grow wild on the island. "These greens have somewhere around 10 times the level of antioxidants in red wine." And though they live on an island, Icarians don't eat much fish. Icarians drink herbal teas every day, morning and night, Buettner says. "We found out that most of them were diuretics."
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Farmed fish may pose risk for mad cow disease
Full story: Science Daily
University of Louisville neurologist Robert P. Friedland, M.D., questions the safety of eating farmed fish in Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, adding a new worry to concerns about the nation's food supply. Friedland and his co-authors suggest farmed fish could transmit Creutzfeldt Jakob disease - commonly known as mad cow disease - if they are fed byproducts rendered from cows. The scientists urge government regulators to ban feeding cow meat or bone meal to fish until the safety of this common practice can be confirmed.
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Is 'Eco-Atkins' diet a good idea for vegans?
Full story: Examiner.com
Everyone is talking about the Eco-Atkins diet these days. It's a new healthier twist on a really bad diet. Dr Atkins promised weight loss to those who chowed down on meat, eggs and cheese. For whatever reason, the diet delivered - at least as far as weight loss was concerned. In other respects - related to risk for cancer and heart attack, damage to the environment and animal cruelty - its score card was worse than bad. The Eco-Atkins diet is a huge improvement because it's 100 per cent vegan, making it an ethical choice, an environmentally-sound one and a whole lot healthier. But Eco-Atkins is kind of a misnomer, since it's not exactly the same as the original diet. This vegan version is higher in carbohydrates and unlikely to produce ketosis, a [dangerous] hunger-reducing condition that is one of the hallmarks of Atkins.
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| Environment
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Sweden promotes climate-friendly food choices
Full story: EurActiv.com
Guidelines for climate-friendly food choices developed by the Swedish authorities recommend citizens to reduce their meat and rice consumption as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The first of their kind, the guidelines are now being sent out for reactions and inspiration from other EU countries. According to the World Bank, demand for food is expected to increase by 50 per cent by 2050, and demand for meat by 85 per cent, mainly as emerging economies like China and India become richer and adopt Western-style eating habits, rich in meat and dairy products.
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Brazilian beef industry blamed for Amazon deforestation
Full story: Merco Press
Boots and training shoes are not the first things that spring to mind when you think about the causes of rainforest destruction and climate change, but just because the connection isn't obvious doesn't mean it isn't real, says Greenpeace in a new report, Slaughtering the Amazon. Practically all Western world consumers have some by-product of Amazon destruction in our homes somewhere, whether we like it or not. Effectively, brands [like Kraft, Adidas, Nike, IKEA, BMW] are driving this destruction by buying beef and leather products from unscrupulous suppliers in Brazil, points out the Greenpeace report. The report says the cattle industry is the single biggest cause of deforestation in the world as trees are cleared to make way for ranches.
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The cost of making milk in the desert
Full story: NPR
[There are] tens of thousands of cows at the Al-Safi dairy in Saudi Arabia [built based on a California model]. They used oil-drilling technology to tap aquifers deep beneath the desert ... each cow uses about 30 gallons of water every day for cooling and drinking - that's 30 gallons of water a day, times 38,000 cows. Trouble is, the aquifer that first provided the water has run dry. So the Saudi government has ordered the grain industry that was also dependent on this water to be phased out completely by 2016. [A new, deeper] aquifer could also run dry in just a few decades. [Now] Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are buying up huge tracts of land in places like Ethiopia and Sudan to grow food and produce milk. If everything goes according to plan, there will be more mega-farms in unlikely places - in countries that are often unable to provide enough food for their own people.
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Sobering statistics about factory farming
Full story: Associated Content
In the United States, every year 10 billion land animals and countless billions of fish raised at fish farms or taken from the wild are killed for food. The factory farming industry treats animals not as the sentient creatures they are, but rather as profitable commodities. Forty million cows and calves are killed annually. Almost 10 billion chickens, turkeys and ducks are slaughtered each year for their meat. A chicken factory uses up to 100 million gallons of water per day. Approximately 100 million pigs are killed annually for food. Factory farming is a disastrous combination of environmental degradation, animal cruelty, and human health abuse. What can you do about it as a consumer? It's not enough just to switch to eating the products of so-called humanely raised animals. They're still slaughtered in the end, and their lives are often not much different from factory-farmed animals. The best way to protect yourself and your loved ones from the horrors of the animal farming industry is to switch to a plant-based diet.
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Associated Content - June 18
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Related:
Factory farming's long reach
Newwest.net (June 8)
Climate change, meat eating and the environment
Abolitionist-online
Perspectives on global warming
Tree of Life
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| Lifestyles and Trends
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Guevara's vegetarian revolution takes root
Full story: Toronto Star
The granddaughter of Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara is at the forefront of another revolution - for vegetarianism. Lydia Guevara poses semi-nude in a PETA campaign that tells viewers to "join the vegetarian revolution," said Michael McGraw, spokesman for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The print campaign is expected to debut in October in magazines and posters, McGraw said. It will be launched first in Argentina, where Che Guevara was born, and then internationally. [View the ad at the link.]
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How the coming vegetarian revolution will arrive by force
Full story: Foreign Policy
I have a prediction: Sooner than you might think, this will be a vegetarian world. Future generations will find the idea of eating meat both morally absurd and logistically impossible. Of course, one need only look at the booming meat industry, the climbing rates of meat consumption in the developing world, and the menu of just about any restaurant to call me crazy. But already, most people know that eating red meat is bad for their health and harmful for the planet. It's getting them to actually change their diet that's the hard part - and that's exactly why it won't happen by choice... So how will we become a vegetarian planet? The numbers suggest that we won't stop eating meat simply because it's "the right thing to do." People love it too much. Instead, we'll be forced to stop. By 2025, we simply won't have the resources to keep up the habit. Perhaps, some day, the very idea of eating animal flesh will seem as remote as the idea of owning humans does now.
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No more veg-scuses
Full story: VegNews Magazine
If you've already said sayonara to steak but are tired of defending your decision, check out our favorite reasons - from serious to silly - for going veg. 1. Never having to wear leather pants... 10. Helping put an end to global famine... 50. Being the voice for the voiceless... 59. Being consistent. (Claim to love animals? Prove it!)... 68. Becoming a conscious consumer. [Be sure to check out the other 70 great reasons at the link.]
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Myths and truths about a vegan diet
Full story: Examiner.com
Nobody ever seems to be especially neutral on the topic of vegan health. Most are convinced that a vegan diet is either completely dangerous or a magic bullet cure-all. The myths about vegan eating spring from both sides of the argument and are sometimes completely contradictory. [The article addresses] a few of the most common ones.
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Related:
Best websites for vegan nutrition information
Examiner.com (June 19)
Flexitarian - vego with a twist of meat
Full story: Brisbane Times, Australia
Karen Fornito thinks meat tastes like blood and will only eat it if it's "disguised" as spaghetti bolognese or on a hawaiian pizza. She takes the vegetarian option at weddings and foodie functions, but will have well-cooked chicken a couple of times a week and a slice of turkey at christmas. She doesn't strictly abide by the vego rules - she's a "flexitarian."
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Brisbane Times, Australia - June 22
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| Animal Issues and Advocacy
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When you look at an animal, what do you see?
Full story: Sustainablog
When you look at an animal, what do you see? Do you see a dumb, senseless beast? Do you see a slab of meat on a bun? Do you see something not worth thinking about for too long? If not...what do you see when you see an animal - be it your beloved family pet or a little bird hopping along the sidewalk...or a snake slithering in the grass...or a spider scuttling across the floor? Speaking for myself, I see a mystery, a miracle, a manifestation of life. I see the magic of a living being going about its essential task of living, of being what it is by nature. I see something so precious that for me to make it suffer, or even worse to take its life (directly or indirectly), would be the highest act of selfishness. With or without a god to judge, I feel within myself the destructiveness of doing harm and the disrespect of using others for my own welfare.
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Common fish species has 'human' ability to learn
Full story: Science Daily
Although worlds apart, the way fish learn could be closer to humans' way of thinking than previously believed, suggests a new research study. A common species of fish which is found across Europe including the UK, called the nine-spined stickleback, could be the first animal shown to exhibit an important human social learning strategy. The sticklebacks can compare the behaviour of other sticklebacks with their own experience and make choices that lead to better food supplies, according to the study by St. Andrews and Durham universities. The scientists say the findings show that the cognitive mechanisms underlying cumulative cultural evolution may be more prevalent in nonhuman animals than currently believed. The findings show that big brains, like those in humans, are not necessarily needed as a pre-requisite for cumulative culture. "It's remarkable that a form of learning found to be optimal in humans is exactly what these fish do," [said one researcher].
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Rooks reveal amazing tool use
Full story: BBC
Rooks have a remarkable aptitude for using tools, scientists have found. Tests on captive birds revealed that they could craft and employ tools to solve a number of different problems. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, came as a surprise as rooks do not use tools in the wild. Despite this, the UK team said the birds' skills rivalled those of well-known tool users such as chimpanzees and New Caledonian crows. Perhaps most surprisingly, the team also revealed that rooks could modify and create new tools.
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Politics of the plate: Humane beings
Full story: Gourmet
Local, seasonal, raised humanely. It may not trip off the tongue, but that could soon be the new mantra of conscientious eaters. Humane animal husbandry, now practiced by only a small number of producers, is set to explode over the next few years, becoming a hot (and welcome) trend, according to panelists addressing the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Cooking for Solutions conference [in May]. Part of the momentum will come from new laws and regulations. In addition to regulatory action, the trend toward better husbandry is being driven by consumer demand... Financial incentives, laws, and stringent monitoring are all well and good, but [author Temple] Grandin reminded attendees of the most important argument for humane farming. "It's the right thing to do," she said. "Animals feel pain."
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Canada lags behind on animal welfare reform
Full story: Toronto Star
The recent uproar over Canada's seal hunt (and the Governor General's appetite for seal heart) saw widespread charges of hypocrisy levelled at the European Union over its ban on seal products. Critics repeatedly point to Spanish bullfights or French foie gras production as evidence of Europe's poor animal welfare record. While these practices deserve criticism, the truth is that Europe is light years ahead of Canada in animal welfare policy. In fact, among developed countries, Canada is at the bottom of the league in its treatment of animals. A report by the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies released earlier this year ranked Canada well behind Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the EU in terms of farm animal welfare.
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| Books, Films and Perspectives
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Animals 'can tell right from wrong': Scientists suggest it's not just humans who have morals
Full story: Telegraph, UK
Animals possess a sense of morality that allows them to tell the difference between right and wrong [according to] scientists studying animal behaviour. Species ranging from mice to primates are governed by moral codes of conduct in the same way as humans. Until recently, humans were thought to be the only species to experience complex emotions and have a sense of morality. But Prof Marc Bekoff, an ecologist at University of Colorado, Boulder, believes that morals are "hard-wired" into the brains of all mammals. He has compiled evidence from around the world that shows how different species of animals appear to have an innate sense of fairness, display empathy and help other animals that are in distress. Prof Bekoff, who presents his case in a new book Wild Justice, said: "The belief that humans have morality and animals don't is a long-standing assumption, but there is a growing amount of evidence that is showing us that this simply cannot be the case.
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An interview with the author of 'The Vegan Cook's Bible'
Full story: NBC Chicago
More people are switching to a vegan diet for health reasons. We talked with Pat Crocker, author of a new cookbook called The Vegan Cook's Bible. Pat answers questions from what makes a vegan diet healthy to how to make vegan dishes flavorful. The article also includes sample recipes from the book, like avocado vichyssoise and poached pears with lavender custard.
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Meet your new farmer: Hungry corporate giant
Full story: New York Times
Forget buckets of blood. Nothing says horror like one of those tubs of artificially buttered, nonorganic popcorn at the concession stand. That, at least, is one of the unappetizing lessons to draw from one of the scariest movies of the year, Food, Inc., an informative, often infuriating activist documentary about the big business of feeding or, more to the political point, force-feeding, Americans all the junk that multinational corporate money can buy. You'll shudder, shake and just possibly lose your genetically modified lunch. [Editor's note: The film doesn't put any emphasis on veganism, but it is an important film that can have a major impact against agribusiness.]
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| Of Note - Recipes, Video Shorts, Calls to Action, and More
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Vegan wedding feasts to swoon for
VegNews Magazine tantalizes with their latest vegan wedding issue, complete with menus. Check it out for ideas! As always, for your everyday menus, plain and fancy, check out VegE-News' own recipes and practical tips for going veg.
Vegan Weddings - VegNews magazine
VegE-News recipes
New journal on animal ethics seeks articles and reviews
The new multidisciplinary and international Journal of Animal Ethics will be published in 2010 by the University of Illinois Press. Its aim is to put animals on the intellectual agenda and to stimulate discussion within academic and professional institutions. Guidance for authors will shortly appear on the Centre's website (see below). Contributions should be sent via email to the co-editor, Professor Andrew Linzey, who would also be pleased to discuss potential contributions. Books for review should be sent to the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, 91 Iffley Road, Oxford OX4 1EG.
Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics
Ghent, Belgium - veggie pioneer
By now, you have all heard about Ghent, Belgium becoming the first (hopefully not the last) city in the world to promote a veggie day each week to help alleviate global warming. The link below has info to help you encourage your own city or town to follow their example.
Ghent's veggie day
The veggie 'eco card' comes with a note of caution
The New York Times has the latest on "fuel-efficient cows," once again reminding us that environmental considerations against meat-eating, important as they are, are subject to tech advances. Included below as well are two previous articles that bear repeating.
Greening the herds - New York Times (June 4)
Coming soon: Methane-free cows? - Vegan.com
Global warming, human psychology, and net impact for animals
- Matt Ball, Vegan Outreach
Video shorts
Here are a selection of recent short, entertaining and informative videos from VegSource plus an interview with Farm Sanctuary's Gene Baur and a Greenpeace video on seafood.
John Robbins - Why I'm Vegetarian
A mother's love
Dr. McDougall MD - Helping People is Fun
Interview with VegSource founders - Part 1
Interview with VegSource founders - Part 2
Interview with Gene Baur, founder of Farm Sanctuary
Greenpeace video on seafood destruction
Calls to action
The "Stop eating Meat - and heal our Planet!" petition is calling for signatures in preparation for the Copenhagen 2009 Climate Conference. The petition will be delivered to governments in Europe (and other countries of the world).
Petition: Stop eating Meat - and heal our Planet!
350.org has also issued an invitation to the world to to help build a movement for action to stop the climate crisis. The invitation says: On October 24, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we'll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety. Here's the plan: we're asking you, and people in every country on earth, to organize an action in their community on October 24. Imagine the world waking up. Find out more and register your event at the link below.
350.org Invitation
A massive cull in the Chinese city of Hanzhong has claimed the lives of more than 30,000 dogs - IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) is asking for help to make sure that it never happens again. The local government ordered the mass slaughter of all dogs as the result of a few cases of rabies deaths. Dog killing squads are stalking the streets, mercilessly beating dogs to death with sticks and rocks. IFAW has pleaded with government officials to stop the killing - and now is turning to the public for help.
Stop dog slaughter in China
CETFA (Canadians for the Ethical Treatment for Farm Animals) are asking for people to write to The Manitoba Fire Commission (by July 10) regarding new pig barn regulations, a reaction to the over 30,000 pigs that burned alive in Manitoba in 2008. Find more info on this and other CETFA campaigns at the link below.
CETFA
FARM Animal Rights 2009 Conference - July 16-20
This year's Conference will be held at the Westin LAX Hotel near Los Angeles Airport. The program will focus on effective tactics to promote animal rights and veganism, to stop federal repression of animal activism, and to engage other social justice movements.
Animal Rights 2009
Attention veggie organizations and members
If you are a vegetarian organization that would like your own customized version of VegE-News, let us know. We are pleased to produce customized versions of VegE-News for the Australian Vegetarian Society, the New Zealand Vegetarian Society, Vegetarians of Alberta, Toronto Vegetarian Organization, and Winnipeg Vegetarian Organization. Members receive the regular VegE-News PLUS listings of their local events. If you are a member of one of those organizations, but not receiving the customized version, just drop us an email to switch you to the specific list.
Email VegE-News
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