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“But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy.”
- Plutarch
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In this edition...
Featured Video |
 Australian Philanthropist Philip Wollen makes blazing animal rights speech |
Health |
| Achieving remission of Crohn's disease |
| Brazil sets example with laws that protect against 'Big Food' and 'Big Snack' |
| Risky rearing endangers humans |
| What women should eat to live a longer life |
Environment |
| Slash meat consumption to save planet, warn scientists |
| Vegan lifestyle good for the environment - and spiritual balance |
| Heroes are putting their lives on the line in the fight to save tuna |
| Arctic ice loss may drive unsustainable fishing |
| Meat's impact on the environment |
Lifestyles and Trends |
| 5 things I learned about veganism |
| Fave veg recipe sites from a plant-based pharmacist |
| Versatile tofu: Not just for vegetarians |
| Going vegetarian without ever using the 'V' word |
Animal Issues and Advocacy |
| Legal victory for Sea Shepherd UK |
| Compassion on the menu as German couple orders lobsters, sets them free |
| Pig farmer turns to animal rights |
| China to stop serving shark fin soup at official functions |
| My life as an undercover investigator |
Books and Perspectives |
| Why is it that low carb diet book authors don't look very healthy? |
| Can a vegan diet fuel a high-performance athlete? |
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(Excerpts are included from current news stories. Click on the "Full story" link to read the full article.)
Featured Video 
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Australian Philanthropist Philip Wollen makes blazing animal rights speech
Video source: Kindness Trust
 The former head of Citibank shakes the rafters - and complacency - with a fiery 10-minute speech in this excerpt from the Wheeler Centre debate on the topic "Animals should be off the menu." Don't miss it! [Speech transcript here. The full debate video and article about the outcome was featured in last month's VegE-News - you can find it in our archives.]
Watch video... |
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| Health
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Achieving remission of Crohn's disease
Full story: NutritionFacts.org
Meat (including fish), cheese, and animal protein intake in general have been associated with an increased risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In the meantime, plant-based diets may not only help prevent such conditions, but treat them as well, resulting in the longest recorded remission rates for Crohn's disease.
Read more... |
NutritionFacts.org - July 3
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Brazil sets example with laws that protect against 'Big Food' and 'Big Snack'
Full story: Science Daily
Under pressure from civil society organizations, the Brazilian government has introduced legislation to protect and improve its traditional food system, standing in contrast to the governments of many industrialized countries that have partly surrendered their prime duty to protect public health to transnational food companies, argue nutrition and public health experts writing in PLoS Medicine. The authors argue that Brazil's experiences in resisting "Big Food" and "Big Snack" can help other countries.
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Risky rearing endangers humans
Full story: The Hindu
A new global study mapping human-animal diseases like tuberculosis (TB) finds that 13 zoonoses [diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans] are responsible for 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths per year. Remarkably, some 60 per cent of all human diseases and 75 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic. The vast majority occur in low-and middle-income countries. Meanwhile, the north-eastern United States, Western Europe (especially the United Kingdom), Brazil and parts of Southeast Asia may be hotspots of "emerging zoonoses" - those that are newly infecting humans, are newly virulent, or have newly become drug resistant. Most human infections are acquired from the world's 24 billion livestock, including pigs, poultry, cattle, goats, sheep and camels.
Read more... |
What women should eat to live a longer life
Video source: NutritionFacts.org
 A competing risks analysis of the Harvard Nurse's Health Study compares the danger of smoking cigarettes to the danger of animal product consumption (cholesterol) and the benefits of plant foods (fiber) to the benefits of exercise. [Likely the same info would apply to men. Duration - 2:00]
Watch video... |
NutritionFacts.org - July 20
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| Environment
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Slash meat consumption to save planet, warn scientists
Full story: International Business Times
Eating less meat and recycling waste will rebalance the global carbon cycle and will help to tackle global warming, according to a new report. Researchers from the University of Exeter have claimed that people should eat less meat to tackle climate change. The discovery was made when they were studying meat consumption across the world. The researchers also warned that if people would not cut short on their meat consumption, our earth would be spelled for disaster.
Read more... |
International Business Times - June 25
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Vegan lifestyle good for the environment - and spiritual balance
Full story: UCLA Magazine
UCLA experts in diverse disciplines are exploring how vegetarianism can boost human health, achieve spiritual balance and alleviate a host of environmental challenges, including global warming, deforestation, pollution and overfishing, among others.
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Heroes are putting their lives on the line in the fight to save tuna
Full story: Guardian, UK
One of the purposes of government is to protect public goods threatened by the self-interest of unscrupulous people or corporations. But what happens when governments fail? When they are either unwilling or unable to protect something valued by the many from the depredations of the few? What do you do, for example, to defend the bluefin tuna? [On July 8 International marine conservation organization The Black Fish decided to do something, releasing hundreds of bluefin tuna in the Adriatic Sea.]
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Arctic ice loss may drive unsustainable fishing
Full story: ENN
The Arctic Ocean has long been protected from unsustainable resource exploitation due to its large ice pack. But global warming has caused the sea ice to retreat, opening new areas of the Arctic to commercial fishing. Some 2,000 scientists have come together to urge governments to develop an international fisheries agreement to protect the waters of the central Arctic Ocean
Read more... |
Meat's impact on the environment
Full story: NPR
Click the link to listen to a short, clear, succinct review of meat's impact on the environment. There's are also interesting charts and an excellent interactive map showing meat consumption by country from the UN's Food & Agriculture Organization.
Listen/Read more... |
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| Lifestyles and Trends
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5 things I learned about veganism
Full story: VegNews
Here are five lessons about veganism that I took away from The Seed, a vegan lifestyle event in Manhattan dedicated to sharing information about vegan living and to celebrating our ever-expanding community...
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Fave veg recipe sites from a plant-based pharmacist
Full story: Pursue A Healthy You Blog
[From Dustin Randolph, PharmD.] For approximately three years I've been writing on the science and health benefits of plant-based diets. This kind of information is very important for understanding why you should follow a plant-based diet. However, many people (especially newcomers to the plant-based world) are left wondering how to "do" a plant-based diet. They need ideas for meals and recipes to make it happen. To help with this, I've compiled my list of favorite whole foods, plant-based recipe sites for you to check out...
Read more... |
Pursue A Healthy You Blog - July 11
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Versatile tofu: Not just for vegetarians
Full story: Haaretz.com
Tofu has important health benefits for those who don't eat meat, but its unique ability to absorb flavor makes it a delicious option for adventurous carnivores as well. A Chinese invention that dates back 3,500 years, tofu is a primary ingredient in Chinese diets, but it was the Japanese who cemented its standing in Western cuisine. Tofu is made from soybeans and is considered an important source of protein, calcium, iron, and minerals.
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Going vegetarian without ever using the 'V' word
Full story: BostInno, MA, U.S.
Head over to one of Clover's 11 restaurant locations across greater Boston, and you'll notice there's no meat on the menu. You'll also notice that nowhere does Clover explicitly advertise that there's no meat on the menu. "It's a funny thing - nine out of 10 of our customers are not vegetarian," says owner Ayr Muir. In fact, Muir asked me not to use the V-word at all in this story, because he doesn't delineate Clover as a vegetarian restaurant. "In the same way, other restaurants don't establish themselves as 'meat restaurants.' It was sort of an accident at the beginning," says Muir of how Clover came to be entirely meatless. Wanting to minimize his restaurant's carbon footprint, going meatless was a natural step.
Read more... |
BostInno, MA, U.S. - July 13
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| Animal Issues and Advocacy
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Legal victory for Sea Shepherd UK
Full story: Epoch Times
Marine defence group Sea Shepherd has won a lawsuit filed against it by a Maltese fisheries company for releasing hundreds of bluefin tuna from pens off the coast of Libya in June 2010. The ruling, given on Monday, June 25, at the Admiralty Court in London, was that the UK Court was not the proper place to file the suit. Mr Justice Hamblin ordered the case against the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Sea Shepherd UK, and Captain Paul Watson dismissed.
Read more... |
Compassion on the menu as German couple orders lobsters, sets them free
Full story: Care2
As a child, I recall seeing relatives carefully pick up lobsters, claws bound with rubber bands, from a styrofoam bin and place them in a pot of boiling water. As the lid was placed atop, I was assured that "they don't really feel anything." I never felt too sure about that. [Recently], a German couple felt just as concerned for the fate of lobsters and other crustaceans they saw in the window of a fancy seaside restaurant, Mama Latina, on the Emerald Coast on the Italian island of Sardinia. After negotiating a price of 500 euros (US$629), Mama Latina staff put the lobsters in a box and handed them over. "I've been here 10 years and I've never seen anything like it," said Roberto Paci, Mama Latina's owner.
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Pig farmer turns to animal rights
Full story: Taipei Times
A hog farmer from New Taipei City has transformed his farm into a real-life "piggy paradise" where pigs are not raised for meat. Recalling the moment that transformed him from a moneymaking pig farmer to a vegetarian who regarded his farm animals as close companions, 34-year-old Lo Hung-hsien said it was a piglet that was about to be butchered that changed his perception of pig farming. A staff member from a slaughterhouse had gone to his farm to single out a few hogs, prompting the terrified animals to start wailing. "Except for one piglet, which abruptly quieted down when I took it in my hands and then it looked me right in the eyes, as if saying: 'How could you do this to me?' That look in its eyes shattered me and kept me awake all night. It was then that I resolved to convert to vegetarianism and cut off cooperation with any butcheries," Lo said.
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[Editor's note: If you haven't read John Robbins inspiring story of the transformation of an American pig farmer, here it is. "The pig farmer has become, for me, a reminder never to underestimate the power of the human heart," John says.]
China to stop serving shark fin soup at official functions
Full story: Care2
Facing huge pressure from conservationists around the world, the Chinese government recently announced that shark fin soup will likely be banned from official banquets within the next one to three years. Over 95 per cent of the annual harvest of shark fin worldwide is consumed on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. "A ban on all shark fin imports to China that cannot be clearly proven to be sustainably and humanely fished would be the logical next step to achieve this," said Peter Knights, Executive Director of WildAid.
Read more... |
My life as an undercover investigator
Full story: VegNews
Hidden cameras and recorders strapped to their bodies. Knowing that one wrong word to a co-worker will result in getting busted. Watching animals live and die in the worst conditions imaginable, and being prohibited from even expressing the most basic compassion for them. Undercover investigators exist in solitude, cut off from everyone they've ever known, surrounded by people who often take pleasure in torturing animals, and tasked with working grueling hours in constant peril of being exposed. Why would anyone take on this lonely, horrific task? I worked undercover for two years, and this is my story...
Read more... |
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| Books and Perspectives
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Why is it that low carb diet book authors don't look very healthy?
Video source: VegSource
 Low carb diet proponents are making a killing off diet book sales. But what about the authors themselves? The personal appearance of overweight diet experts speaks volumes about these diets. You wouldn't take financial advice from someone who's always broke. Why would you take weight loss advice from someone who is overweight?
Watch video... |
Can a vegan diet fuel a high-performance athlete?
Full story: Globe and Mail, Canada
Ultramarathoner Scott Jurek has some simple advice for those hoping to combine very high levels of physical activity with a vegetarian or vegan diet. "The first thing to worry about isn't so much what you eat, but how much you eat," he told a reporter shortly before setting a U.S. record of 267 kilometres for the 24-hour run in 2010. Mr. Jurek's remarkable athletic and dietary feats are currently in the spotlight thanks to the recent publication of his book, Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness.
Read more... |
Globe and Mail, Canada - July 15
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Events of interest:
Taking Action for Animals conference, July 27-30 in Washington, DC
Vegan Festival in India, August 18-20
Farm Sanctuary's Sleep In for Farm Animals Virtual Walk
You can also join one of the real walks - taking place September 8-November 3.
International Animal Rights Conference, September 13-16 in Luxembourg
San Francisco Vegetarian Society's World Veg Festival, 10am-6pm, October 6-7 in the San Francisco Fair Building at Golden Gate Park. The event features outstanding speakers, international vegan cuisine, food demos, sample table, vegan organic dinners on Saturday and Sunday night, and more.
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