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No man ever steps in the same river
twice for it's not the same river and
he's not the same man. - Heraclitus
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In this edition...
Videos of Note |
 12 speeches that define veganism |
Health |
| Climate change may increase mercury content in fish |
| All about vegetarian proteins |
| Eat vegan to beat breast cancer - doctor's orders |
Environment and World Hunger |
| More food doesn't guarantee less hunger |
| Growing healthier food helps the environment too |
| Worldwatch Institute: Australia turns back the clock on climate change |
| Argentines turning their back on beef |
| Video: The future of water |
Lifestyles and Trends |
| New York school's move to vegetarian is an all-around success |
| Top tips for an all-star vegan brunch |
| Sign of the times: Munich's Oktoberfest introduces vegan food options |
| Breeding slavery: Why veganism should be considered a feminist issue |
| Food for Life director aims to nourish souls as well as bodies |
| Meatless Monday celebrates 10-year anniversary |
Animal Issues and Advocacy |
| Radical pragmatism: A manifesto |
| Video: Australian egg farmer has change of heart |
| The dairy industry is the veal industry |
| Kangaroo meat: Sustainable and healthy or morally wrong? |
| Undercover video shows 'shocking' cruelty at Canadian chicken farm |
| Animal sentience: Are chickens brighter than babies? |
| Australia: Animal Liberation activists launch spy drone to test free-range claims |
Also of Interest... |
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(Excerpts are included from current news stories. Click on the "Full story" link to read the full article.)
Videos of Note 
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12 speeches that define veganism
Full story: Veggieboards
Veganism is a broad social movement comprising many different concerns, motivations and strategies. These speeches some of the most influential names in vegan advocacy today showcase some of the defining aspects of veganism...
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Veggieboards - September 28
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| Health
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Climate change may increase mercury content in fish
Full story: ENN
Mercury pollution can be a serious health threat as once mercury enters our body, it acts as a neurotoxin, interfering with the brain and nervous system. We have known about the effects of mercury in fish for some time now, however, looming changes in climate could make fish accumulate even more mercury, according to a study in the journal PLOS ONE... Results showed the fish in warmer waters ate more but grew less and had higher methylmercury levels in their tissues, suggesting increases in their metabolic rate caused the increased uptake of the toxic metal.
Read more... |
All about vegetarian proteins
Full story: Food52 Blog
Whoever said vegetarians can't get enough protein was just plain wrong. With beans and lentils, nuts, and protein-packed whole grains like quinoa all as options, there's no reason that a vegetarian - or vegan - diet has to be protein deficient. Sometimes, though, we need that extra boost - and that's where these vegetarian proteins come in. Edamame, tofu, tempeh, and textured soy protein are all high protein soy bean-based foods, while seitan is a chewy meat-like product made from wheat protein.
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Eat vegan to beat breast cancer - doctor's orders
Full story: Living Green
Now that National Breast Cancer Awareness Month has begun, many doctors and nutritionists are dishing out dietary advice to help women ward off the deadly disease. After reviewing the latest research, responsible medical experts, including those with the American Cancer Society and New York's Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care, have come to a consensus: Women should eat a plant-based diet rich in phytochemicals, which fight inflammation and knock out carcinogens. This invaluable advice should shift our focus from wearing pink to eating green - in other words, to eating wholesome vegan foods. [Also see this article from One Green Planet. And find more below for breast cancer awareness month in our "Also of interest" section below.]
Read more... |
Living Green - October 14
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| Environment and World Hunger
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More food doesn't guarantee less hunger
Full story: Other Words
Every October, world leaders and corporate executives gather in Iowa to present the World Food Prize. Intended to celebrate those who make the largest contributions to increasing the world's food supply, the recipients are announced each year by the U.S. Secretary of State. On the same day that award is bestowed each year, so is another one. It's less well-known but, in my view, far more important. This alternative accolade is called the Food Sovereignty Prize. Like the World Food Prize, it deals with food and hunger, but in a very different way. The Food Sovereignty Prize recognizes that ending hunger is not a simple matter of growing more food. It involves social science as well as physical science. Increasing the world's food supply won't end hunger unless we address inequality and injustice.
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Growing healthier food helps the environment too
Full story: Union of Concerned Scientists
Eating healthier food would not only be good for our bodies; it would also improve the health of our farmland, our environment, and our rural communities. This is the message of The Healthy Farmland Diet, a 2013 report which uses economic modeling techniques to estimate the effects of changing food consumption on agricultural land use in the U.S. The findings? Increased consumption of healthy foods would lead U.S. farmers to grow more of these foods and less of the commodity crops that currently dominate U.S. agriculture. This in turn would produce healthier soil, air and water, as well as providing economic benefits in the form of job growth and increased access to healthy foods for farm communities.
Read more... |
Union of Concerned Scientists - October 21
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Worldwatch Institute: Australia turns back the clock on climate change
Full story: Worldwatch Institute
We interpret everything according to our own experiences. With that in mind, it would seem somewhat surprising that in Australia, of all places, a startlingly high number of people still deny climate change. Most Australians do believe in it, but in a country that no longer has a science minister, the newly-elected conservative government is populated by "leaders" who believe that it is some kind of conspiracy. The newly-elected conservative government in Australia has meant a significant shift in the country's environmental and climate policy. With carbon taxes being cut and the mining lobby becoming stronger, serious concerns are raised about the serious implications that these shifts can ultimately mean for Australia's sensitive eco-systems and wildlife.
Read more... |
Worldwatch Institute - October 7
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Argentines turning their back on beef
Full story: Deutsche Welle
On UN World Food Day [October 16], Argentina's domestic and export beef market continues to struggle. Consumers are also rethinking their eating habits. Could a country traditionally associated with steaks soon switch to tofu?
Read more... |
Deutsche Welle - October 16
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Video: The future of water
Video source: RabbleTV
 Maude Barlow, author of Blue Future: Protecting Water and People Forever, talks compellingly about the right to water and its future. She says, "There is no alternative to water - we have to be fierce in defending it." [One way to preserve the planet's water is to move to a plant-based diet.]
Watch video... |
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| Lifestyles and Trends
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New York school's move to vegetarian is an all-around success
Full story: New York Daily News
Their school swapped sloppy joes and fried chicken for organic roasted tofu and braised black beans, and these kids ain't complaining. Students at the top-rated Public School 244, in Flushing [New York], have better attendance, longer attention spans and better academic scores since the school went vegetarian, school officials said. Students are permitted to bring their own carnivorous lunches to six-year-old school, but about 90 per cent of them opt for vegetable-rich cafeteria meals. After one semester, the number of students at the school who were classified as overweight and obese dropped 2 per cent [and] the number is down even more this year.
Read more... |
New York Daily News - October 15
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Top tips for an all-star vegan brunch
Full story: VegNews
When busy schedules abound and holidays are few and far between, it can be a challenge to get your nearest and dearest together for a few simple hours of enjoyment. So sometimes you have to create an occasion. Enter brunch - a meal synonymous with leisure, laughter, and light-heartedness. Whether you're planning a cozy occasion with just a few people or want to fill your home with a multitude of eager eaters, keep in mind these five no-fail tips for a meal worth remembering...
Read more... |
Sign of the times: Munich's Oktoberfest introduces vegan food options
Full story: ABC
For some 200 years, Oktoberfest has been all about copious amounts of beer and meat. But, this year, organizers are breaking with tradition and reaching out to visitors with dietary restrictions by offering vegan dishes and even vegan wine. With its dozens of oxen spit roasts, enough rotisserie chickens to feed an army and pork sausages as long as a forearm, Bavaria's Oktoberfest is a meat lover's nirvana. But even in one of Germany's most rigidly traditional regions, times are changing. In an attempt to cater to the changing food preferences of visitors, beer tent owners have put vegan dishes - and in one case, vegan wines - on their menus.
Read more... |
Breeding slavery: Why veganism should be considered a feminist issue
Full story: Care2
I think that feminists who resist veganism need to look inward and ask themselves whether there is really a significant moral difference between a female [animal] and a female human. Imagine what it would be like if there were another species, more powerful than we are, who wanted to use us in a similar fashion. How would we feel being forced to reproduce so that members of this other species could use our milk and our eggs, or take our children away and kill them for food? ... I would go so far as to say that it's not only a feminist issue, but it's the biggest feminist issue there is.
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Food for Life director aims to nourish souls as well as bodies
Full story: Australia Yoga Life
Sitting on a beach in Sri Lanka at the beginning of his world tour earlier this year, Food For Life (FFL) Global director Paul Rodney Turner was quietly reflecting on his life journey... With its slogan Uniting the World Through Pure Food, Food For Life Global operates on the hope that the liberal distribution of plant-based meals prepared with loving intention can help bring peace and prosperity to the world. "Life is all about connection, and the more we realise how important food's role is in creating this connection, the happier we will all become," Turner says.
Read more... |
Australia Yoga Life - September-November issue
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Meatless Monday celebrates 10-year anniversary
Full story: VegNews
Nearly a decade after its inception, Meatless Mondays has enjoyed international success, public school endorsement, and celebrity praise. Nearly 30 countries have Meatless Monday programs in place while an ever-increasing amount of schools, businesses, and institutions are incorporating the diet regimen into menu offerings and wellness plans. "There are not many behavior change health issues that transcend like this one," said Alfred Sommer, dean emeritus of Johns Hopkins University.
Read more... |
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| Animal Issues and Advocacy
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Radical pragmatism: A manifesto
Full story: Vegan Outreach Blog
It is easy to think the only way to help the animals is solely to promote a pure, animal-exploitation-free existence. But... There are lots of good, ethical people around, but they aren't currently willing to stand out from the crowd, to go against their friends, their habits, etc. They aren't able to change their lives entirely and all at once based on our current personal philosophy. And yet those are the people we have to reach, if we are to create a truly better world for the animals - if we are going to create a vegan world, as opposed to protecting the purity of our vegan club. We can only do our best for the animals when we try to work with everyone where they are, and do our best to get them to take the first step.
Read more... |
Vegan Outreach Blog - September 25
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Video: Australian egg farmer has change of heart
Video source: Free From Harm
 This a must-see, moving and non graphic video that tells the magnificent story of one farmer of caged egg laying chickens who apparently had a change of heart and released them to Edgar's Mission farm sanctuary in Australia. For the first time in their lives, the rescued chickens in this video are getting an opportunity to exhibit their natural behaviors. The power to release them from their suffering is completely in our hands.
Watch video... |
The dairy industry is the veal industry
Full story: Care2
Most dairy enthusiasts would be shocked to learn how closely the dairy industry is tied to veal operations. The main goal that drives most of the dairy industry is raising cows to produce as much milk as possible, and to achieve this cows are kept in a never ending state of lactation and impregnation. Female calves are either used to replace older cows in the herd or are slaughtered immediately. Male calves on the other hand have no use to the dairy industry so they are used to produce beef or veal. In principle, the veal industry sits in the pocket of the dairy industry, and as Dr. Steven Gross puts it, "metaphorically, there is a hunk of veal in every glass of milk." [See also Mourning dairy cows prompt calls to police on MFA's blog.]
Read more... |
Kangaroo meat: Sustainable and healthy or morally wrong?
Full story: Care2
What if I told you there's a source of meat out there that's truly sustainable? The population of this animal has boomed so much they don't even need to be farmed. What if I also told you that this meat source has the lowest fat, highest protein and highest iron of any meat source worldwide? It's not even new to the human diet, having been a staple food for natives for tens of thousands of years. Would you consider giving it a try? What if I told you that the animal I'm referring to is the humble, free-roaming national emblem of Australia: the kangaroo? Lately, the slaughter of this beautiful marsupial for consumption has become a moral and ethical dilemma that seems to have no end in sight.
Read more... |
Undercover video shows 'shocking' cruelty at Canadian chicken farm
Full story: Toronto Star
An animal rights organization is urging McDonald's Canada to take a firm stand against what it calls "shocking animal cruelty" captured on a graphic video it says was taken at two Alberta farms. McDonald's, for its part, says it gets no eggs from those farms. The hidden-camera video filmed by Mercy for Animals Canada aired on the CTV show W5 last week. It shows hens crowded in battery cages, and chicks being violently smashed by workers and thrown into garbage bags. [Petition also at the video link.]
Read more... |
Toronto Star - October 21
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Animal sentience: Are chickens brighter than babies?
Full story: New York Times
Some Americans are wondering whether to eat chicken in the aftermath of the latest salmonella outbreak. But there's another reason to avoid poultry, and that's the inhumane way birds are often raised. We tend to feel more sympathy for calves with large, cute eyes, but, as an Oregon farmboy, I have to say that poultry are far from the nitwits we assume - and of the two-legged folk I've met over the decades, some of the most admirable have been geese... For my part, whenever I'm offered goose, I think back to my childhood and see those brave birds stepping forward, gallantly trying to console their mates [on the chopping block]. Whatever we make of these animals, we needn't scorn them as "birdbrains."
Read more... |
New York Times - October 19
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Australia: Animal Liberation activists launch spy drone to test free-range claims
Full story: Care2
Australian animal rights group Animal Liberation is using a remote-controlled drone to keep tabs from the sky on industrial livestock operations. Factory farm owners don't like that one little bit. The hexacopter drone, nicknamed "Hector," is barely larger than a radio-controlled toy. It set the Animal Liberation back a cool $17,000, however. The group spent $14,000 for the drone itself and an additional $3,000 to outfit it with a high-definition video camera, stabilizers and a 10x zoom lens [video of it in action at the link.] Drones are gaining ground as a popular and useful tool for environmental activist groups.
Read more... |
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| Also of Interest...
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Also of interest:
Events:
Farm Sanctuary's Celebration for the Turkeys - November 2, Orland, California, November 9, Acton, California (Los Angeles area), November 16, Watkins Glen, New York
Click below for more info. Also check out the Walk/Sleep-in for Farm Animals (through November).
Farm Sanctuary
Farm Sanctuary Sleepin for Farm Animals
Websites and Blogs:
http://www.lanimuelrath.com/diet-nutrition/breast-cancer-cure-or-prevention-some-startling-facts/
It's breast cancer awareness month and Lani Muelrath, the plant-based fitness expert and author of Fit Quickies has an excellent article on her site...
Breast cancer – ‘cure’ or prevention? Some startling facts
Dr. Gregor's NutritionFacts.org also has info on breast cancer prevention, treatment and survival...
NutritionFacts.org - breast cancer
Jewish Vegetarians of North America has launched its new website with excellent information and recipes...
New JVNA website
World Society for the Protection of Animals has a petition to the UN to officially put World Animal Day on the global agenda...
WSPA World Animal Day petition to the UN
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