I signed up for an weekly environmental e-newsletter. This is one of the stories featured this week. It’s nothing that we didn’t already know, but still worth reading if you get the chance. Basically, reducing or eliminating meat from your diet significantly decreases your environmental footprint.

Here is another story about how animal agriculture creates more greenhouse gases than transportation does. Also not anything new to us, but maybe you need to read about it a few more times in a few more places before it sinks in.

While I would love for the world to go vegan or at least vegetarian, I’m not dumb. I know it’s not going to happen. BUT, I do think it’s possible for everyone to make informed decisions about what they put into their bodies and what they feed their children. It sickens me to go to the park to see kids eating meat that has been fed arsenic, pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, and then sprayed down with pesticides. They wash down their poisonous meat with poisonous milk. Sick!

Not only does this impact our health, it impacts our environment. I, for one, would like to have a place to live in the near future. I would also like for my kids and my kids’ kids’ kids to have a place to live. If we don’t start making informed decisions about everything we do in our daily routine, we won’t have that option. Start small– eliminate meat from one meal a week, then move on to two when you are comfortable with that; turn off the light when you leave the room; turn off the faucet when you brush your teeth. Little things add up. It’s not as hard as you think.

And on to something somewhat related to this post, but sort of not, how do you feel about eating irradiated spinach and lettuce? Irradiating food is nothing new. Check out this table that I got from the CDC:

I can’t imagine that blasting food with radiation is more beneficial than it is harmful. I’ve eaten plenty of spinach and lettuce in my day without any illness. In fact, I’ve had food poisoning twice in my life and both times were from meat, I’m pretty sure. The bottom line is, nothing is safe. Buy local. Buy organic.

After receiving my copy of Vegan Lunch Box, I really became convinced that I had to have one of these Laptop Lunch Boxes.

There are little compartments to keep everything separate and it even comes with an insulated carrying case (if you buy the “system” as opposed to just the “box” pictured above).  Emma isn’t too far away from preschool where she will have to bring a lunch everyday and I would much rather her use something like this instead of just a box where everything gets packed in plastic baggies.  So wasteful!  I wouldn’t even mind one for myself, even though I rarely have the occasion to pack myself a lunch.  It’s such a great idea!

Of course, I haven’t actually bought one of these yet, but I did check them out for myself the last time I was at Whole Foods.  They really do look super useful and handy, but I can’t bring myself to spend $40 on something that I would only use occasionally before Emma starts school.  You can rest assured that I will definitely get her one before preschool starts, though.  I think one set may even include an insulated thermos, which would be great for packing soups and vegan hot chocolate.  Let’s just hope that she manages to get all of the parts back home without losing them first!

Election time is coming up! It’s super exciting. We are thisclose to that idiot being gone (you know which idiot I’m speaking of, I hope).

For those of us in California, we have a more important issue coming up this election. On the ballot this November is Prop 2, the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act.

Why You Should Vote Yes:

Um… I guess the real question is why not?

Animals “raised” for food don’t deserve to spend their miserable lives crammed into cages that are so small that they can’t turn around or lie down. If you want to read more about the life of a factory farmed animal, click here. Trust me, the life of a factory farmed animal sucks. Voting YES will make it suck a little less.

If you eat meat and don’t vote YES, SHAME ON YOU!

The Opposition:

Money hungry factory farms who don’t care. They see dollar signs instead of cows, pigs, chickens, etc. They treat the animals horribly and pollute the Earth. Who cares what they think?!

Just vote YES or I will confine you to a veal crate and see how you like it! We finally have a chance to make a difference, so please don’t waste the opportunity.

This weekend has been pretty interesting, yet enjoyable. Yesterday, some friends and I went to lunch at Cafe Gratitude in San Francisco. This was my first vegan, raw dining experiences and I toted along my camera to capture the moment on film. Well, I forgot to take any photos of my food, so I will describe it as best as I can. The menu was overwhelming. There were so many choices and everything is called “I Am…” something. I had “I Am Sassy,” which was a virgin margarita smoothie made from fresh lemon juice, water, strawberries, agave and salt. DELICIOUS! So refreshing, especially on a (unusually) warm San Francisco day. My entree was “I Am Abundant,” a sampler plate. I couldn’t make up my mind and was getting more and more overwhelmed by the second, so I thought it best to go for the sampler. Excellent choice. I ate the entire thing and licked the plate clean. It came with: chili con queso with chips (some sort of nut cheese and crackery things), Asian kale-sea veggie salad, hemp seed pesto crustini, olive tapenade and sprouted almond hummus with sourdough buckwheat crackers, spring roll, and a mini house soup. I know it all sounds a little strange, but it was so, so, so good. Since I could eat anything I wanted on the menu, I opted for dessert. We shared a piece of German chocolate cake, served a la mode with a vanilla nut milk ice cream. I was in heaven! I liked this place so much that I absolutely have to get their cookbook. If you don’t live near San Francisco, I suggest that you pick up a copy of their cookbook too.

Next on my list of “firsts” this weekend was popping popcorn unassisted, old-fashioned style in a big pot. After a minute of research on the internet, I put the corn kernels in a big pot with a little canola oil and some salt. Amazingly enough, they actually popped! I used it to make the popcorn ball recipe Vegan Lunchbox.

These were a mix of the popcorn, some toasted pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries and dried apples held together with a mixture of brown sugar, brown rice syrup and a little water. While these are super tasty, they are also super sticky. It’s easy to lose a filling, if you catch my drift.

And lastly, I took my first trip to the Asian market today. I was really, really scared to go- fear of the unknown, I suppose- but it wasn’t that bad. I can now imagine what it must be like for a meat-eater to think of going vegetarian. My fear of going to the Asian market may be similar to what a meat-eater may experience when considering vegetarianism. It all makes sense now.

It was different, to say the least. I couldn’t understand many of the labels, the smell was a combination of seafood and urine (at least that’s what it smelled like- I’m sure there wasn’t any urine among the food products), and some of the items were bizarre (dried sardines, some strange yam products). Nothing that I’ve ever experienced before, but I will go back. I spent the first part of my trip wandering up and down the aisles. I now know pretty much where everything that I may want to buy is, so next time will be quick and more familiar. I was able to find the things I needed for dinner and everything was extremely inexpensive. By far the best thing, though was this bag of candy:

You can see at the top the big banner spelling out “healthy.” I’m not sure what that refers to, exactly, as the list of ingredients is as follows: “corn syrup, sugar, coconut fat, gelatin, dehydrated fruit juice, citric acid, gum arabic, natural and artificial colors and flavorings added.” I know that the addition of gelatin means that this is not a vegan product, but I was dying of curiosity. I had to know what this “healthy” candy tasted like. It’s really not that great; sort of tastes like a Now-and-Later or a Mamba.

So, I really need some help here.

The more I read about meat and the meat industry, the more I am convinced that eating meat is not healthy. Our bodies make all the cholesterol we need and eating animal products only serves to raise our cholesterol. This puts meat eaters at an increased risk for heart disease and stroke.

Animals raised for food are fed things that we would never willingly ingest ourselves- antibiotics (unless prescribed by a doctor, of course), hormones, ARSENIC, by-products of other animals, etc. etc. Even so-called “organic,” “free-range,” etc are fed things that we wouldn’t eat. All of these things put the meat eater at an increased risk for various cancers.

Animals raised for food have a miserable existence and a horrifying death.

If people didn’t eat meat, the food used to fatten up animals raised for food could end world hunger.

Animal agriculture (among other things) is ruining our planet.

Going vegetarian would end suffering all over the world. Animals wouldn’t suffer. Starving people wouldn’t suffer.

So, why do you still eat meat? I really am curious, so I am inviting discussion here via the comments section. I honestly don’t understand. If you know all of the above to be true, why do you support it? Maybe you don’t care. Maybe you didn’t know it until now. Maybe you’re lazy. Maybe you like the taste of meat (although, I consider this to be more of a result of conditioning than of actually liking the taste of it). What is it? Why would people rather take cholesterol-lowering medication than stop eating meat since both presumably will have the same effect?

If you have 95 minutes to spare and don’t mind sitting in front of your computer to watch this, I highly recommend checking out this video. It really puts us in our place:

I came across this video and forced myself to watch it. The bottom line is that fur, leather and wool are wrong. I suggest you watch this too, but I will warn you that it is pretty graphic.  Just thinking about it makes me want to cry.

For those too scared to brave the video, I’ll sum it up here. Fur comes mostly from China. The animals are kept in teeny tiny little crates with no protection from the elements. They are killed by being beaten to death or by some other (cheap and quick) means. They are often skinned alive and fully conscious. In the video, there is a raccoon who has been skinned alive who is still blinking and looking around. Horrible!

Sheep raised for wool have big chunks of flesh cut from their butts without any kind of pain relief. This supposedly protects against maggot or fly infestation. Once they no longer produce enough wool, they are exported (alive) to Middle Eastern countries where they become dinner.  In most cases, their throats are slit while they are still fully conscious.

I always thought that leather was sort of OK because people are going to kill the cow for meat, so why not use the whole carcass for something? Well, it turns out that most of the leather comes from developing countries where animal rights laws don’t exist. It’s incredibly cruel and I feel horrible for owning the amount of leather that I do.

Since going vegan, I have only bought one pair of leather shoes and I will never, ever, ever buy leather again. I will never, ever, ever buy wool again, not that I own many wool items or anything. And fur?! Well, I have always been against wearing fur, so there’s no problem there. If you wear fur, leather or wool, please think twice about buying any more of these products in the future.

What is it with the human race? It seems like there isn’t anything we do that doesn’t involve cruelty to animals. It all goes back to the golden rule– if it’s not something we’d personally want to have happen to us, why is it acceptable to do it to another being that feels pain and suffers the same that we do?  It makes no sense.  We suck! If you think we suck as much as I do, don’t buy fur, leather or wool (and stop eating meat too).

When dairy cows have stopped producing milk, they are slaughtered. Many are so spent by the time that they reach slaughter that they are unable to stand. Their meat is only good for ground beef products because of the toll that repeated pregnancies has taken on their bodies. This video shows the treatment of the cows once they reach the slaughterhouse. If you can’t watch the entire thing without getting upset (and you still consume animal products), ask yourself how you can support such cruelty? I’ll caution you that while this isn’t overly graphic, it is still upsetting. Your money funds this:

Footage from this video led to a massive beef recall. The only reason is because it was actually caught on tape, as this is the norm.

I like to think of things like this: We are all on the same team here.  We are all on this planet trying to get by. Just because we are the “dominant” species doesn’t mean we have to exploit and abuse any other living being just because we can. Put yourself in the position of the dairy cows in the video. What if we weren’t the “dominant” species and that was what humans had to go through? I know for a fact that I would not want to live the life of a dairy cow- or any other animal raised for meat. The golden rule applies here, don’t you think?

The good news here is that this footage landed felony convictions for those persons involved in the abuse. It’s great news, but don’t kid yourself- this happens ALL THE TIME. It is extremely rare that (1) the abuse is caught on tape and (2) someone would care enough to even prosecute. Even more shocking is that it would result in a conviction- a felony, no less. Wow!

By the way, this company is the No. 2 supplier of ground beef for the National School Lunch Program. Gross!

Now, I’m not saying stop eating beef (although I wish you would). What I am saying is stop eating this beef. Stop supporting this. Buy locally raised, grass fed beef from your farmer’s market if you insist on eating it. Likewise with the milk. This is not OK.

WATCH THIS:

We all know that global warming is a hot topic, but what is it exactly? Global warming is caused when greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) trap the sun’s heat in our atmosphere, thus raising the Earth’s temperature. It’s a big deal and it is upon us.

Some of us have seen Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth and it probably opened our eyes to how bad the problem really is. I know it opened mine. So, you watch that movie and run out and join greenpeace, or buy a hybrid car, or CFL lightbulbs, or more energy efficient appliances. You vow to recycle everything you possibly can and go around your office rescuing scraps of paper from colleagues’ trash cans that were so carelessly thrown away instead of recycled. While all of these are noble endeavors, is it really enough?

Actually, it isn’t and sadly, it probably has little effect. But don’t despair… there is something you can do.

Consider this: You probably have no idea that animal agriculture (that is, the raising of animals for food) produces more greenhouse gases than automobiles. Cows, especially, emit massive amounts of methane and nitrous oxide. Animal agriculture produces 100 million tons of methane per year; about 85% of this is from the burps and farts from the cows themselves and an additional 15% of emissions are released from the massive cesspools used to store untreated farm waste. These cesspools, incidentally, are the number one source of water pollution in the U.S. Methane is responsible for almost half of the global warming impacting our planet and nitrous oxide has over 300 times more impact on global warming than that per mass of carbon dioxide.

That’s some scary shit.

Even scarier still is that deforestation is destroying rainforests to make grazing land for cattle and for the planting of soy crops (to feed the cattle, not for tofu dogs). Aside from the negative environmental effects of this, the effect of this on global warming is two-fold: more methane farts and burps (and pollution from waste), and NO MORE TREES TO REMOVE CARBON DIOXIDE FROM OUR ATMOSPHERE. That’s super duper scary considering that carbon dioxide can remain in the air for more than a century. Wow! The “good” news here is that methane gas cycles out of the atmosphere in just 8 years (meaning lower temperatures in 8 years if the amount emitted is significantly decreased). And who was the biggest emitter of methane gas? That’s right, animal agriculture. I think the answer is staring us all in the face.

You’re probably thinking that you, one person, going vegan has no significant impact. According to research done by PETA, by going vegan for one month, you save:

• 8,000 gallons of water
• a quarter acre of land
• a quarter ton of soil erosion
• a half ton of polluting animal manure
• the carbon dioxide equivalent of 270 pounds of greenhouse gases
• the energy equivalent of burning 7 gallons of gas
• 160 pounds of crops wasted on farmed animals

Still think you won’t have any impact? I guarantee the impact of going vegan is greater than trading in your SUV for a hybrid. It’s a collective effort. One person can inspire and educate another and, before we know it, we’re making a real impact. If we don’t do something soon, we won’t have a planet to live on. Your children and your children’s children will die. I’ve made the change to help you and your family; won’t you make the change to help too?

When Fox news writes a story about it, you know it’s got to be true.

NOW WATCH THIS:

I remember going to the circus as a kid.  At the time, it was truly entertaining- I wasn’t old enough to think how unnatural it is for an elephant, bear, lion, tiger, etc. to do tricks.  It’s not only unnatural, it’s unbelievably cruel.  If you’ve ever been to the circus, did you ever stop and think about how trainers get the animals to do those tricks?  I can assure you that it is torturous and is not something you want your money supporting.  If you don’t believe me, you can watch this video to see for yourself.

The reason for this rant is because I just learned that Ringling Brother’s is coming our way and absolutely loathe Ringling Brother’s and other circuses like them.  If you want to do something to help animals in circuses, click here and consider supporting animal-free circuses as an alternative to circuses like Ringling Brother’s.  There happens to be one in San Jose, for those of you in my neck of the woods.