Paint a vulgar picture

I was just futzing around on Facebook and as I belong to PETA’s group, I read one of their update articles. I am SO sickened, disgusted and upset, I cannot do anything else but think about what I just read; and I guess the best way to work through it in my mind is to blog it. So off we go, time for more Goddess ranting… PETA has a new campaign called “McCruelty: I’m Hatin’ It” to expose the insane and cruel methods McDonalds still uses in their ‘meat production.’ Be warned – the video is quite disturbing but REAL and true and based on undercover cameras from real chicken slaughter houses. You know, the kind you patronize every week when you buy their evil.
McCruelty: I'm Hatin' It--Learn More.

PETA has put together an UNHappy Meal which teaches children that not only will the contents of their McDonald’s Happy Meal damage their own health, but is a big ol’ box of animal suffering and human cruelty. Read more about this UNHappy Meal here. I saw this bit of text on the website “PETA's spoof of a McDonald's chicken sandwich box features the image of a knife-wielding Ronald McDonald, along with pictures of birds who have been mutilated and scalded alive and information about controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK), the less cruel method of slaughter that PETA is asking McDonalds to adopt.” and decided to follow the link to CAK. That is when I became glad I haven’t had breakfast yet, because surely I would have vomited.

So, kind friends, let us explore what does happen in the vast majority of poultry slaughter houses in the USA (all following quotes taken directly from the PETA website):

- Electric immobilization, the conventional method of slaughter in North American poultry slaughterhouses, causes an array of animal welfare, economic, and worker-safety problems. The process involves dumping and shackling live birds, running them through an electrically charged bath of water to immobilize them, slitting their throats with a machine, and defeathering them in tanks of scalding-hot water.

- Birds endure bruised and broken wings and legs and can suffocate when they are dumped and shackled.

- Frustrated workers often commit gratuitous acts of abuse and have been documented tearing live birds apart, spitting tobacco in their eyes, spray-painting their faces, stomping on them, punching them, kicking them, and even sexually assaulting them.

- Electric current levels are too low to render birds insensible to pain, and all birds are conscious as their throats are slit.

- Those who miss the blades—and millions do each year—are scalded to death in defeathering tanks.

- This abuse is permitted because the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, the only federal law designed to protect animals from abuse at slaughter, doesn’t protect chickens or turkeys. Chickens and turkeys make up more than 95 percent of the animals slaughtered in the U.S.—9.5 billion chickens and turkeys are slaughtered each year, compared to about 100 million pigs and 45 million cattle and sheep.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!!! They sexually abuse the birds?!? I cannot even fathom or wrap my mind around this one. The people who work in these factories have no souls, no brains and no consciences – I shudder to think what their karma must be like. I do applaud PETA, however, for pointing out how the typical methods outlined above are also dangerous for the workers themselves.

Now, I know some of you think of PETA as a radical, leftist terrorist organization who wants to take your fur coats, hotdogs and good ol’ American fun away from you. I will say you’re wrong, we do not want to spoil anyone’s fun – least of all, the animals'. Selfishness and absolute gratification are not good American values that need any defending.

I am somewhat pleased to report that more humane methods of killing, such as CAK advocated above, are the norm in Europe and in my home, the UK. While I am still categorically against the taking of animal life for any reason, at least if they are still to be slaughtered, the method of death should be less evil.

Whenever I post a little blurb on Facebook about the cruelty of eating meat or the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle, I ALWAYS get little self-conscious, defensive (but friendly) replies from my friends, nervously defending their own meat-eating choices. 99% of the time it reads something like this – ‘well, we really don’t eat meat all that often, only once a day/ week/ month, but I try to be environmental otherwise…” In other words, they know I'm right deep down, but want me to think highly of them anyways. I love my friends a ton and I know they are generally good people, but…

I am sick of dicking around. IF YOU EAT MEAT YOU ARE A BAD PERSON. IMMORAL, CRUEL AND SELFISH TO THE MAX. No more hand-holding, ethical relativism or ass-kissing. You just cannot eat animals and retain any degree of conscience today. And if you feed it to your children, you’re a double shit. And please do not accuse me of crude self-righteousness here. That is not what this is about, and as I still eat fish once in a while, I'm in the same unethical shithead boat as the rest of you. Plus, I have thought deeply about all these issues, and think about them every day. I’m too smart to merely be up on my ethical high horse here. And so what if I am?!? You’re the shithead who practices cruelty on a daily basis, then licks the delicious BBQ sauce right off your fingers.

PLEASE please please chose compassion and humanity over cruelty and selfishness. It won't cost you anything! Thanks for reading and listening and thinking...

Donderdag – Veggie Dag

Well I have to say, Europe rocks! The lovely city of Ghent, Belgium, has made every Thursday a vegetarian day for city officials, schools and other organizations. What a wonderful idea! Over a million people in Taiwan also pledged to start a meat-free diet last year. 

Please read more about this special initiative here, but in the meantime, here are some snippets from the article...

"The Belgian city of Ghent is 30 miles west of Brussels, with a population of around 200,000. Just over a week ago, this small city committed to taking a major step forward in environmental responsibility, setting an example for the rest of the world to follow... City officials have declared that meat intake is a major contributor to pollution, and say that making one day a week meat-free 'is good for the climate, your health and your taste buds.' Tom Balthazar, a Ghent city councilor who is backing the initiative, quotes the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), when he says that meat production is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gases. Ghent's officials are teaming up with Belgium's national vegetarian organization, EVA (Ethical Vegetarian Alternative), and adopting Thursday as a vegetarian day for officials. From September, the city's schools will be making a meat-free meal the "default" option every Thursday. At least one hospital wants to join in....'If everyone in Flanders does not eat meat one day a week, we will save as much CO2 in a year as taking half a million cars off the road, said the EVA..."

National Vegetarian Week/ Happy Birthday Morrissey!

It is National Vegetarian Week! 18 – 24 May, 2009

“National Vegetarian Week (NVW) is the annual awareness-raising campaign promoting inspirational vegetarian food and the benefits of a meat-free lifestyle.” http://www.vegsoc.org/nvw/

Since I am seeing Morrissey next weekend (first-time concert goer, life-long fan!!!) who is one of the most visible advocates for the vegetarian/ vegan lifestyle, I think it’s time for another blog. Lots of vegetarian events this week… it’s National Vegetarian week in the UK and all sorts of stores, cafes and restaurants are offering expanded vegetarian options. Also, Morrissey’s 50th birthday (Friday 22nd May) is today and there are vegetarian-inspired celebrations going on in the UK. Morrissey has also been named the UK’s Favorite Vegetarian in a nationwide poll, beating Sir Paul McCartney for the very first time.

A dear friend of mine recently told me that not only does she read my blog, she is strongly considering going vegetarian, in large part because of my blog. YAY! That is so gratifying and I am really proud of her. There are many reasons to embrace a cruelty-free lifestyle, and you will find of range of these answers if you query individual vegetarians; ethics, environmental concerns, religious dicta, compassion, health and weight loss, a protest of the meat industry and its practices, solidarity with the poor, and just plain “I don’t like meat.”

I have one main reason I do not eat meat, and that is ethics. I personally think it is categorically WRONG, especially in the developed ‘First World’ to raise, pen, torture and slaughter other living, sentient beings just for a tasty morsel. How unbelievably selfish is that, to think an entity exists just for my taco salad? I believe all sentient beings have the same right to life that I have, and that human animals are not better in any way than non-human animals. I deeply consider the horrendous lifestyle which “farm” animals must suffer, before they are brutally killed, as a grave error of the human race – a terrible accretion of ‘bad’ karma. The word compassion comes from the Latin for "to suffer with" and I really put myself in the place of these poor animals. But I do know how hard it is, I myself can be a hypocrite -- I do eat fish sometimes.

I would say environmental concerns are a very close second for why I do not eat animals. You have heard all the statistics, but here they are again: A Smithsonian report says that  The United States imports roughly 200 million pounds of beef from Latin America every year. Aside from the fuel used in transport, grazing land is needed for all of these animals. Where does all that land come from in a densely forested region? The answer: from clear-cutting forests and rainforest. The necessity for more grazing land means that every minute of every day, a land area equivalent to seven football fields is destroyed in the Amazon basin. For each hamburger that originated from animals raised on rainforest land, approximately 55 square feet of forest have been destroyed. And its not just the rainforest. In the United States, more than 260 million acres of forest have been clear-cut for animal agriculture. With increased per capita meat consumption, and an ever growing population, we can only expect to see more deforestation in the future.

And the global effects of meat consumption don’t stop on land. Animal production consumes an amount of water roughly equivalent to all other uses of water in the United States combined. Besides grains, animals need water to survive and grow until they are slaughtered. One pound of beef requires an input of approximately 2500 gallons of water, whereas a pound of soy requires 250 gallons of water and a pound of wheat only 25 gallons. And this is to say nothing of the poisonous runoff of agricultural farming into the oceans.

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances of survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." - Albert Einstein

And more than 1/3 of all fossil fuels produced in the United States go towards animal agriculture. Did you know that the production of one calorie of animal protein requires more than ten times the fossil fuel input as a calorie of plant protein?!? This means that ten times the amount of carbon dioxide is emitted as well. Considering how many people are starving on a daily basis in our world – billions – it is unconscionable to eat meat. You cannot justify this massive waste of land, water and resources, and the terrible carbon footprint meat consumption leaves. You just cannot. The only reason I have been proffered as to why someone eats meat is, simply, because “I like it, it tastes good.” That is NOT good enough. So what if you like it?!? What makes you so special? What makes your privilege of eating meat more important than another being’s right to life?  Rapists love to rape, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. I love to lay in bed all day and eat cheese curls, but that doesn’t mean I will or can or should.

But there are many other reasons to stop eating meat. My husband, for example, became vegetarian a few years ago, on his own accord, and I could not be prouder of him, even though his reasons are different than mine. In the US, we were watching a documentary on PBS about mammal cognition, intelligence and emotion, and he suddenly realized he could not, in good faith, eat them. His protest, however, is a boycott of the meat industry itself. For example, if he ordered a dish in a restaurant that turned out to have meat in it, he would eat it, because the animal is already dead and he sees no point in wasting it. I, however, would refuse it (and I always ask about ingredients to avoid this, but slips happen) because I will NOT have animals particles in my body. And the sin upon the restaurant’s head for falsely representing their menu items.

It is much easier to be vegetarian in the UK than in many parts of America, in my experience, it should be said – this may very well come from the great numbers of Indians/ Hindus here, not to mention a concern for Halal & Kosher practices. All restaurants have multiple vegetarian offerings, and even the local sandwich shops have more interesting and inventive ideas about meat-free cuisine than one would expect. That being said, it is all but impossible to be vegan here. ALL vegetarian foods here are loaded with cheese, butter and mayonnaise, which is so frustrating for those of us fighting the battle of the bulge, not to mention for our vegan friends. There is a great respect for local, organic, humane farming practices here, which is a small step in the right direction. But don’t be fooled by this, the UK still engages in brutal, inhumane, mass-market meat “production” that puts those diabolical pork farmers in the American South to shame.

Ah, and now pork – SWINE FLU IS A RESULT OF THE MEAT INDUSTRY! If you eat pork and other farmed meat, you are, yourself, contributing to swine flu! Of course you cannot get such influenzas from eating meat, but they come from the meat production industry, via humans (pig farmers) who work with the animals. Are you proud of yourself? I should also point out that pigs are highly intelligent and have evolved great social skills.

“People should not be eating animals… Every so often Mother Nature takes an opportunity to remind us that eating animals and/or factory farming eventually bites us back.” - Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

To find out more about the daily ‘life’ of factory farm animals, please read http://www.hsus.org/farm/

To see quotes from all major world religions that support vegetarianism, please see

http://www.nansealove.com/Quotes.html

“The eating of flesh extinguishes the seed of great compassion.” 

The Mahaparinirvana Sutra

Meat kills.

Have you put that pork chop down yet?!? No? My mean, judgmental rants haven’t helped yet, eh? : ) Well now, the most corrupt, drug-pushing pimp in history, the US Government, says that we should adhere to a plant-based diet. Re-he-he-heally?!?

This report (24 March, 2009) ran in Reuters, by Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, and detailed the results of The US National Cancer Institute Study about the effects of red meat consumption on general health. Here are some of the findings of the thorough, careful study. (I have tried to find documentation about the study itself, but it seems it’s not yet published. However, click here to read the full Reuters article):

- “Even when other factors were accounted for -- eating fresh fruits and vegetables, smoking, exercise, obesity -- the heaviest meat-eaters were more likely to die over the next 10 years than the people who ate the least amount of meat.”

- “The quintile [of study participants] who ate the most red meat had a higher risk for overall death, death from heart disease and cancer than the men and women who ate the least red meat.”

- “For overall mortality, 11 percent of deaths in men and 16 percent of deaths in women could be prevented if people decreased their red meat consumption to the level of intake in the first quintile.” I also contend that taking meat out of your diet is better for your psychic (or spiritual, if you like) health. Many Buddhists believe that when you eat a sentient being, you also eats that being's karma - and since it's a hierarchical karmic ladder, the lower you eat on the karmic chain, the worse karma you yourself ingest. In other words, that chicken has tons of poopy karma, otherwise they wouldn't be a chicken -- and you just ate it.

- “The U.S. government now recommends a ‘plant-based diet’ that stresses fruits, vegetables and whole grains.”
- “…‘farming animals for meat causes greenhouse gas emissions that warm the atmosphere and uses fresh water in excess,’ [a nutrition expert] said. ‘I was pretty surprised when I checked back and went through the data on emissions from animal food and livestock,… I didn't expect it to be more than cars.’”

- And here’s a real shocker: “The meat industry denounced the study as flawed.”

Here is as good a time as any for me to embrace so-called Social Darwinism: maybe all the meat eaters should continue on their path, and eventually you’ll breed yourselves out by dying early! There are too many damn people on the planet anyways, so why don’t you guys just go ahead and select yourselves out of the equation?

Reason #8745897 to stop eating meat

"When it comes to global warming, hamburgers are the Hummers of food, scientists say. Simply switching from steak to salad could cut as much carbon as leaving the car at home a couple days a week."

So says an article I read online today. I actually hate meat consumption almost as much as Hummers, but there are few things I hate more than Hummers. Appealing to people's sense of compassion is clearly not the way to go -- because most of you are educated adults, you know where meat comes from, you know the animals are tortured and slaughtered after leading a horrid life, and you still eat meat anyways, don't you? Appealing to your pocket-book hasn't worked either, which I find shocking as Americans don't give a shit about anyone or anything unless it affects their own bottom line. Meat is so much more expensive, on so many levels, than vegetables and grains. But could this environmental 'angle' work?

Now I know some of you, especially in the UK, are saying, "But I only buy organic, free-range meat." Bravo for you (I meant that sarcastically). Sure that is better for your health, but it does almost nothing to help the devastating environmental consequences of meat consumption, although the lives of the animals before they are murdered and consumed are marginally better. And you are still eating the muscle tissue of a sentient, sapient animal with thoughts and feelings and conscience. Cruel and gross. Is that what you want to teach your children?!

Back to the article; "That's because beef is such an incredibly inefficient food to produce and cows release so much harmful methane into the atmosphere, said Nathan Pelletier of Dalhousie University in Canada. Pelletier is one of a growing number of scientists studying the environmental costs of food from field to plate. By looking at everything from how much grain a cow eats before it is ready for slaughter to the emissions released by manure, they are getting a clearer idea of the true costs of food. The livestock sector is estimated to account for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and beef is the biggest culprit. Even though beef only accounts for 30 percent of meat consumption in the developed world it's responsible for 78 percent of the emissions, Pelletier said Sunday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science... Food is the third largest contributor to the average US household's carbon footprint after driving and utilities, and in Europe - where people drive less and have smaller homes - it has an even greater impact."

Don't you find that shocking?!?

For more information on how to eat a low carbon diet, visit www.eatlowcarbon.org.

And please, for the love of the planet - stop eating meat. Just stop it. You don't need it, it's bad for your body, your karma, your spirit, and the earth.

Top 10 Reasons to Pardon a Turkey This Thanksgiving

I *beg* you to consider not eating a turkey, or any other meat, this holiday season. Raising, penning, torturing and slaughtering animals is NOT good family values. Millions and millions of turkeys are murdered every year around this time, and most of you will sit around their carcasses while giving thanks for all your good fortune this Thursday.

"Did Sarah Palin's recent interview in front of a turkey-slaughter operation almost cause you to lose your lunch? If so, you're not alone. Even conservative pundit Joe Scarborough says he may well skip the bird this year. With Thanksgiving upon us, here without further ado are PETA's top 10 reasons to pardon a turkey this holiday season:"

http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/11/top_10_reasons.php?c=pfbm

"Meat is murder" - Morrissey
"Christmas is carnage" - 'Babe'

Gaia Earth Day rant I

from Monday, April 23, 2007

Earth Day may have been yesterday, but we need EARTH DAY EVERY DAY! So, for my first blog entry (drum roll……)

GAIA. Earth Day Rant part I

I will leave aside the basics like conserve energy, carpool, and insulate your homes. This is my little manifesto. It may seem judgmental and I certainly have room for improvement in my own life. But things are getting desperate! I have not cited all my sources as this is not an academic paper. However, I welcome fact-checking or lively debate.

OK, many of you may know I'm vegetarian, and have been for 13+ years. I will preface this by saying I do eat dairy and seafood, which makes me a MAJOR hypocrite. That being said, I avoid wearing leather, I strictly avoid chicken stock (which sadly is in everything), I campaign for animal rights. Ethical implications aside, TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT YOU MUST STOP EATING MEAT. Stop it right now, put that chicken wing, sausage or spare rib down. It's cruel and you don't need it.

First, you may know the rainforests (Brazil, SE Asia) are being mowed down at a frightening pace. One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second. And why are they being clear cut (this cut and burn technology dumps a MASSIVE amount of CO2 into the atmosphere, by the way. You know, that global warming thing)? For cattle grazing! Cattle, who fart immense amounts of greenhouse-gas methane into the air. The cattle in your hamburger. Now, greenhouse gases emitted in the burning of trees (trees which could scrub the air of CO2!) and the farts of cows are only the beginning. I won't bore you with the amount of gas – no pun intended – it takes to transport the slaughtered cattle from Argentina to Your Town. For each 1 pound of meat, it takes 15 pounds of grain (and a commensurate amount of water). Do the math backwards; for the exact same amount of resources, I can get 15 lbs. of grain, or 1 lb. of meat. I don't know about you, but to me it's SHAMEFUL to waste that much in food when 2 billion people don't have enough food or water.

Which brings me to WATER. Shut the damn faucet off when you brush your teeth. Take a shorter shower, or take one less often. Showers waste less water than baths. Share a shower with your honey. Only about one percent of the earth's water is fresh water available for our use.

In so many damn ways, environmental consciousness supports social justice. For example, Fair trade products such as coffee are often grown in more environmentally sustainable ways. Drink only "shade grown coffee." Organic is also better for farm workers who are not doused in poisonous chemicals all day.

Over-fishing has grossly depleted certain species of sea-food (or sea-life, as Linda McCartney used to say). You can find out which species of fish and seafood are more sustainable at www.eartheasy.com/eat_sustainable_seafoods.htm That being said, it's really best to halt seafood consumption across the board as the entire global fishery is on the brink of collapse!

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. This is my personal mantra. I say it all the time, just ask my husband who calls me "the Recycle Nazi" (No trash for you!) Yes, that's me riffling through your garbage and picking shit off the ground to recycle. I've done it before and I'll do it again. I do it because people are small, selfish and mind-numbingly thoughtless.

I bring cloth bags to the market for shopping; when I do use plastic or paper, I ask the clerks not to double-bag and to pack everything in tightly. When you do this, they will stare dumbly at you with bewilderment on their faces. Just insist. In Europe, you are charged money for every single plastic bag with which the store provides you. You can recycle plastic bags at Wegman's, you can re-use them when you shop.

Don't buy Tupperware, but recycle plastic take-out containers.

Trees – Plant 'em. A buttload. Arbor Day is coming… give someone the gift of a tree for an Honorarium or Memorial, a birthday, wedding, or graduation.

Flowers – many of the cut flowers we buy in our markets are not sustainable. Organic, locally grown and seasonable are always better. For one, it takes less energy to transport the flowers.

Cell Phones I – They pose their own environmental challenges. Their toxic chemical content requires us to use care in disposing of old ones. And there is a material, columbite-tantalite, used in mobile phone manufacturing that only comes from Zaire (DRC). This can only be hand-mined from the gorilla's habitat and causes wars in the area. Sadly, there is little we can do about this now. We can properly recycle our old cell phones – in fact, you should donate them: wirelessrecycling.com/home/index.html
www.grcrecycling.com/ www.charitablerecycling.com/CR/home.asp (you can also find ways to recycle things like printer cartridges at these sites).

Cell Phones II – You may have heard lately in the news that the global BEE population is plummeting. This is due in large part to the proliferation of cellular phones. Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees. Guess who pollinates our plants? The bees. Guess who cannot figure how to hand-pollinate on a mass scale? Humans. Guess who dies when the bees die? ANYTHING THAT EATS PLANTS.


Here's the part where I out myself as a kook:

- Reuse gift wrapping supplies – paper, ribbons, bows, gift bags, etc. I send ecards instead of paper cards. No, it ain't classy, but neither is mass environmental destruction, coastal flooding, refugees in the 100's of millions, global wars, and animal extinction.

- I wear almost exclusively vintage clothing and jewelry. Better to recycle older resources.

- I buy enviro-friendly stocks. Find out which businesses are enviro-friendly and patronize them. Punish those fascists who contribute to, rather than try to solve, the problem. Hint – it ain't Starbucks (Whorefucks).

- if you drive an SUV, YOU ARE A SELFISH FUCK. I don't care if it makes you and your family feel safer, because it makes my family much less safe. See the SELFISH FUCK comment above. I am not impressed that your SUV gets 30 miles to the gallon – you should be getting over 60 miles a gallon! They're called small hybrid cards.

Thanks for tuning in… more to come…