Livin’ Veg

Should Felony Animal Abusers Register Like Sex Offenders? February 24, 2010

Photo by Marci Stenberg

A bill by Sen. Dean Florez of California proposes that felony animal abusers should be listed on a public registry. This is the same tactic used with sex offenders. The hope is that if you know who has committed a crime, you can help prevent those same crimes in the future.

This article says:

Florez said animal abuse is especially bad in the Central Valley. He said the biggest problem has been with hoarders, people who keep more than usual numbers of animals as pets, without having the means to take care of those animals. Some hoarders have been found with hundreds of animals, often living in appalling conditions, Florez said.

“We’ve had a lot of convicted hoarders moving into the Valley,” Florez said. “There’s no way to find out about these people until it’s too late.”

The program would be paid for by placing a levy of 3 cents per pound of pet food. That figures to about a buck fifty a year for the average companion animal guardian. It also ensures that the state (as we all know, Cali is broke) doesn’t have to pay for the program.

This bill would surely help prevent animal abuse. I have no doubts about that. However, I’m always a bit nervous when we take away people’s rights to privacy. Should felons expect the same rights to privacy as a law abiding citizen? Should certain crimes be up for public display while others remain more confidential? For example, wouldn’t it be helpful for women out in the dating world to know if the guy they are seeing has been convicted of domestic abuse? Or is it wrong to judge people based on their past behavior? People do change. Any thoughts? I like this idea. It would be great for animals. But what about, instead of making it public, making it mandatory for a person who has been convicted of animal abuse to notify the local law enforcement about their crime instead of making it common public knowledge?

An Open Letter to President Obama November 30, 2009

An Open Letter to President Obama:

Dear Mr. President,

Last Wednesday, in keeping with the annual Thanksgiving presidential tradition, you performed an act of compassion by pardoning a turkey the day before Thanksgiving. Sure, it’s just symbolic, but for one shining moment, it gives a face to all of the birds who are slaughtered for food, especially for this particular holiday. It forces people to see these birds as thinking feeling beings, instead of what they will see the following day on their plates - food.

However, I was thoroughly disappointed by the speech you gave that made light of the consumption of turkeys.

You said:

Today, I am pleased to announce that thanks to the interventions of Malia and Sasha — because I was planning to eat this sucker — “Courage” will also be spared this terrible and delicious fate. Later today, he’ll head to Disneyland, where he’ll be grand marshal of tomorrow’s parade.

Putting aside the fact that you continued your predecessor’s inhumane decision to send the birds to Disney instead of to a facility like Farm Sanctuary that can actually care for the bird’s needs, your jokes about the fate of so many turkeys who are tortured and killed on factory farms was in poor taste. When performing an act of compassion, is it necessary to make fun of the recipient?

So let me for a moment deconstruct why you might have chosen comedy as opposed to heartfelt gratitude when speaking about the animals you eat as food. After all, you aren’t alone in making jokes about the deaths of farm animals in reference to them being a tasty meal. We’ve all heard them before. But why all the joking? I believe that people use jokes to separate themselves from the act of eating an animal that if they saw in person, they would probably want to pet rather than kill. You have an even tougher job for all the omnivores out there. You are pardoning a turkey and giving a face and name to a creature that the citizens of the USA have to feel good about eating the next day. What better way to shrug off a life than by dismissing it with laughter? What could be a real moment of connection with a farm animal is turned into an absurd PR stunt, all for a few chuckles and to dismiss the responsibility we have towards the animals raised for food.

I’m hoping I’ll be seeing seven more turkey pardons from you. So you’ve got time to get it right. (I’m crossing my fingers next year you’ll both nix the jokes as well as the Disney adventure.) I also beg you to look into the turkey farms in this country and reflect on how we as Americans treat the animals so many people eat. You can start here by reading up on the treatment of birds specifically.

Thank you so much for your time.

Happy Holidays.

Ali Berman

Bad News For Farm Animals In Ohio November 4, 2009

Yesterday Ohio voters were swayed by big agribusiness and their proposal to “protect” farm animals.  It’s a bit confusing so read below to learn a bit about issue 2:

Ohio voters will hit the polls Tuesday to decide the fate of an agribusiness-backed proposal that would amend the state constitution and create a board of political appointees to act as arbiters of what constitutes proper treatment of farm animals. In the eyes of its critics, the heavily favored measure, called Issue 2, represents the meat industry’s preemptive strike against a fledgling nationwide movement toward humane food production.

The big AR orgs didn’t fight too hard against it. In fact HSUS released a statement saying exactly why they were putting very little money into Ohio. Wayne Pacelle said this: “By packaging Issue 2 as pro-animal welfare and pro-food safety, the architects of the ballot measure went a long way to assure its passage.”

So instead of wasting money on Issue 2 in Ohio, they are instead going to focus on getting Ohio to phase out veal crates, battery cages and gestation crates through different methods.

Big agribusiness won yesterday. But that doesn’t mean the fight is over.

In other totally depressing news, (not AR related) Maine decided to say screw civil rights yesterday. The Maine voters repealed the law legalizing gay marriage. We should not be able to vote on civil rights. Or we end up with garbage like this. So upsetting.

Another Win For Farm Animals! October 7, 2009

A few days ago Michigan joined the ranks of Arizona, Cali, Florida, Maine, Oregan, and Colorado by creating laws that protect farm animals. Michigan has banned  gestation crates, battery cages and veal crates. And they did it without a ballot initiative. Like with all states, it won’t happen right away. (3 years for gestation crates and 10 years for battery cages and veal crates) But it will happen.

HSUS, Farm Sanctuary and The Michigan Humane Society all worked their booty’s off in order to get this done. They didn’t just get it passed. They got it passed with an overwhelming majority (something we can all agree is nearly impossible to do in politics today).

Michigan has over 10 million egg laying hens and over 1 hundred thousand pigs. All will live better lives. Of course, it’s only a moderate measure but it’s a start. And it’s more than they had before. So raise your hands for the win. These days are good days:)

Read the full press release here…

Woman Paralized & Brain Damaged From Eating Hamburger October 5, 2009

In the fall of 2007 Stephanie Smith went over to her mother’s house for a hamburger. Soon after eating that burger she had bloody diarrhea, her kidneys shut down and she had to be put in a nine week induced coma just to stop her from having seizures.  When she woke up, she was paralyzed from the waist down and had suffered brain damage.

How could a hamburger do all that? The E. coli strain known as O157:H. Ms Smith’s case was the extreme. The NY Times article says:

Meat companies and grocers have been barred from selling ground beef tainted by the virulent strain of E. coli known as O157:H7 since 1994, after an outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants left four children dead. Yet tens of thousands of people are still sickened annually by this pathogen, federal health officials estimate, with hamburger being the biggest culprit. Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the last three years alone, including the one that left Ms. Smith paralyzed from the waist down. This summer, contamination led to the recall of beef from nearly 3,000 grocers in 41 states.

Consumer protection when it comes to food in this country is abysmal. This article (watch the video too) outlines the ways in which our food system is making so many people per year sick. Companies are not testing the meat. They are not watching out for the health of their consumers. Obviously, not eating meat at all (as I would suggest) makes you less susceptible to this problem (although we all remember that spinach recall - any food that comes into contact with cow feces can contain E. coli).

Stephanie was a children’s dance instructor when she fell ill with food poisoning. Tougher industry standards should be in place in every respect when it comes to the production of food. Especially when we all know the kinds of conditions animals are raised in with modern agriculture (factory farming).

White House Vs. PCRM On School Lunch Campaign August 11, 2009

There is a controversy surrounding PCRM’s new poster (to your right) that says, “President Obama’s daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don’t I?” The White House argues that the White House children are off limits.

They called up PCRM and said the following to Neil Barnard (the head of the org). You can read the full article here.

“They’re very nice people. I like them a lot,” Barnard says. “But they called and said: Please take those down, you can’t mention the kids and so forth. . . . They felt that mentioning the president’s children was off-limits. They said [they're] not going to allow the use of their daughters as leverage.”

I understand that the White House doesn’t want the girls to be used but I don’t think this ad “uses” them in any horrible way. I think it’s pointing out a difference in class and that privileged children are being fed better foods than other kids. But it doesn’t blame President Obama’s children. It’s simply pointing out that there is a difference between the foods served to students depending on what school they can afford. And that’s a difference worth noting.

Here is one hard fact out of many about child nutrition in this country right now (read more facts here):

33% of children born in 2000 will develop type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives. For African Americans and Latinos, the numbers rise to a frightening 40 – 53%. This means more blindness, amputations, kidney dialysis, heart disease, poor quality of life, and early death. ~ Center for Disease Control

It’s a serious issue. Our children are being fed garbage at school. Nutrition isn’t taught. And this ad asks why? It’s a money thing. Bad food is cheap. Good food is not. And our schools buy bad food.

What do you think? Was PCRM out of line? Is this a bad way to try and make the point?

Personal Actions Or Political Activism? July 20, 2009

Personal responsibility is often touted as the way to change the world. I’m a firm believer in personal behavior and the importance of making humane choices. Going veg, riding your bike, composting etc. All of it makes a difference.

But sometimes I think our insular culture finds it easier to ONLY focus on the personal choices instead of also taking action politically. This article discusses the issue…

An Inconvenient Truth helped raise consciousness about global warming. But did you notice that all of the solutions presented had to do with personal consumption—changing light bulbs, inflating tires, driving half as much—and had nothing to do with shifting power away from corporations, or stopping the growth economy that is destroying the planet? Even if every person in the United States did everything the movie suggested, U.S. carbon emissions would fall by only 22 percent. Scientific consensus is that emissions must be reduced by at least 75 percent worldwide.

So what the article is really saying is that as great as personal change is, we need to do more. The article is definitely worth a read. It confronts the difficulties of maintaining the insane scope of our consumer culture while still trying to make change. It’s contradictory.

The answer to the above question is that it’s not an either/or. It’s both. Personal action is the first step. Other kinds of action are harder but will change the world where it really counts. In policies.

Farmers Markets and the White House Garden June 9, 2009

On Sunday morning my husband and I went to our first farmers market of the season. Many of them are opening up now, so check your local area for farmers markets.

What’s in season? Well, in Rye NY we bought strawberries, asparagus, swiss red chard, sea salt and onion cashews, fresh bread and other leafy greens.  When I purchased the asparagus, I complimented the man on how beautiful it was and he said, “It should be. It was picked last night.” The super market - even Whole Foods - cannot compare with that. And as far as being earth friendly, it doesn’t get any better than local/organic.

I love living in the greater NYC area but I’ll admit, I can’t wait to leave either. I want my own garden with my own asparagus. Anyone here grow their own food? Even if it’s just tomatoes or a fruit tree? I’m totally envious. Apartment living it’s not conducive to growing your own produce.

And with that I’ll leave you with a great video from the White House garden with Ryan Howard, of the Philadelphia Phillies, and White House chef, Sam Kass. They talk about healthy living.

Review of Food Inc. June 8, 2009

On Saturday I was lucky enough to see a preview of the new film Food Inc. The director and Eric Sclosser were there to discuss the film after. I posted the trailer here a few weeks ago…

I would recommend that everyone sees this film. Now, vegetarians and vegans are my primary audience on this blog. So I’m asking all my veggie ladies (and gentlemen) to bring an omni friend to the film. And not an enlightened omni. Someone who has never really thought about their food choices before. It’s not a pro veg film (necessarily) so you won’t be accused of trying to convert others.

This film deals with factory farming,  corn subsidies,  e coli, worker’s rights, and childhood obesity. They name companies and their bad behaviors calling out big businesses like  Purdue, Smithfield, Tyson, and Monsanto. They talk about the difficulty in getting government to protect us - especially considering the people in the FDA and the USDA have a history being advocates for the very companies that are abusing the system. It’s an expose and a good one.

The film is only 90 or so minutes, but they do an enormous amount in that time. They can’t possibly talk about everything but they cover a huge spectrum balancing the general with the specific very well.

How did they talk about animals? I’ll admit, even for me, a gal who has worked in AR for 3+ years, who has watched the videos of suffering, this film has bits that were difficult to stomach. I found myself turning my head to my husbands shoulder while pigs and chickens were shown being slaughtered and abused. They show chickens being kicked, dead chickens among the living being removed from the floor. They take us inside a chicken house, and onto the kill floor.

When the director spoke at the end, he said he thought he left all of the really terrible stuff on the cutting room floor. Meaning, that even though terrible images of slaughter are shown, he didn’t actually put in the really bad stuff.

One farmer appears again and again throughout the film. A man who raises his pigs and chickens on a free range farm. It’s shown as a contrast to factory farming but the director doesn’t make it easy to watch. They show a scene in which the chickens are being hoisted, head down into cones where their heads are then pulled off. Think of when Sarah Palin stood in front of turkeys being slaughtered. It’s the same thing. So even though the film leans more towards humane farming, many people are still going to be turned off by the death that is shown - and death is never humane.

Even if you enjoy steak, you should still see this film. It will show you how big business runs our food system with little care for the health of the public. It’s about the bottom line. And that’s it. You may not go veg, but you will certainly think more deeply about the food you are eating.

Food Inc. officially opens in NYC, SF and LA on June 12th. Hopefully it will get an even wider distribution after that…

Prop 2 in NY? May 13, 2009

Remember how great it felt when Prop 2 passed in California? Now there is a chance New York can feel just as good. Farm Sanctuary sent me a take action the other day to help protect farm animals. They said:

A08163, introduced by Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, would require that calves raised for veal, breeding pigs and egg-laying hens in New York be given the ability to stretch their limbs, lie down comfortably and turn around.

The more states that give basic care for farm animals, the more states that will come on board. Click here to take action for farm animals in New York.

People are shocked that the US used torture methods under the Bush Administration. Well, what do they call the treatment of farm animals in this country? Please try to argue that castrating pigs without any pain killers isn’t torture, or that cutting off the beak of a hen is for the bird’s own good. Take a stand and help take care of farm animals in New York by helping to pass this modest legislation.