Gobble Gobble!

Thanksgiving is in exactly one week from today. I love Thanksgiving, even if the message is hugely skewed and a little
fabricated. The intent is good and it comes down to the start of the Winter Holiday Festivities and family time. The one time of year that I actually do genuinely feel some type of love and warmth towards everyone. I love the holidays! This will be my first holiday season without meat, and I’m prepared to be ridiculed. Bring it on, I don’t really care.

What I do care about are the poor turkeys that are being fattened up right now as I type this. Fattened up on shit they normally wouldn’t even consume to become big, plump feasts that Americans who already are fat don’t need to eat. Why do we use a holiday like Thanksgiving, where we are suppose to give thanks for our bountifulness, to consume even more food than normal while there are countries in poverty? Makes sense back in the hay day when food was scarce and one had to hunt for their family’s turkey feast, but nowadays it’s just a tradition for families to pig out together then all crash from their tryptophan (the reason why you get so sleepy after eating turkey) overdose then have a Thanksgiving hangover the next day.

Look at those poor baby turkey’s. 😦

Pretty much every family out there is going to be purchasing a turkey in the next week, so where do you think all these turkey’s come from? First off they are so obese from what factories feed them that they can’t naturally reproduce. They are almost all conceived through artificial insemination. Then they are raised on factory farms in large incubators and separated from their mamas. Then when they are a couple weeks old they get moved into windowless sheds with thousands of other turkeys and this is where they spend the rest of their lives. They get pretty stressed out, so in order for us to keep them from killing each other in these crowded sheds we cut off their toes and beaks without pain relievers.

How do we get them nice and plump for Thanksgiving? They are drugged and genetically manipulated to grow as large as they possibly can as quickly as they can. In the 1970s the average turkey weighed 17 lbs. Today they weigh 28 lbs! For anyone who thinks this is normal (to fatten and kill turkeys) take into consideration that they are so unnaturally large that they often die from organ failure or heart attacks before they are even 6 months old. They are suppose to live for 12 years.

Please eat organic turkey this Thanksgiving, or better yet don’t eat any. I may not be a perfect eater, but I’m really not going to be a vessel of dead turkey this Thanksgiving.

 

Lady Gaga Decides to Offend Everyone

I love Lady Gaga’s music, seriously. Just Dance is pretty much the anthem of all the nights I don’t remember. Her often psychotic approach to everything, usually appeals to me but last night? Not so much. Gaga came out to accept her award in a freaking meat dress. This is disgusting on so many levels. Let’s start with the obvious question, WTF? Seriously, WTF Gaga?! Raw meat already makes me want to vomit…how about I drape some of it all over my body? Now unto the more serious stuff…why the hell are you wearing dead animal all over you? What the hell is your point? Animals were slaughtered so you could drape their meat over your body for a few shocking minutes on the VMAs and then you can toss them into the garbage? That’s so messed up. I hate it when animals die, but feel a little bit better if they are eaten or worn, or whatever, and not wasted. This situation? A complete waste. I don’t think she made any point other than she’s an idiot.

Gaga defended and explained herself by saying “Well, it is certainly no disrespect to anyone that is vegan or vegetarian. As you know, I am the most judgment-free human being on the earth,” said Gaga. “However, it has many interpretations but for me this evening. If we don’t stand up for what we believe in and if we don’t fight for our rights, pretty soon we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones. And, I am not a piece of meat.” Who cares if it’s no disrespect to the vegans or vegetarians! What about the animals?! I think it’s, oh, just a little bit disrespectful that you have freaking dead animal on you. Just a little. “No matter how beautifully it is presented, flesh from a tortured animal is flesh from a tortured animal,” PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement. “Meat represents bloody violence and suffering, so if that’s the look they were going for, they achieved it.”

My fave Ellen DeGeneres taped her season opener last night, which will air today, and came across Gaga and presented her with a veggie bikini and suggested she try that next time she wants to make a statement. Nice.

This isn’t the first time Gaga’s used meat to “make a statement” either. Gaga posed for the September cover of Vogue Hommes Japan in a meat bikini. I really don’t think she has any real reason to why she’s using meat. I don’t believe she even has a fascination with it or anything. Really no point either. I think she’s just doing what she’s always doing…trying to shock, offend, and terrify people. Usually her tactics are werid yet alluring but not this time…just sick.

“Meat is the decomposing flesh of an abused animal who didn’t want to die, and after being under the TV lights, it would smell like the rotting flesh that it is and likely be crawling with maggots – not too attractive, really,” PETA’s president told TMZ today about Gaga’s nasty getup. Newkirk continued to discuss the matter, “In her line of business, Lady Gaga has a hard time being ‘over the top’, and wearing a dress made from cuts of dead cows is offensive enough to elicit comment, but someone should whisper in her ear that more people are upset by butchery than are impressed by it – and that means a lot of young people will not be buying her records if she keeps it up.”

I wonder how excited Cher was to hold Gaga’s raw meat purse. Gag.

Fast Food Nation

Last night I had the extreme pleasure of viewing the movie Fast Food Nation for the very first time. Let me tell you, if you haven’t seen this movie, you must! I was only a tad reluctant because the movie got very mixed reviews. Many of the reviews I read on my beloved Netflix were terrible. People we’re complaining that the movie should have been made into a documentary instead but I disagree. I thought the movie was well made. In defense, the way I see it is that not many people enjoy documentaries. I in fact, love them, but I know that many people find them to be boring, slow, long, etc. Therefore taking the matter of slaughterhouses, the fast food industry, the meat industry, immigration and activism and putting it into a fictional plot seems like a good idea to me. I find that people who cannot bear to sit and watch documentaries can watch a movie that has a plot, storyline and characters that they can identify with.

For anyone who hasn’t seen the movie, it is a movie following a few different people’s lives who are all somehow affected by the meat/fast food industry. We follow around a business man who works for Mickey’s, a fast food chain, a high school girl who works at Mickey’s while becoming friends with college activists, and an illegal immigrant couple who come to America and end up working at Mickey’s beef supplier. It stars many people, including Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Wilmar Valderama, Avril Lavinge and Bruce Willis.

For whomever out there that wants to see this movie in documentary form, there is a version, called Food, Inc. This documentary is great, and was one of the first movies I saw that really concreted my decision of giving up meat. It shows you a behind the scenes look at slaughterhouses, worker conditions for immigrants and nonimmigrants, and also describes all the preservatives and hormones that you are consuming when you eat industrialized meat.

The book that both films are based off of is New York Time’s bestseller, Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. The book takes you behind the scenes to what we are really eating when we eat beef from our favorite fast food restaurants. It goes into detail about the “flavorings” that make our beef taste “cajun” or “smoked,” shows us what ingredients are in our foods, where our food comes from, and who touches our food before it gets to us. There are insights, interviews, and so much more…I love it. Because of this book, which I read many years ago, I no longer consume McDonald’s strawberry milkshake-it has over 30 ingredients and 50% of them are chemicals. Yum!

For anyone who either doesn’t have the time or patience for reading Fast Food Nation, Schlosser (along with Charles Wilson) wrote a second book, called Chew on This, which is a tamer, shorter version of Fast Food Nation. It was made to aim at teenagers and younger people, but with the same concept-to educate people on the fast food industry. I have yet to read this but plan on doing so soon.

So in conclusion, I have to recommend both films, the fictional Fast Food Nation and the documentary Food, inc. Both will broaden your horizon and knowledge on the meat and fast food industry. I feel better just knowing where meat comes from, and it helps me remember why I don’t consume it. For anyone who is reluctant because they do want to consume meat, don’t fret, just go organic. Food, Inc. will show you how a chicken is killed in a slaughterhouse versus how they are killed on a local farm. Good stuff folks.

Peace!

Other good, similar films to check out:

Veggies Can Feed the World

One of the most depressing things to me is waste. I’m a huge advocate of recycling, reusing, and leftovers. I don’t like seeing things wasted, ever. Although I am liberal in almost all parts of my life, I am very conservative with my money-which also aids me in my ability to never waste. I don’t like to see unused water go down the drain, food go uneaten, jars in the garbage, paper not being reused, etc. So of course it kills me that we are a country of completeexcess and waste. We have more than we could ever need or want, yet we want more, need more, and certainly waste a whole lot more. While we waste there are other places in our world that do not even have enough of what they need, and never see what they want. It depresses me all the time. Especially when I think of my parents who didn’t grow up in America, in particular my dad, who never owned a pair of shoes in his youth or tasted dessert. One of the reasons why I am a vegetarian is because I think its one step closer to solving world hunger. Yes, I am aware I myself am not changing the world, but I like to think that the more of us that become vegetarians, the more our country can start growing crops for the right reason, like feeding people. Jim Motavelli from The Environmental Magazine  has said, “The 4.8 pounds of grain fed to cattle to produce one pound of beef for human beings represents a colossal waste of resources in a world still teeming with people who suffer from profound hunger and malnutrition.” Now take a look at these horrific numbers that I found the other day from Diet for a New America, by John Robins.

• Human population of United States: 270,000,000 (and counting)

• Number of human beings who could be fed by the grain and soybeans eaten by U.S. livestock: 1,300,000,000

• Percentage of corn grown in United States eaten by human beings: 20%

• Percentage of corn grown in United States eaten by livestock: 80%

• How frequently a child dies of starvation: Every 2.3 seconds

• Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on 1 acre of land: 20,000

• Pounds of beef that can be produced on 1 acre of land: 165

• Percentage of U.S. agricultural land used to produce beef: 56

• Number of children who starve to death every day: 38,000

• Number of people who could be adequately fed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%: 100,000,000

• Amount of meat eaten by average person in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and Panama: Less than the average American house cat

• Water needed to produce 1 pound of wheat: 25 gallons

• Water needed to produce 1 pound of meat: 2,500

Seriously. These numbers depress me! We are stuffing our faces, overeating meat that will give us cancer and other health issues while there are others who do not have enough to eat at all.

Another thing I want to touch on is that I know a lot of people will read these numbers and go “Okay, I kind of see the connection. But there’s no proof that meat is really a reason why people are starving.” Well, I would consider that, since I’m open minded, but the facts are hard to ignore. Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, DC, stated that during the Ethiopian famine in 1984, “While people starved, Ethiopia was growing linseed cake, cottonseed cake and rapeseed meal for European livestock. Millions of acres of land in the developing world are used for this purpose. Tragically, 80 percent of the world’s hungry children live in countries with food surpluses which are fed to animals for consumption by the affluent.”

And to see that everyone could eat if we all gave up meat, or at least consumed less of it, is sad because not enough people will give up meat. Why have we become so meat obsessed? Like Steve Spielberg has said “Humans are the only race that hunts when not hungry.” So wasteful, it makes me want to cry. Especially since we are doing something so greedy, so wasteful, so unhealthy and hurting animals in the process. And I am no animal person, and many people aren’t…however I don’t know too many people who would turn their backs on a hungry child. So why don’t we all do our part and reduce our meat intake and help feed the rest of the world? I’ve already talked about it over and over…going veggie for your health, for the animals, the environment…but if you don’t care about any of those, can you at least do it for the people out there who are going to go to bed hungry tonight?

Peace.

Never knew I’d become a Preacher!

I never really set out to tell the world to become vegetarians or vegans. I never really thought I was an activist for anything, much less animal rights. However after becoming a vegetarian myself I started to really care. Deeply, passionately care about what I am putting into my body, and what is happening to our world from consuming meat. What started off as guilt for killing cows, has full blown into something else for me. Our meat problems do not end at animals. Meat is much worse of an issue than murder. Meat is poisoning the human race, causing the environment to disintegrate, preventing the world from overcoming world hunger, and killing other natural resources. I never knew that one day I would become a preacher. I also never thought one day I’d become a teacher. I guess this is where I’m headed on my path to enlightenment. 😉

First off for anyone who bitches about weight or wanting to shed some extra pounds, you will definitely stop yo-yoing once you cut out the animal fat. Once that is gone you don’t have to worry about fat as much. Of course it will still be your responsibility to care for your body and to watch your sugar consumption, but cutting meat will slim you down! Once I stopped buying meat, my husband really didn’t have a choice in the matter, so he gradually stopped eating meat as well. And everyone has noticed that he’s lost weight! He didn’t even mean to, but because he’s not consuming all that extra animal fat, he has naturally leaned out. It’s also a great way to detox your body and let the engine start fresh! Also not having the meat sitting in your body makes you even feel lighter, cleaner, and less sluggish. According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarians are also less likely to develop heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or high blood pressure than meat-eaters. Vegetarians get all the nutrients they need to be healthy (from plant protein, fiber, minerals, etc.) without all the nasty stuff in meat that slows you down and makes you sick, like cholesterol and saturated animal fat.

Being a vegetarian is also the best way we can help animals without being in the industry ourselves. By not eating animals, we are not stopping this business, or stopping the slaughtering but we are a voice that will speak loud and clear to the companies when their customers no longer want to consume their products. “Every vegetarian saves more than 100 animals a year from abuse.” (goveg.com 09)

Plus, I’ve talked about it before, meat is nasty! Meat is often contaminated with feces, blood, and other bodily fluids, all of which make animal products the top source of food poisoning in the US. Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health tested supermarket chicken flesh and found that 96 percent of Tyson chicken was contaminated with campylobacter- a dangerous bacteria that causes 2.4 million cases of food poisoning each year!

And what’s sad is that we’re all happily eating meat and getting food poisoning when other people in the world are starving and don’t even have enough grains to eat, much less meat! “It takes tons of crops and water to raise farmed animals-in fact, it takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of animal flesh! All that plant food could be used much more efficiently if it was fed to people directly. The more people who go vegetarian, the more we can feed the hungry.”

Okay, so I’ve already talked about how bad it is for us and the animals. Now what a lot of people don’t know…it’s bad for our Earth! Eating meat is one of the worst things that you can do for the Earth; it’s wasteful, it causes enormous amounts of pollution, and the meat industry is one of the biggest causes of global warming.

Just think about it! Have a good weekend! =)

At the very least, please give up Tyson!

I know I preach a lot but I’ve been reading a lot lately about the conditions at Tyson and KFC and had to share the disgusting facts I’ve been finding out. I wish I had blogged about this earlier, and wish I had known years earlier about it. In all reality, I don’t care if you give up meat or not. There are organic meats out there, and farmers doing their part in making our world better but I do deeply, honestly care if you get chicken at KFC or buy Tyson brand. Please, for the love of everything humane do not contribute to the slaughter that goes into getting your bucket ‘o chicken at KFC. Being someone who used to eat there as well, I know that it tastes good. I know, but it’s not worth it. And not just for the animal’s sake, but yours as well. Tyson and KFC are nasty. Nasty to the chickens and nasty to you.

PETA conducted an undercover investigation in 2004-2007 at a Heflin, Alabama, Tyson slaughterhouse and on nine separate days (all in 2007), investigators saw workers urinating in the live-hang area, including on the conveyor belt that moves birds to slaughter. WTF. If this isn’t enough for you to stop eating at KFC then I am just shocked. Now onto what I think is even worse: The chickens abuse. Here are only some of the incidents happening to the meat you are serving to your kids at dinner time. 😥

At Tyson slaughterhouses in Georgia and Tennessee investigators found that “Birds died when their heads and legs became trapped under a door at the end of the conveyor belt that transported live birds to be hung. A supervisor was aware of this problem but did nothing to stop it.” Also “The killing-machine blade often cut birds’ bodies instead of their throats. Although aware of this problem, a supervisor offered no solution, instead blaming the problem on the “nature of the machine.”

“During an undercover investigation at a KFC “Supplier of the Year” slaughterhouse in Butterfield, Missouri—owned by George’s, Inc.—it was documented that live birds were being thrown by workers and crushed by metal dumping machines. Birds were often impaled by mangled transport cages, and workers were instructed to simply yank them out when this happened; PETA’s investigator saw workers doing this and found dismembered limbs left behind in cages after the birds had been removed.”

“A whistleblower at a Tyson slaughterhouse testified that birds intentionally were scalded to death, were blown apart by makeshift firecrackers, and had their legs broken by workers to fit them into slaughter-line shackles.”

“Workers at a KFC-supplier slaughterhouse in Maryland were documented punching frenzied, terrified birds and spiking them like footballs, among other sadistic acts of cruelty.”

Ugh! I feel terrible! What makes anyone think that animals can be treated this way? It’s like Hitler. Ugh. Please go to one of the sites (if not all of them) below to see more videos, pictures, articles, and ways you can help stop this. There are petitions, letters and other things that you can send to KFC, Tyson, and George’s Inc., although who knows what will happen. After all these years all we get are empty promises that they will fix their animal welfare conditions, and then year after year we still find out that the workers are allowed to treat the animals like crap. The industry did publicly announce that they were educating their employees on more humane practices and that they were going to take this matter seriously, however by paying workers (and often many are immigrants) poorly, demanding the workers to produce at incredibly fast speeds, it’s hard for the promises to be kept. As long as there is a high demand for chicken, there will be high demands of the employees and slaughterhouses, meaning there won’t really be any success at properly producing the meat. The only thing we can do right now that sends a clear message is by not eating it. By not consuming it and purchasing it is the only way they will stop making money off such cruelty and get away with it. Less demand for the meat, and more demand for humanity, may be the only way to get this message across. It’s so sad! Please support your local farmers and buy organic chicken. Please stop giving Tyson and KFC your money to abuse animals!

Please go to any/all of these sites: kfccruelty.com, peta.org, torturedbytyson.com, compassionoverkilling.com. Also at almost all these sites you can sign up for a FREE vegetarian starter kit!

Look at this claim from KFC: “KFC suppliers, KFC and the National Chicken Council have standards for stocking density to ensure birds have sufficient space and are healthy. … The cleanliness of these facilities and the health of the birds are top priorities for the farmers.” Take note that ALL my pictures are from KFC suppliers! Top priority my ass!!

‘That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals!’

I was at the cabin a few weekends ago and the family made some ribs, steaks and hot dogs. Instead, I had my salad and beans. My darling 7 year old niece, E, asked me “What is steak?” As she chewed it up.
“It’s cow,” I replied.
“WHAT!?” She looked like I told her that she just ate a puppy. Which I don’t see the difference of anyways.
“Yeah, a cow. Like moo.” I then preceded to tell her the ribs on her plate were pig, much to her parents’ dismay. (Hey. She asked first.) She didn’t know that either. Then my 10 year old nephew M piped in “It’s okay E. They were made for us to eat. It’s normal.”
Hmm. “What makes you think that?” I challenged him. (Poor kids, having me for an aunt.)
“I don’t know. I just know we eat animals.” M replied.
“M, do you go to the zoo?” I asked him. He nodded. “Do you eat those animals? Do you eat zebras and giraffes?”
“No…” Something inside him clicked. “That’s weird! How come we eat farm animals but not zoo animals?” He was intrigued now.
“Good question. I guess we think it’s normal to eat farm animals. But it’s not really. Would you eat a dog?” I asked.
M and E both started freaking out. “No! Gross! Sick!”
“Well you know some places like China eat dogs.” I told them.
Again, “No! Gross! Sick!”
“Well…they think it’s normal. Just like how you think it’s normal to eat cows, chickens and pigs.”
“But it’s not normal!” M protested.
“Well, then I guess eating cows, chickens and pigs aren’t normal than either.” I simply replied. Both of them nodded. I don’t think I converted anyone into vegetarianism that night but at least the topic was discussed. That’s the thing, kids don’t know what they are eating. They have no idea! They consume meat from such a young age that they don’t realize the connection between the farm animals they  meet at the County Farm and the meat on their plate. And really, that’s not too fair. To the animals or to them. And the thing is, kid’s are intelligent and compassionate enough to be able to know and decide if they want to eat it or not. Of course there’s always a lot of turmoil with parents who eat meats who breed children who don’t want to…but there shouldn’t be. To each their own.

This topic struck me as important so I went searching to see if there were any sources for kids to look at if they are interested in knowing where their food comes from. There really isn’t too much. The one book that I did find though, is a great one. I love it. It’s called That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals; A Book Vegans, Vegetarians, and All Living Things written and illustrated by Ruby Roth. Roth is a young artist and art teacher living in Los Angeles. A vegan since 2003, Roth was teaching art in an after-school program when the children’s interest in healthy foods and veganism first inspired her to write That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals. It’s a fantastic picture book totally appropriate (and designed) for kids, while still providing information adults don’t even know. Roth addresses the topic of animals in a light manner, with cute pictures and easy vocabulary. She briefly describes how animals have families just like us, feelings just like us, and deserve a life just like us. It’s cute, touching, provides good information and shows kids why meat isn’t necessary. Roth also does it in a kid friendly way, so don’t worry, its not like the book is describing slaughterhouses, or cows legs being hacked off (which is what truly is happening).  Jane Goodall, a PHD, DBE says it best, “This is a powerful and important book. Farm animals have emotions similar to our pets and this is conveyed in Roth’s enchanting illustrations. It will make children – and their parents – think. But it will not lead to nightmares, rather respect and compassion for the creatures whose wellbeing is in our hands.” I enjoyed the book a lot, and already know that this will be a book I read to my own child. After checking the book out I decided to look into Roth and her website, http://www.wedonteatanimals.com, and adored it. It, like the book, is packed with Roth’s cute illustrations, detailed information and advice on everything kids and their families need to know about animals and vegetarianism. It’s lovely. Please check it out, I highly recommend it!

Watch this video! It is so good…at least make sure you watch the end…the girl is so cute!

More Pics!

Veggie Gossip

Being a vegetarian has been an excellent choice I’ve made in my life and every day that I find out that someone else is a vegetarian or a vegan I know that I’m not a freak and there are tons of people out there that don’t eat meat as well. In my own family and husband’s family, every one eats meat. Every one. I am used to getting asked questions, being picked on, teased and even ridiculed for not eating meat but the more people that I find also don’t consume meat, the more I know my decision is warranted and normal. It’s also really great to find out how many celebrities and/or political figures are vegetarians. It’s fun and satisfying to know people that I admire also don’t eat animals. Here I have collected quotes that I enjoyed from “famous” vegetarians. Enjoy!

Sophie Monk: “There’s no doubt in my mind that going vegetarian has made me feel better not only physically but also because I learned about the suffering of animals who are raised and killed for food. I feel good knowing I’m not contributing to that.”
 Jennie Garth: “I got a fur shawl once. I was so disgusted! And I couldn’t re-gift it. I don’t know anyone who’d want fur.”  Alyssa Milano: “I turned vegetarian after 9/11. A friend of mine came back from New York and said that he couldn’t stand the smell of burnt flesh. It immediately reminded me of a barbecue.”
 Pamela Anderson: “Every time we go by KFC, my kids ask me to honk and they yell ‘Boo’ out the window.”
 Devon Aoki: “I sometimes think, would I drink the milk from the breast of a woman I don’t know? No. So I think, why would I drink it from a cow.”
 Alicia Silverstone: “Intellectually, human beings and animals may be different, but it’s pretty obvious that animals have a rich emotional life and that they feel joy and pain. It’s easy to forget the connection between a hamburger and the cow it came from. ”  Russell Simmons: “I don’t eat any animals or anything that has to do with animals. No fish or egg or dairy because I personally don’t feel it’s a good practice to eat anything that might run away from you”
 Woody Harrelson: “I’ve been vegan for about 10 and a half years. It’s been all good. I’m obviously much healthier”
 Gavin Rossdale: “The person I love would never wear fur. Fur just makes me think of shallow women who have no conscience. The fur industry belongs to a time when people were selfish beyond belief. If you were some ancient tribal cheiftain, and there was not a department store nearby 350 years ago, I’d understand. But now, we have synthetic fibers,and it’s not necessary. The elitism of fur makes me wanna puke.”
 Ellen Degeneres: “You ask people why they have deer heads on the wall. They always say, Because it’s such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother’s attractive, but I have photographs of her.”
 Steven Spielberg: “Humans are the only hunters who kill when not hungry.”
 Richard Gere: “People get offended by animal rights campaigns. It’s ludicrous. It’s not as bad as mass animal death in a factory.”
 Josh Hartnett: “I gave up meat when I was twelve. & One day I was cutting up a chicken for my mom, and I hit a tumor with the knife. There was pus and blood all over the place. That was enough for me.”
 Emily Deschanel: “I’ve been vegan for 15 years, and it turns out it makes a very big impact on the environment to eat fewer animal products, which cause more greenhouse gases than all of transportation combined. The United Nations did a study just over two years ago, and that blew my mind. I started thinking that if people are vegetarian for just one day a week, that makes a huge difference!” Casey Affleck: “Chickens, cows, and pigs in factory farms spend their whole lives in filthy, cramped conditions—only to die a prolonged and painful death. Their bodies are then turned into food products proven to contribute to heart disease and cancer. To eat that is to eat poison.” Charles Darwin: “
There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties.… The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.”
 Buddha: “
All beings tremble before violence. All fear death, all love life. See yourself in others.” Sir Paul McCartney:”If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That’s the single most important thing you could do. It’s staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty.”
 Natalie Portman: “The human cost of factory farming — both the compromised welfare of slaughterhouse workers and, even more, the environmental effects of the mass production of animals — is staggering. “

Other “famous” vegetarians and vegans: Sadie Forst, Jessica Alba, Corey Feldman, Michael Jackson, Carrie Underwood, Clint Eastwood, Shiri Appleby, Shania Twain, Andy Warhol, Montell Williams, Carmen Electra, Kim Basinger, Amy Smart, Bea Arthur, Tobey Maguire, Leona Lewis, Kellie Pickler, Ghandi, Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Willie Nelson, Olivia Wilde, Jared Leto, Milo Ventimiglia, Dita Von Tesse, Masta Killa (from Wu-Tang Clan), Joaquin Phoenix, Anthony Kiedis (of Red Hot Chili Peppers), Kristen Bell, Benji Madden, Common, Jenna Jameson, Joss Stone, Steve-O, Elizabeth Berkley, Traci Bingham, Tommy Lee, Cloris Leachman, Jayde Nicole (Brody Jenner’s Playmate ex girlfriend).

For  a full extensive list of all famous celebrities, politicans, world leaders and artists that are vegetarians or vegans known go to happy.net, and for more quotes go to famousveggies.com.

Famous Celebrity Vegetarians/Vegans Actively Supporting: (Click to enlarge.)

Don’t be Clueless about ‘The Kind Diet’

One of the best books that I’ve read in the past year is “The Kind Diet” by Alicia Silverstone. A lot of people literally judged this book by it’s cover…Alicia Silverstone, the actress, is going to write a dieting book? Oh brother. At least that’s what my brother in law thought. But no, it’s nothing like that.

I have known for many years that Silverstone was a vegetarian and an activist for all things eco-friendly so I knew that this book would be knowledgeable. And also, it’s not a diet book peeps. By diet she means “lifestyle” and “what you eat daily” not just a fad diet that you try for a couple months then drop.

I had originally picked up the book just to see what she would talk about. I guessed it would be about her diet and why it works for her, and ultimately why it can work for us. Well it is that, but more importantly it is jam packed with information about animals, the factory farms, the industry, and more. Half the book is full of facts, statistics and studies, then the other half is recipes. So really it’s a cookbook too.

And it’s funky (in a good way) because the recipes are divided into three parts. She has the Flirt section, which are recipes for people who just want to flirt and experiment with a diet without dairy or meat. Then there’s the “normal” section that is filled with your many vegan dishes. Then the last section, the Superhero is hardcore recipes for the peeps who not only can handle no meat, no dairy, but also no soy, and lots and lots of veggies and fruits. This is close to the macrobiotic diet, since a lot of things are raw and the recipes focus around local grown veggies, and not ones that are flown in from around the world.

A lot of the things that I know about veganism, animal cruelty, etc. I found from this book. I give Silverstone huge props, and respect her much more now seeing how she is actively trying to make a difference. The book also touches on our natural resources, waste, the rainforest, etc. Anytime that I need a refresher and remember why I don’t consume meat, I just reread this book. It’s such a motivator and inspiration. Below is an interview Silverstone did describing her book, why she is a vegan, and what “diet” really means to her. It’s an excellent read so if you are lounging around the pool, or sitting besides the lake this summer pick up this book. I highly recommend it.

Leggo my Eggo!

A battle I have with myself is over the consumption of dairy and eggs. When I stopped eating meat initially, I stopped having dairy and eggs as well. To substitute I had a lot of soy. I am a huge fan of soy based products, including their cheese, meats, sauces, spreads, etc. However I was eating lots and lots of soy. I think for the average person this would not matter, but for me, I started to break out enormously and frequently. I couldn’t pinpoint the culprit at first, but when I thought of what I had changed in my diet I realized how much soy I was having. I was probably having soy at least at every meal, if not every meal and every snack. So to put the theory to test I cut out soy for a full week. And voila, the breakouts stopped. As I realized I had to decrease the amount of soy I was taking in I started to feel the huge lack of dairy/eggs in my life (fake or not-I was missing them). I slowly, and full of guilt, started consuming little bits of dairy and eggs here and there. Now months later, I am a full blown dairy and egg consumer once again. And I feel guilty.

A lot of people ask me why I feel so bad and I always start off with “I feel bad for the dairy cows!” Because I do. I love the dairy cows. My first blog, Holy Cow!! has a whole section devoted to the dairy cows and explains their suffering and short lived lives. But it doesn’t end at the cows. I feel bad for the chickens too. People don’t understand this since the eggs aren’t really chickens yet. Well here’s the lowdown on eggs…

More than 95% of the eggs that are sold here in the states come from birds that are confined in wire battery cages and cannot move. They are usually starved and only there for the sole purpose of laying eggs. After they get overly tired and beat up from laying as many eggs as we can get from them, their bodies are so weak and poor that we don’t even eat them. They eventually end up being meat in pet food. If these hens are even too poor for that they are simply beaten to death, gassed or thrown into wood chippers while they are still alive. This is no exaggeration. This is almost common practice.

When these chickens are born, the ones that are not planned to be used as meat, are put into two groups. The first group, the males are not needed, so when we have too many we let them die or grind them through meat grinders while they are alive to be fed to other livestock (the cows). The second group, the female chicks are then selected and have their beaks ground off with a hot blade within the first 2 days of birth so that they cannot use their beaks.

Seriously it is so hard for me to let myself eat eggs but at the same time it’s so hard to accept a lifestyle where I need to watch out for eggs…which like to appear everywhere…in breads, soups, dressings, cakes, etc. I applaud the folks out there who do this each and every day. I want to be one of them someday. Baby steps. Until then I will try to always consume organic eggs. A little FYI on organic eggs people, the term does not really apply unless it is labeled “Certified Organic.” Another thing to look out for is “free-range eggs” which actually has no legal definition in the States at all. “Cage-free” also doesn’t mean that they were humanly treated or that they even ever stepped outside. Many cage-free chickens are still crammed into dark, dirty barns and almost all cage-free chickens are still clipped (this means beaks, wings and feet). Another way to find eggs that came from non mistreated chickens is by looking for the terms “Certified Humane Raised and Handled” on the label, which I have yet to see. “Certified Organic” is more common.

Until I can find the strength and willpower in me to finally kick dairy and eggs, organic is my best bet.

Wish me luck!