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.
I love elephants. I don’t know why but they have always been my favorite animal. Always. I’m obsessed with them. In love with them. So naturally I don’t like to think about them in the circus. I don’t think they should be trained against their will to do stupid ass tricks for dumb people to sit and watch them. I’ve always hated the circus, even as a kid. But now, there’s a real reason to hate the circus. Not only are the animals trained without a choice, but they aren’t trained the way you train your dogs. They aren’t rewarded with treats and praise. And they aren’t given time to learn their tricks either. They are forced to quickly learn their acts as soon as they are born. How? Well let’s beat them,torture them and punish them…then they’ll learn.
What we don’t see is the behind the scenes crap that goes on. Like how frightened and still-nursing baby elephants are captured rodeo-style, tethered neck-to-neck with an “anchor elephant,” and dragged away from their mothers. Then they go on to endure year-long intense and violent training sessions that last for several hours a day. On top of it the elephants struggle during training as they are wrestled, stretched out, slammed to the ground, gouged with bullhooks, and shocked with electric prods. Thanks to my friend B for sharing this with me… I would have never known just how terrible the circus really is. As if the clowns weren’t bad enough…
Please go to this site to see more pictures. There has to be at least 100 more pictures and information.
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.
I cannot lie. I love my Ugg boots. Love them. So how unfortunate that I had to do my research on them and now can no longer buy anymore of those evil boots. In reality, I do not need Uggs. I can happily get the Fuggs from Target, and now I probably will. It won’t compare in comfort, but how could it? Uggs are sheep on your feet. According to their website, “Only the finest materials are used in the construction of our products – the highest quality leathers and suedes, and of course, the world’s finest sheepskin. UGG® Australia is the world’s largest purveyor of grade-A sheepskin.”
So what does that mean? It means they skin sheep (not shave, skin) and then buff up both sides for you, making the nice soft outside and the comfy furry inside. “Twin-face sheepskin is used in many of our core products. A piece of twin-face sheepskin has been treated on both the fleece side, and the skin side, providing the soft comfort UGG® Australia is famous for.”
The Animal Liberation Movement has been criticizing Uggs since the beginning and have been trying to get them to stop using animal hides, but since they are so successful and popular, it just isn’t going to happen. Pamela Anderson who used to sport Uggs all the time, when finding out it was sheepskin, she posted on her website encouraging everyone to stop buying Uggs. A few other groups and people have been trying to stop the production of animal hides by Ugg but little has changed. The Princeton Animal Welfare Society have also held huge protests against the Ugg industry on their college campus, only getting the message across to some fellow students.
Obviously my blog isn’t going to stop anything either, however, for anyone out there who really cares about these poor animals, just stop buying animal hide/fur/leather! Is it really worth it? The faux stuff looks just the same anyways. Yes, I love my Uggs. And I’m not going to lie, I’m not going to toss out the ones I own…but I can promise that I will never knowingly purchase another pair again! See ya Uggs! It’s been a good run!
As a member of PETA, I get information mailed to me about new and shocking, (or not so new and shocking) information about anything animals related from around the world. The information I got recently, put me over the edge! I’m not a huge pet person, actually I don’t want pets at all, but I know many people out there who don’t really give a thought to animals unless it is their dog or cat. Well read on pet lovers because this will shock you!
As many of you know PETA is not just about not eating animals, it’s also a huge activist against wearing animals. Of course, I support this but really don’t ever think about fur. Fur has never been an issue to me because I never really thought I wore it, so I’ve never really given much thought or done much research on the topic. Well after reading the information sent to me, it made me think more. Fur can be found on anything…I usually just think of big luxurious fur coats, but they are collars on coats, lining in gloves, lining in our boots (I’m guilty!), rugs, trinkets, even kids clothes and toys. Well it so happens that fur is not what we think it is. Fur is usually labeled as anything from “Asian jackal” to “rabbit” but it doesn’t stop there folks! Disney knew what they were talking about with 101 Dalmatians…because a lot of that fur out there is dog!
PETA did an investigation and found that cats, dogs, and puppies are routinely used to make fur products. Here are some disturbing facts:
Trucks transport up to 800 animals in tiny cages to fur markets, and some of them are still wearing the collars that their former owners had put on them!
Dead and dying dogs and cats are crammed into the cages along with the living animals.
Many of the cages are tossed 10 feet from the top of trucks to the ground below, killing or injuring some of the animals inside during the process.
“Kinder” killing methods cost money or damages the fur so methods like anal electrocution, kicking, strangling with wire nooses, drowning and skinning live animals are used on a normal basis.
PETA got actual footage of cats and dogs hung up by their legs and tails and had the fur peeled from their flesh while they were alive! Once they were stripped, their bleeding bodies are tossed into a pile with other bodies, where the animals’ hearts were still beating and they were still gasping for life for up to five minutes! And the other animals awaited their turn in the cages where they were covered in feces and urine. Omg!
So what can we do? Well first off, stop wearing it. Anything labeled “fur” could be dog, cat, fox, coyote, lynx, rabbit, sheep, lamb, raccoon…no animal is spared. Anything that even looks like fur, don’t do it because it turns out there is a lot of consumer deception going on when it comes to fur labeling. Turns out if the fur value is less than $150, there is no requirement from the company to label it! Great huh? The Truth in Fur Labeling Act was passed in 2008 and is slowly closing all the loopholes. (For more information on that you can go to hsus.org-which is the Humane Society of the U.S.)
This jacket, with no mention of fur on the label, was sold in a U.S. store in January 2007. The fur on it was later identified by mass spectrometry as raccoon dog.
Second? You can join PETA and donate money (anything helps) so that they can continue to organize demonstrations, protest at fashion shows, produce media so more people can be educated, and so forth. PETA as been successful in converting top designers and companies to becoming fur-free. Polo Ralph Lauren went fur-free after meeting with PETA and seeing footage from fur farms, and recently PETA has won over Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein as well. They are slowly gaining ground so help!
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.
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.
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.”
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!!
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.)
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.
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Look at those poor baby turkey’s. 😦
The Mind of Me 
