OMNI
VEGETARIAN ACTION
NEWSLETTER #9, JULY 9, 2014.
Compiled by Dick
Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology. (#4 Feb. 12, 2014; #5 March 12, 2014; #6 April 9, 2014; #7 May
14, 2014; #8, June 11, 2014).
What’s at stake: “While
human population quadrupled over the past hundred years, [Bernstein] calculates
that our consumption of resources…increased by a factor of seventeen. This gorging at the planetary buffet has
been enjoyed by a comparative few, and at the expense of many. An unequal distribution of goods, which
caused woes and wars even in biblical times, has never been so skewed as today.” Alan Weinstein, Countdown
OMNI Newsletters
Index:
See: Animal Cruelty, Animal Rights, Empathy/Compassion, Ecology,
Health, Global Warming/Causes, Violence, Wars for starters.
Nos.
4-8 at end
Contents Vegetarian Action Newsletter
#9, July 9, 2014
Nutrition,
Health
Environmental
Importance of Vegetarianism: Don’t Eat Meat
Abel Tomlinson, Boycott Monsanto and Tyson
Abel Tomlinson, Boycott Monsanto and Tyson
Animal
Rights and Protection
Earthlings Film
Rod Kuipers, Operation Bite Back
Wayne Pacelle,
HSUS, The Bond
Friedrich
Fustian, Humane Treatment of Food Animals
Warming,
Climate Change, Meat, Forests,
Population
Grazing
Animals vs. Forests
NASA, Climate
Effects on Food Supply
Weisman, Countdown on Exponential Population
Growth
Greetings Everyone!
We are gathered here today because we know something is very
wrong with Monsanto. And let's be clear: Monsanto is no agricultural
company, at its heart it is a petrochemical corporation. But is that the only
reason we are here?
Will a diatribe against Monsanto be productive enough?
Will banning GMOs and even revoking Monsanto's corporate charter be enough, if
that is possible? There is so much more wrong with our entire industrial
agriculture system. There are many corporations involved in GMO and toxic
pesticide manufacturing, including Syngenta, Bayer, Cargill, Dow, Dupont and
many others, all causing disease in our bodies and environment.
If Monsanto was gone, like a hydra you cut its head off, and
many other similar corporations would take its place. If all GMOs were
banned today, we are still left with an agriculture system that uses millions
of tons of toxic pesticides that have been proven to be biologically more
dangerous to humans and other organisms than GMOs have yet proven to be.
Don't get me wrong. I want to see GMO seeds and Monsanto
disappear as much as you, but we need more than just that.
We all know the history of Monsanto manufacturing toxic
substances including PCBs, dioxin, DDT and bovine growth hormone. We know
the history of Monsanto making Agent Orange for our military to defoliate the
rainforest of Vietnam
Having studied agriculture, molecular genetics and biotechnology
for six years at the UA, I have an intimate relationship with GMOs. I actually
engaged in creating Genetically Modified bacteria for a PhD in plant
pathology. Thankfully, I quit half way into it. If I had completed
it, I could be making a lot more money right now working for Monsanto as some
of my peers did.
However, my concerns with corporate power, corruption and war
compelled me to quit. I'm sure I am happier now than I would be working
in the laboratories of what many consider "the most evil corporation on
the planet".
Since
most of you know the details of Monsanto's dangers and I would be preaching to
the choir, I would like to shift gears and dig deeper.
Monsanto
is one among many corporations involved in an unsustainable and suicidal
industrial agriculture system. They are a great poster child of a corrupt
food system. However, the Tyson corporation right here in Springdale , Arkansas
In fact, in terms of environmental destruction Tyson is likely far worse. Tyson is the largest producer of factory farmed meat in the world. Scientific studies have shown that meat production as it is done cause more global warming pollution than the entire transportation sector. This includes not only the horrific factory farms, but also the fact that a leading cause of rainforest deforestation is beef production. 200,000 acres of the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystem in the world are destroyed each day, and 70 percent of that land is used for grazing cattle or to grow soybeans for factory farms. Moreover, over half of the water used in the
Millions of gallons of oil are burned annually
to plow fields, plant seeds, distribute petrochemical fertilizer and
pesticides, harvest and process crops, transport the grain, and then feed it to
cows, pigs and chickens in disgusting factory farms, and then to slaughter the
animals, and transport meat packages of unknown origin to grocery stores and
fast food chains. Millions of gallons of water are used to grow these
crops, often unsustainably drawn from depleting aquifers. Millions of
tons of chemical fertilizer and pesticide are placed in our fields, streams and
rivers.
When Lewis & Clark explored the rivers of
our nation, they noted that the rivers teemed with fish. Due to extensive
fertilizer and animal feces runoff, our rivers face algal blooms and become
hypoxic as the oxygen is sucked from the water. They are increasingly
lifeless. In fact, there is now a deadzone at the gulf of the Mississippi
We grow millions of
tons of grain each year and feed over half of it to animals in factory
farms, and it takes somewhere around 16 pounds of grain to make 1 pound of
beef, which is a 90% inefficient loss of usable protein. There are around
a one billion chronically malnourished or starving people in the world and if
the grain we feed to factory farmed animals was fed directly to humans it would
feed that many and more.
So, how are Monsanto and Tyson in bed together
you may ask? Well...65 percent of Genetically modified grains are fed to
the over 50 billion cows, pigs and chickens in factory farms. So when we
talk of boycotting Monsanto...buying less processed foods that contain corn
syrup and soybean oil is helpful, but meat is the elephant in the room.
Over 300 million acres of US
90
percent of American meat is factory farmed and most are fed GMO corn & soy,
so boycotting unlabled meat of unknown origin, is the single most powerful
thing you can do to undercut the Monsanto corporation, and Tyson all in one fell
swoop.
This is also the single most powerful thing we can do to help the environment
in countless ways, not to mention the ethical treatment of animals. If
you want to see the reality of factory farming please watch "Meet your
Meat" on youtube and other videos available they don't want you to
see. The industry acts like the horrors in conditions and cruel treatment
by humans is an exception, but I assure you that is a lie. This is the
norm, and that is why they very actively try to prevent such sunlight from
entering their meat gulags.
The point is virtually all unlabelled meat at
grocery stores and fast food chains is factory farmed and fed GMO corn
and soy, so if you really oppose Monsanto & GMOs and support the
environment, don't buy it. Very simple. And the same goes for
products with corn syrup and soybean oil. It is virtually all genetically
modified.
In terms of political action, protests like
this are wonderful to raise consciousness and stimulate thought and
debate. After this event, it is our duty to continue productive
discussions with friends and family whenever possible. Cultural
enlightenment is the most fundamental shift needed on this issue and every
other.
A better agricultural system is
possible. I have to believe this because I have a daughter, and refuse to
give in to despair. The system is unsustainable in countless ways.
With unsustainable systems, they are doomed to collapse or evolve. Please
join me in working toward an evolutionary, sustainable food system and a government
not controlled by massive corporations that care only for profit.
A healthy environment and sustainable
agriculture are true wealth, not GDP, growth, stock markets and billions of
digital dollars in a bank computer. If we destroy nature, the soil and
water, we are destroying the real economy, and destroying our species. It
is our duty to our grandchildren to do whatever we can to protect the real
economy. Nothing is more vital to human survival than sustainable
food and water. The shareholders and CEOs of Monsanto and other
corporations can't see this through the mountains of money they make. As
a Native American once said, "When the last tree is cut, the last fish is
caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening,
you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you
can’t eat money."
Everyone here knows what is going on and has
many answers to these problems, but the challenge is for us to open the eyes of
everyone around us. You may be amazed at how powerful you are. If
you help awaken one person, then that person may awaken ten others, and those
ten may awaken 100 others.
We are pebbles. Pebbles make ripples
when thrown correctly. It is time to start skipping stones in the waters
of the mind.
Thank you!
SPECIESISM, RIGHTS AND PROTECTION OF ANIMALS
Earthlings
EARTHLINGS
is a feature length documentary about humanity's absolute dependence on
animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research)
but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called
"non-human providers." The
film is narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix (GLADIATOR) and
features music by the critically acclaimed platinum artist Moby.
With an in-depth
study into pet stores, puppy mills and animals shelters, as well as factory
farms, the leather and fur trades, sports and entertainment industries, and
finally the medical and scientific profession, EARTHLINGS uses hidden cameras
and never before seen footage to chronicle
the day-to-day practices of some of the largest industries in the world, all
of which rely entirely on animals for profit. Powerful, informative and
thought-provoking, EARTHLINGS is by far the most comprehensive documentary
ever produced on the correlation between nature, animals, and human economic
interests. There are many worthy animal rights films available, but this one
transcends the setting. EARTHLINGS cries to be seen. Highly recommended!
|
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Streaming
Download
'Operation
Bite Back' by Dean Kuipers
Rev. by DEANNE STILLMAN
Operation Bite
Back: Rod Coronado
American Wilderness by Dean Kuipers.
In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic poem "The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner," a ship strays into uncharted waters and an albatross
appears out of the mists, guiding it to safety. At first a savior, the
albatross is soon blamed for the ship's misfortune, and the mariner shoots it
with his crossbow. A plague of terrors visits the crew, dice are thrown to
determine the mariner's fate, and he is finally cast ashore to wander the
Earth, doomed to recount his deed to wayfarers along the path.
Over time, countless animals have died for our sins, our greed,
our wants and our desires, and we bury the stories, for it is impossible to
have them in our hearts. Every now and then, however, someone is cast forth to
not just deliver the news but also to act on behalf of the wild ones. In recent
years, our mariner has been Rod
Coronado, whose story is told in the important, fascinating new book
"Operation Bite Back" by Dean Kuipers, a Times editor. Haunted by
the fate of wild things endlessly pursued, trapped, farmed, flayed, caged and
tormented for their pelts, their organs and their secrets, Coronado Coronado
The book follows Coronado along the warrior path, from whaling
stations in Iceland through the punk scene in London (pivotal lyric of the era:
"We say all sentient beings have the right to live, free from pain,
torture, and suffering") and animal prisons in remote pockets of the
American West, where livings are made as lives are taken and the acts appear
only on accounting logs. How can a man ask for God's favor, Isaac Bashevis
Singer wrote in his story "The Slaughterer," when he destroys other
creatures for profit? Ultimately, Singer's character embraces all that
"crawls and flies, breeds and swarms"; in another Singer story, a
character suggests that, for some animals, life is an "eternal
Treblinka."
After a stint with Paul Watson's Sea Shepherd Crew (now featured
on Animal Planet's "Whale Wars"), Coronado hit the road and spent a
decade infiltrating the fur industry, venturing in and out of charnel houses
where minks and foxes languished as they awaited their fate, apologizing to
coyotes and other incarcerated animals he could not free as he and various accomplices
made off with the caged, sleek-coated critters. Along the way, he destroyed
documents and set fires and attracted many to the "green anarchism"
of the Animal Liberation Front. His activities also led to a crackdown by law
enforcement, which apparently included the dissemination of misinformation (for
instance, the announcement in a leaflet that he was "armed") and
byzantine post- 9/11 laws that have elevated vandalism to terrorism (to the
dismay of various jurists). As Kuipers notes, the new laws could even result in
the author himself getting into trouble for talking about some of the charges
against Coronado, who recently finished a one-year sentence related to his
answering a question about making an incendiary device during a 2003 speech in
San Diego.
And yet, Coronado himself has had a change of heart, one that
has involved the full spectrum of his Native American experience, from an early
vision quest in sacred Lakota territory to more recent journeys on the Yaqui
reservation in Arizona Coronado
Still there comes disturbing news: A fur craze in China Coronado
Stillman's latest book is "Mustang: The Saga of the Wild
Horse in the American West," now in paperback.
Copyright ©
2014, Los
Angeles Times
Wayne
Pacelle
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
External images
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Wayne
Pacelle
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Wayne Pacelle at a book
signing event, Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Born
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August 4, 1965
New Haven, Connecticut |
Nationality
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Education
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B.A. (History and Studies in the Environment), 1987
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Alma mater
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Known for
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President of the Humane Society of the United States
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Notable work(s)
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Predecessor
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Movement
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Animal Protection
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Opponent(s)
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Spouse(s)
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·
Kirsten Rosenberg(divorced)
Lisa Fletcher:
2013-present
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Website
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Wayne Pacelle (born
August 4, 1965[1])
is the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the nation's largest animal
advocacy organization,[2] with nearly 10 million members as of
2006.[3] Pacelle took office June 1, 2004,
after serving for nearly 10 years as the organization's chief lobbyist and
spokesperson. Since becoming CEO, he has substantially expanded the
organization's membership base and its influence on public policy.[2]
Contents
Career
with the Humane Society of the United
States
Since he joined the HSUS in 1994, Pacelle has played a
role in the passage of more than 15 federal statutes to protect animals,
including laws to ban the sale of videos depicting animal cruelty (1999),
protect great apes in their native habitats (2000), halt interstate transport
of fighting animals (2002), halt commerce in big cats for the pet trade (2003),
and require government agencies to include pets in disaster planning (2006).
Pacelle has testified before U.S. House and Senate committees on animal
protection issues, including farm animal welfare, "canned hunting",
funding for the Animal Welfare Act and other programs, trophy hunting of
threatened and endangered species, cockfighting and dogfighting, puppy mills,
the exotic pet trade, bear baiting, and chronic wasting disease. In addition, he
has successfully advocated for a number of amendments to end federal subsidies
for programs that harm animals, including one involving the mink industry.[6][7]
Pacelle has been associated with 26 successful statewide
ballot measure initiatives to protect animals, including measures to prohibit
cockfighting, prohibit mourning dove hunting, restrict steel traps and certain
poisons, and ban inhumane factory farming methods.[8] He has also been instrumental in the
passage of numerous state laws dealing with animal protection. In addition, he
has been vocal in criticizing individuals and groups who resort to
intimidation, vandalism, or violence in pursuit of animal protection goals.[7]
Pacelle is a cofounder of the Humane Society Legislative
Fund (HSLF), a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization that lobbies for animal
welfare legislation and works to elect humane-minded candidates to public
office. He also cofounded Humane USA, a strictly nonpartisan political action
committee (PAC) that supports candidates of any political party based on their
support for animal protection. These two organizations have helped to defeat
hostile anti-animal lawmakers in Congress, including Rep. Chris John of Louisiana (2004), Rep. Richard Pombo of California (2006), and Senator Conrad Burns of Montana (2006).[9]
Under Pacelle's direction, the HSUS has secured the
adoption of "cage-free" egg-purchasing policies by several hundred
universities and corporations;[10] the exposure of an international
trophy hunting scam;[11] successful congressional votes and
litigation to end horse slaughter; and an agreement from the United States Department of
Agriculture to begin
enforcement of federal laws concerning the transportation of farm animals. In
addition, the HSUS's campaign to stop the killing of seal pups in Canada
Animal
cruelty
In early 2008, the HSUS's investigation of cruelty to
animals at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing
Company sparked the
largest beef recall in American history and congressional calls for reform of
the slaughterhouse inspection system.[12] In late February, 2008, Pacelle
testified on the downer cow issue before a subcommittee of the
Senate Agriculture Committee on a panel with USDA Secretary Edward Schafer.[13]
Successes
Two November 2006 ballot initiatives conducted with
HSUS's support outlawed dove hunting in Michigan
and abusive farming practices in Arizona Arizona Canada
Corporate
combinations
The HSUS has experienced major growth since 2004,
primarily as a result of corporate combinations Pacelle forged with The Fund
for Animals in 2005 and the Doris Day Animal League in 2006. During the first 30 months of
Pacelle's tenure, overall revenues and expenditures grew by more than 50
percent. HSUS's annual budget for 2006 was $103 million. The organization has
nearly 10 million members and constituents.[3]
Recognition[edit]
Pacelle has been the subject of profiles by the New York Times Magazine (2008), the Los Angeles
Times (2008), The New York Times (2007), The Wall Street Journal (2006), The Washington Post (2004), Newsweek (2007), and other major publications.
For his management of HSUS's response to Hurricane
Katrina,The NonProfit Times named Pacelle "Executive of the
Year" (2005).[16] In 2008, Pacelle also received a
Special Achievement Award for Humanitarian Service from the National Italian American Foundation.[17] The same year, Supermarket News named Pacelle one of its "Power
50", citing his leadership on farm animal welfare issues.[18]
Publications[edit]
The
Bond
Published in April 2011, Pacelle's book The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals,
Our Call to Defend Them is an
exploration of mankind's bond with animals, and a call to respond to the needs
of at-risk animals. Jane Goodall says of this book, "If the
animals knew about this book, they would, without doubt, confer on Wayne
Pacelle, their highest honor." The book debuted at #11 on The New York Times, #8 on the Los Angeles
Times, and #8 on The Washington Post best-seller lists.
·
Pacelle, Wayne (2011-04-01). The Bond: Our
Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them. New York City: William Morrow. ISBN 978-0-06-196978-2. Retrieved 2011-04-11. Lay summary (2011-04-08). "As harsh as nature is for animals, cruelty comes
only from human hands. We are the creature of conscience, aware of the wrongs
we do and fully capable of making things right. Our best instincts will always
tend in that direction, because a bond with animals is built into every one of
us."
In addition to The
Bond, Pacelle has contributed to the following publications:
·
Hatkoff,
Amy (2009-04-01). The Inner World of Farm Animals: Their
Amazing Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Capacities. New York City: Stewart, Tabori & Chang. ISBN 978-1-58479-748-7. Lay summary. Introduction
by Jane Goodall;
Afterword by Wayne Pacelle.
See
also[edit]
References
COMMENTARY ON
Symposium on Food Animal Well-Being
At University
of Arkansas
An important corollary
to this conference is the way it enables us to understand the basic humaneness
of the Nazi Jewish extermination program.
At first, Jews, for example, were rounded up and machine-gunned or
gassed in enclosed trucks parked in woods by the truck’s own carbon
monoxide. But these were crude
methods. Too often individuals were only
wounded by the guns, requiring searching through the bodies to shoot those
still alive, and the carbon monoxide was too slow, and the screams were audible
to residents nearby.
Both for efficiency,
the psychology of the soldiers, and the least suffering of the pests
(communists, socialists, other dissenters, gypsies, mentally and physically
disabled, Jews) other methods were sought.
Like the Center for Food Animal Well-Being, the SS (Schutzstaffel) developed
objective measurements of wellbeing for all involved, from the stress
experienced by all, to efficiency, as the transportation of more and more Jews
from their homes increased. Efficiency
translated immediately and universally into the welfare for all involved.
Much progress was made during the first
years of the program. But from the
beginning more efficient methods were sought.
Early on consultation with the German chemical conglomerate I. G.
Farben, produced the pesticide Zyklon A, that released hydrogen cyanide, but
soon a better pesticide, Zyklon B, was created to relieve the pressure of the
endless cattle-train loads arriving night and day at the efficient, humane gas chambers at Auschwitz and other centers. We can speak with pride about the orderly
use of the chambers to expedite the passing of over a million of these
unnecessary, harmful pests.
One of the blind injustices after the war,
by the way, was the execution by the British of the brilliant co-inventor of
the pesticide Zyklon B, chemist and businessman Bruno Tesch. But Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (SS),
Heinrich Himmler, .recognized Tesch and all of the designers
and planners with the Nazis’ highest awards.
Faculty at the University of Bloden were particularly distinguished for
their development of better techniques of genetic studies,
and the efficient and humane gathering, assembling, handling, and transporting.
Since the end of the war, of course, from Himmler to Tesch, participants
in the struggle to develop humane ways of eliminating Europe ’s
pests have been treated as criminals. To the victor go the spoils. Had we, I mean if Germany
EATING MEAT AND CO2/WARMING
WARMING AND WORLD FOOD SUPPLY
MEAT
VS. FORESTS
3/7/07
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http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/59/5/1099S.pdf
This article makes the point that deforestation of land to provide grazing is a major factor in meat production. 24% of usable land on the planet is occupied by grazers. Ffor every pound of central American hamburger produced, 55 square feet of rain forest is destroyed.
This article makes the point that deforestation of land to provide grazing is a major factor in meat production. 24% of usable land on the planet is occupied by grazers. Ffor every pound of central American hamburger produced, 55 square feet of rain forest is destroyed.
Does that justify industrialized meat production? 8 billion animals are killed each year just in the
CLIMATE VS. FOOD
A Data
Center in NASA's Earth Observing
System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) — Hosted by CIESIN at Columbia
University
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