OMNI
VEGETARIAN ACTION NEWSLETTER #14, DECEMBER 10, 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; July 9, 2014; #10, August 11, 2014; #11 September 10, 2014; #12
October 8, 2014; #13 November 12, 2014.).
As of Oct 24, 2014, OMNI had published 1455 newsletters
on peace, justice, and ecology, with 150,363 page views.
AT OMNI VEGETARIAN POTLUCK WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 10, 6:00, 3274 Lee Avenue, just south of Liquor World.
What’s at stake: healthy, empathic, and sustainable living for all.
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See:
Animal Cruelty, Animal Friendship, Animal Rights, Empathy/Compassion, Ecology,
Gandhi, Health, Global Warming/Causes, St. Francis, Vegetarianism, Violence,
Wars, for starters.
OMNI
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS PROJECT
October
1 began World Vegetarian Month. See
Oct. 16, UN World Food Day.
Nos.
4-13 at end
Contents
Vegetarian Action December
2014
Lisa Hymas, Vegetarians 5%
Nutrition, Health
Vegetarian Times (Nov. 2014)
Dan
Charles, SNAP Value Doubles for Local Fruits and Vegetables
Animal Rights and
Protection: Empathy and Compassion for Animals
Dick: Melanie Joy, Chapter 7, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows
Steve
Best, Liberation of Animals
Responding to Climate
Change
Chris
Hedges, Veganism Will Save the Planet
Meat
Eating Creates a Lot of C02
How many of us are vegetarian or vegan?
By
Lisa Hymas in GRIST on 21 Feb 2012 122
comments
In
the course of writing my two recent posts on vegetarianism, I came across some
interesting data. According to a 2011 poll conducted by Harris Interactive:
About
2.5 percent of Americans are vegan, saying they never eat meat, poultry, fish,
seafood, eggs, or dairy.
Another
2.5 percent are lacto-ovo vegetarian, meaning they also skip the flesh but
still eat eggs and/or dairy.
Add
those up and you get 5 percent vegetarian (or, if you take into account the
margin of error, 2 to 8 percent).
In
addition to the vegetarians, 33 percent of Americans eat meatless meals on a
regular basis, the poll found.
There
are lots of signs that veggie meals becoming more common even amongst
omnivores, from the success of the Meatless Monday campaign to the proliferation
of vegetarian ideas in the MSM to recent figures showing declining meat
consumption. And more people are trying to eat ethical, eco-friendly meat when
they do partake, following the example of food-movement leaders like Michael
Pollan and Tom Philpott. As Pollan put it so well, “Eat food. Not too much.
Mostly plants.“
On
the flip side, 48 percent of poll respondents said they eat meat, poultry, or
fish at all meals. All meals? Really? Who has time to fry up bacon for
breakfast every morning? Or maybe they’re sprinkling bacon bits on their
cereal.
NUTRITION, HEALTH
Vegetarian Times (Nov. 2014)
This
magazine is about the enjoyment and health of being vegetarian. I find many delicious looking recipes, though
some include ingredients not even in my dictionary! But that’s part of the fun. It
has almost zero concern for protecting animals or for the environment. In the Nov. number, for example, in a
six-page article titled “The Veg Hot
List” the magazine interviews “our favorite veg chefs, authors, activists, and
other luminaries” to discuss “people, places, and discoveries they think are
shaping the future of vegetarianism.” Two
pages are about animals (Neal Barnard, M.D., and Jane Goodall) but not in
reference to food (end chemical testing on live animals, stop illegal killing
of elephants and rhinos), and nothing about climate change. I’ll be glad to loan the year’s collection to
you. --Dick
Federal Government to Double the Value of Food Stamps
if Spent on Fruits and Vegetables
Dan Charles, National Public Radio, Reader Supported News, Nov. 13, 2014.
Charles writes: "The federal government is about to put $100 million behind a simple idea: doubling the value of SNAP benefits - what used to be called food stamps - when people use them to buy local fruits and vegetables."
READ MORE
Dan Charles, National Public Radio, Reader Supported News, Nov. 13, 2014.
Charles writes: "The federal government is about to put $100 million behind a simple idea: doubling the value of SNAP benefits - what used to be called food stamps - when people use them to buy local fruits and vegetables."
READ MORE
ANIMAL RIGHTS AND
PROTECTION
EMPATHY and
COMPASSION by Dick Bennett
Chapter
7 of Melanie Joy’s Why We Love Dogs, Eat
Pigs, and Wear Cows concentrates on the concept and practice of empathy and
compassion she understands will lead hardened and blind people to a greater
ethical life—“the empathy that will help you walk through that [carnism] door to create a more humane society.” With these concepts, vegetarianism joins the
world peace, justice, and ecology movement that exposes the harms of war and
warming.
Sometimes the two concepts are perceived as
one, but their usefulness is enlarged by dividing them, as does Webster’s College Dictionary.
Empathy: the
identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, etc.
of another.
Compassion: a
feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for someone struck by misfortune,
accompanied by a desire to alleviate the suffering; mercy. Syn.
Sympathy.
Former Senator J. William Fulbright
appropriately described his student/faculty exchanges as acts of empathy
leading to peace. Chapter 7 of The Price of Empire is titled “Seeing
the World as Others See It.” That is a
geo-political definition of empathy.
Throughout his book, Fulbright appeals to the power of empathy to rescue
our nation, by preventing wars, from the catastrophes of empire. So long as we are bounded by perceptions of
one nation, by its traditions and ideologies and myths, and other nations are
different, we are preparing for war.
Recall that Senator Fulbright was once
the President of the University of Arkansas and his Exchange Program is for
students and teachers. Above all, Colleges
of Arts and Science encourage the capacity for multiple perspectives, to be in
varying degrees citizens of the world.
Compassion is a sub-set or extension or
deepening of empathy—the capacity to enter into a suffering individual so
completely that you wish to assist the sufferer. Mother
Teresa illustrates that capacity. Empathy is the foundation of an
international getting to know each other program, particularly the future
leaders of nations, sharing knowledge, teaching and learning. Compassion seeks out those who seem doomed to
misery and death unless rescued.
In her chapter 7, Melanie Joy relates the
story of Emily the Cow, whose escape from a slaughterhouse inspired empathy and
compassion in many, which saved her life, and turned people away from
carnism. “The carnistic defenses broke
down and were replaced by compassion.”
Now a statue of Emily stands above her grave at the Peace Abbey, a
center for nonviolent living. The
statue “stands as a witness to the billions of animals who are the nameless
victims of carnism.” This witnessing is
fundamental to the experiences of empathy and compassion. Thus “we close the gap in our consciousness.
. .that enables the violence of carnism to endure.”
Steve Best, Ph.D. is chair of the Philosophy
Department at University of Texas , El
Paso
RESPONDING TO CLIMATE
CHANGE
Chris Hedges, Op-Ed.
Nation of Change, Nov. 11, 2014.
Is becoming vegan the most important and direct change we can immediately make to save the planet and its species? It seems we don't have any other option.
Read the full story...
Is becoming vegan the most important and direct change we can immediately make to save the planet and its species? It seems we don't have any other option.
Read the full story...
MEAT AND CO2
|
Here is the study about meat causing 51% of emissions
|
Recent OMNI
Newsletters
Snowden
#6, 12-4
Prisoners
for Peace DAY #3, 12-1
Causes
and Prevention of Wars #5, 11-30
Cuba
#3, 11-29
Thanksgiving
DAY #5, 11-27
Contents Vegetarian Action Newsletter #13,
November 12, 2014
November
Vegetarian Potluck: Special Guest Donna
Stjerna
Nutrition, Health
Kathy
Freston, Veganist
T.
Colin Campbell, The China Study
Animal Rights and
Protection
Rapper Chokeules
Dick,
Melanie Joy, …An Introduction to Carnism
The Story of Emily the Cow
Dick,
Melanie Joy and J. William Fulbright, Empathy vs. Violence
United
Nations Protection
Climate Change
Cowspiracy, Documentary
Two
Greatest Dangers and Vegetarianism
Dick,
To Zero and Vegetarianism
|
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