VEGETARIAN ACTION #14

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.

OMNI’S Blog

http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/

OMNI Newsletters

http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/

Index:

http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-index/

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

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. With Anthony J. Nocella II, he is co-editor of Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Reflections on the Liberation of Animals, published by Satya. Many of his writings can be found at: http://utminers.utep.edu/best/. 

RESPONDING TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Saving the Planet, One Meal at a Time

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...

MEAT AND CO2

Here is the study about meat causing 51% of emissions  http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/study-claims-meat-creates-half-of-all-greenhouse-gases-1812909.html

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

END VEGETARIAN ACTION #14 DECEMBER 2014