OMNI VEGETARIAN/VEGAN NEWSLETTER #43, DECEMBER 13, 2017

 

OMNI

VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER  #43

WEDNESDAY (2^ND WEDNESDAYS), DECEMBER 13, 2017.

      Edited by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

http://omnicenter.org/donate/

Forward to help advance vegetarianism and veganism.

To be removed from this mailing, drop me a line unsubscribe.

     OMNI’s DECEMBER VEGETARIAN POTLUCK is Wednesday, DECEMBER 13, 2017, at OMNI, Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology (2^ND Wednesdays).  We start eating at 6:00.      All are welcome. 

      You may want to enjoy and discuss some old or new vegetarian or vegan recipes, to talk about healthier food, or you are concerned about cruelty to animals or global warming and climate catastrophe.  Whatever your interest it’s connected to food; whatever your motive, come share vegetarian and vegan food and your views with us in a friendly setting.  If you are new, get acquainted with OMNI’s director, Gladys Tiffany.  OMNI is located at 3274 Lee Avenue parallel to N. College southeast of the Village Inn and south of Liquor World.  More information: 935-4422; 442-4600. 

     If this subject is important to you and you are looking for meaningful, part-time volunteer work, consider coordinating the potlucks or editing this newsletter.  Contact Dick or Gladys.

November Was World Vegan Month!   VV IS SPREADING.  We can give ourselves a pat on the back.

CONTENTS OMNI Vegetarian Action Newsletter #43, Wed , December `13, 2017  

Health, Nutrition

Ruth Frances, Cookbooks

PBS, Dr. Greger’s Books

Taxing Meat for Health

PETA Magazine (Fall 2017)

New Apps

Vegan at ONF Last Month

Protecting Animals, Empathy, Compassion

PETA Magazine

NWA Christian Vegan Group

PETA at UAF

Farm Sanctuary

Climate Catastrophe from Carnism

OMNI Climate Book Forum on Agriculture

Taxing Meat for Climate

Tyson Foods and Exxon

Contents of Vegetarian/Vegan Action #42, November 2017

Health, Nutrition

Ruth Frances gave me for OMNI two more vegan cookbooks.

Donna Klein.  Vegan Italiano: Meat-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Dishes from Sun-Drenched Italy. 

Bryanna Grogan.  World Vegan Feast: 200 Fabulous Recipes from Over 50 Countries. 

I’ll bring both tomorrow for you to see.

PBS, Dr. Michael Greger presented his How Not to Die best-selling book that explains why plants are healthy, meats are not, and certain plants are beneficial for certain body needs.  I recommend his dynamic speech packed with information.  The author has a new recipes book, The How Not to Die Cookbook.   Celia Storey.  “Dr. Greger Survives Deadly Smoothie.”  NADG (12-11-17).  Example:   “…eating a whole-foods, plant-based diet can reverse the No. 1 killer of men and women—cardiovascular disease.”

TAXING KILLER MEAT

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/12/11/meat-tax-crucial-says-analysis-combat-climate-crisis-and-global-health-threats

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Meat Tax Crucial, Says Analysis, to Combat Climate Crisis and Global Health Threats.  Monday, December 11, 2017 by Common Dreams.  See below under Climate for the full article.

VegNews (Fall 2017) 
How about a veggiedog, or vegan lobster roll, or trying different pestos, or visiting Memphis’ veg/vegan restaurants?  The Fall VegNews has 70pp. of new eating experiences.   But its ethical foundation is represented to, including an article on global sweatshops.

PETA : “Kale, Yeah!”  “Meat’s Not Green.  PETA is Veganizing the World!”  PETA World Magazine (Fall 2017).  PETA asks us to ask local grocers and eateries to offer vegan options.

NEW APPS
In the NADG (11-18-17) Bob and Joy Schwabach report on computer vegan apps:
Forks Over Knives a $5 recipe app for Android and iPhone.    VeganXPress $2 iPhone for vegan goods at chain restaurants and fast-food places.    Bunny Free from PETA.org reveals cruelty free products.
Why go vegan?  See NutritionFacts.org and FreeFromHarm.org.

VEGAN AT ONF IN NOVEMBER, WATCH FOR DECEMBER AND 2018

November 9th: 5:30pm

Vegan Cooking Class

November is World Vegan Month! We want to celebrate by dedicating an entire class to some delectable vegan dishes. We will kick off the class by making a Creamy Garlic Mushroom Soup, next up, we will make a Spicy Bolognese, and to end the class, we will make some Tiramisu Donuts that will knock your socks off! RSVP for the event here or call 479-521-7558.

 November 11th: 11:00am

Vegan & Gluten Free Holidays with Deborah Bird​

Deborah will be making a pot pie. This non-dairy delight tastes even better than a pot pie made with heavy cream, with a mixture of vegetables that accent one another perfectly! She will make also a lively and colorful mixture of roasted vegetables.  As well as a Chai Hot Chocolate! More vegan and gluten free holiday recipes will be available to attendees.  Call 479-521-7558.

Protecting Animals, Empathy, Compassion (Vegan means protecting animals from harm period)

PETA GLOBALMagazine (Fall 2017)

Examples of contents:

“Meat Stinks. Go Vegan.”  Billboards on the foul smell of hatcheries and slaughterhouses, and stats on farmed animals and CO2.

“Nick Cave and Iggy Pop’s PETA Video Will Leave you ‘Breathless.’”   The video features an animated Iggy preventing various kinds of cruelty.  Also, in a PETA print ad, Iggy condemned Canada’s cruel seal slaughters.

“Dress Right: Dress Vegan.”  Several topics, including NYC’s all-vegan menswear store, and the “future wool” movement against the brutal sheep sheering industry.

NEW VEGAN GROUP

Trish Mikkelson, Co-founder and co-coordinator:  Jesus Vegans Event Center . 
Bringing divinity to the table and peace to all creation.  Facebook: www.facebook/jesusvegans

PETA at UAF

I noticed that the U of A Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals group is active again. Their faculty advisor is an acquaintance of mine. Here's their FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/uarkvegans/  (I think this came from Ms. Mikkelson)

FARM SANCTUARY

Dedicated to ending the terrible abuses animals experience on America’s factory farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses.  It rescues, shelters, and cares for injured animals.  farmsanctuary.org

Climate Catastrophe

Germany for Climate: The German environment ministry banned the serving of meat, fish, and animal derived products from official functions, instead opting for organic, local, and fair-trade vegetarian foods.  VegNews (Fall 2017).

OMNI JANUARY CLIMATE BOOK FORUM (first Sundays at FPL, 1:30).

For January 7th we are reading The ELEPHANT IN THE CORNFIELD by Chris Clayton. https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-Cornfield-Politics-Agriculture-Climate-ebook/dp/B017GFVFZA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1512479131&sr=8-1&keywords=elephant+in+the+cornfield

This book is especially apt to follow Jeanne Neath’s  excellent presentation on The Subsistence Perspective, about changing our expectations of what a normal life is, from one of thoughtless consumerism to a recognition of and transition to a life of subsistence, with our demands on nature in harmony with what can be sustained without poisoning the environment…or our spirits. Chris Clayton is a reporter who has studied the attempts to legislate action to reduce negative impacts from agriculture and incentivize conservation practices. The Citizens’ Climate Lobby has formed an Agriculture Committee, since we must do more than lower emissions. –Shelley B

TAXING MEAT

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/12/11/meat-tax-crucial-says-analysis-combat-climate-crisis-and-global-health-threats

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Meat Tax Crucial, Says Analysis, to Combat Climate Crisis and Global Health Threats.  Monday, December 11, 2017 by Common Dreams

"Driven by a global consensus around meat's negative contributions to climate change and global health epidemics such as obesity, cancer, and antibiotic resistance," meat may soon be taxed like carbon, sugar, and tobacco.

By  Jessica Corbett, staff writer.

 27 Comments

Cuts of beef and pork lie in a display counter at a supermarket in Berlin, Germany. (Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

"Driven by a global consensus around meat's negative contributions to climate change and global health epidemics such as obesity, cancer, and antibiotic resistance," a new report by a British investor network concludes that a meat tax should be considered "inevitable" for any government serious about addressing the climate crisis and other health concerns that stem from factory farms and livestock production.

"If policymakers are to cover the true cost of livestock epidemics like avian flu and human epidemics like obesity, diabetes, and cancer, while also tackling the twin challenges of climate change and antibiotic resistance, then a shift from subsidization to taxation of the meat industry looks inevitable."
—Jeremy Coller, FAIRR

For more than a decade, the United Nations and environmentalists have warned that "livestock is a major threat" to the environment, due to land and water degradation as well as the substantial amount of greenhouse gas emissions that farm animals generate.

As of 2013, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization found (pdf) that agriculture, including livestock, accounted for nearly 15 percent of anthropogenic emissions. The majority of emissions came from cattle raised for beef and milk.

A report from Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return (FAIRR)—which will be released in full next month—advises that meat is "on the same pathway to taxation as goods such as sugar, carbon, and tobacco," which has led more than 180 countries to tax tobacco, 60 jurisdictions to tax carbon, and at least 25 to tax sugar.

FAIRR researchers point to a 2015 move by the World Health Organization (WHO) to classify processed meat as carcinogenic and red meat as a probable carcinogen, reflecting "similar reports on the harmful effects of tobacco and sugar." They also acknowlege that since the early 1990s, global meat consumption has grown by more than 500 percent.

In response to skyrocketing rates of meat consumption, last year a team at Oxford University conducted the first-ever global analysis of meat taxes, which concluded—as the lead researcher put it—"It is clear that if we don't do something about the emissions from our food system, we have no chance of limiting climate change."

In light of the worldwide surge in consumption and the research illustrating its consequences, as governments look for ways to reduce emissions to meet goals established by the Paris Climate Accord,"it is increasingly probable we'll see meat taxes become a reality," said FAIRR founder Jeremy Coller.

"Countries such as Sweden and Denmark have already looked at meat tax proposals," Coller noted. "If policymakers are to cover the true cost of livestock epidemics like avian flu and human epidemics like obesity, diabetes, and cancer, while also tackling the twin challenges of climate change and antibiotic resistance, then a shift from subsidization to taxation of the meat industry looks inevitable."

"Current levels of meat consumption are not healthy or sustainable," said Marco Springmann, a senior researcher on environmental sustainability and public health at Oxford University. "They lead to high emissions of greenhouse gases that threaten to jeopardize existing climate commitments, as well as to large numbers of avoidable deaths from chronic diseases."

"Taxing meat for environmental or health purposes could be a first and important step in addressing these twin challenges," Springmann added, "and it would send a strong signal that dietary change toward more healthy and sustainable plant-based diets is urgently needed to preserve both our health and the environment."

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Joe Loria.  Greenhouse Gas Emission Giants: Why Tyson Foods Rivals Exxon.  ECO-WATCH, Dec. 07, 2017.

According to The Guardian, JBS, Cargill, and Tyson—three of the world's largest meat producers—emitted more greenhouse gas last year than all of France and nearly as much as the biggest oil companies, such as Exxon, BP and Shell.

Hardly any meat or dairy companies publish their climate emissions, so it's almost impossible to know the exact amount of greenhouse gas generated. But using the most comprehensive data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The Guardian estimated emissions from animal agriculture, and the results are staggering.

The top 20 meat and dairy companies emitted more greenhouse gas in 2016 than all of Germany, Europe's biggest climate polluter. This means if these companies were a country, they would be the world's seventh-largest greenhouse gas emitter.

It's impossible to take world leaders seriously when they fail to mention animal agriculture in addressing climate action. Raising animals for food emits more greenhouse gas than all the cars, planes and other forms of transportation combined.

What's more, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, carbon dioxide emissions from raising farmed animals make up about 15 percent of global human-induced emissions, with beef and milk production as the leading culprits.

 

CONTENTS OMNI Vegetarian Action Newsletter #42, Wed., November 8, 2017

Health, Nutrition

PBS, How Not to Die best-selling book explains why plants are healthy, meats are not.

Meat Increases risk of death

Vegan Films

 Berkeley, CA, VV Paradise

VV Media

Middle Eastern Cookbook

Protection of Animals, Empathy, Compassion

Cruelty Free Accessories

Esther the Pig

Slaughterhouses and Fashion Designer

Book of the Year: Mercy for Animals

Climate Crisis

VV Diet Will reduce CO2 Significantly

Vegetarian Vegan Diet and Climate Catastrophe, Google Search, 11-7-17

Contents of Vegetarian Action #41

END VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER #43, DECEMBER 2017