OMNI
VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER,
FEBRUARY 12, 2020.
Edited by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
To be removed from this mailing, drop me a note unsubscribe, but please continue your urgent advocacy of vegetarianism and veganism.
POTLUCK WEDNESDAY Feb. 12 (2ND WEDNESDAYS).
We start eating at 6:00.
This Newsletter is about food and its consequences in 3 categories: human health or harm, kindness or cruelty to animals, and stability or catastrophe to the climate. Tell people about OMNI, our Veg Potluck, its comprehensive message, and Newsletter.
All are welcome to the experience of eating together and becoming better informed for a healthier and safer life for all sentient beings and for the atmosphere and soils. Each of you is invited to tell about your favorite Vegan recipe and your potluck recipe for the evening.
SPECIAL FOR THIS EVENING IS THE FILM GAME CHANGERS.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
In Coetzee’s Novel Most People Are Vegetarians
NUTRITION, HEALTH
Alternatives to Meats Booming
News from The Vegan Way by Jackie Day
Dr. Greger’s Book, How Not to Die
Organic Consumers Association Health News and Actions
Wake-up Call, What’s for Lunch, etc.
PROTECTION OF ANIMALS
PETA Global (Winter 2020)
“We’re Not the Only Species on Earth”
DEFENSE OF CLIMATE
Capitalism’s Destructive Dynamos
Jonathan Foer, We Are the Weather
Kate Aronoff, A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal
The Nordic Diet v. Meat
(January Newsletter: https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2020/01/vegetarian-action-newsletter-january-8.html)
TEXTS
J. M. Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus (2013) creates and examines a kind and benevolent world in which most people are vegetarians.
NUTRITION, HEALTH
“Taking the Beef Out of Burgers.” The Week (January 17, 2020). Sales are booming for alternative meats. Some liabilities exist in the faux meats, but they are healthier, don’t torture or kill other animals, and protect the climate.
THE VEGAN WAY
Happy New Year Sweet Peas!
I thought to kick off the new year by sharing things to be HAPPY about, as well as a few healthy tips!
▪ The Golden Globes will ONLY offer 100% vegan meals this year! Every celebrity and their guests will be enjoying a scrumptious vegan dinner & dessert.
▪ TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year, Greta Thunberg, is… vegan!
▪ Vegan Beyond Meat launched its IPO in May – and it’s one of the most successful launches of an IPO ever!
▪ Nestlé, Sysco, Perdue Farms, ConAgra, Hormel, JBS, Cargill, and Tyson are all investing in plant-based meat – and the list continues to grow!
▪ Vegan fast-food is mainstream! Everything from Beyond Meat tacos at Taco Bell & vegan chick’n at KFC to vegan burgers at Carl’s Jr. & vegan breakfast sandwiches at Dunkin’ Donuts (served by Snoop Dogg lol!) made their debut!
▪ We have a presidential candidate who is vegan – and proud of it. (no matter what side of the political aisle you're on, you've gotta admit, that's COOL!)
▪ ▪ Dean Foods, the 94-year-old U.S. dairy milk company that was once worth over 10 billion dollars, just filed for bankruptcy, while plant-based milk sales continue to soar!
ADD GREENS TO YOUR DIET
A Few Healthy Tips!
▪ If you want an easy way to get more greens into your diet, toss a handful into whatever meal you’re making; they don’t need to be a side dish. I often toss in a handful of kale or spinach into my pasta as its boiling just before I strain it. You can also easily serve rice on a bed of greens, too. Just put the greens on your plate and pile the rest of your yummy meal on top!
▪ If you’re in a rush, and don’t have time to cook, check out Trader Joe’s Cruciferous Slaw. It’s one of my favorite new products – and it comes complete with vegan dressing. It has that perfect mix of savory & sweet. So good!
The Vegan Way in Whole Foods Market
Recommended Reading:
"How Not To Die" by Dr. Greger
LOVE this book! It's no surprise it's a NY Times Best Seller! Dr. Greger is about to go on a speaking tour, too!
The Vegan Way(my book!)- which was just listed as "Recommended Reading" by UC Berkeley's History Department. Go CAL! It's packed with interesting facts, recipes, tips & inspiration and is in bookstores & public libraries nationwide.
And listening...
Here's a recent NPR/KTEP interview where I explain why I went vegan 32+ years ago. I really enjoyed chatting with these folks!
Wishing you good health and happiness in the new year!
Jackie Dayxoxo
10:57 AM (1 hour ago) |  | |||
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BLOG POST OF THE WEEK
Wake-Up Call
Amazon and Walmart will no longer sell paint remover products containing methylene chloride, a chemical linked to cancer, cognitive impairment and other health issues methylene chloride. That’s because last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally banned retail sales of the controversial chemical.
But both Amazon and Walmart will sell you decaffeinated coffee that tests positive methylene chloride.
Walmart and Amazon aren't alone. According to a recent investigation by the Clean Label Project™, a national nonprofit focused on health and transparency in labeling, a surprising number of popular decaffeinated coffee brands contain methylene chloride.
That’s troubling news, given that many of the people who choose decaf over caffeinated coffee do so for health reasons. For instance, doctors often suggest pregnant women and people suffering from heart disease stick with decaf.
The study contained some good news, though, for consumers who buy organic—none of the certified organic brands tested by Clean Label Project contained detectable levels of methylene chloride.
ACTION ALERT
What's for Lunch?
Federal regulations for school lunches—never strong to begin with—are about to get worse.
If Trump’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) pushes through its proposed new rules, schools will be allowed to serve up more processed junk food, and fewer fruits and vegetables.
The new rules would also let schools replace leafy green vegetables with french fries—nevermind that in addition to being fried in unhealthy oils, because schools aren’t required to source organic potatoes, those fries will come from potatoes drenched in a toxic soup of pesticides.
In other words, the USDA proposes to undermine kids’ health by feeding them junk foods linked to childhood obesity and chronic disease.
SUPPORT OCA & CRL
Keep Going
“It's like the great stories, Mr. Frodo . . . Folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding onto something. That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo . . . and it’s worth fighting for.”— Samewise Gamgee, in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Two Towers”
Some days, the power of corporate money and corporate lobbyists overwhelms.
Some days, the corruption and greed feels too pervasive and too entrenched to overcome.
On those days, it’s more crucial than ever that we acknowledge and honor all the good that is bubbling up from the ground, thanks to the tireless work of everyday people who refuse to give up.
This week we heard from a farmer, co-activist and co-champion of regenerative agriculture who has been leading the fight against Costco’s plan to build the world’s largest factory farm poultry operation in the world, in his backyard in Nebraska.
He, along with many good citizens and organizations, are standing up against Costco’s plan—a plan that would be ruinous for Nebraska’s waterways and organic and regenerative farmers.
They may not be able to totally shut down Costco’s project. But they are slowing it down. And in the process, building a movement.
They’ve educated and organized an army of citizen activists They’ve succeeded in convincing at least a few counties to reject the plan. They’ve organized a citizen-led scientific research project to highlight the damage industrial factory farms are having on the state’s water quality.
And this week, they released policy guidelines for state and local elected officials on how to protect Nebraska communities from factory farms—and how to help the next generation of farmers transition to organic and regenerative farming practices.
This is what change from the ground up looks like. This is the work we lend our support to.
This is the good in the world. And it’s worth fighting for.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Dig In!
If you’re like most gardening enthusiasts, you’re probably flipping through seed catalogs right about now.
If so, you may want to watch this week’s video about a company called High Mowing Organic Seeds. It’s one of the only companies producing organic seeds from organically grown plants.
That’s right. As it turns out, most seed companies don’t grow their own seeds—and most companies that produce organic seeds don’t get those seeds from organically grown plants.
Tom Stearns, founder of High Mowing, started saving seeds when he was 18 years old. Stearns believes growing seeds organically and focusing on the health of soil and water are keys to rebuilding an entire food system:
“This new food system that we need to create needs to think deeply about how we take care of the soil, the water, the air, what tools we use, what types of seeds we use, what the nutrition is that goes into the soil, and then into the food and then into people.”
If you live in a part of the country where all you can do right now is dream of spring planting season, you'll want to check this out.
READING ROOM Almost Here! “Regenerative agriculture is going to be a key phrase in the decades ahead—and this book will get you in on the ground floor, so to speak. Not much could be more important!”— Bill McKibben, author of “Falter” Want to be part of the Regeneration Revolution? “Grassroots Rising” is your handbook. Ronnie’s new book, your “good news” instruction manual for fixing our broken food and farming system and our broken climate, will be out next week. You can order it then, or reserve your copy now. The timing couldn’t be better. The climate emergency is bearing down on us, our family farmers are going bankrupt and our food is increasingly contaminated and less nutritious. But there’s hope on the horizon. Politicians are finally waking up to regenerative agriculture as a climate, health, food security and rural economy revitalization solution. And more than 100 members of Congress have officially endorsed the Green New Deal as the framework for transforming our food and farming (and climate) policy. It’s a great start. But it will take a lot more pressure from millions of grassroots activists to make the Regenerative Green New Deal a reality. | |
LITTLE BYTES Essential Reading |
10:57 AM (1 hour ago) | | |||
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PROTECTION OF ANIMALS
Fran Alexander. “Extinction Is Forever: Why Do
Humans Need to Kill for the Thrill?” NADG (8-18-15).
California just banned the sale of fur. Hey, you know fur is dead when even the Queen of England has committed to only wearing faux fur for all future engagements!
We’re Not the Only Species On Earth: Let’s Stop Acting Like It by PETA, January 3, 2020.
Please enjoy this article from the latest issue of our magazine, PETA Global. To begin your subscription, become a PETA member today!I wonder what it would be like to have a watch that, instead of telling the time, told you how little time you have left. Like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, I believe there’s no time to waste if we want to get things done. So, let’s push the envelope before it’s time to push up daisies.
Slaves to Habit
I’m enlisting your support to help end human supremacism. If, as Thomas Henry Huxley said, we “[s]it down before fact as a little child,” we must recognize that speciesism is as offensive as any other discrimination and as unjustified as any other exploitation. It’s simply privilege manifested as domination and a bias rooted in denying others their self-worth.
PETA’s mission statement reads, “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way” – acknowledging that those who happen not to have been born human are individuals, too, with their own desires, needs, and complex lives. They have the right to live in freedom and don’t exist simply to serve humankind. They aren’t ours to do with as we please, even taking away their very lives just for a sandwich or a pair of shoes.
Most humans wouldn’t dream of treating their dogs the way factory farmers treat pigs, even though both species experience the same pain, joy, and fear. Many humans wear coats stuffed with feathers yanked out of the skin of a screaming goose, yet they’d never consider ripping out fistfuls of a parrot’s feathers.
And it’s speciesist to suggest that animals in laboratories don’t have the same capacity for suffering that we do, both psychologically and physically, or that they don’t tremble when the laboratory door opens – for they do. Why, then, are animal experimenters not charged with cruelty for violating their victims’ rights? Why do they still tear infant monkeys away from their loving mothers, implant electrodes in cats’ brains, and force poisons down the throats of mice?
There is no justification for raising chickens in crowded sheds reeking of ammonia, for punching and stomping
on sheep while stealing their wool, or for treating dolphins like surfboards by balancing on their faces as is done at SeaWorld.
Justice Begins With Just Us
To end speciesism, we must take a hard look at our personal choices and change all those that harm others. We can go vegan to combat climate change or to clean out our clogged arteries, or we can do so because it is simply wrong to exploit, hurt, and kill other sentient beings for food.
There is animal-free clothing everywhere, from high end to bargain basement. We can choose personal care and household products that aren’t tested on animals and donate only to health charities that don’t conduct animal experiments. And we can avoid circuses that treat animals as living props. Making kind choices isn’t hard at all, although even if it were, the extra effort would still be worth it.
Animals aren’t like us – they are us. They deserve equal consideration, regardless of anyone’s opinion of them.
If we just shrug off speciesism, we show ourselves to be not superior but small-minded, self-centered, and mean-spirited.
At 51, I’ve worked at PETA longer than I haven’t. I’ve seen a lot of progress, but we still have far to go. I’m challenging everyone to examine their own prejudice toward animals, of whom we are but one kind.
Please join the call to #EndSpeciesism, end animal slavery, and make future generations proud.
Written by Tracy Reiman, PETA Executive Vice President.
CLIMATE
Jonathan Foer. We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019. Rev. by Kate Aronoff, “Things Are Bleak!” The Nation (Nov. 11/18, 2019). Foer: “…global warming is perhaps not the product of a universally shared moral failing but of a political economy that has allowed a very small group of people to hoard incredible amounts of wealth and power, enabling them to wreck the world.”
Aronoff is also a co-author of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal.
Main principles of capitalism are the twins growth and profit.
Nathan Owens. “Beef, Pork Fuel Growth for Tyson: Sales, Profits post quarterly rise.” NADG (2-7-20). These principles also spell the destruction of our climate.
Getting Ready,Alas We Are Leaving the Starting Gate Late
The cookbook The Nordic Diet was published ten years ago. Already the cooks there were preparing for the catastrophe, while our leaders, particularly the Republicans, were denying reality and cutting taxes for the rich needed for a sturdy infrastructure. Here’s a passage from the 2010 The Nordic Diet:
“…the world’s livestock production is responsible for a large part of all greenhouse gases. The calculation is clear: It takes ten times more energy to produce a steak from a corn-fed cow than to produce the oats needed for a portion of oatmeal.”
END VEGETARIAN\VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER, FEBRUARY 2020