OMNI
WORLD VEGETARIAN DAY, OCTOBER 1, 2014
INTERNATIONAL VEGETARIAN WEEK OCTOBER 1-7
VEGETARIAN ACTION NEWSLETTER #12, OCTOBER 8, 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).
What’s at stake: healthy, compassionate, and ecological living.
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 DAYSPROJECT
October 1 begins World Vegetarian Month. See Oct. 16, UN World Food Day.
Nos. 4-11 at end
Contents Vegetarian Action Newsletter #12, October 8
World Vegetarian Day
Nutrition, Health
Healthiness of Vegan Diet vs. Factory Food
Animal Rights and Protection
Melanie Joy, Introduction to Carnism
Against Cruelty to Animals, Google Search
Peaceable Kingdom, Documentary of the Awakening Consciences of Farmers
Animals, Food, Climate Change
Organic Consumers Association, “Carbon Underground”
2 Books, Advocates of Vegetarianism
Oppenlander,What We Choose to Eat Is Killing Us and Our Planet
Ruby Roth,Vegan Is Love, Children's Book
Recent Newsletters
WORLD VEGETARIAN DAY
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
World Vegetarian Day is observed annually on October 1. It is a day of celebration established by the North American Vegetarian Society in 1977 and endorsed by the International Vegetarian Union in 1978, "To promote the joy, compassion and life-enhancing possibilities of vegetarianism."[1]It brings awareness to the ethical, environmental, health and humanitarianbenefits of a vegetarian lifestyle.
World Vegetarian Day initiates the month of October as Vegetarian Awareness Month, which ends with November 1, World Vegan Day, as the end of that month of celebration. Vegetarian Awareness Month has been known variously as Reverence for Life month, Month of Vegetarian Food, and more.
Several additional days of vegetarian significance are included in Vegetarian Awareness Month:
- October 1 - World Vegetarian Day
- October 2 - World Farm Animals Day (WFAD) or World Day for Farm(ed) Animals
- October 4 - The Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi
- First full week + additional 'straggler' days (in order to include as many weekends as possible for church, mosque, and temple involvement - World Week of Prayer for Animals (always includes The Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi). This may have been initiated by the now-defunct INRA, International Network for Religion an Animals, founded in 1985 by the late Virginia Bouraquardez (aka Ginnie Bee).
- October 16 - United Nations World Food Day (often a time of global reckoning with issues of human food security) – the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945.
- November 1 - International Vegan Day aka World Vegan Day - a vegan holiday celebrated since 1994 on November 1 – the anniversary of the creation of The Vegan Society
NUTRITION, HEALTH
VEGAN, ORGANIC FOOD VS. FACTORY FOOD
"somebody give me a cheeseburger" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyV41-tFPcQ
Hot in the news this week is a new study ( http://bit.ly/1mzD4Q6 ) suggesting that consuming probiotics can slightly reduce blood pressure, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. So, now everyone is running out and eating yogurt, hoping for a miracle cure. There are no pills, procedures, or superfoods that prevent or cure chronic disease. These pills and procedures are band aids being placed on top of a core problem that many prefer to cover up and "fix"... Yet, research is building on the ability to prevent and now reverse cardiovascular disease, its risk factors, type 2 diabetes, and more, with a whole food, plant-based diet. Overall diet and lifestyle need to be the focus of health and medicine today in order to shift away from the downward spiral of the current healthcare crisis...
*Some of the research:
--->Kaiser Permanente Thrive's Permanente Journal Review: "Research shows that plant- based diets are cost-effective, low-risk interventions that may lower body mass index, blood pressure, HbA1C [blood glucose control over time], and cholesterol levels. They may also reduce the number of medications needed to treat chronic diseases and lower ischemic heart disease mortality rates. Physicians should consider recommending a plant-based diet to all their patients, especially those with high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or obesity." http://1.usa.gov/1k20IIi
--->The CHIP Program, a 6-year study emphasizing a whole food, plant-based diet, can lead to rapid and meaningful reductions in chronic disease risk factors: http://1.usa.gov/1k9TrIG
--->Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. showing that 99.4% of 198 people with cardiovascular disease on a plant-based diet for 3.7 years avoided major cardiac events (2014): http://bit.ly/UlQpF3
--->Dean Ornish, MD regression of coronary atherosclerosis with intensive lifestyle changes - 10% fat whole foods vegetarian diet, aerobic exercise, stress management training, smoking cessation, group psycho- social support - for 5 years (1998): http://bit.ly/1ry42iM
--->"An 18-week dietary intervention using a low-fat plant-based diet in a corporate setting improves body weight, plasma lipids, and, in individuals with diabetes, glycemic control.": http://1.usa.gov/1k9Urwy
---> "Vegetarian diets confer protection against cardiovascular diseases, cardiometabolic risk factors, some cancers and total mortality. Compared to lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets, vegan diets seem to offer additional protection for obesity, hypertension, type-2 diabetes, and cardiovascular mortality.": http://1.usa.gov/1nh1dPA
--->Adventist Health Study-2 "Vegetarian dietary patterns were associated with lower body mass index, lower prevalence and incidence of diabetes mellitus, lower prevalence of the metabolic syndrome and its component factors, lower prevalence of hypertension, lower all-cause mortality, and in some instances, lower risk of cancer.": http://1.usa.gov/1nQzQIj
--->"The dietary portfolio approach of combining a range of cholesterol-lowering plant foods may benefit cardiovascular disease risk both by reducing serum lipids and also blood pressure.": http://1.usa.gov/1mzzG7Q
--->5 Ways to Avoid Cardiovascular Disease Without Medication: http://bit.ly/1o4XHZn
FACTORY FOOD
Read PDF | Subscribe & Read Past Issues | OCA Homepage | Donate
COOK ORGANIC NOT THE PLANET
Move Over, Meatless Mondays
Here come Factory Farm Free Fridays.
Every time you sit down in a restaurant, or grill a steak, scramble an egg, or drink a glass of milk at home, you’re undermining your health, and contributing to environmental contamination, global warming and animal torture.
You’re also fattening Monsanto’s bottom line—because 90 percent of America’s non-organic animal feed comes from genetically engineered crops.
Unless, of course, you choose meat, egg and dairy products that were not produced on a factory farm. (Or you eat a vegan diet).
Today’s factory farm model is a disaster. And the premise on which it was founded—cheap food—has proven false.
A system that dumps tons of untreated waste into waterways, that puts the public at risk of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs,” that contributes to poor personal health, that pollutes entire communities (usually poor and rural), that makes workers sick, that is fueled by unsustainable GMO crops that can only be grown using increasingly toxic chemicals, and that contributes more greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere than the entire transportation industry, is not cheap.
Someone is paying for the environmental cleanup. The healthcare costs. The government (taxpayer)-subsidized GMO crops. The extreme droughts, floods, hurricanes and temperatures caused by global warming.
That somebody is you, the consumer.
Fortunately, consumers have the power to bring down the factory farms. Let’s get started.
TAKE ACTION: Take the 4F “Factory Farm Free Friday” Pledge!www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob420.html
From David Druding 9-24-14
PROTECTION AND RIGHTS OFANIMALS
CARNISM
'Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows' by Melanie Joy February 5, 2010 • Ellen's Life
In her groundbreaking new book, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, Melanie Joy explores the invisible system that shapes our perception of the meat we eat, so that we love some animals and eat others without knowing why. She calls this system carnism. Carnism is the belief system, or ideology, that allows us to selectively choose which animals become our meat, and it is sustained by complex psychological and social mechanisms. Like other "isms" (racism, ageism, etc.), carnism is most harmful when it is unrecognized and unacknowledged. Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows names and explains this phenomenon and offers it up for examination. Unlike the many books that explain why we shouldn't eat meat, Joy's book explains why we do eat meat -- and thus how we can make more informed choices as citizens and consumers.
Author Melanie Joy takes a look at the debate over our diets -- from a psychological and social perspective. She argues that the simple act of naming someone a vegetarian or vegan without a specific name for meat-eaters automatically makes eating meat "normal."
This sidesteps the ultimate truth -- we make the choice to eat meat. With an out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality, we continue to believe stereotypes about certain animals and ignore their suffering to placate our decision to eat meat. This book will change the way you think about your food.
AGAINST CRUELTY TO ANIMALS, GOOGLE SEARCH, October 2, 2014
Search Results
https://www.aspc...
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani...
Promotes humane principles, prevents cruelty, and alleviates pain, fear and suffering ofanimals through nationwide information, awareness and advocacy programs.
www.peta.org/
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Take vital steps to cut thoughtless cruelty to animals out of your life and to educate others around you. Check out the most ... Doctors Against Animal Experiments ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruelty_to_animals
Wikipedia
As of 2010, Hong Kong has supplemented or replaced the laws against cruelty with a positive approach using laws that specify how animals should be treated.
www.whosagainstanimalcruelty.org/
See the shocking reality of modern farms - then take action.
www.humanesociety.org/.../cru...
The Humane Society of the United States
Every state has laws prohibiting animal cruelty, and 49 of them contain felony ... have proven excellent tools in cementing criminal cases against animal abusers.
www.humanesociety.org/.../abu...
The Humane Society of the United States
Either way, and whether the animal is a pet, a farm animal, or wildlife, the victim can suffer terribly. Don't despair, though—anyone can take steps against cruelty.
In the news
Star Tribune - 7 hours ago
LOS ANGELES — Young people who torture and kill animals are prone to violence against people later in life if it goes unchecked, studies ...
Courier Mail - 8 hours ago
https://www.facebook.com/kidsagainstanimalcruelty
KIDS AGAINST ANIMAL CRUELTY. 25216 likes · 476 talking about this. KAAC was founded by teen actor/animal advocate Lou Wegner....
https://www.facebook.com/FightersAgainstAnimalCruelty
Fighters Against Animal Cruelty. 32513 likes · 2337 talking about this. FightersAgainst Animal Cruelty aims to promote animal welfare organisations...
Adwww.ask.com/Against+Cruelty+To+Animals
Discover and Explore on Ask.com!
Ask.com has 17,299 followers on Google+
o Videos
o News
o Images
VIDEO
www.peaceablekingdomfilm.org/
A riveting story of transformation and healing, this film explores the awakening conscience of several farmers who have now come to question the basic ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaceable_Kingdom_(film)
www.amazon.com › Movies & TV › TV
"Peaceable Kingdom
www.tribeofheart.org/
Award winning, life-changing documentaries about the journey of awakening conscience: Peaceable Kingdom The Journey Home and The Witness. May be the ...
www.imdb.com/title/tt0435715/
70 min - Documentary - 28 February 2004 (USA
FOOD AND GLOBAL WARMING
The Carbon Underground: Reversing Global Warming
organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob420.html
“If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current levels [398 ppm.] to at most 350 ppm…” - Dr. James Hansen
Since Dr. James Hansen, a leading climatologist, warned in 2008 that we need to reduce the amount of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere to 350 parts-per-million (ppm) in order to preserve life on Earth, little has been done to get us there.
It’s getting late. If we’re going to preserve a livable Earth, we the global grassroots, must do more than mitigate global warming.
We must reverse it.
But how?
Hint number one: not by politely asking out-of-control corporations and politicians to please stop destroying the planet.
Hint number two: not by pinning our hopes for survival and climate stability on hi-tech, unproven and dangerous, “solutions” such as genetic engineering, geoengineering, or carbon capture and sequestration for coal plants.
Hint number three: not by naively believing that soon (or soon enough) ordinary consumers all over the planet will spontaneously abandon their cars, air travel, air conditioning, central heating, and fossil fuel-based diets and lifestyles just in time to prevent atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases from moving past the tipping point of 450 ppm or more of CO2 to the catastrophic point of no return.
We can reverse climate change by sequestering several hundred billion tons of excess CO2 using the “tools” we already have at hand: regenerative, organic farming, ranching and land use.
And we can make this world-changing transition by mobilizing a vast green corps of farmers, ranchers, gardeners, consumers, climate activists and conservationists to begin the monumental task of moving the Carbon Behemoth safely back underground.
ADVOCATES OF VEGETARIANISM AND VEGANISM
COMFORTABLY UNAWARE
What We Choose to Eat Is Killing Us and Our Planet
KIRKUS REVIEW
In his debut, Oppenlander derides our animal-based diets and encourages awareness of food choices as they affect our lives and the planet.
Eating meat, fish or dairy products, writes the author, depletes the planet’s resources and is the single most devastating factor that affects global warming and our environment. Oppenlander explores how our appetite for meat and fish affects our land, water, air, pollution, biodiversity, sustainability and personal health, noting that we “collectively raise, feed, water, kill, and eat over 70 billion animals each year for food.” The author uses the concept of global depletion to describe the degradation of our resources on earth, in detriment to our general health. Through well-researched statistics, Oppenlander claims that it is “what we eat and the choices we make in our diet, not the car we drive, that affects our supply of water, land, and air and will affect our success or failure on our planet.” For example, one person can save more water by not eating a pound of beef than by not showering for a full year. Oppenlander discusses the effect of raising livestock on the rain forests, biodiversity, water usage and water pollution, and he examines the issue of overfishing on the world’s oceans, outlining how government subsidies and inaccurate information perpetuate these problems. The author ridicules the locavore movement for its pieties about grass-fed beef, noting that there isn’t enough land on the planet for this practice to be sustainable. To reduce global depletion, Oppenlander suggests education, legislation banning meat consumption and ecotaxes reflecting the true cost of the food we eat. The book is filled with hefty statistics but has little narrative thread to carry readers through.
Not a feel-good book, but a stat-packed call to salads.
Pub Date: Oct. 8th, 2012. 200pp. Beaufort.
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1st, 2012
'Vegan Is Love': Children's Book By Ruby Roth Causes Controversy. The Huffington Post | By Jessica Samakow. Posted: 04/20/2012 7:05 pm Updated: 04/20/2012 7:11 pm
A children's book that will be released next week is stirring up controversy among parents. It's called "Vegan is Love," and according to the publisher, is a young readers' introduction "to veganism as a lifestyle of compassion and action." The details, however, including images of animals behind bars in crowded cages and graphic passages about animal testing are being called unsuitable for children –- the book is intended for kids as young as 6-years-old.
The pro-vegan message of the book isn't in dispute. While there is debate about whether an animal-product-free diet from birth is appropriate, nutritionists (and activists including Alicia Silverstone) agree that a vegan regimen can be healthy for little kids as long as their meals include enough supplemental nutrients and proteins. That said, the tone and wording in "Vegan Is Love" has experts concerned.
Child psychologist Jennifer Hart Steen told Matt Lauer on the "Today" show this morning that, "there’s so much fear presented in the book and if you would just give it to a child as a children's book they don't understand it. So now they're just going to be afraid."
Nicole German, a registered dietitian wrote on her blog that "Vegan is Love" might scare impressionable children into becoming vegan and "without proper guidance, that child could become malnourished."
The author, Ruby Roth, is raising her 7-year-old stepdaughter, Akira, whose favorite food is kale, to be vegan. Roth told "Today" that it is not her intention to instill fear. "If it's too scary to talk about, the reality of where those pieces of meat come from, then it's certainly too scary to eat," she said. Instead, the book is supposed to encourage "compassion and action," Roth told ABC.
The book promotes a no meat, no diary diet, but also suggests that kids should boycott the zoo, the circus and aquariums because "animals belong to this earth just as we do." Hart Steen worries that the title, "Vegan is Love" can send a message to kids that, if you don't follow this lifestyle, you don’t get to feel love or "you're clearly creating hate or bad feelings."
Dr. David Katz, HuffPost blogger and director of the Yale Prevention Center
The illustrations are eye-opening and topics mature, but Katz says that, "the torture and maltreatment of animals are real." So, what's worse? "Telling kids about what's going on? Or raising them in a world where it is going on and keeping them in the dark about it so they become complicit to it?"
Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters:
Join/Renew
Subscribe to Vegetarian Voice!
When you become a member of the North American Vegetarian Society, you’ll receive a subscription to our quarterly magazine, which will keep you up-to-date on current medical and nutrition studies. Vegetarian Voice also explores compelling consumer, environmental, animal rights and lifestyle issues. Plus delicious vegan recipes are always featured . Members also receive a 10% discount on all merchandise, including those items listed on our internet site.
Join now and receive 2 free gifts
New members will receive our 40 recipe-card set featuring favorite recipes from seven popular cookbook authors. This collection (not available for purchase) includes entrées, salads, soups, side dishes, desserts and more. Plus you’ll receive Vegetarianism: Answers to the most commonly asked questions. This handy 16-page booklet provides answers to those difficult questions and includes recipes. One year membership is $22.
Recent Newsletters:
WWI 9-28
US Westward Imperialism 9-24
UN International Day of Peace, UN Climate Summit, People’s March 9-21
UN Climate/Enviro Organizations 9-20
Constitution Week 9-17
US Continental Imperialism 9-13
US Capitalism 9-12
Families for Peaceful Tomorrows 9-11
END VEGETARIAN ACTION NEWSLETTER #12, OCTOBER 8, 2014