Nope. I don’t want any of that. I’ll get whatever stuff I want for myself.

I want you, if you’re not vegan, to go vegan!

And if you are vegan, I want you to donate some time or money to an animal organization.

Thank you!

Microbes swap genes, so antibiotic resistance developed in pigs can jump to microbes that infect humans in hospitals, locker rooms, schools or homes. [...]

There’s broad agreement that doctors themselves overprescribe antibiotics — but also that a big part of the problem is factory farms. They feed low doses of antibiotics to hogs, cattle and poultry to make them grow faster.

A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that in the United States, 70 percent of antibiotics are used to feed healthy livestock, with 14 percent more used to treat sick livestock. Only about 16 percent are used to treat humans and their pets, the study found.

More antibiotics are fed to livestock in North Carolina alone than are given to humans in the entire United States, according to the peer-reviewed Medical Clinics of North America. It concluded that antibiotics in livestock feed were “a major component” in the rise of antibiotic resistance.

Go read the whole article here >>

And remember, if you purchase animal products that used nontherapeutic antibiotics (which is how the majority of animal products available for consumption in the US are produced), then you are funding this antibiotic resistant bacteria growth. Go vegan and help slow the spread of disease.

(Thanks to Mimi for the link)

Dear Vegan,

There is a guy I was talking to about being vegan. He said that I’ll only live to 50, and that veganism is unhealthy. I explained that he’s wrong and my own health exams prove that I’m healthy as a vegan.

I also told him that there is an ethical part to it as well. His reply was that there is no ethical part to it as animals have no rights and are unconscious beings, so it doesn’t matter what you do to them. This upset me greatly; animals feel pain and they have desires.

He didn’t even try to see from my point of view. I don’t know what else to say to him because I feel he may have really no empathy for other living beings. But what else can I say. How do I get people to see from my point of view? I don’t want them to have to agree with me but I feel they should at least look at both sides and not just what they want to see.

Help,

Vegan-Debater

Dear Vegan-Debater,

First, let me give you some health resources that prove vegetarianism and veganism can be very healthy. Below are two kinds of resources, one for in-depth nutritional information and one for quick and easy guides.

a) Here is some in-depth information. Take your time to read these sources thoroughly and reread as needed:

• Vegan Health: http://www.veganhealth.org/
• Plant-Based Nutrition: http://www.plantbasednutrition.org/plant-based-nutrition/

b) These take little time to read and are easy to print out and give to new vegans. They are what I call, “easy to follow nutrition guidelines”:

• USDA: http://www.mypyramid.gov/tips_resources/vegetarian_diets.html
• USDA: http://www.mypyramid.gov/downloads/TenTips/VegetarianTipsheet.pdf
• Vegan Food Pyramid: http://www.veganfoodpyramid.com/
• ADA: http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6373
• ADA: http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6374

Next, let me get to your main issue. You ask, “How do I get people to see from my point of view?”

This is going to be frustrating, but unfortunately there are a huge number of people who simply refuse to try to see things from our perspective. We can try and try, but some are simply never going to open their eyes.

Here’s how I like to deal with that reality:

• Remember that some people will open their eyes, just not right away. Be patient and respectful and keep working on them gently.
• Realize that some will never open their eyes, so don’t waste a tone of time trying to convince them. Instead, focus on other people who are more likely to need and use the support that you offer. Give those people more of your energy.
• Remind yourself that this is a “numbers game.” The more people you reach out to, the more likely some will choose vegan. Keep spreading knowledge far and wide. Find methods that suit you and go for it gung-ho! Spread the vegan message!

Hope that helps,

Vegan

The article concludes by suggesting that no, meat-eating is so damaging to the environment that any self-proclaimed environmentalist would stop doing it.

For example, she says:

“Animal product consumption destroys rainforests, the rivers, streams and oceans, the air we breathe; it perpetuates world hunger and institutionalizes the suffering and outright misery for billions of animals. And animal feed is grown by intensive farming operations that use massive quantities of pesticides and herbicides. In addition, half of our potable water in the U.S. is used in raising animals for food.”

She cites the authoritative and extensive 2½-year examination conducted by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, which recommends that we “replace the inflexible and broken system [to deal with farm waste] that exists today, to protect Americans from the adverse environmental and human health hazards”. The system needs replacement. It’s broken. I don’t see how someone could, in good conscience, financially support a broken system that has “adverse environmental and human health hazards” when they don’t have to.

But apparently vegan Erik Marcus has decided to defend some meat-eating environmentalists by declaring that the problem is “enormously complex” and shouldn’t be reduced to simple and catchy slogans. For example, he says:

“Suppose you follow a vegan diet plus one cheeseburger a year: this clearly makes you a meat eater, but it would be absurd to claim that that one burger has any significant impact on the environment.”

Yeah, Ok, but I’m pretty sure I’ve met that guy. And he calls himself a vegetarian. As much as it irritates me, he identifies as a vegetarian.

In fact, I’ve met a ton of people who eat meat rarely, yet call themselves vegetarian. They’re not technically vegetarian or vegan. But they think they are. They act like they are. They buy products marketed to vegetarians. They attend events held for vegetarians. They pat themselves on the back when vegetarianism is praised. And they’d agree with the statement that “you can’t be a meat-eating environmentalist.”

So, for all practical purposes, Erik is missing the point.

Next, he attacks Shankar on the grounds that “there’s an enormous difference in both resource demands and pollution when you compare red meat to poultry.” He’s right. It’s more environmentally damaging to consume dairy or beef than chicken or eggs. It’s even more true for rabbits. In fact, a number of “environmentalists” are calling for an increase in rabbit-meat consumption along with a decrease in larger animal meat consumption.

But is this really a fair argument?

We all know that when it comes to suffering, calorie-for-calorie the reverse is true: eggs are worse than beef. If you care about animal welfare, it’s better to consume organic, grass-fed beef than chicken. So where does that leave the ethical consumer? Do they have to choose between the environment or animal welfare? Of course not! It’s a false dilemma. The ethical consumer has a far better option: veganism.

But, listen, if you want to eat animals – like rabbits – and call yourself an environmentalist, I’ll let you have your eco label. I won’t say, “You can’t be a meat-eating environmentalist.” But I’ll give you another label: bunny-butcher.*

—

*Vegan Soapbox doesn’t allow obscenities, thus bunny-butcher is a placeholder for any and every nasty insult you can think of.

I don’t know why some anti-vegans think that curbing one’s appetite for cruelty by eating vegan fare is akin to sexual abstinence. It’s rather odd, since the animals that humans eat rarely reproduce sexually. In fact, modern-day turkeys are bred to grow so grotesquely large very quickly that they are incapable of reproducing sexually. Most male hogs bred for bacon, ham, or pork are castrated. Dairy cattle are artificially inseminated.

The more apt analogy is the one that Jonathan Safran Foer has made that eating vegetarian food while craving meat is simply the responsible, ethical thing to do. It’s is more akin to abstaining from engaging in illegal or inappropriate sexual conduct than abstaining from all sex. Here’s part of an interview with JSF:

[Interviewer:] Bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste good.
[JSF:] [silence]

[Interviewer:] And vegetarianism will take something good away that can’t be replaced.
[JSF:] It will take something away, but it’s something that can be replaced. And I appreciate when someone says that. They like meat. I liked meat too. It’s a good thing. But, I mean, there are a lot of other really nice foods. And there are a lot of things we like more than meat, and on top of that, there are plenty of things that we like but choose not to indulge in, thank God. Like I would bet you that there are very few people who like the taste of food as much as they like having sex, right?

[Interviewer:] Right.
[JSF:] The good news is, people don’t have sex every time they feel like it. The good news is, we’re not a culture of rapists and so on. And I’m not equating rape with meat here—I’m equating a way of thinking about craving. And I am perfectly willing to go with somebody who says ‘I’m really going to miss it.’ But I’m not willing to go much further than that. Yes, you’ll miss it, but it’ll be replaced with other things, and, you miss things all the time. Plus, people who eat less meat tend to take on a more diverse diet, and most people would think of a more diverse diet as more pleasurable.

The analogy is not new. Consider The Sexual Politics of Meat, which clearly illustrates how meat has been marketed as masculine and primal despite the realities. Meat has been normalized right along with sexism. The two forms of exploitation of sentient beings – sexism and speciesism – often go together. Jezebel writer Sadie explains:

“Meat has become a cultural touchstone, be it old-school masculinity, new masculinity (looking at you, Jonathan Safran-Foer), defiance (The Shameless Carnivore), ambivalence (The Compassionate Carnivore) locavore rock-stardom or self-exploration like Powell’s memoir or the recent Meat, A Love Story. And it’s rarely about the protein. It’s about masculinity, femininity, place in the world and planet. (Short-order short-hand, if you will.) It’s a disingenuous return to the primitive, but it’s suspiciously on-trend.”

I was interviewed about mock meats recently. I said that I thought faux meats were great because they are often marketed in the meat section of the grocery store and they remind meat-eaters that they have a choice that they don’t have to eat dead animals. They can choose foods that taste similar to meat without the cruelty of meat.

I also explained that because I grew up vegetarian, I like faux meats because to me they were simply new foods that tasted good… and I’m always supportive of new tasty foods, so long as they are actually food for humans and not tortured sentient beings.

But the Alternet article gets better. For example, it says:

“What of sex with live partners is absent when we have it with lifelike replicas? Let’s see: Emotions. Microbes. A response. What of eating animals is missing when we eat Tofu Pups? Gristle. Guilt over farms and slaughter. Fear of cancer, heart disease, global ruin. ”

“It is a testament to human genius and human chicanery that we make fakes to fool parts of ourselves. Some we adopt in secrecy and shame and desperation: sex dolls, say, or Rolex knockoffs. Others, such as fake meat, we embrace for reasons ethical, medical, psychological, political and philosophical.”

Larry King Live video that’s semi-relevant:

*Feature image is from the film “Lars And The Real Girl” wherein a man gets a Real Doll (“The World’s Finest Love Doll”). The scene shown here is Lars cutting up meat for his Real Doll.

“Department of Agriculture officials failed to act on reports of illegal and unsafe slaughterhouse practices, letting suspect operations continue despite public health risks, a USDA veterinarian alleges in testimony to be aired today at a congressional hearing.”

“The charges by Dean Wyatt, a supervisory veterinarian at the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, detail instances in which he and other inspectors were overruled when citing slaughterhouses for violations such as shocking and butchering days-old calves that were too weak or sick to stand. He also describes being threatened with transfer or demotion after citing a plant for butchering conscious pigs, despite rules that they first be stunned and unconscious.”

Read the rest at USA Today >>

(emphasis added)

Other bloggers have things to say about it:

• MFA: USDA Veterinarian Accuses Officials of Covering Up Animal Abuse
• CNN: How Safe is Your Food?
• Vegan.com: USDA Covered Up Butchering of Conscious Pigs

Vegan Outreach reaches millions of young minds each year with the animals’ plight through our cost-effective leafleting program. For more information, please visit veganoutreach.org.

Why would vegans worry about vaccines?
Because most vaccines involve the use of animal products (such as eggs) as well as the use of animal testing, both of which vegans generally avoid.

My response was long and in-depth, so much so that I wanted to share it here at the Soapbox. Here is my email about my thoughts on vaccines and veganism. (Please remember that these are MY thoughts and do not represent all vegans.):

Hi Jason,

Re. Spawn Better vaccine question

With foster children, we are technically agents of the state. Until or unless we adopt, as foster parents we don’t have full parental rights. So, unless or until birth parents rights have been terminated, we must go along with whatever medical decisions that the birth parents or the state makes on behalf of the child. That means, for example, that if a birth parent wants their newborn baby boy to be circumcised, we cannot stand in the way and prevent that from happening, even if we object. Or vice versa, we cannot get a child’s ears pierced, hair cut, or any other nonemergency medical procedure or body modification. In fact, because my husband is obviously Jewish (by ethnicity, not religion) he was pulled aside and reminded by case workers that many of the children in fostercare are not circumcised and he cannot circumcise them. (He would never do that anyway!) So… legally we have no choice but to follow traditional vaccination schedules with our foster baby.

That said, we’ve talked a lot about vaccinations because we hope to have bio children and because after we adopt we will have full parental rights.

My husband at first assumed that all vaccines were beneficial. He assumed we would vaccinate our children unless there was a specific medical or ethical reason to avoid them. He says he understands a vegan rationale for abstaining from vaccines, but his level of veganism allows for such compromises until there are better alternatives. He says, for example, that if humans had a biological need for animal protein, then he wouldn’t be vegan. He avoids unnecessary animal products and he feels that some medications and vaccines are necessary. In general, I agree with him.

I feel that vaccines are beneficial in general, but that their benefits are overstated. For example, I think the risks of most of the diseases that vaccines prevent are very low, particularly when the affected person has clean drinking water, good hygiene, and medical treatment when they’re ill, like antibiotics. For example, the actual risk of dying from measles is slight so long as the person who contracted the disease has plenty of safe things to eat and drink and has access to medical facilities. (From the W.H.O., “Severe measles is more likely among poorly nourished young children, especially those with insufficient vitamin A, or whose immune systems have been weakened by HIV/AIDS or other diseases. [...] The overwhelming majority (more than 95%) of measles deaths occur in countries with low per capita incomes and weak health infrastructures.“) I see vaccines as a sort of band-aid for larger public health problems. And I’m no germaphobe, but It drives me crazy how many people discount the simple act of hand-washing and all that it can do to prevent the spread of disease.

MY MAIN POINT: I think that when it comes to ensuring good health for our children and the public at large, we ought to put more emphasis on healthy eating (vegan obviously), clean air and water, education about good hygiene, and access for all people to medical facilities for emergency care.

Another area that has influenced my thoughts on vaccines is that they’re required for so much: day care, school, field trips, etc. And I have had to receive certain vaccines in order to obtain employment or to volunteer in certain situations. Getting vaccinated can make life easier. This social benefit weighs in on my decision.

However, that has to be balanced with the potential risk. I absolutely agree with the Green Our Vaccines campaign and I think vaccines should be free of heavy metals and all other impurities. But I’m currently unconvinced that the potential harm of vaccines outweighs the benefits.

So… my husband and I have talked about vaccines. He says I’ve changed his mind a bit and he’s less likely to just go with the flow and get all the standard vaccines for our children. We decided that when we have legal authority to make such decisions, we’ll investigate each vaccine and decide on a case-by-case basis. But in general, because of the social expectation, the social convenience, and the medical benefits we’ll be vaccinating our children.

take care,
Elaine

To read other vegan parents thoughts on parenting, please check out Spawn Better. The vaccine post should go up on Jason’s website in a week or so.

Not that lying about meat is anything new, but the source of this particular kind of meat is particularly troublesome for children to… er… digest.

From the article:

Rabbit is also becoming popular among those with an interest in raising farm animals but without much space or experience. Sure, rabbits can be fragile. They get scared and have heart attacks. Heat or the cold can knock them off. They can be bad parents, abandoning their babies or worse.

But they breed like, well, you know. That means they produce a lot of meat for not much money. And they’re clean and quiet — especially welcome traits in the suburbs.

“I always say rabbits are the new chickens,” said Novella Carpenter, who built a farm on an abandoned lot in a poor section of Oakland, Calif.,

Why in the world would people be interested in eating rabbits?

Well, the simple answer is that there are even fewer laws protecting rabbits than there are protecting cows and pigs. And the laws protecting cows and pigs aren’t many and they aren’t well enforced. So, raising rabbits in your back yard, torturing them, and killing them cruelly is basically 100% legal. That’s not about to change any time soon.

Many routine animal “husbandry” practices these days would be illegal if inflicted upon cats or dogs, but farm animals are subjected to enormous amounts of cruelty. It’s absurd to suggest we ought to extend that cruelty to other species and suburban environments by raising and killing rabbits.

More from the article:

When the French food revolution changed American dining in the 1960s, rabbit in mustard sauce would turn up at the occasional dinner party or restaurant. But the country never quite got past the pets-or-meat problem.

Ever since the Victorians began keeping them as pets, the relationship between the rabbit and the table has been uneasy.

“Uneasy” is putting it mildly. The whole thing is just sick. Sick and wrong.

(Thanks to Mimi for the link.)