Bold Native is a fiction feature film. Charlie Cranehill, an animal liberator wanted by the United States government for domestic terrorism, emerges from the underground to coordinate a nationwide action as his estranged CEO father tries to find him before the FBI does. The film simultaneously follows a young woman who works for an animal welfare organization fighting within the system to establish more humane treatment of farmed animals. From abolitionists to welfarists, Bold Native takes on the issue of modern animal use and exploitation from several angles within the context of a road movie adventure story.

The filmmakers’ background in documentary informed the creative approach to Bold Native. Self-financed and shot with a four person team in real-world locations, sometimes using real activists, lawyers, and formerly imprisoned animal liberators, the film weaves an intricate tale of one of the most important issues facing America and the world morally and ecologically – the impact and consequences of industrialized animal use. And with a character who faces prosecution and potential lifetime imprisonment under the recently passed Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) for property crimes currently considered terrorism, the film also illuminates the danger of corporate interests influencing the law in a post-9/11 world.

Learn more at boldnative.com

“I like my vegan food to be sexy, dirty fun,”

“I have so much energy these days, so much more than I did when I was 19 and had bags under my eyes,” she said. “Once the sludge was removed from me, I felt my body soften and open, and I felt awake and alert and inspired and turned on. The way I live and eat now, it’s changed me as an actress — totally.”

read the whole article here >>

Current Market

• Sales of vegetarian foods in the U.S. were estimated at $2.8 billion in 2006, which represented a constant-price growth rate of 72% since 1998.
• 3.2% of U.S. adults follow a vegetarian diet, up from 2.8% in 2003 and just 2.3% in 2000.
• 4% of adults in Canada follow a vegetarian diet and 10% of the English identify themselves as either vegetarian or vegan.
• Younger people are moving towards vegetarianism, with 10% of the 25 to 34 year olds saying that they never eat meat.
• the vegetariansite.com, an internet business that sells a wide variety of vegan products, has seen 20% annual growth with increasing orders from Canada, Europe and Japan.
• The July-December 2007 newsstand sales of Vegetarian Times increased 19.4% over the same period in 2006.

So go ahead and bet on vegan business with your dollars! And bet on the animal movement in general. We’re making waves!

via Our Hen House

(Thanks to: Bea, vegan.com, PPK, HSUS, and others for the news)

My response: If you’re not an Iniut, don’t eat like one!

Human beings have evolved to be opportunistic eaters. We are omnivores in the sense that our bodies can eat many different kinds of things. But extensive research has shown that most humans should eat mostly plants. That is the ideal diet for humans. It is the healthiest options for humans. Only when plants are scarce should humans eat animals. Humans can survive by eating some animals, but if they eat only animals, particularly only certain kinds of animals, humans don’t fair well.

The omnivore’s own article explains how the most efficient and the most natural diet for humans is plant-based:

The simplest, fastest way to make energy is to convert carbohydrates into glucose, our body’s primary fuel. But if the body is out of carbs, it can burn fat, or if necessary, break down protein. The name given to the convoluted business of making glucose from protein is gluconeogenesis. It takes place in the liver, uses a dizzying slew of enzymes, and creates nitrogen waste that has to be converted into urea and disposed of through the kidneys. On a truly traditional diet, says Draper, recalling his studies in the 1970s, Arctic people had plenty of protein but little carbohydrate, so they often relied on gluconeogenesis. Not only did they have bigger livers to handle the additional work but their urine volumes were also typically larger to get rid of the extra urea. Nonetheless, there appears to be a limit on how much protein the human liver can safely cope with: Too much overwhelms the liver’s waste-disposal system, leading to protein poisoning—nausea, diarrhea, wasting, and death.

Whatever the metabolic reason for this syndrome, says John Speth, an archaeologist at the University of Michigan’s Museum of Anthropology, plenty of evidence shows that hunters through the ages avoided protein excesses, discarding fat-depleted animals even when food was scarce. Early pioneers and trappers in North America encountered what looks like a similar affliction, sometimes referred to as rabbit starvation because rabbit meat is notoriously lean. Forced to subsist on fat-deficient meat, the men would gorge themselves, yet wither away. Protein can’t be the sole source of energy for humans, concludes Cordain. Anyone eating a meaty diet that is low in carbohydrates must have fat as well. (emphasis added)

Humans can eat meat. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea, especially if your not an Inuit. Here’s why:

Some humans have genetic mutations suited to living in environments that have few plants. These people have larger livers and other adaptations that allow their bodies to consume animal products in a way that doesn’t cause sickness. (They also do a lot more exercise.) But if you don’t have those adaptations, it simply doesn’t make any sense to eat as if you did. You’ll just make yourself sick.

Another example: many people with Northern European ancestry have a mutation that allows them to digest cow’s milk without adverse effects, however most of the rest of the world does not have this mutation. They’ve been labeled “lactose intolerant.” Wikipedia explains:

It is estimated that 75% of adults worldwide show some decrease in lactase activity during adulthood. [...]

[C]ertain human populations have a mutation on chromosome 2 which eliminates the shutdown in lactase production, making it possible for members of these populations to continue consumption of fresh milk and other dairy products throughout their lives without difficulty. This appears to be an evolutionarily recent adaptation to dairy consumption, and has occurred independently in both northern Europe and east Africa in populations with a historically pastoral lifestyle. Lactase persistence, allowing lactose digestion to continue into adulthood, is a dominant allele, making lactose intolerance a recessive genetic trait.

Does it make sense for people who are lactose intolerant to consume dairy? No, of course not!

We shouldn’t look to a minority of people who have genetic mutations when we’re deciding what is most healthy for most people to eat. We shouldn’t base nutritional information for the majority of humans on a minority population. We should look to what makes the most sense for our own health, for the health of the planet, and for the wellbeing of animals: VEGAN.

Each day, we are given at least three opportunities to practice compassion and to leave cruelty off our plates. Contrary to what some say, adopting a vegan lifestyle does not mean sacrificing anything. In fact, it means quite the opposite: many find veganism opens their world to a universe of yummy foods and like-minded people. Furthermore, a vegan saves over one hundred lives a year. That means that by taking it one step further and advocating for farm animals, you could potentially save thousands of lives. With animal production now responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions; with animal food products responsible for a vast array of diseases that are plaguing our country; and with nearly 10 billion land animals being killed or food each year in our country, isn’t it a moral imperative to go vegan and advocate for farm animals?

But you’ve never done any sort of vegan education or animal advocacy outreach at all. In fact, you’re kind of shy and nervous about the whole thing.

So what should you do? Here are some options:

• Donate to Vegan Outreach. Go here to contribute >>
• Keep some “Why Vegan?” pamphlets in your backpack or purse. Whenever you find yourself in a waiting room, leave one of the pamphlets along with the magazines and newspapers. Order some pamphlets here >>
• Print up some “Oppose Cruelty” fliers and pin them to bulletin boards on college and high school campuses. Download the PDF here >>
• Check out your local libary’s collection of animal rights books and vegan cookbooks. If you notice that it’s lacking, request these types of books from a librarian.
• Same thing for book stores. If they don’t have a great selection of animal-friendly books, request that those books be added to the store. When these books are available in the library or book store, people can do their own research. But if the books aren’t there, the opportunity is lost.
• Put a “Go Vegan” bumper sticker on your car. Hardly anyone will say anything to you about it, but you’re still spreading the message far and wide.
• Set up a vegan blog and post vegan news bits, vegan recipes, or movie recommendations.

Here is a quote from the official website for International Women’s Day about what the day currently represents:

“The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women’s and society’s thoughts about women’s equality and emancipation. Many from a younger generation feel that ‘all the battles have been won for women’ while many feminists from the 1970’s know only too well the longevity and ingrained complexity of patriarchy. With more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of women’s visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life, one could think that women have gained true equality. The unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women’s education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.”

“However, great improvements have been made. We do have female astronauts and prime ministers, school girls are welcomed into university, women can work and have a family, women have real choices. And so the tone and nature of IWD has, for the past few years, moved from being a reminder about the negatives to a celebration of the positives.” (source; emphasis added)

Because of the new IWD tone, it’s rather interesting that a small group of people who label themselves “abolitionist vegan feminists” have made a group statement for International Women’s Day and in the statement, they chose to focus on sexism within the animal rights movement rather than on celebrating the victories of vegan women or the victories of female animals.

I think I’ll go ahead and celebrate some victories…

One of the best examples of a victory are the “Vicktory Dogs” at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Meet two of the dogs rescued from Micheal Vick’s dogfighting rings:

Little Red arrived at Best Friends covered in facial scars. Her teeth had been filed down. She was probably a “bait” dog – a dog who is used as practice for other dogs. Other, more aggressive dogs attacked her in their fight “training.”
Best Friends describes her victory:

“Needless to say, when she arrived at Best Friends, Little Red was scared of everybody. If you walked up to her, she would quickly scurry away in fear. But then, after just a few weeks at the sanctuary, something incredible happened. Little Red smiled. She actually smiled. The corners of her mouth lifted and she wagged her tail. Now, when she sees her caregivers coming, she runs toward them instead of away!”

Georgia’s ears were cropped and she had scars all over her face. Her tail had evidence of having been broken many times. She had no teeth. She didn’t trust anybody.

But after some time at the sanctuary, she made a special friend in John Garcia, a dog behaviorist, and she’s traveled as a pitbull spokes-dog, demonstrating that even fighting dogs can be rehabilitated into gentle companions.

Another example of victory within the animal rights and feminist movements is the fact that more and more women are writing books about veganism! Here are some examples:

Melanie Joy has written a book called “Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism.” The book, according to Publisher’s Weekly,

“offers an absorbing examination of why humans feel affection and compassion for certain animals but are callous to the suffering of others—especially those slaughtered for our consumption. She takes Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan, and Jonathan Safran Foer’s well-trod route and investigates factory farming, exposing how cruelly the animals are treated, the hazards that meatpacking workers face, and the environmental impact of raising 10 billion animals for food each year. She uses her factory farm–to–table narrative to buttress her real thesis: meat-eating or carnism, is an oppressive ideology as noxious as racism.”

Ruby Roth wrote a children’s book called “That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals: A Book About Vegans, Vegetarians, and All Living Things.” Wired wrote this about the book:

“That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals succeeds in raising awareness about where our food comes from and how our food choices affect other creatures and the environment. Roth touches on the conditions animals raised on factory farms endure…but she doesn’t get overly graphic…That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals nicely connected the dots between how humans treat animals and the impact our species has on the planet as a whole, with the basic premise being that a more enlightened attitude toward our food sources (of course, ideally that would mean becoming vegetarian) translates into a healthier planet.”

Breeze Harper compiled an anthology entitled, “Sistah Vegan: Food, Identity, Health, and Society: Black Female Vegans Speak.” The book is a collection of voices of North American black-identified vegans. The book’s description:

Collectively, these activists are de-colonizing their bodies and minds via whole-foods veganism. By kicking junk-food habits, the more than thirty contributors all show the way toward longer, stronger, and healthier lives. Suffering from type-2 diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure, and overweight need not be the way women of color are doomed to be victimized and live out their mature lives. There are healthy alternatives. [...]Thought-provoking for the identification and dismantling of environmental racism, ecological devastation, and other social injustices, Sistah Vegan is an in-your-face handbook for our time. It calls upon all of us to make radical changes for the betterment of ourselves, our planet, and by extension everyone.

Back to female nonhuman sucesses…

Farm Sanctuary tells Gloria’s story:

“Gloria lived at a racetrack, but she wasn’t there to run, and she didn’t. She couldn’t. Nor could she roam or graze or lounge in the grass. For the first eight years of her life, the little goat was kept tied up in a barn. [...] Other goats like Gloria languish behind the scenes at horse-racing tracks, where their presence is believed to calm high-strung racehorses. These goats are seen merely as tools to enhance the performance of their equine companions, and their own needs are often egregiously neglected. [...]Now in recovery, Gloria continues to grow healthier and enjoys the attention of interns and staff members [...]No longer tied up, no longer weighed down, Gloria was for the first time free to walk wherever she pleased, and she did.”

Now, I’d like to highlight some female animal advocates.

Kris Carr has redefined “sexy” in her books, film, and website: “Crazy, Sexy Life.” She is described as:

“an irreverent foot soldier in the fight against disease, Carr inspires countless individuals and their families to make the link between personal and planetary health by adopting a plant-based diet and improving lifestyle choices. Her witty anecdotes, and tips for tackling adversity motivate her audiences to become empowered wellness activists.”

Mariann Sullivan and Jasmin Singer began a website and podcast called “Our Hen House” which is “a central clearinghouse for all kinds of ideas on how individuals can make change for animals.” The pair does stuff like talk to “The Dosa Man” and “feed compassion.”

Lastly, I’m going to go ahead and give myself a little pat on the back here by counting a major vegan outreach effort in Las Vegas that I spear-headed, “The Vegas Billboard Project.” The grassroots group that I help organize, Vegas Veg*, worked with Mercy For Animals (MFA) to produce nine pro-animal billboards located throughout the Vegas valley. The billboards will be viewed over 10 million times!

This is just a very small slice of the incredible things that women are doing for animals and each other. These stories represent a few of the feminist victories within the animal rights movement. These and similar success stories are something we should ALL continue to acknowledge and celebrate, regardless of our diversity of opinions regarding other aspects of the movement.

Key points:

• He went vegetarian, then vegan.
• To get healthy, he exercised too.
• He learned to cook and doesn’t deprive himself. He likes vegan soul food.

A YouTuber who calls herself HeyItsJamHands wrote and sand a song about loser boys who happen to be vegan. Then some cute vegan boys stepped up and wrote songs back.

(Warning: a few naughty words.)