Making Hay

A Vegan’s Dream

By Jasmin

Jenna Kirkman and Brianna Calkins of Project Moo Moo Meow have entered the Name Your Dream Assignment contest, and they need your help. Why should you help these strangers make their dream come true, when you’ve got your own stuff to worry about? The answer is simple. Their dream is to “travel across the United States, photographing rescued farm animals and using the art of photography as a tool for social change.”

In addition to watching their dream become a reality, the winner of the contest will receive fifty-thousand smack-a-roos. Since Jenna and Brianna think that is “way too much money to spend selfishly,” they plan on donating the dough to shelters and organizations in need, as well as raising even more donation money by selling their photographs. (Don’t miss their flickr page for a sample of their beautiful pictures. Check out the cool duck above for my personal fave.)

Voting ends in one short week (April 3). Let’s show these superstar ACTivists our support by voting for them today. (Hint: The voting doo-dad is on the top left-hand corner of the screen.)

Way to advocate creatively, Brianna and Jenna! All fingers (and paws) are crossed!

Covering Up Reality, One Pothole at a Time

by Jasmin

We know the economy is in trouble when the only one patching up potholes is Colonel Sanders. According to Reuter’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken is spending an undisclosed amount of money filling potholes in up to five U.S. cities – all with the KFC “seal of approval.” Louisville, Kentucky was their first victim. In a letter to the Mayor of Louisville, the president of KFC stated:

“KFC has been bringing communities together over buckets of chicken for more than 50 years. We invite you and your city to become a part of a new tradition and accept our offer to Re-'Fresh' your roads. Together, we can give your community a much needed break and help keep America moving.”

Bringing communities together? Over a bucket of dead birds? Help keep America moving? By filling potholes with lies?

Of the 10 billion farm animals slaughtered in this country each year for food, more than 9 billion of them are birds. That’s about 286 per second, 24/7.

Much like green-washing, something sinister is afoot when a company that makes its fortune from the abuse, exploitation and slaughter of sentient creatures portends to step forward with a "noble" gesture to pick up pieces of a broken economy. In fact, factory farming is directly connected to economic hardship.

Some people really are taking a noble path, engaging in behavior that actually creates social awareness and change.

One person walking this path is Amy Hatkoff, whose new book, The Inner World of Farm Animals: Their Amazing Intellectual, Emotional, and Social Capacities, will be released next month. According to her publisher, Hatkoff’s book combines “the latest research on the emotional and intellectual capacities of farm animals with touching — and often surprising — stories to bring their inner world to life.” Stories and photos of rescued farm animals living at Farm Sanctuary are featured throughout the book and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to animal protection organizations. In fact, we hear that Ellen DeGeneres, a Farm Sanctuary supporter and one of our favorite vegan celebrities, will feature thebook on her show today!

Here’s a positive action item for you: Go to your local library and ask them to carry The Inner World of Farm Animals. And while you’re there, drop off a stack of How We Treat the Animals We Eat and our Guide to Veg Living.

If you happen to be in Louisville, or another city where these KFC pothole (and cruelty) cover-ups start appearing, be sure to contact your mayor and the editor of your local paper and tell them to stop using your city streets to advertise misery.

White House garden

By Gene

After hearing from many thousands of caring citizens across the United States, including members of Farm Sanctuary, the Obamas decided to grow an organic garden at the White House. According to the New York Times, “While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, it’s most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at time when obesity has become a national concern.” 

Our country’s health has deteriorated as industrial animal farming has spread. For the first time in U.S. history, this generation of children is expected to die younger than their parents. But it doesn’t have to be this way, and the first family’s positive example could help turn things around. When Franklyn and Eleanor Roosevelt planted a White House garden, it helped inspire Victory Gardens across the U.S. Let’s hope the Obama’s garden will do the same. 

Our food system has profound consequences for animals, the earth, and our own health, and tragically, we have been eating our way to death and destruction by ingesting products of violence, gluttony and injustice. Hopefully, the seeds of the White House organic garden will blossom and grow in communities across the country and people will be inspired to reconnect with the earth and grow healthful foods that help to nourish mind, body and soul.

A Nation Weaning Itself off Meat and Dairy

 

by Danielle

On Monday, the National Institute of Health’s study “Meat Intake and Mortality: A Prospective Study of Over Half a Million People” was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine and newspaper headlines across the country warned of the risk of eating red meat on a daily basis.

Last week, First Lady Michelle Obama planted a vegetable garden on the White House lawn with a group of school children and cheered "Let's hear it for vegetables! Yay! Let's hear it for fruits! Yeah!"

Over the weekend, a vegan entry took second place in Philadelphia’s Scrapple Fest.

Clearly eating plant-based foods has hit mainstream acceptance and is wending its way into the halls of governance.

Next stop: the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Not only do our schoolchildren need more fruits and vegetables included in their cafeteria lunches (and for some, breakfasts), they also need to have the option for a non-dairy milk, such as rice, soy or almond.

Currently, virtually all children participating in the NSLP are automatically served cow's milk, despite the fact that as many as eight million school children are lactose intolerant, and countless others avoid cow's milk for health, environmental and ethical reasons. A long-standing federal policy stipulates that schools will only be reimbursed for meals containing a serving of cow's milk. The effect of this stipulation is that in almost all schools participating in the NSLP, healthy, plant-based alternatives to cow’s milk—such as fortified soymilk, rice milk and almond milk—are unavailable to children.

On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will hold a hearing—Beyond Federal School Meal Programs: Reforming Nutrition for Kids in Schools Not surprisingly, a dairy industry representative is on the panel of speakers.

There is no time to waste – please contact your U.S. Senators right away and tell them what you’d like to see on your kid’s plate.

 

Calling All Pig-tivists

by Jasmin

When I was a kid, my older brother used to taunt me by calling me “Miss Piggy.” I see now that it was a compliment! Pigs are, without question, among the most social, warm, and playful farm animals. Just take a look at Susie Coston’s recent blog entry for proof (be sure to scroll down and watch the heart-warming video of Sprinkles and Tim).

Despite their extraordinarily high intelligence level, it is not breaking news that pigs are also among the most poorly treated animals in factory farms today. Recently, there’s been a flurry of media attention given to the porcine family. These are all opportunities for us to take action by utilizing our social networking skills and getting the word out far and wide that these precious creatures should not be treated with anything but compassion.

In the recent New York Times article, “Pathogens in Our Pork,” Nicholas D. Kristof explains that it would be ludicrous to add antibiotics to baby food as a means to ward off ear infections, given the fact that overuse of such drugs make us resistant to medication. He goes on to say that despite this, “we continue to allow agribusiness companies to add antibiotics to animal feed so that piglets stay healthy and don’t get ear infections. Seventy percent of all antibiotics in the United States go to healthy livestock, according to a careful study by the Union of Concerned Scientists – and that’s one reason we’re seeing the rise of pathogens that defy antibiotics.”

A few days prior, Kristof published “Our Pigs, Our Food, Our Health,” which talks about MRSA, a deadly staph infection, which now kills more Americans per year than the AIDS virus. Kristof explained that there is a strain of MRSA that is incubated and spread by pigs to humans. It was a Dutch study that linked pig-carrying MRSA to human heart inflammation.
 
You can post a comment to these (and other) Times articles by registering for free. Be sure to thank Kristof for his continual coverage of the abuses inherent in factory farming. You might want to also mention, in the nicest way possible, that “our pigs” are not “our food,” and “our health” would be better off if more people confronted that reality. (Some things just seem so obvious…)

While you’re at it, check out this New York Times review of the ground-breaking HBO documentary, “Death on a Factory Farm,” which goes undercover at a hog farm in Ohio, detailing horrid abuses, such as pigs being hung by chains and strangled to death. I recommend that you gather your meat-eating friends and watch this documentary. Also, read the Times review and please comment. The writer manages to eek in some ignorant remarks, such as one from a “sympathetic farmer” who says “we can’t all eat lettuce.” (Last I checked, my healthy and delicious vegan diet had a myriad of delectable food options.)

In the midst of a pig-filled week, we are asking that our pig-tivists also take action on this alert, detailing a tasteless ad put out by Boost Mobile in which two pigs are eating ham, enjoying the remains of a “fallen friend.” It’s one of the most insensitive and disturbing ads involving farm animals that we’ve witnessed. Some things are just not funny.

With Easter coming up – a holiday where many people still eat ham as part of a misguided “tradition” – why not order some newly designed “Truth Behind Pork” brochures so that you can help educate your friends and family in advance? Ask that they extend their circle of compassion to animals and consider some delectable (and cruelty-free!) vegan options.

And don’t fret. Remember the story of Sprinkles and Tim, and all the other ambassadors at Farm Sanctuary. Even in the midst of misinformed people, making some hay and refusing to be complacent does make a difference.

Take it from E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web:

The thought of death came to him and he began to tremble with fear.

“I don’t want to die,” screamed Wilbur, throwing himself to the ground.

“You shall not die,” said Charlotte, briskly.

“What? Really?” cried Wilbur. “Who’s going to save me?”

“I am,” said Charlotte.

Incremental Steps for Downers

By Gene

Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture strengthened its policy to prevent the slaughter of downed cattle for human food by closing loopholes that allowed downed cows to enter the human food supply under certain circumstances. This is a positive development, which represents another incremental step towards lessening the suffering and abuse of downed animals (i.e. animals too sick even to stand).

After Farm Sanctuary’s rescue of Hilda, a downed sheep who was left on the “dead pile” behind Lancaster Stockyards in 1986, media exposés about downed animal abuses in the 80s and 90s led the USDA to start a surveillance program to monitor stockyards. The Agency even tried to prosecute stockyards for mistreating downed animals, but that effort ended when a court ruled that U.S.D.A. had no legal authority to address animal welfare at stockyards. The law (i.e. the Packers and Stockyards Act) required stockyards to provide adequate care to maintain the economic “value” of the animals, but if an animal was discarded and considered to have no economic value, stockyards were legally allowed to leave them to suffer and die with impunity.

In the 1990s, we broadened our effort to address the abuse of downed animals at slaughterhouses, in addition to stockyards and auctions. The primary federal law addressing farm animal welfare in the U.S., ironically, is the Humane Slaughter Act. The USDA. has a notoriously poor track record of enforcing this law, but it has adopted some positive positions regarding downed animals over the years, usually because of pressure.

In 2001, Farm Sanctuary brought a lawsuit to end the slaughter of downed animals for human food, citing animal welfare and human health concerns, including the threat of mad cow disease. The U.S.D.A. denied the existence of mad cow disease in the U.S. until December, 2003, when mad cow disease was confirmed in a downed cow in Washington State. After that discovery, our lawsuit was settled in 2004 with the U.S.D.A. agreeing that downed cattle would not be used for human food and banning the delivery of downed cattle to slaughterhouses. But the meat industry was able to insert a loophole during the regulatory process, and a policy adopted in 2007 prohibited downed cattle from being accepted at the slaughterhouse, but strangely allowed cattle who walked into the slaughterhouse but then became downed afterwards to be used for human food. In 2008, an exposé showed a southern California slaughterhouse exploiting this loophole, and violating federal and state downed animal regulations and laws (California enacted a law to restrict the abuses of downed animals in 1994), which led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history. Once again, a light was shined on downed animal abuse, and the U.S.D.A. was compelled to tighten its downed animal rules.

We are pleased that USDA has instituted a strict ban on slaughtering downed cattle for human food, and this policy should now apply to pigs and other animals too. We will keep the pressure on.

Taking Steps Toward A Compassionate World

 

By Danielle

We recently alerted our members to a step the USDA has taken to end the abuse of downed cattle by banning the slaughter of all “non-ambulatory” cattle and preventing them from entering the human food supply. With this announcement, we asked you to join us in pushing the USDA to take another step, to include pigs, sheep, goats and other animals.

When we talk about efforts to stop abuses of farm animals within the existing structure of animal agriculture, we often get the question “how does this really help?” It is a question we ask ourselves on a regular basis, to ensure our actions are aligned with our end goals. When we look into the eyes of the countless animals we’ve rescued, we know our actions must have meaning and must bring about an end to this cycle of cruelty.

In our view, policy reforms complement our aspiration to achieve a world free of the violence visited daily upon farm animals in animal agriculture. Incremental improvements are steps along that road to a compassionate world. Each step can educate millions who have never before considered the plight of farm animals and bring them into our cause. They can provide modest yet meaningful improvements in the lives of individual farm animals. And most of all, they can chip away at a politically powerful behemoth that has desensitized consumers with slick marketing campaigns and shackled barn doors.

In the case of our No Downers Campaign, as Farm Sanctuary President and Co-Founder Gene Baur stated in a recent e-mail alert, it “was founded in the belief that if downed animals are prevented from entering the food supply, producers would have less of an incentive to maintain the status quo of pushing these animals past their biological limits at any and all costs.”

This is a David v. Goliath fight, but we are not likely to strike down our opposition with one blow. We are more likely to prevail by dismantling the factory farm board by board, crate by crate, and employing all the tools and weapons at our disposal: education, investigation, prosecution, litigation, legislation and policy reform. Eliminating the cruelest practices through policy reform and market pressure brings us closer to the day when factory farming is fully dismantled. That day is within our reach and it will mark a great victory we can all celebrate.

Yet the policy arena is not the only landmark along our journey. A cultural shift is also on the horizon, and it is central to a compassionate world. Let me share with you some fine words of wisdom and inspiration from a Farm Sanctuary position statement:

Ending factory farming as we know it will save countless animals and spare our fragile ecosystem significant stress. But, we must also work to erode society's well conditioned and rarely examined sense of animals as commodities. That is about a deeper change at the very heart of animal exploitation and central to the human and environmental harm wrought by the general public's unreflective acceptance of farm animals as production units rather than as sentient individuals.

So how do we encourage personal transformation until we achieve that tipping point where the few become the many? When the notion of animals as beings and not things becomes the rule rather than the exception? Farm Sanctuary answers this question with our unrelenting commitment to exposing the stark realities of animal agriculture and with our tireless efforts to rescue and shelter its victims.

Because the No Downers Campaign addresses one of the most egregious and blatant forms of cruelty, it can be seen as an important step toward a larger goal. Steps can be long or short, rapid or slow, but they all add up to get us where we want to go. I look forward to taking this journey with you.

Yes We Can … Eat Plants

by Jasmin

Michelle Obama is bold. Besides turning heads with her clothing choices, the First Lady is making a statement with her White House agenda: to make healthy food readily available in this, the fattest country on earth. In this article published in yesterday’s New York Times, Mrs. Obama was interviewed while volunteering at a soup kitchen in Washington, D.C. Though the word “vegan” was not brought up once, nearly every single food mentioned was derived from plants, and one might surmise from her commitment to providing “fresh, unprocessed and locally grown foods” to the needy – not to mention the fact that White House employees donated eight cases of fresh fruit – that eating lower on the food chain is a high-priority for Michelle Obama.

Of course, the health benefits of eating a vegan diet are hardly news to those who’ve been paying attention; but it’s certainly nice to see one of the most famous and powerful women in the world making the connection between better health and plant-based foods – even if only by implication through her recent actions. And, since animal agriculture is a major contributor to both environmental devastation and world hunger, going vegan is not only a healthy choice, but a necessity for the well-being of everyone on earth as well. 

In a time of economic hardship, let’s be like Michelle Obama and donate food to our local food banks. (The easiest way I found to locate my local food bank was through good ol’ Google.) This might be a no-brainer, but make your food donation vegan. That way, those in your community who are less lucky than you can not only have good food readily available to them, but also, by choosing to not contribute to animal agriculture, you can help animals, hungry people in your community and our planet. Though none of us can solve the world’s problems on our own, donating vegan goods to those in need is one little way that each of us can do our part – just like Michelle Obama. Yes we should!

P.S. Don’t miss “Our Pigs, Our Food, Our Health” also from yesterday’s New York Times. This op-ed, as well as the Obama article, provide excellent Letter to the Editor opportunities.

Cut the Crap

By Gene

For decades, factory farms have subjected animals and workers to abuse, and polluted the environment with reckless abandon. They have been able to get away with it because there is a lack of transparency and accountability, and because agribusiness has been able to influence legislative bodies to enact laws that exempt farming from basic standards of decency.

But, the various harms of factory farming are becoming painfully apparent. A couple years ago, the United Nations issued a report entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow”, which described how the livestock industry contributes more to global warming than the entire transportation industry, and now the Environmental Protection Agency wants factory farms (along with other entities) to provide information about their green house gas emissions.

Agribusiness was angered by the idea that it might be held accountable for its emissions, and convinced federal law makers to propose legislation to exempt factory farming.  Factory farming’s arrogance, lack of accountability and failure to take responsibility for their actions continue to amaze, as do the willingness of politicians to support agribusiness’s indefensible conduct. Both need to be held accountable for their ignominious behavior.

Turning the Clocks Ahead for Farm Animals

by Danielle

 

We all lost an hour on Sunday. I generally like Daylight Savings Time and the longer days, more sunshine and increased activity in my community – but I really wish I had that hour. Having it taken away from me made me think about how much one can do in just an hour (like write a blog entry). Let’s all challenge ourselves to take back that hour (not wait until the fall and the return to standard time) and spend it turning the clocks ahead for farm animals.

Here is one way to spend that hour: Farm animal protection bills are racking up in state legislatures across the country and action is needed to see these laws enacted. In just an hour, you can identify bills pending in your state, read up on the issue, send a message to your legislators, and forward that alert to your friends and family. It is all quick and easy on farmsanctuary.org. Let’s dismantle the factory farms, one step, one state at a time.

When you are done with that, why not amplify your voice with a letter to the editor of your favorite local newspaper? Check out our guide on writing LTEs.

Still have more time in your hour? Wow – you are efficient! Take a few minutes to do something nice for yourself, you deserve it.