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[balupton]

What is humane animal agriculture?

Is animal agriculture made “humane” simply by doing it on a smaller scale, in your own backyard or under the pretext of “strengthening your local food system”? How can slashing the throats of 6-week-old baby birds for profit and pleasure — but not out of necessity — be consistent with acting humanely, especially when there is an abundance of cruelty-free alternatives? Why define what is “humane” against the worst case scenario of factory farming instead of the best case scenario: a world that can thrive on a plant-based diet and no longer needs to breed animals into existence for the purpose of enslaving, exploiting and slaughtering them, at all? How can we claim to value the animal’s welfare during the short period of their lives we allow them to remain alive and yet so easily and violently dispose of their lives, as if their very lives held no value at all? What does this say about our culture when people from the world’s most affluent countries still feel entitled enough to harm animals for their own pleasure, even after claiming to believe that animals count morally and should therefore be given moral consideration? Isn’t this yet another example of Orwellian doublespeak? In Voltaire words, “If we believe in absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.” — Robert Grillo, source

[balupton]

Hullo Pillow – Organic & All-natural buckwheat pillow.

Hullo Pillow offers the best buckwheat pillow and buckwheat hulls. Our buckwheat pillows are made in the USA with the finest materials available.

Vegan innovation wins again, this time in pillow form.

[balupton]

Fuck Mercy for Animals

"Humanely Raised Meat Isn’t What You Think" http://www.mfablog.org/humanely-raised-meat-isnt-what-you-think

Links to:

"The Video the Poultry Industry Doesn’t Want You to See" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv8TkneheK0

Concludes with:

"You can stop this by by eating a Humane Vegetarian Diet"

I hope my comment reaches them:

"Unsubscribed. Your "Humanely Raised Meat Isn’t What You Think" article links here then your video says "You can stop this by by eating a Humane Vegetarian Diet". Are you fucking kidding me? What the fuck is wrong with you fucking vegetarians. Fucks sake. Newsflash, male chicks are grinded up alive because of your vegetarian diet, those egg laying chickens become chicken nuggets, those children from dairy become veal, those mothers from dairy become hamburger patties - vegetarianism is still carnism, and it is still has all the murder and cruelty of meat eating, but it also has daily sexual abuse. But unlike meat eaters, vegetarians believe they are doing the right thing. It's ludicrous. Fucking vegetarians. Get off my lawn. Disgusting excuses for human beings. Go vegan or shut up."

Gosh I'm tried of this.

[balupton]

Everytime I hear a vegetarian explaining that they care about the environment, animal wellfare, or health.

Vegetarianism is worse in all three than meat eating. A poulty diet is more environmentally friendly than a lacto-vegetarian diet. Eating meat only kills animals, eating dairy and eggs not only kills animals but also sexually abuses them daily. Dairy is also the worse thing you could possibly eat for your health, followed next by eggs. Plus, just the same as meat eaters you also harm animals via your animal testing, clothing, entertainment, and captivity/pets/zoos too.

Vegetarianism makes absolutely no sense. Either eat meat, or practice what you preach and go vegan.

Sources:

http://planeat.tv

http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/dairy/

http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/eggs/

[balupton]

Ensuring Vegan Consumer Choices

Following up from the cost of russian roulette consumer choices, here is how I help ensure what I purchase is vegan.

Mobile Apps:

Barnivore (web) / Drink Vegan (iOS) - for finding out what booze is vegan

Shop Ethical (web) / Shop Ethical! (iOS) - for finding out what a companies practicies actually are

Animal-Free (iOS) - for finding out what that unknown ingrediant actually is

Choose Cruelty Free (iOS) - for finding out if a company tests on animals

Steps I Take:

When I find something at the shop I like, I always check the ingrediants no matter what it says elsewhere on the package.

When there an ingrediant I don't recognise I look it up on the Animal-Free application, if it is not there, or it is of questionable status, I will then email the company if the product remains on my shortlist. E.g. Vitamin D can be from animal or plant origin, and is often added to various things.

Once I've checked the ingrediants are okay, I will then check out the company using Shop Ethical and Choose Cruelty Free, if there isn't much information on the company, I will then check out their website.

Once I've compared the different products, and am sure that I will be happy supporting this companies practices with my dollar and voting for them with my dollar and accepting any risks and consequences that could arise through the use of my dollar, then and only then will I make the purchase.

It does take a long time to make some purchases, but once you've found a product or a company that you feel comfortable with supporting, you sleep a lot easier knowing that your consumer choices are helping to create a better world rather than a worse one.

[balupton]

Vegan Russian Roulette

Not checking that a product is vegan before you purchase it, is playing russian roulette with someone elses life. You place whether or not a person lives or dies into hopeful blind faith, that is unacceptable. You would not play russian roulette with a human life with a hope they survive, don't do it with other lives either, it's unnecessarily reckless and murderous. Always check if a product is vegan, otherwise your game of russian roulette will eventually hurt someone.

This should also apply to all products, and not just for veganism. Are you contributing to fracking? How about child slavery? How about whatever else? We litigate everyday through our powerful dollar, not through our useless political whining. Minimising our harm is our responsibility, not anyone elses. Our daily consumer choices are essential for a better world.

Need help shopping vegan? I've put together a guide just for you!

[observando]

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life. Awakening from the stupefying effects of the vice of over-industry and the deadly apathy of luxury, they are trying as best they can to mix and enrich their own little ongoings with those of Nature, and to get rid of rust and disease.

John Muir (via observando)

So good.

[veganzeus]

[acti-veg]

Those who describe animals as not having any thoughts or feelings come closer to that description than the animals they are trying to describe.

Edward Alberola (via oldquarter)

[balupton]

What is vegan?

Veganism /ˈviːɡənɪzəm/ is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, as well as following an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of sentient animals. A follower of veganism is known as a vegan. — Wikipedia

While Wikipedia puts it perfectly, I'm still astounded how there is so much confusion...

The thing is. Vegan is a black and white thing. You are a vegan, or you are a carnist. It really is that simple. You are a vegan if you believe non-human animals are not ours to own - if you are not sure on that, or you believe otherwise, then you are a carnist. It really is that simple. Carnism

The thing is from that political/ethical/ideological stance, lifestyle changes follow - such as adopting strict-vegetarian consumer choices.

So then:

If you believe animals aren't ours to own. You are vegan.

If you live a plant based lifestyle. You are strict-vegetarian.

If you believe animals aren't ours to own, and live a plant based lifestyle, you are a vegan and strict-vegetarian.

If you are not sure or believe otherwise that animals aren't ours to own, and live a plant based lifestyle, you are a carnist and a strict-vegetarian.

If you believe animals aren't ours to own, and hey, even if you consume animal products every day, kill thousands of fish for a single cat, go to sea world, whatever. You're still vegan (albeit you would probably have an amount of cognitive dissonance eating away at you.)

Yes. There is a journey aspect to it. But veganism is a point on that journey, a very well defined point on that journey. It takes germinations of things to make us realise animals are people, and with enough, we realise that hey, as animals are people, they should have rights. That takes time yes. That is a journey yes. And yes, once you realise non-human animals are also people, and have rights, and that oppression of those rights is unethical, you are now vegan, and yes there is a journey from there too - what to do when there is no other food but animal products? what to do about my pets? etc etc. However as a ethical stance, one can come to objective ethical answers to those. It's a journey, but it is a clear cut journey with clear points along the line of progression from each step.

The "I don't care why you're vegan" isn't accurate. More correctly, it is "I don't care why you are plant based". There is only one way to be vegan, and that is to understand the ethical principle of it.

It's so painful to see how this is such a huge problem. Originally the word vegetarian did mean strict-vegetarian, but over time the term got confused and polluted to now mean anything but red meat. There needs to be really strict education on what veganism is. Every vegan group and event should have the wikipedia definition in their description so there is absolutely no confusion about it.

As Gary Yourosky puts it in this video, the best way to spread veganism is to be upfront about the definition and what it means to be vegan and what it means to not be vegan...

The thing is "vegan" is now a word the mainstream knows, therefore it is now a word that people want in on. It's cool to be on the in-crowd, even if you are incorrect.

[balupton]

Is it Ethical to Eat Eggs from Home Grown Chickens?

Every now and then, we receive a question to our inbox that stirs up quite a discussion. This article is about one we shared with our community members recently: assuming that the chickens are home grown, laying eggs, and living in good conditions, are there any ethical problems with consuming their eggs? Would doing so Continue Reading

Is it ethical to enslave a pet hen and then steal their eggs? The answer should be obvious, but in case it wasn't, this resource is fantastic.

[balupton]

HOME

We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.

HOME is a fantastic documentary made in 2009 and released under the public domain for all to remix, reuse and reshare. It presents the data of An Inconvenient Truth in stunning visuals that flow well from each topic to another.

The scariest thing is, is that this movie was made in 2009, and already some of its worst case predictions have already happened. Such as the arctic permafrost melting releasing methane.

If you live on planet Earth, then this movie is well worth the watch.

[moshmitra-deactivated20180214]

[balupton]

So cute. So right.

[balupton]

It's just meat

I guess I found out today why people don't understand not eating animal products. They think "it's just meat", "it's just eggs", "it's just dairy", "it's just ___". That "just" is an egoic rationalisation via trivialisation of the act, ignoring everything else of the product, such as it's procurement - it's not fairy dust, it didn't just magically appear, it didn't grow on trees either, but that trivialisation makes it appear so, that it originated at the supermarket, not the chopped down rainforest where the cows/pigs/chickens were enslaved and raped and murdered, or the fish where every single one of them suffocated to death vitally damaging their home and ecology. I believe most vegans would eat animal products if we were starving to death on a desert island or a nomad in mongolia. It's not animal products vegans have the issue with per se. It's the current procurement of them - which is the needless murder of animals when healthier and more ecologically friendly alternatives are readily available. If people want to eat meat sustainably fine, put your vegan dog or grandmother or some roadkill on the bbq when they die. Just don't murder someone when you don't need to.

So next time someone says "it's just meat" - try tell them the above, and if they still don't listen, tell them they are misinformed bigot and if they want to engage in any conversation with you, they should watch Earthlings and Cowspiracy or shut up, as their opinion is shit otherwise.

[balupton]

Racism

Came across this today.

RACISM AGAINST WHITE FOLKS DOES NOT EXIST, IT IS NOT REAL, IT DOES NOT HARM WHITE FOLKS SYSTEMATICALLY, RACISM HARMS BLACK, INDIGENOUS, PEOPLES OF COLOR, ANYONE CLAIMING THAT RACISM AGAINST WHITE FOLKS EXISTS IS INCORRECT.

Let me share the most commonly used and widespread definition of racism:

prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior

Or even what Wikipedia (a collaborative neutral source) defines it as:

Racism consists of both prejudice and discrimination based in social perceptions of biological differences between peoples. It often takes the form of social actions, practices or beliefs, or political systems that consider different races to be ranked as inherently superior or inferior to each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities. It may also hold that members of different races should be treated differently.

So explain to me how a white jew who got shot by a white german because the white german felt they were racially superior to the white jew, did not correctly fit the most widely accepted definition of racism?

Jews were not harmed because they were white. Actually, they were killed because they were considered to be "not white".

Correct, Jews were harmed not because of their colour, but because of their race. Jewish is not a colour. Jewish is a race.

I love that you're trying to back people into saying that you can be racist against white people.

White is a colour. White is not a race.

Perhaps the original argument is redefining racism as discrimination of power against people solely due to their colour… Which isn't Racism... It isn't even Colourism.

And even with that special definition, the original argument is still not true, as there is still the exception of places where white people are not those in power and are discriminated against by the non-white people in power.

Update: The above argumentation got me banned from a Facebook Group with the reasoning of "whitesplaining" and "mansplaining". Ad hominem fallacy much?

[balupton]

MILK is a deadly poison. Each sip contains growth hormones, fat, cholesterol, allergenic proteins, blood, pus, antibiotic, bacteria and virus

The best listing of everything wrong with dairy.

[balupton]

It's unfortunate that we see people all the time with those issues and yet they have absolutely no idea they either have them, or that they are caused by their dairy consumption. If they just cut it out, they would have such healthier and happier lives. http://notmilk.com/

Experimenting with dairy on my cheat days of the slow-carb diet over 2 years, I discovered milk was directly related to my skin problems, hay fever, and asthma. Never looking back. Happy vegan.

Soy/oat/rice/spelt/quinoa/coconut/almond/hazelnut/macadamia milk forever.